40 Comments

"Try and" is necessary for Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" to rhyme.

When they see us coming

The birdies all try and hide

But they still go for peanuts

When coated with cyanide

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Good point!

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My sophomore high school English teacher told us that if someone said, "Go and shut the door," it meant you could leave, shutting the door behind you.

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As someone born and bred in the moving business, and having spent considerable time out on the trucks, I'm glad to see that the vast majority got the answer to Poll 4 right. After a quick walk through, Wally would mostly stay on the truck and tell the helpers what to bring next. Experience would tell him what the heaviest objects would be and he would remember items that fit into little crannies from his walk through. He might go into the house from time to time to grab what we used to call chowder, i.e., small items that fit at the top of the load (I worked for Boston area movers.) The kid is used to things coming at him. He wouldn't have a clue how to direct the crew. Left to their own devices and human nature, they would bring him a steady stream of sofa cushions and cartons containing lampshades.

Fun fact: Owner/operators who do most of the long distance interstate moves love moving Mormon families as they are paid by weight and Mormons typically have a large store of canned food socked away, which is very dense and heavy.

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So why don’t religious beliefs, whether those marketed through the auspices of some organized churchy thing or just a general belief in an invisible magic guy in the sky, all demonstrably not supported by objective facts and wholly dependent on the blind faith of their followers, get more credit for grooming the gullible? Can’t prove it, but I’d bet there are few atheist Trumpsters out there.

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I agree! People whose religion demands that they accept utterly illogical accounts (in a literal way, such as the Creation story) -- and in so doing, prove their faith and loyalty -- aren't going to have that big a problem with proving their faith and loyalty to a similarly illogical person who demands the same. In fact, it seems utterly disloyal, even blashpemous, even to listen to criticism of the nonsense that they're parroting.

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Do you (and others) think the universe was created, always existed, or what?

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I can't speak for others, but to me, it's at least as sensible that some particles, which have have always been around, managed to eventually interact and create what we call a universe as it is that a God decided to create one.

Regardless, that's not what I'm talking about; I'm talking about people who have been told that the Old Testament creation story, continuing to Noah's Ark, etc., is literally true, and it is a sin if you dare not accept it, and those who do point out its illogic are the enemy. If you've already bought into the idea that accepting illogic is the mark of the true disciple, as well as that you must resist any attacks on that illogic ... well, here we are.

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Trumpers are almost exclusively atheist, in my option. Oh, they like to call themselves Christians, but Jesus would have an absolute spit fit at the things they do. The way they treat immigrants. The way they treat gays. Their attitude towards rich vs. poor people. Are you kidding me? They are as far from real Christianity as it is possible to get. Full Disclosure: I am a lifelong atheist.

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Jon --- Not so much "religion" per se, I suggest, but the power to impose its beliefs (often conditional), as Orange 1 continues to promise those Evangelicals still willing to listen (fortunately their number is dropping according to recent surveys) and others of the Christian right. Abortion is one salient issue, of course, but the idea of Donald Trump actually living in a theocracy boggles the mind.

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I assumed you knew percussion means many instruments - including the piano. :)

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I do not think of a piano as a percussion instrument, but of course you are right. The question has an obvious answer! Piano, drum and xylophone.

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I think the real answer, though, is that people go NUTS for drums. If the win is assessed by applause, that's all you need!

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This is my thinking, too. If we're talking a full brass band, I'd rather hear that. They can get a great sound! The absence of woodwinds doesn't matter. (I am a woodwind player.) But people love to watch people hit things.

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Let's not forget the most beautiful percussion instrument I've ever heard, the hammered dulcimer. https://youtu.be/QV7mCJcp2pY?si=sbvtUa4tIvWM6_gE

I am married to a percussionist... (and I can play trumpet and french horn among other not brass instruments). I can assure you, the percussionists win in this one.

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Fact is (we are talking about "facts" here, right ?) --- the piano is actually classified as a hybrid by two European musicologists (guys name of Sachs and Hornbostel) who obviously had too much time on their hands and subsequently lent their names to the principal instrument classification system (just in case anyone cared about what kind of instrument they were playing or listening to). They dubbed the piano a percussive chordophone --- both a stringed and percussive instrument.

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And the bell lyre, my instrument in marching band. However if it was just drums I’d pick brass any day. Don’t care for drums.

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As a rabid baseball fan, I loved this so much, not because my answer was chosen to represent the "hemorrhage" (though that was nice), but because you gave us the gift of Boz today!

My thanks to all the non-baseball people for putting up with this week.

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The best pastrami in NYC is at Pastrami Queen on Lexington and 78th.

Not Katz's.

Not 2nd Avenue Deli.

Pastrami Queen.

and now I'm hungry.

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Wrong! Katz's.

Always and forever.

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Ah, plastic arts savant Jesse Kelly must have been referring to the SOL neoclassical concrete pedestal. It was designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt. Right ? Kelly knows all about neoclassical design, right ?

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The problem isn’t that people aren’t being told the truth. For example, Biden won. They’ve been told that repeatedly. The problem is the lies being told are being believed by the idiots since they are coming from their orange god ( see Pat Myers comment below) and others they stupidly believe are telling the truth.

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Trump's hardcore base (and here I exclude single issue and outright partisan voters) is a mixture of white evangelicalism, Christian nationalism, and right-wing politics. It has very much to do with racial animus and the fear of the continuing demographic shift in the US and its ultimate implications for white power or influence. Thus, this business of election denialism or belief in the Big Lie, as an example, has far less to do with rational or fully formed thought, than it does with posturing or tribal posing. The Great R.eplacement Theory sounds like something it should support, even as it also (dissonately) supports forcing the birth of Black and brown babies. Logic need not apply.

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Paul Harvey's estate should sue, or at least threaten to.

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Serious problem is that too many do not want to hear, or refuse to believe, truth.

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I just yesterday had a Trumper tell me that "facks [sic] change." It makes no difference that I argued with him about this, nothing will persuade him that there aren't "alternate facts." Argh.

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That should be "fax change."

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Scary. Outrageous. Heartbreaking.

All of the above.

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Why is it that when I first saw the picture at the top of today's Gene Pool, that I thought about Joel Achenbach?

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Perhaps more interesting to those who make a living naming things and then getting grants to study them, are the "drivers" of our post-factual existence. And here, as is often the case when research grants are at stake, there is a somewhat divergence of opinion. In one camp we have the academic nod to the continuing revolution in communication technologies, allowing everyone to put forth an opinion-as-fact, "verifiable" by other everyones in their echo chambers or filter bubbles. In the other, those who don't necessarily discount the communications consideration, but do emphasize cultural and other societal influences resulting in feeling, belief and generally, emotion, playing an outsized role in what is presented as the truth and accepted as such.

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"Today, the log resides in a glass box at the Jorvik Viking Centre, York, England; where, in 2003, visitors dropped it, breaking it into three pieces. It has since been repaired."

The box or the log?

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The log! You can see the seams of the repairs.

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Repairing that would be the epitome of a shitty job.

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What a piece of shit.

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Please define what is the piece of shit.

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The Viking turd. I think I sent that observation to the wrong place. Abject apologies.

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No, I should have gotten it. No problem. Brain shart / on my part.

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Tronald Dump

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For the sake of peace and tranquility in "Mr. Weingarten's Neighborhood," let's assume the OP is referring to Lloyds Bank Coprolite, mentioned in the "Q&A," shall we ? Not as much fun as one or more other items herein, but then as you (and a whole phalanx of academics) point out we live in a post-truth era so --- let's enjoy it this one time. For peace and tranquility here in "Mr. Weingarten's Neighborhood"

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Ah, yes. Of course. Brain shart.

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