Silliest looking thing I have ever done may be sitting in a canvas sling type chair at a cocktail party when holding a drink in one hand and a canape in the other while wearing a short dress, and landing on my rear end when the chair collapsed, with my legs hanging over the wood frame of the chair and holding both arms up so as not to spill or drop anything.
They were, and my mother was standing next to me when I fell. She and another woman relieved me of the cocktail and canape so I could get up. I was young then. A man came up to me right after I righted myself to inform me that he had just fallen in that same chair before I did. I did not think charitable thoughts about him after hearing that.
Way pre, but my daughter thoughtfully got a video of the time I was knocked down by a wave as I was fighting to get ashore at the Outer Banks, and I was left flopping like a flounder in the wet sand as I tried unsuccessfully to stand up while being continually hit by incoming waves. I imagine others on the beach had their cell phones trained on me as well, but I will never know. It didn't help that I was laughing so hard I couldn't think straight.
To all and sundry be it known that by the power vested in me by me, I hereby grant to Leslie Franson the right to call herself whatever she wishes and as often as she wishes while Poolside. So it shall be written, so shall it be. Go forth Guinevere, Esméralda or Boadicea.
I was listening to NPR this morning on the 45-minute commute home from a 24-hour shift as an EMT in northeastern Vermont, and I started to feel, for perhaps the first time since this sh1tshow started that I can actually see on the horizon the dissolution of the democratic principles and set of shared beliefs that has basically kept this country together and fairly functional since probably the 1930s. I've been holding out hope that things would settle out at a level that was abysmal but acceptable and manageable until the pendulum swung back, whatever I thought *that* might look like. As of this morning, I'm not sure the pendulum is hanging from the same structure anymore. It might even be gone. We're in new territory.
The Republic fell back in January. Everybody's been telling me since then that I'm overreacting, but to me it was clear as soon as his first executive orders and nominations came out. He's got the executive branch, the Congress, the courts, the Justice department, the military, and sadly both the mass media and the social media, plus most big universities and law firms. The sooner we recognize it and start the resistance in earnest, the better chance we have of rebuilding a republic.
March, 2000, I was stationed at an Air Force base in Korea, where there was a tradition called "mustache March." As the regulations prohibited mustaches extending beyond the width of the mouth, I had not tried a mustache since the early 1970's, when my regulation-length upper-lip growth made me look too much like Herr Fuhrer. Turns out my year- 2000 mustache was mostly gray on one side and mostly brown on the other. I saw no others like it. It was silly of me to not just shave it off. Instead, I now have silly-looking photos of myself (shaking hands with Korean generals, or standing at attention beside a Korean soldier, right on the edge of the DMZ) that might otherwise be worthy of saving for posterity.
The always contentious issue of the disconnect between the "law" and real world consequences is no longer just an intellectual exercise; it is slapping us upside our collective heads almost every day. That the Imperial Court had every opportunity to address the matter of nationwide or universal injunctions from district courts well before this particularly consequential case --- and not just for those directly affected --- is the most telling as far as I'm concerned.
The "silliest" thing I've ever done is to assume that large numbers of my fellow Americans couldn't possibly get so wrought up over how others live their lives that they would jeopardize their own. Silly foolish me.
Joyous optimism, eh? Help me, I'm drowning in a sea of SCOTUS poop, and DeathSantis is spending our FEMA money on destroying humans and the environment. Tried to hug my cats, but Grandpa will tell you how well that went.
I've done some stupid things and some mean things, in both cases because I thought they were funny at the time, but I'm having a lot of trouble defining "silly." I was a dining-hall student manager in college, and as such I controlled the music, which was delivered to speakers throughout the ceiling. The source of the music was a combination radio-turntable that lived in a locked closet. One evening when the place was packed, I put on a comedy record that was supposedly a live broadcast from a farting contest. The sound effects were very realistic. I turned up the volume, locked the door, and left.
My wife and I have laughed about this one for years. The bathroom sink drain became clogged, as it periodically does. I emptied the cabinet beneath, removed the U-trap, and put a bucket under the tailpiece, the tube that sticks down from the drain. I rinsed out the U-trap, removed and cleaned the plug, and cleared the clog out of the tailpiece. The gunk ran down into the bucket, which I emptied into the toilet.
I put the bucket back under the tailpiece, reinstalled the plug, and turned on the faucet for a moment. The water flowed freely down the drain and into the bucket, proving that the clog was gone. A job well done!
Okay then, time to finish up! I emptied the bucket into the sink –
Your mention of Taney (and thus his infamous "Dred Scott" majority opinion) is of a piece with what we're now facing in a continuous attack on the bedrock guarantees of 14th Amendment, and birthright citizenship in particular. There is little question based on contemporaneous reports of the discussions around the drafting of the Citizenship Clause that the ultimate intent was to include all individuals born on U.S. soil (with some minor exceptions), not just those born of the formerly enslaved. Let's see whether its too often conditional originalism is again a factor when the Imperial Court inevitably considers the actual merits of birthright citizenship.
I used to work for a regional airline at a very small town in Wisconsin. We also were weather observers and had access to weather balloons. And a helium tank. 😉
So one night, we were bored. This was trouble for my crew and I...
I made the flight arrival announcement after taking a shot of helium off the tank. By the time I was done, all the people in the terminal were laughing. Luckily, no one turned me in. 😆 🤣 😂
The Scotus decision disallowing lower courts from halting over-ambitious presidential Executive Orders (denying lower court oversight of such issues) is essentially making an EO overrule the Constitution. When I was in my American Government class (way back in high school), I remember being told that the Constitution was the supreme law of the land. How can a president so blatantly run over the Constitution? How can the SCOTUS rule on a technicality instead of on the meat of the argument when it will affect so many people? Whose side are the SCOTUS conservatives on - an extremist ideology or the democratic republic?
The timid way out is to split differences and write decisions that both sides can like. (in parts) without really doing much at all. That seems to be the goal of the SC. We will see if they succeed.
In 2003, when the "shock and awe" started, I cried, because I felt like this was no longer my country. But Obama won the next election, and things looked better. The day after the 2016 election, my late husband woke me, saying, "Now the nightmare begins." But we elected Biden in 2020, and he started repairing some of the damage done by the jaundiced Voldemort, and I started to have hope again. I'm all out of hope now, and the only thing keeping me going is that I can stand on the street corner with my signs, wear my political T-shirts, attempt to educate others, call my (shudder) Republican Congressman every single day, and forward emails from the Gene Pool, the Contrarian, Heather Cox Richardson, and others to him. And send emails to the White House, telling whoever is reading them exactly how I feel. I am under no illusions about my ability to change anything, but I refuse to give up quietly. I used to wonder what I would have done if I had been a German in the 1930s, hoping I would have the courage and decency to protest. At least now I know the answer to that question
Silliest looking thing I have ever done may be sitting in a canvas sling type chair at a cocktail party when holding a drink in one hand and a canape in the other while wearing a short dress, and landing on my rear end when the chair collapsed, with my legs hanging over the wood frame of the chair and holding both arms up so as not to spill or drop anything.
Please send this to the "silly" button, Leslie. It is excellent and I'd like to use it.
Ugh, those canvas sling chairs look SO INVITING! Once in, however, there's no way out without a Hoyer lift.
I avoid them at all costs nowadays.
But you didn’t spill anything other than yourself. Well done!
Thank you!
Would have been a lot sillier if you weren't wearing underwear (I'm assuming you were).
She probably was< but her mother wants to know if they were clean.
They were, and my mother was standing next to me when I fell. She and another woman relieved me of the cocktail and canape so I could get up. I was young then. A man came up to me right after I righted myself to inform me that he had just fallen in that same chair before I did. I did not think charitable thoughts about him after hearing that.
I most certainly was, but they weren't showing, as I fell discreetly.
Was this pre or post cell phone camera days? (Hoping it was post. All you'd need is someone posting that on YouTube.)
Way pre, but my daughter thoughtfully got a video of the time I was knocked down by a wave as I was fighting to get ashore at the Outer Banks, and I was left flopping like a flounder in the wet sand as I tried unsuccessfully to stand up while being continually hit by incoming waves. I imagine others on the beach had their cell phones trained on me as well, but I will never know. It didn't help that I was laughing so hard I couldn't think straight.
Hopefully you are a woman. Men shouldn’t wear short dresses, ya know? Long dresses are okay if a guy has the legs for them.
It was a source of great annoyance to me that my mother named me, her only daughter, a name also given to men.
To all and sundry be it known that by the power vested in me by me, I hereby grant to Leslie Franson the right to call herself whatever she wishes and as often as she wishes while Poolside. So it shall be written, so shall it be. Go forth Guinevere, Esméralda or Boadicea.
And providing entertainment for male guests.
I was listening to NPR this morning on the 45-minute commute home from a 24-hour shift as an EMT in northeastern Vermont, and I started to feel, for perhaps the first time since this sh1tshow started that I can actually see on the horizon the dissolution of the democratic principles and set of shared beliefs that has basically kept this country together and fairly functional since probably the 1930s. I've been holding out hope that things would settle out at a level that was abysmal but acceptable and manageable until the pendulum swung back, whatever I thought *that* might look like. As of this morning, I'm not sure the pendulum is hanging from the same structure anymore. It might even be gone. We're in new territory.
The Republic fell back in January. Everybody's been telling me since then that I'm overreacting, but to me it was clear as soon as his first executive orders and nominations came out. He's got the executive branch, the Congress, the courts, the Justice department, the military, and sadly both the mass media and the social media, plus most big universities and law firms. The sooner we recognize it and start the resistance in earnest, the better chance we have of rebuilding a republic.
March, 2000, I was stationed at an Air Force base in Korea, where there was a tradition called "mustache March." As the regulations prohibited mustaches extending beyond the width of the mouth, I had not tried a mustache since the early 1970's, when my regulation-length upper-lip growth made me look too much like Herr Fuhrer. Turns out my year- 2000 mustache was mostly gray on one side and mostly brown on the other. I saw no others like it. It was silly of me to not just shave it off. Instead, I now have silly-looking photos of myself (shaking hands with Korean generals, or standing at attention beside a Korean soldier, right on the edge of the DMZ) that might otherwise be worthy of saving for posterity.
SCOTUS is systematically destroying the rule of law. No humor here. Just the ongoing tyranny we’re facing.
The always contentious issue of the disconnect between the "law" and real world consequences is no longer just an intellectual exercise; it is slapping us upside our collective heads almost every day. That the Imperial Court had every opportunity to address the matter of nationwide or universal injunctions from district courts well before this particularly consequential case --- and not just for those directly affected --- is the most telling as far as I'm concerned.
The "silliest" thing I've ever done is to assume that large numbers of my fellow Americans couldn't possibly get so wrought up over how others live their lives that they would jeopardize their own. Silly foolish me.
Joyous optimism, eh? Help me, I'm drowning in a sea of SCOTUS poop, and DeathSantis is spending our FEMA money on destroying humans and the environment. Tried to hug my cats, but Grandpa will tell you how well that went.
I've done some stupid things and some mean things, in both cases because I thought they were funny at the time, but I'm having a lot of trouble defining "silly." I was a dining-hall student manager in college, and as such I controlled the music, which was delivered to speakers throughout the ceiling. The source of the music was a combination radio-turntable that lived in a locked closet. One evening when the place was packed, I put on a comedy record that was supposedly a live broadcast from a farting contest. The sound effects were very realistic. I turned up the volume, locked the door, and left.
🤣😅😆😂
My wife and I have laughed about this one for years. The bathroom sink drain became clogged, as it periodically does. I emptied the cabinet beneath, removed the U-trap, and put a bucket under the tailpiece, the tube that sticks down from the drain. I rinsed out the U-trap, removed and cleaned the plug, and cleared the clog out of the tailpiece. The gunk ran down into the bucket, which I emptied into the toilet.
I put the bucket back under the tailpiece, reinstalled the plug, and turned on the faucet for a moment. The water flowed freely down the drain and into the bucket, proving that the clog was gone. A job well done!
Okay then, time to finish up! I emptied the bucket into the sink –
Um, remember the U-trap? Nope, neither did I.
Your mention of Taney (and thus his infamous "Dred Scott" majority opinion) is of a piece with what we're now facing in a continuous attack on the bedrock guarantees of 14th Amendment, and birthright citizenship in particular. There is little question based on contemporaneous reports of the discussions around the drafting of the Citizenship Clause that the ultimate intent was to include all individuals born on U.S. soil (with some minor exceptions), not just those born of the formerly enslaved. Let's see whether its too often conditional originalism is again a factor when the Imperial Court inevitably considers the actual merits of birthright citizenship.
No joyous optimism today, I'm tired of 6to3. How many more years of it?
Well, since you asked Gene...
I used to work for a regional airline at a very small town in Wisconsin. We also were weather observers and had access to weather balloons. And a helium tank. 😉
So one night, we were bored. This was trouble for my crew and I...
I made the flight arrival announcement after taking a shot of helium off the tank. By the time I was done, all the people in the terminal were laughing. Luckily, no one turned me in. 😆 🤣 😂
The Scotus decision disallowing lower courts from halting over-ambitious presidential Executive Orders (denying lower court oversight of such issues) is essentially making an EO overrule the Constitution. When I was in my American Government class (way back in high school), I remember being told that the Constitution was the supreme law of the land. How can a president so blatantly run over the Constitution? How can the SCOTUS rule on a technicality instead of on the meat of the argument when it will affect so many people? Whose side are the SCOTUS conservatives on - an extremist ideology or the democratic republic?
The timid way out is to split differences and write decisions that both sides can like. (in parts) without really doing much at all. That seems to be the goal of the SC. We will see if they succeed.
In 2003, when the "shock and awe" started, I cried, because I felt like this was no longer my country. But Obama won the next election, and things looked better. The day after the 2016 election, my late husband woke me, saying, "Now the nightmare begins." But we elected Biden in 2020, and he started repairing some of the damage done by the jaundiced Voldemort, and I started to have hope again. I'm all out of hope now, and the only thing keeping me going is that I can stand on the street corner with my signs, wear my political T-shirts, attempt to educate others, call my (shudder) Republican Congressman every single day, and forward emails from the Gene Pool, the Contrarian, Heather Cox Richardson, and others to him. And send emails to the White House, telling whoever is reading them exactly how I feel. I am under no illusions about my ability to change anything, but I refuse to give up quietly. I used to wonder what I would have done if I had been a German in the 1930s, hoping I would have the courage and decency to protest. At least now I know the answer to that question
I got a Master's in writing musicals.
That's pretty silly, especially when you consider how much the tuition was.