…so
…you know how these are generally kind of a blizzard of links to stuff that’s been in the news?
…& you know how mostly the news has kind of sucked for what seems like several lifetimes at this point?
…& how today is supposed to be about things to be thankful for?
…well
…let’s call this a day off, shall we?
…maybe contemplate the deeper mysteries of the universe or something
…or just listen to some wisdom
…maybe samuel l jackson style
…or, if you prefer…listen to the tiger
…oh, yeah…& thank @emmerdoesnotrepresentme for this, while you’re at it
Happy Giving Thanks Day Everyone
There was an enjoyable essay in The New Yorker about what happens to people who love to cook but then, because of the pandemic, find themselves doing a LOT more of it out of necessity and duty:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/kitchen-notes/the-joylessness-of-cooking
This hasn’t hit me yet because I do so little around here except cook. I can’t even walk the dog anymore because I’m suffering from some hopefully temporary and not serious mobility issues. Resolution is taking far too long because each appointment in this medical cascade takes a couple of weeks or longer to schedule. Tell me again, misguided siblings, about how those poor Canadians and Europeans “suffering” under socialized national health programs have to wait WEEKS just to get an appointment! What if it’s something serious?!? Well, I would guess that a seriously compromised leg and knee, undiagnosed causes at this point but I have one final appointment next week that might clear this up, might be considered serious by some. The good news is my doctor highly doubts I’ll need surgery, just a course of physical therapy, but a specialist needs to be seen to determine this.
Sorry for the digression. Anyway, as a result of the pandemic, the loss of work, and the loss of a functioning limb there’s little else I can do except cook and gad about the internet looking for diversion and help out The Better Half with his work. I think once the New Year hits I’m going to crash and we’ll go into a Lean Cuisine Period. Actually no we won’t, we have excellent take out in a splendid variety, but we only get that once or maybe twice a month.
Which we will be doing today, and Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating.
I hope you get some positive news at your appointment next week, Cousin Matthew.
Mobility issues suck. Hope Dr appointment goes well. May I suggest, if you haven’t already done so, seeing a rheumatologist? I had some alarming symptoms a while back that noone could diagnose, one Dr referred me to a rheumatologist and he was able to diagnose in 10 minutes. Hang in there!
It is quite eye opening how blissfully ignorant Americans are when talking about our national healthcare dumpsterfire. I won’t go into a huge diatribe, but I will wish you good luck with your mobility and leave you with 2 bits of advice:
2 things NOT to take for granted; your health and your loved ones. Once they start to fade, you’ll wish you had them back.
Happy turkey day all! Stay safe!
“Tell me again, misguided siblings, about how those poor Canadians and Europeans “suffering” under socialized national health programs have to wait WEEKS just to get an appointment!”
I’m sorry about your illness.
I’ve never been able to get an immediate appointment for anything but a dental issue. Never. If you need immediate care, you go to the emergency room or a walk-in clinic, not any of your primary physicians. In fact, all the doctors here have messages on their voicemails saying “If this is an emergency, hang up and call 911.” Anything else you wait for weeks or even a couple of months.
The good thing is I’m not in any pain. I was, but that went away after about a week of sleepless nights and intermittent icing and elevating that leg. But out of disuse and my body compensating that leg is just really weak now, which kind of points the way toward physical therapy. Problem is my primary care physician wouldn’t know what form that would take, and in any event it might be something else, so hobbling off to the specialist I go.
I am almost to the end of a three month wait to just get an initial appointment with a new primary care practitioner. Like, just for a meet and greet and “hey you’re fat you should lose weight” and get some basic bloodwork done.
My oldest stepdaughter had a back injury which then resulted in serious weight gain, which then became a self-perpetuating cycle. Pain…less mobility…more weight…more pain… Eventually she had to have a sleeve gastrectomy to bring her weight down so that she could address the underlying back problem. So far, so good. All that’s to say, that I hope this works out sooner than later.
Regarding the bad faith healthcare arguments, while working on my masters degree I studied various and sundry systems around the world. Fun fact: that right wing talking about about waiting lists–while not exactly bullshit–are only telling the part of the story that they know they can use to terrify their stupid base. Those wait lists are only for elective procedures and treatments that are otherwise high revenue in nature. But, when it comes to preventative and maintenance care, they have extraordinary access compared to the US.
In contrast, the US has super fast care when it comes to all those elective, high revenue generating procedures because it’s all about the money. But, our preventative and maintenance care wait times are total shit. Further, it has literally nothing to do with anything other than the financial incentives that providers and insurance companies have to make expensive elective care as easy to access as possible while shortchanging preventative care. Further, those wait times for preventative care have been exacerbated by the ACA’s expansion of the private insurance industry. Boston, for example, has the highest average wait time for preventative care among large cities. Boston also happens to have the highest number of physicians per capita, so you’d think they’d have the lowest wait times…but most of those physicians are specialists, which means their wait times for expensive elective care are quite low.
Every year I reluctantly head off into some big crowd of in-laws an hour down the road. This year I get my wish for a change, just the five of us at home.
This morning I found an almost full bottle of gin in the back of a cupboard. Happy Thanksgiving to me!
It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!
Yeah, baby! My one inviolate t-giving tradition is Bloody Mary’s as soon the last side is in the oven. I’ve got a yummy icelandic vodka in the fridge right now.
I like the way you think.
You might remember this story from GroupThink. At some point I got fed up with how expensive and difficult to find limoncello was in my new neighborhood, so this was 12 years ago, and decided to make my own. It’s really simple, you just put lemon peels together with vodka, seal it airtight, and leave it somewhere dark for a couple of weeks or a month. The lemons infuse the vodka.
The first time I did this The Better Half was at work. I made my brew and stuck on the floor in the back of closet that we share. Three or four days later he said, “Mattie, can you come here for a minute?”
“What?”
“What’s that?” pointing accusatorially at my limoncello. “Are you trying to hide your drinking from me? We have a full bar. If you think you need help…”
So I explained what limoncello is (we’ve had it several times, both in Italy and at one of our favorite Italian restaurants) and how cheap and easy it is to make yourself. “So what next? Will you be setting up a still in the living room?”
Nice. That reminds me I have aquavit that I made in the freezer, that’s going in my bloody mary. woo hoo!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends❤
Thanks TC 😊
Priceless.
Came here for this, was not disappointed
Happy Thanksgiving!
I know we’re taking the day off, but I found this article about Trump deplorables fascinating. The thesis is his 10 million additional votes are from disaffected loners with no social contacts. It’s illuminating and kinda frightening:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/25/1998220/-If-you-want-to-find-Trump-s-hidden-deplorables-look-to-the-lonely-fringes
Horrifying :/
Maybe if they didn’t approve of Trump doing horrible shit then they could have friends like the rest of us?
I don’t want to get too political today but it is ironic that I read this on Thanksgiving…
That is awful. I mean, we know votes are discarded constantly, but that’s completely over the top. I’m glad indigenous people didn’t give up.
Since we’re staying away from politics and this holiday is all about eating and I’m bored because I have nothing to do…
This morning The Better Half came back from walking the dog at about 6 AM, went to the gym, and when he got home said, “I think that even though I’ll get all the takeout Chinese I feel like we should have something homemade.”
“I completely agree. I could make a side salad to go with it. I’ve made it before. You shave some carrots and shred some cabbage, and make a honey-soy sauce, and sprinkle with peanuts. This takes no time. I’ll do that.”
“No, I’m going to make something. I feel bad because of your bum leg and all. What if the specialist tells you you need knee replacement surgery? What if they have to amputate? Don’t worry, I’ll stick by you, in sickness and in health, ’til your death do we part.”
“Stop it. Call me in when you’re ready to start.”
About a half an hour later I was summoned. In a stainless steel bowl (glass or plastic is better) he was pouring a boxed brownie mix batter into a loaf pan from my silicone stash. “Let me see the box.” I thought he might have picked up a chocolate pound cake mix but oh no, it was meant for an 8X8 pan. “This is great, it should only take 40 minutes…”
“Call me in after 40 minutes. It’ll probably take a little longer and we can do The Toothpick Test.”
“The what?”
The longest journey begins with the first step.
…years ago I shared a place with some friends & sometimes some of us would joke about how we were surprised that one or two others didn’t seem to really use the kitchen & seemed to subsist on takeout…then one evening one of those proudly proclaimed they’d successfully cooked their dinner to prove a point about it not being all that hard
…I was going to agree but there seemed to be an absence of washing up that needed doing & since they were still eating & not the sort to wash up as they went I asked a couple of questions & then had to explain that technically what they’d done was “heat up food in the oven” & that “cooking” was generally considered to be a slightly different thing in a few important ways
…felt a little bad about it since they’d been so pleased with themselves…& I’m definitely not above the “put it in the oven then take it out & eat it” school of dinner-making…but they subsequently married an excellent cook…so all’s well that ends well?
…hope the brownies are good
Isn’t there a reason you’re in charge of food?
Did they turn out okay? Do you have ice cream so you and forager-in-chief can have brownies a la mode?
What a lovely way to start the DeadSplinter day! I am so very thankful for this group – you brighten my life, expand my world, make me laugh, and play excellent tunes. Cheers and felicitations!
…well, I’ll definitely drink to that
👆🏼This 😊
help! i need urgent medical attention… my hands are covered in papercuts (stupid cardboard)…i dont think im going to bleed to death lol….but the itchyness is driving me insane
also its a good thing i was wearing me facemask coz i definitely made me very best home alone face when i had to desinfect with the alcohol juice at the shops
i think amputation is the only reasonable option here
anyways happy turkey day to you all 🙂
maybe putting on some vaseline/petroleum jelly might help?
helped some…course..in a minute ill be headed back to work and making things so much worse….lot more cardboard to deal with
how come i can work with sheetmetal for years and rarely ever cut meself but look like i tried to put meself through a shredder after just a day of trying to package things?
(edit) im temping over on packaging for the moment..courtesy of management…they redesigned the box constructions…and binned the old packaging..snazzy looking eco friendly boxes now…they just overlooked a couple things…like you need to be at least 6ft to be able to put them together and be able to deadlift about 50kg of awkward sized coffee machine filled box 30/40 times a day as they got rid of the pallets we used to build em on….kinda narrowed it down to just me for the moment…lol)
As much as I hate work gloves, they might be needed.
Cardboard papercuts ARE FUCKING VICIOUS
Signed,
I worked as a stocker at Target for like 2 years and it’s stupid easy to shred hands messing with stupid cardboard boxes.
i may have to give in to gloves…i dont wear them coz labeling the boxes is damn near impossible with them on…and i get really annoyed at constantly putting them on and taking them off…lol
(and partially coz goddamnit i can handle sheetmetal without gloves im not going to be beaten by a stupid fucking cardboard box…..ha…i might be stubborn)
This is why I have tubes of O’Keefe’s at both of my jobs–between the handwashing, the winter dryness, and the cardboard boxes alllll shift at the Grocery Store, it’s the only thing that keeps my hands from getting absolutely SHREDDED!
It was recommended to me, by an older gentleman who was a customer when I sold pulltabs a few years ago.
He saw me wincing, as I was layering up my lotions, after mixing a bunch of boxes of tables that weekend–i had SO many tiny papercuts alllll over, and my cuticles were SHREDDED.
He explained that he used to work at a bindery, and the folks there all used O’Keefe’s to keep their hands un-shredded, from all the paper they dealt with.
That dude was SO right, and once i started using it, I’ve kept it on hand since!😉😁💖
I dunno if they have it over on your side of the pond, Farscy, but if they DO, I highly recommend O’Keefe’s Working Hands!
I use it ALL the time, at both jobs,to keep my hands soft & “not chewed up.”
If my hands get rough, it can make it hard to get my day job kiddos to walk down the hall with me (many of them are kids who NEED a hand held as they walk😉), and the O’Keefe’s keeps mine from getting cracked & rough from all the cardboard boxes I open at the grocery store.
Thanks for the rec 🙂
I’ll have a look for it…it may be branded under a different name over here as I’ve never seen o Keefe’s
Thanks to all who contribute to make this a great site!
I’m thankful for all of Y’ALL, here, and that you guys put this place together, for us to meet up & hang out!!😁🤗💖
The article about the Swinomish people & their actions to restore the environment around them reminded me of the Treaty Rights that the White Earth Anishinaabe gave to Manoomin (Wild Rice) a couple years back.😁🤗💖
There were MULTIPLE reasons why they did it–including justice & resource-protection ones….
But a HUGE reason why, was because if Manoomin has Treaty Rights of existence, then there’s an opportunity for the tribes of Northern MN to sue–as the Protectors & Caregivers/Keepers of the Manoomin–to stop the Poly Met/Twin Metals Copper Nickel mine from going forward.😈😈😈
Admittedly, I am NOT a miner. But I DO know bullshittery & bluster when I see it–having been exposed to it from my childhood on**
And ANY idea, that open-pit mining up in the BWCA, with that Sulfide ore, could be “safe” is 100% a crock of absolute BULLSHIT. 🧐🤔🤨
There is NO way to build “retaining ponds to last 500 years!”🙄🙄🙄
It’s NOT going to happen, and there WILL be leaks that occur, if it WERE (stupidly!) allowed to go forward…
Rain HAPPENS. As do snow & ice. AND, mining companies declare bankruptcy ALL.THE.TIME.
So the idea that some damn mining company is going to actually fund a 500-year project, IN ADVANCE, and keep that money available, is practically comedy at it’s finest.
Wild Rice being granted the rights of life & existence is the ONE way, that the MN Tribes may be able to protect the Boundary Waters Wilderness & the Lake Superior Watershed, for ALL of us💖
**When folks in my town were sold a bill of goods, in regards to changing our school’s district alignment, and folks were convinced that we ought to align with two neighboring towns to create a new district–with the promise, that our town would “of COURSE, ALWAYS keep your elementary school!”
That was OBVIOUSLY a lie, and we lost the elementary school less than a decade after shelling out for a million+ dollar teardown of the old building/rebuild of a newer facility.😒😒😒…
Turns out, we later discovered that new families who moved into the part of the district our elementary school served, were told their children would be bussed for an hour to an hour and a half each way… so those families decided to “open enroll” into the larger town in our district… eventually & predictably, ALL the new families ended up going to the big town, and within a couple years, the district decided OUR elementary school was “just not serving enough students to stay open.”
So they shut the school, expanded & upgraded the one in the larger town, and sold off our building at a loss, before the loans were even paid off (they still made payments for a few YEARS after selling thd building🤨)