The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

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The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Tuesday
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January 24, 2023

Late Morning Update:

** Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN: "A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence's Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The FBI and the Justice Department's National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence's house in Indiana. The classified documents were discovered at Pence's new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden's private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession." At 12:10 pm ET, this is a breaking news story. The New York Times' breaking story is by Maggie Haberman. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN reported on-air that the documents at Pence's residence were discovered in a non-secure area.

Andrew Meldrum of the AP: "Several senior Ukrainian government officials lost their jobs as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought Tuesday to contain a burgeoning corruption scandal amid the nearly 11-month-old Russian invasion. The high-level shakeup came as Poland formally requested permission from Germany to transfer a modest number of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany builds the high-tech armor and Warsaw needs Berlin's permission to send them to a non-NATO country.... The deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, quit as Zelenskyy pledged to address allegations of graft -- including some related to wartime spending -- that embarrassed authorities and could slow Ukraine's efforts to join the European Union and NATO.... Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov also resigned, local media reported, alleging his departure was linked to a scandal involving the purchase of food for Ukraine's armed forces. Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko also quit. In all, four deputy ministers and five regional governors were set to leave their posts, the country's cabinet secretary said on the Telegram messaging app."

~~~~~~~~~~

Wow! Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "The former head of FBI counterintelligence in New York has been charged in two separate indictments that accuse him of taking secret cash payments of more than $225,000 while overseeing highly sensitive cases, and allegedly breaking the law by trying to get Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska removed from a U.S. sanctions list, officials said Monday. Charles McGonigal, 54, who retired from the FBI in September 2018, was indicted in federal court in Manhattan on money laundering, violating U.S. sanctions and other charges in connection to his alleged ties to Deripaska, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his role at the FBI, McGonigal had been tasked with investigating Deripaska, whose own indictment on sanctions-violation charges was unsealed in September. Separately, McGonigal was accused in a nine-count indictment in federal court in Washington of hiding his receipt of $225,000 from a former Albanian intelligence agent living in New Jersey. McGonigal was also accused of hiding foreign travel and contacts with senior leaders in countries including Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia where the former Albanian agent had business interests." The ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We already knew the FBI's New York office had its share of reprobates, but this takes it to a whole 'nother level.

I will never leave that woman. I will always take care of her. -- Speaker Kevin McCarthy, speaking about his wife Marjorie Taylor Greene

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "The House's powerful Rules Committee has moved to the right, according to lists shared by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday. The committee, which will be chaired by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), includes Reps. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).... Roy and Norman were among the group of Republican holdouts who withheld support for McCarthy's speakership during the 15 rounds of voting earlier this month until after he’d made several concessions to the more extremist wing of the party." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's refreshing to read the phrase "the more extremist wing of the party." The implication is that the entire party is extremist, and these guys are even more extremist. I'd say that's right.

William Vaillancourt of the Daily Beast, via Yahoo! News: "Rep. George Santos (R-NY) ... claimed last month during a podcast interview that he had been the target of an assassination attempt, that he was mugged in a brazen daytime robbery while walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City, and that his Florida home was vandalized because of his political affiliation. The wild allegations were uncovered Monday by Rachel Maddow, who on her show played video of an interview the congressman conducted with Brazilian podcast Rádio Novelo Apresenta." George, or whatever his name is, didn't say much about the assassination attempt, other than that he received police protection after it, but he said this about the mugging: "I was mugged by two men.... They robbed me, took my briefcase, took my shoes and my watch. And that was in broad daylight. It was 3 p.m. I was leaving my office, going to the garage, getting my car, and I was mugged...." Marie: It's mean of Maddow to expect Jorge to tell the truth in every language.

Mary Jalonick of the AP: "Former Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts [R] was sworn in as the newest member of the U.S. Senate on Monday, replacing Republican Sen. Ben Sasse as the Senate returns from several weeks of recess to begin a new session of closely-divided government."

Historian Eric Foner in a New York Times op-ed highlights a little-discussed provision of the Fourteen Amendment: Section Four, which states that "The validity of the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned." Foner argues that, given the historical application of this provision -- which he describes -- the current Congress may not question the validity of our national debt and refuse to authorize payment. "But if the current House of Representatives abdicates this responsibility, throwing the nation into default by refusing to raise the debt limit, President Biden should act on his own, taking steps to ensure that the federal government meets its financial obligations, as the Constitution requires." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See his commentary in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "Four members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia were found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Monday for their roles in trying to keep Donald J. Trump in office after his 2020 election defeat, nearly two months after the group's leader -- Stewart Rhodes -- was convicted of the same offense in a separate trial in November. A jury in Federal District Court in Washington also found the four defendants guilty of two separate conspiracy charges. The defendants -- Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo -- were originally charged along with Mr. Rhodes and other members of the group. But their trial was broken off as a separate proceeding by the judge in the case, Amit P. Mehta, because of space constraints in the courtroom." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "An Arkansas man who posed with his boot propped on a desk in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was convicted by a federal jury on Monday of eight counts, including disorderly conduct in a capitol building, prosecutors said. The man, Richard Barnett, 62, of Gravette, Ark., became one of the highest-profile defendants charged in the storming of the Capitol after he was photographed in Ms. Pelosi's office, wearing a hat, plaid jacket, bluejeans and brown boots, with a stun gun dangling from his belt, prosecutors said." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

They're Ba-a-ack! (At Least Some of Them.) Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court, which had not announced a decision from the bench since the start of the coronavirus pandemic almost three years ago, returned to the courtroom on Monday to issue a unanimous decision in a case on veterans' benefits. The decision, the first in an argued case in the term that started in October, was announced by its author, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. It was the first time she had summarized an opinion from the bench." In the veteran's case, the Court ruled that he waited far too long to apply for benefits that he would have been due had he filed within a year of his discharge from the Navy. Besides Barrett, in attendance were Chief Justice John Roberts & Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: MEANWHILE, Kagan was out having lunch at a Chinese restaurant; Gorsuch was driving a truck up to my place because there is (really!) a blizzard going on here; O'Kavanaugh was having a few beers at a D.C. watering hole and Alito was photocopying his latest opinion to send to Josh Gerstein of Politico.

Natasha Korecki, et al., of NBC News: "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sharply criticizes murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in his new book, questioning his journalism credentials and lambasting what he calls the media's sympathetic coverage of his brutal killing in Saudi Arabia. 'He didn't deserve to die, but we need to be clear about who he was -- and too many in the media were not,' Pompeo wrote.... Pompeo ... described Khashoggi as an 'activist,' claiming that he was a journalist only 'to the extent that I, and many other public figures are journalists. We sometimes get our writing published, but we also do other things.'... Pompeo also wrote that while Khashoggi's brutal murder was 'ugly,' it wasn't 'surprising' to him because it was the type of behavior he expected from the Middle East."

Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "... five dozen ancient artifacts..., dating from the seventh century B.C. to the first century A.D..., worth more than $20 million, according to the Italian Culture Ministry, were back on Italian soil after having been seized in the United States by American officials over the past 14 months. Twenty-one of the works had been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as in private homes and auction houses, before being recovered by American officials, who acted on evidence that they had been illegally looted from archaeological sites in Italy." ~~~

     ~~~ The authorities will probably be after me next. I was strolling through the necropolis of Les Alyscamps in Arles, like the people pictured below, when I stopped to pick up a tiny chunk of a sarcophagus lying on the ground. I have it still. Somewhere. ~~~

"Falling Autumn Leaves," Vincent van Gogh, 1888.

The Pandemic, Ctd. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Americans may be offered a single dose of a Covid vaccine each fall, much as they are given flu shots, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday. To simplify the makeup and timing of the shots, the agency also is proposing to retire the original vaccines and to offer only bivalent doses for primary and booster shots, according to briefing documents published on Monday. The proposal took some scientists by surprise, including a few of the F.D.A.'s own advisers. They are scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the country's vaccine strategy, including which doses should be offered and on what schedule."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Isobel Koshiw of the Guardian: "Ukraine's deputy infrastructure minister, Vasyl Lozinskyi, has been detained and dismissed from his post for allegedly stealing $400,000 (£320,000) intended for purchasing aid, including generators, according to Ukraine's state anti-corruption detectives and prosecutors. After the news emerged..., Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed that the old ways of corruption would not return to Ukraine."

Brazil. Jack Nicas & Flávia Milhorance of the New York Times: "An illegal-fishing trafficker ordered henchmen to kill an expert on Indigenous tribes in June because he was disrupting the illicit game trade, Brazilian authorities said Monday, leading to an assassination that also left a British journalist dead. The killings attracted international attention to the bloody conflict over the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian federal police officials said they had gathered evidence that showed Rubén Dario da Silva Villar, a Colombian man widely known as Colombia, had ordered the killing of Bruno Pereira, 41, an activist and former Brazilian government official, because he was helping Indigenous tribes combat illegal fishing and hunting.... When other men went to carry out the orders, pursuing Mr. Pereira in a boat and shooting him with shotguns, they also killed the person he was with: Dom Phillips, 57, a British freelance journalist who had written for The Guardian and The New York Times and was traveling in the Amazon at work on a book."

News Ledes

U.S.A., where almost all the breaking news is about a mass shooting:

ABC News: "An unknown gunman is at large after he allegedly shot and killed three people at a Circle K convenience store and gas station in Yakima, Washington, early Tuesday, authorities said. After the shooting at the Circle K around 3:30 a.m. local time, the gunman went across the street to an ampm convenience store where he allegedly shot into a car and then stole it, Yakima Police Chief Matthew Murray told reporters.It is possible the gunman shot the person in the car as he stole it, the chief said. If so, the driver would be the fourth shooting victim."

AP: "Seven people were killed in two related shootings Monday at agricultural facilities in a California coastal community south of San Francisco, marking the state's third mass killing in eight days, including Saturday's attack at a dance hall that killed 11 during Lunar New Year celebrations." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times has live updates of developments here: "A suspect, Zhao Chunli, 67, of Half Moon Bay, was found in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff's office substation in Half Moon Bay, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office said. Sheriff Christina Corpus said at a news conference on Monday night that the suspect had been taken into custody "without incident," and that a semi-automatic handgun had been found in his vehicle. The authorities said that he was "fully cooperating," and that they believe he acted alone."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (21)

More on McGonigal, et. al. from Marcy Wheeler.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/01/23/former-fbi-sac-indicted-for-crimes-spanning-from-2017-to-2021/

Whadda nest of vipers...

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Gavin Newsome delivers scorching response to latest shootings––"The second Ammenment becomes a suicide pact."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gavin-newsom-2nd-amendment-california-shootings_n_63cfac4de4b01e9288660f89

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

So wait…Mike Pompouseo believes that it’s perfectly fine to abduct someone, beat and torture them, then chop up their body because…he is not a fan of your authoritarian ideology and violent politics.

Yeah. He’s a Republican alright. He should lead with that idea when he goes to CPAC to announce his candidacy to be the next president** (because whoever it is will deserve double asterisks…these pigs get further and further away from human). The droolers will love it!

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: Thanks. I wasn't going to link the Pompeo story because I thought, "Who gives a fuck what that Fartface says?" But I got madder & madder thinking about it, so I went back and linked it. I wanted to make some comment about Pompeo, but I was too irritated to do more than sputter. So I said to myself, "Maybe Akhilleus will take care of this for me." And then you did.

January 24, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

To Pompeo, Khashoggi is not "someone", just a raghead camel driver who temporarily lived in a DC suburb. It's not like he was a person.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Pompeo is one of those R's who styles himself a tough guy, one who can't tell the difference between playing at realpolitik (ala Kissinger) and being a real asshole.

BTW, Kissinger is also an asshole.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Pence: "Mother must have picked them up along with her Christian Monthly magazines. You know how it is, women just like to clean up things."

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@unwashed: An easy mistake to make. "Christian" and "Classified" begin with the same letter. So too "Christian Monthly" and "Classified Material."

January 24, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Not to worry none bout Mike P. getting his bid for running for President cuz with his remarks about Khashogi he's cooked his own goose. K. was revered and respected by many and those many are already putting Mikey in the dump box of destruction.

Re: another story of classified material discovered. I think it's time to investigate the process of putting "stuff" in boxes and who are those that are responsible for that process. We can leave out "those people" in Trump's case since he's the one with the sticky fingers and the orders to "put em all in––-cuz I declassified the whole lot!"

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

I have so seriously HAD IT about Pompouseo being a total complete unadulterated jackasshole. He is one of those people that really needs to be humiliated beyond reason for just being terrible. I hope his book attracts nobody. Ugh. He and his wife should have been drowned at birth.

Yeah, now good ole Pence and his documents... Do we get a third "special master?" Hello, wake up, silly Merrick. For god's sake: what is with the entire incompetent system mechanism of papers that there seems to be NO system?? What a government. Wacky on all sides. The rest of the world, who used to hold us up as a positive example of freedom and competence, is laughing hysterically, all except Russia and China, who may be the beneficiaries of such stupidity... Is there ANYONE home in Washington DC, or are we doomed to view MyKevin's love affair with Perjury Traitor Greene and nothing else???

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Where is the inflammatory headline in the BS (both sides or, you know…) Times about classified documents being “seized” at little mikey pence’s place?

And leave us not forget good ‘ol Alberto Gonzalez, AG under war criminal and destroyer of world economies, Dubya, who was found to have illegally removed highly sensitive classified documents concerning Bush’s infamous War on Tare, and documents about his illegal rendition program, stuffed them in his briefcase and took them home, where they were left unprotected.

Alberto used the old “I forgot” defense, abetted by the “I didn’t know” excuse. Even better? He absconded with the documents minutes after being briefed on proper handling procedures. Not weeks, not days, not hours…minutes. But his “Golly gee, I plumb forgot” excuse worked. He was not held accountable in any way.

This is the same guy who fired seven Democratic federal prosecutors who had not demonstrated sufficient loyalty. Oh, not to the country. Not to their oaths. To Bush, who demanded they all pursue phony investigations about non-existent election fraud. This from a guy who benefited from the biggest election fraud scandal in US history, where, after he lost the election, his pals on the Supreme Court stopped the vote count and anointed him king, er, president*.

See? If you’re a Republican, you can get away with pretty much anything. Merrick Garland will never hold Fatty accountable for stealing federal documents and refusing to give them back.

But Biden could very well lose the election after Garland appointed a Trump guy to “investigate” his document situation.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Randy Rainbow colors our world once again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXoJd4BoZTQ

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Just heard a report on NPR where the host, in an interview segment about the half-pence’s document snafu, opined that it seems each party is upset about classified documents in possession of members of the other party, implying that they don’t give a shit about members of their own party in that regard.

Absolutely false! Republicans, upon hearing of Trump’s refusal to turn over sensitive material, after being politely asked for over a year, necessitating a visit by the FBI, called for arrests of those agents, and vicious attacks by the deep state, screaming that he had done nothing wrong.

Nothing of the kind emerged from Democrats after news of the Biden documents broke. They all expressed concern that documents were mishandled.

Both siderism is endemic. They simply cannot report on malfeasance, crookedness, or treason on the right without the obligatory “But Democrats…” bullshit to balance it out.

News flash, assholes, there is no reason to “balance it out”. This is like saying over here we have a 20 ton truck, and on the other side, a skateboard. But geez, that skateboard is mighty big! Almost 5 pounds! Both sides!!!

So sick of this shit.

And the traitors KNOW they can count on this, so it doesn’t matter how horrible they are, the MSM will make it all right by assigning equal blame to Democrats.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Thoughts and prayers, ho-hum,
never seem to get the job done.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Marie,

I see the Granite State is due for more snow, 4-10 inches, depending on where you live. Hope you have your snow boots by the door and your best shovel on the front porch (for non-northerners, it’s a function of state that you need more than one snow shovel. As kids, we had four. The best ones go to the older kids, the crappy ones with the rickety bolts go to the little kids).

Back when I lived in Boston, my friends and I would cheer at snow reports in the north country. It meant good skiing. After big snowfalls, we’d often call in sick and head north before the new snow was skied off.

Time for the “bread and milk” run to the grocery.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Yeah, I'd been keeping up with the snow-shoveling till yesterday when we got what looked like about a foot of snow. It snowed all day, so I didn't go out yesterday, but when I went a-shovelin' to day, I found it was more like 15" of heavy snow. I quit after I got to one of my vehicles. If I had to get out of here in a hurry, I couldn't, because I didn't clear the vehicle, and I didn't clear the driveway behind it.

The storm tomorrow isn't supposed to hit my neck of the woods till afternoon, so if it's warm enough, I'll do another futile run of the shovel (yes, it's on my front porch) in the morning. I shouldn't complain: up till last week, I did almost no shoveling; even when we got snow, it would be warm enough over the next day or two that most of the snow would melt. This doesn't look like it will melt till after the vernal equinox.

As for skiing, ha ha ha. For winter sport, I'm treating snow shoveling as a primitive form of curling.

January 24, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Thoughts and prayers, ho-hum,
never seem to get the job done.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Double post. My bad.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Marie,

One trick I used to use was to get to the car, start it up, turn the defroster on full blast then go do your shoveling. By the time you get back to the car, most of the snow can slide right off with a broom. The big caveat here is to make sure you’ve got at least half a tank of gas. Otherwise…eek!

The other possibility is to hire some neighborhood kid to shovel you out for twenty bucks or so. We made a bundle as kids. After shoveling out our house, we’d head to the rich neighborhood and make a killing clearing their walks and driveways.

One snippy lady once refused to pay us after we worked for two hours because she said the driveway wasn’t completely cleared of snow (it was still snowing!), so we took an extra fifteen minutes and shoveled the snow back onto her driveway. Never went back to that house again.

Fucking Republican.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@unwashed: I'm leaving in the double posts. After all, we've had double mass murders this week.

January 24, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

This just in…My Kevin sez no smart, honest, or competent people can serve on his “Intelligence” committee. Only traitors, morons, thugs, and anyone who voted for him to be confederate Speak-thing.

So, okay. Not really news.

January 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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