Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 12-28-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, enjoy a freshly-made batch of Chex Mix, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
This is a great example of how to build a proper library. I love the dome that simulates a skylight. Very nicely done. As everyone knows, a library needs a secret door so that the lord of the manor can escape when the peasants are storming the castle.
2025 READING RETROSPECTIVE
Welcome to the last Sunday Morning Book Thread of 2025! We'll fire up a whole new series of Sunday Morning Book Threads starting next week, though the format will most likely remain similar to the current format. If it ain't broke, I ain't fixing it.
Let's take a look back at 2025 and review some of my more notable reads...
Path to Ascendancy by Ian C. Esslemont -- Since I started 2024 reading Steven Erickson's Malazan Books of the Fallen, I thought it would be fun to start off with this series, which provides the backstory of how the Malazan Empire came to be. It turns out it was the greatest heist of all time, as Kellanved and his partner Dancer decided to forge an Empire from nothing using only their wits and chutzpah to make it happen. Not as good as Malazan but still a very fun read.
Watership Down by Richard Adams -- This has been recommend numerous times here, so I felt I had an obligation to give it a shot. Definitely worth it. Adams explores the life of bunny rabbits in an ordinary field in England, but he brings their whole society to life in a cool and interesting way. You can see how Adams has influenced many other authors who have used animals in their stories, such as Brian Jacques and Tad Williams.
Star Wars - New Jedi Order by various authors -- This was the initial launch of Star Wars Expanded Universe after Del Rey took it over from Bantam Spectra. It's a good thing they did, as they created a very cool space opera. It's a darned shame that the woke lunatics at Disney discarded all of this because they had a near-perfect blueprint of how they could have relaunched the Star Wars Cinematic Universe if they had adapted New Jedi Order material.
Hercule' Poirot's Casebook by Agatha Christie and The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle -- I'm lumping these together because they both epitomize the best of British mystery stories. Both authors have inspired countless other authors and television shows over the past hundred years or so. Absolutely well worth your time and effort to read these!
The Once and Future King by T.H. White -- One of the great classic retellings of the Arthurian legend. It's both humorous and quite dark at times. Very much a tragedy at the end. White's story has served as inspiration for numerous fantasy authors that followed in his wake.
Dracula and Other Stories by Bram Stoker -- This is one of my all-time favorite reads for 2025. I had no idea that Stoker's original telling of the vampire myth would be so compelling. I had a hard time putting it down. I now understand why it's been retold so many, many times over the past hundred years or so since it was originally published. Just an amazing story and well worth your time.
What are some of YOUR most memorable reads of 2025?
What do you have planned for 2026?
In my case, I can think of a few anticipated reads: Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey; The Conan stories by Robert E. Howard and the later ones written by Robert Jordan; a re-read of The Dresden Files prior to reading the most recent book that comes out in early January; some more Michael Moorcock, etc.
GK CHESTERTON ON FATHER CHRISTMAS
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5 PHASES OF READING FANTASY
At this point in my life, I'd definitely say I'm at stage (or phase) 5 of reading fantasy. That doesn't mean that I exclusively read that type of fantasy novel, but I can say that I've expanded my fantasy interests considerably over the past several decades.
One point that I think is lost a bit in the video above is that he's talking about CURRENT fantasy, meaning there is an enormous catalog of fantasy stories that simply didn't exist when I was growing up.
When I was a wee little squirrel, the landscape of fantasy literature was not the cultural juggernaut that it is today, thanks to the popularity of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and other contemporary works. It was much more of a niche field of literature. It was still easy to find and quite popular among a certain subset of readers, but it didn't dominate book sales like it does today. So Viking's comments in his video are applicable to a reader getting started in TODAY'S fantasy literature environment, but it would have looked a lot different 30-40 years ago, when I first started out on my own fantasy literature journey.
For example, in my personal experience, my journey looked something like this:
PHASE 1 - Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis; Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander; Fairy Books by Andrew Lang, etc. Books I read when I was a child.
PHASE 2 - During my teenage years and into my adolescence, I was reading LOTS of books based on Dungeons and Dragons, such as the Dragonlance books, Forgotten Realms stories, and Ravenloft novels. I also started reading Terry Brooks' Shannara series, Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga, and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.
PHASE 3 - In my twenties and thirties, I would have moved on to other fantasy series. In fact, I didn't even get around reading Harry Potter until this stage of my life as it didn't come out until then. I also started reading The Dresden Files and The Codex Alera, both by Jim Butcher, around this time. I also loved reading Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (pick a series) as well.
PHASE 4 - I'm not quite sure what I'd put into this category, but it would have been stuff I've read in the last decade or so, I think. This is when "grimdark" fantasy started becoming really popular, so I read some of that, such as A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, The Lightbringer by Brent Weeks, and Of Blood and Bone by John Gwynne.
PHASE 5 - Finally, at the end of my journey, in the current phase, I'm going back and attempting to read a lot of the classics of the genre that have influenced the genre from the beginning. Books like Watership Down by Richard Adams, Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea stories, or Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern (still in my TBR pile). I've also read the Malazan books by Steven Erickson and Ian C. Esslemont, which I would not have read when I was much younger. Very complicated plot, but awesome characters and a fun ride.
Overall, I'd say I'm a fairly well-rounded fantasy reader, though I have my preferred tastes. Now that I'm entering my twilight years, I don't know that I'll branch out as much as I might have in the past, simply because the market is so over-saturated with content. I wouldn't even know where to start with a new author unless I have a really good recommendation from someone I trust.
Have you gone through phases like this in your life?
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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
How does one clear the name of an accused murderer if he refuses to cooperate, is also a duke, and your brother? This is the quandary facing Lord Peter Wimsey in Dorothy Sayers' Clouds of Witness. In the story, the fiancé of their sister is found dying of a gunshot wound in the middle of the night, in the Duke of Denver's lodge with the Duke standing over him.
Peter Wimsey immediately races to the scene to try and clear his brother, but the Duke refuses to discuss the case, relying on the House of Lords to clear him. Wimsey must trace the clues of fiancé Cathcart's life and death to find out the truth. He must travel to Paris and then eventually New York to ferret out the answers, and then make a risky transatlantic flight to produce his evidence before the House.
The story involves several twists, including a member of the socialist party who is an additional suitor for his sister, a nearly fatal encounter in a bog near the manor, and dissembling by both his brother and sister. With a twist at the end, Wimsey wraps up the case with a shocking testimony in the House of Lords. This is another clever novel from one of the titans of the golden age of British mysteries.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at December 21, 2025 09:18 AM (0U5gm)
Comment: An American author, Edgar Allan Poe, might have created the detective mystery genre, but I think the British may have perfected it. Seems like a lot of early detective mystery authors came from the British Isles. That's not to say there aren't excellent American mystery authors, of course. However, I suspect a lot of them were influenced by British authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers, among others.
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Reading Piano Man by Charles Beauclerk, a biography of British pianist John Ogdon.
Winner of the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition. Ogdon was a prodigiously talented pianist with a huge repertoire and extraordinary technique. But he had lifelong mental problems. He was the child of a tyrannical lunatic father and an unloving stage mother. His success at the keyboard led his agency to overwork and underpay him.
In 1973, he had a severe breakdown due to bipolar disorder. He never truly recovered and was in and out of mental institutions before dying in 1989 of undiagnosed diabetes. Even through all this, he continued to perform at an astonishing level, including a complete performance of Sorabji's 4 1/2 hour Opus Clavicembalisticum.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 21, 2025 11:00 AM (tgvbd)
Comment: What is it about genius-level talent that it seems to come with a lot of drawbacks? Geniuses often seem to have terrible backgrounds in their lives, or suffer from other mental or physical disorders that hinder their abiliy to interact with normal people. They can be supremely competent in one or two areas, but may have extreme difficulties in leading a normal life. And yet, without them, human progress as a species might not be possible.
The Final Architecture Book 1 - Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
As I mentioned last week, I purchased this series with gift cards from my bosses at work. It's not a bad series at all, though I don't think Tchaikovsky lives up to the hype I've seen elsewhere.
The Architects--inscrutable, invulnerable, inevitable. They came from the the depths of unspace to remake inhabited planets, twisting them into bizarre, otherwordly, yet also beautiful artworks. Earth was only one of their most recent victims--ten billion souls wiped out in just a few hours as an Architect turned our beautiful blue jewel of a planet inside out. Nothing could stop them. Until one woman was able to form a psychic connection with an Architect to ask it one simple question: "Why?" Then they disappeared for over fifty years, while the rest of the galaxy recovered from the onslaught.
Now they are back and only one man, a broken remnant from the Intermediary program that stopped the Architects in their tracks, may hold the key to stopping them again. Unfortunately, every faction in the galaxy--both human and alien--now wants Idris on their side, as they know he's one of the very few people in history to survive an attack from an Architect. His mysterious gifts within unspace allow him deep insight into the Architects' mad schemes for reforming the galaxy on their terms.
The Final Architecture Book 2 - Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Idris and his companion Solace have stopped an Architect once again, at the same distant planet where they destroyed an Architect before. The Architects haven't forgotten. The Essiel Hegemony, once thought to be the only race capable of guarding planets against an Architect's attack have been proven to be as impotent as the rest of the galaxy. The Architects have also revealed a tiny weakness, a chink in their near-invincible armor that Idris and his companions hope to exploit to understand the Architects' overall goal and perhaps save the remaining human colonies. Unfortunately, galaxy has devolved into a bickering shooting war over trivial nonsense, instead of uniting to face the new threats.
Or so argue Nvidia and Groq's lawyers as the FTC no doubt prepares for a endoscopic examination of their respective corporate records.
Nvidia buying another AI company would lead to messy stuff like regulatory approval, and Nvidia doesn't have time for that. So they paid $20 billion for a non-exclusive license to the technology... Oh, and that also included Groq's executive and engineering teams and all their patents and trade secrets.
But not the company itself, or any duty to support its customers. GroqCloud has been left to quietly die under control of the former CFO, drained of its engineering talent and indeed its entire reason to exist.
What Groq actually does is interesting: They make chips that use hundreds of megabytes of internal SRAM rather than tens of gigabytes of external DRAM, and have staggering amounts of bandwidth - 80 terabytes per second per chip.
Not suitable for training LLMs but great for running them once they have been trained.
As for the deal: Is this technically illegal? Possibly. Will Nvidia get away with it? Probably.
It has a lot more features than the DEG1 - it supports ThunderBolt 5 as well as OCuLink, and provides an M.2 slot, 2.5Gb Ethernet, a second ThunderBolt port for other peripherals, and two USB 3.2 ports.
Priced at $240. If you have OCuLink and don't need that extra stuff, the DEG1 is still available at $99.
It uses a PowerPC CPU (which the Amiga never did but might have done if Commodore hadn't gone extremely bankrupt) and a standard micro-ATX motherboard. It provides three PCIe slots, two M.2 slots, four USB ports, and a single DDR3L memory slot.
I say "could" here as does the article but given that OpenAI is projected to be losing $74 billion per year by 2028 even if it meets revenue forecasts I'd upgrade that probability to 100%.
Or something. Sorry - no offence to Tech Crunch here, they're just reporting the news - but the story was so dumb it gave me both retrograde and anterograde amnesia. And also the other kind, the kind they don't talk about, that erases your memories in parallel universes where you didn't even read the article.
Shoe On Head Interlude
"This video is age-restricted and only available on YouTube." Because warning about a problem gets you censored but causing the problem is absolutely fine.
It's like these people are actively working to prove those ban-happy politicians correct.
(Link goes to a Shoeonhead video about teen dating apps which are every bit the cesspool you are expecting.)
Musical Interlude
I still remember where I first heard this song.
Disclaimer: Dalton Brooks got his coffee but we never got the game promised in the trailer.
Saturday Night "Club ONT" December 27, 2025 [The 3 Ds]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT. A collaboration the 3D's - The Disco, The Dino, and The Doggo. We hope everyone had a wonderful, whelming and blessed Christmas - and that you enjoyed/endured family, food, traditions, and cheer. Welcome back.
Last Club ONT of 2025. Have you come to party?!? Please have your password and restroom tokens ready. Make a new friend or 2. Tip your bartender. DO NOT try the veal.
One Sunday morning, the priest noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small USA flags mounted on either side of it.
The seven year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the priest walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, "Good morning Alex."
"Good morning father," he replied, still focused on the plaque. "Father, what is this?" he asked the priest.
The priest said, "well, son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service."
Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.
Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear, asked, "which service, the 9:00 or the 11:00?"
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A couple made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the
other if there was sex after death. Their biggest fear was that there was no
after-life at all.
After a long life together, the husband was the first to die.
True to his word, he made the first contact: "Judy........Judy"
"Is that you, George?""
"Yes, I've come back like we agreed."
"That's wonderful!? What's it like?"
"Well, I get up in the morning, I have sex.
I have breakfast and then it's off to the golf course.
I have sex again, bathe in the warm sun and then have sex a couple of more times.
Then I have lunch (you'd be proud - lots of greens).
Another romp around the golf course, then pretty much have sex the rest of the afternoon.
After supper, it's back to golf course again.
Then it's more sex until late at night.
I catch some much-needed sleep and then the next day it starts all over again."
"Oh, George, are you in Heaven?"
"No, I'm a rabbit in Kansas."
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At a wedding ceremony when the pastor said, "Speak now or forever hold your peace." The moment of silence was broken by a young beautiful woman carrying a child. She stood up and started walking slowly toward the pastor.
All hell broke loose.
The bride threw the bouquet on the floor and burst out crying. Then the groom's mother fainted.
The best man fidgeted, wondering how to save the situation.
The pastor said to the woman, "Why have you came forward? What do you have to say?"
There was absolutely thundering silence in the church as the woman replied,
"We can't hear in the back."
Ingredients
1 lime wedge
Finely grated lime zest, for rim
Kosher salt
1 1/2 oz. tequila blanco
1/2 oz. concentrated cherry juice
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. maraschino cherry syrup from jar
1/2 oz. triple sec
Ice
Lime slices and maraschino cherries, for serving
Directions
Rub the rim of a margarita glass with lime wedge. Mix lime zest and salt on a shallow plate. Roll rim of glass in lime zest mixture until coated.
In a cocktail shaker, combine tequila, cherry juice, lime juice, maraschino cherry syrup, and triple sec. Fill shaker with ice, cover, and vigorously shake until outside of shaker is very frosty, about 20 seconds.
Fill prepared glass with more ice. Strain margarita into glass. Garnish with lime slice and maraschino cherry.
A German man who earned a Guinness World Record for his collection of 6,100 snow globes in 2002 revealed his collection has now grown to 11,000 pieces.
Josef Kardinal broke his own record for the largest collection of snow globes when a Guinness World Records adjudicator visited his Nuremberg home and confirmed he now owns 11,000 different snow globes.
Kardinal, who has been collecting snow globes since 1994, said the oldest item in his collection is an Eiffel Tower-themed snow globe made in Paris in 1889.
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Club ONT Department of History
The unwashed and patchouli people should take note.
Zooming in on the container above: For Laundry use only. For all white and colored work. For removal and control of rust! Contains fluorine compounds. Poisonous if taken internally.
AI tells us that it is a veneer canister or a coopered veneer tube. Common in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Thin sheet of veneer, steam softened / shaped, with an overlapped or scarf-jointed seam. Metal bands at the top and bottom for structural strength and to keep it from "springing" open. Top and bottom were solid wood. Cool!
Found an old NY Times archive (November of 1939) that mentions Penn Salt acquired Erusto - cannot link it's pay to view style.
Well into the 19th century, soap was heavily taxed as a luxury item in several countries. When the tax was removed, soap became available to most people, and cleanliness standards across societies improved.
***
This D knows nearly nothing about Russian history. One helluva statue, however.
The statue is already clearly visible through a huge opening in the roof from the Hall of Military Glory. Its sculptor, Yevgeny Vuchetich, once said the following to the famous physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov: "My bosses asked me why her mouth is open, it doesn't look beautiful. And I answered, because she is screaming: 'For the Motherland, you motherf…ers!' They never asked again."
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Statues. Skipping the icons. Heading straight to the weird and amusing.
25 Weirdest Statues and Sculptures. It's got the Corporate Head Sculpture, Male Tranny Taunting Local Pickpockets, The Kindlifresserbrunnen” – Weird Statue Of An Ogre Eating Children, and more.
The “De Vaartkapoe” statue by Belgian artist Tom Frantzen depicts a young rebel rising up from the sewers to trip and topple over a policeman thus overthrowing his authority. Created in 1985, the statue is located in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Belgium.
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Club ONT Department of "Where did the year go?"
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Club ONT Stocking Stuffer Messaging
Slowly working up to chloroform.
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Club ONT Music
No frankincense or myrrh here - just GOLD!
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Club ONT Department of Setting Personal Goals
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Comments of the Year Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Before you leave!
Not sure this is a good idea, but feel free to drop a card in the ol' suggestion box. How can we make the Club even better in 2026?
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Club ONT brought to you by: Motivation.
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Please keep Schnoflepuppy and pookysgirl and their families in your prayers. Tough times of personal loss for both. Check the prayer thread this morning. Content, and comments 69, 422 and 423. May God give them strength and comfort.
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Club ONT hopes that you enjoyed the Festivus program of "Airing of Grievances." We apologize to those of you who were disappointed after expecting "Airing of Cleavages." That is a completely different event. Check back when the weather gets warmer...
Saturday Evening Movie Thread [moviegique]: Klaus (2019)
—Open Blogger
This holiday season has offered a really limited slate of films, for reasons I don't quite understand. It might be that the third Avatar movie was enough to scare off other films, or it might be that having given up on Christmas years ago (the surviving market being relegated to Hallmark and the lot) and giving up on understanding human behavior, Hollywood's contented to just...give up. And we've basically lost all our Korean exhibitors, so the "seeing a Korean movie on Christmas Eve" tradition died before its tenth year.
Looking through the revivals, I saw two interesting possibilities. One was John Woo's "Bullet in the Head" (35th anniversary). Tempting, but somewhat awkward to get to. The other, in a more accessible theater, was the 2019 movie Klaus—which I was shocked to see ranked #159 on IMDB's top 250.
I have more than 250 issues with this list, but that aside—and very cautiously setting aside the Netflix brand name—I was surprised to see this relatively obscure film from Sergio Pablos' Animagic Studios (best known for Despicable Me, which Pablos created) on it. So off we went.
This is a very good movie. Would we put it in the top 250? No. Would we recommend it? Yes, absolutely. It is strongly reminiscent of the old Rankin-Bass TV specials (especially "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town") by way of Tarkovsky/McCracken. It also has no small measure of Miracle on 34th Street and Doc Hollywood.
The trailers leading up to this were just a barrage of truly awful-looking and identical-seeming animated features. This has to be partly due to the way these things are cut, because Goat, which is Stephen Curry's allegorical film about a tiny goat wanting to play in the big leagues, looked better in this trailer. I had to look up that it was a Sony picture, though, otherwise I wouldn't have known.
The once mighty Pixar has ripped off Avatar to make a beaver picture called Hoppers. I only remember this because it looked like every other flick and had the Pixar name on it. Klaus visually towers over every single one of these bland products.
Klaus is beautiful. This hits you before the tone of the film, and the tone of the movie hits hard and fast, as we see the Post Office Training Grounds where mail carriers endure a high-intensity boot camp designed to keep them in shape for delivery.
"Be a (post) man!"
Jesper, our hero, is currently slacking on his PT. He's the son of the Postmaster General and this is his last chance to straighten up and fly right. He figures he'll blow it and go back to a life of luxury. Instead, he's sent to Smeerensburg, a remote island village at the most desolate northern* end of the country.
This is the Doc Hollywood plot. (Or, if you like, you can trace it back to movies like F.W. Murnau's City Girl, Preston Sturges' Remember the Night, and many others.) He's given the task of getting 6,000 mails postmarked in a year. If he doesn't, he's cut off.
The opening narration, voiced by Jason Schwartzman as Jesper, gives us a whole "You know how Santa Claus works, but do you know how it all got started." A la the Rankin-Bass specials.
The town of Smeerensburg is largely divided into two families: The Krums and the Ellingboes, who are at constant war with each other. Also, they're illiterate. Jesper's in a tight spot until he accidentally stumbles across the old toy maker, who (essentially) forces him to deliver a toy to one of the town's children—said child being locked up in her house away from other children because of the feud.
This ominous image of Smeerensburg is transmuted through the rest of the movie, but I have a suspicion it's pretty accurate.
So we touch on various aspects of the mythology: Why toys, how delivery, why reindeer, why flying, why coal, etc. etc. etc. This is all played across the backdrop of this family feud, itself an unending stream of sight gags. (The sight gags reminded me a lot of Tarkovsky/McCracken "Dexter's Laboratory"/"Powerpuff Girls" stuff.)
Said backdrop, I can't state enough, being absolutely gorgeous. Pablo Sergio had apparently been pondering "What if 3D animation had never been invented?" And then he applied all kinds of modern animation techniques to a traditional 2D film. The film does such a good job of showing the transformation of Smeerensburg from a haunted village to a happy place, just in the visuals.
Jesper's love interest, Alva (Rashida Jones) came to Smeerensburg to teach, but has been stymied by the villagers worried that their children will end up consorting with children of the other family. When the children learn they can get toys by writing to Santa, they defy their parents and pursue education. As the children start behaving better, and start switching from pranks to being helpful—to the family they were previously tormenting—this creates an indebtedness that leads to a competitive kindness as fierce as their former feud was.
This is all done without any sly winking at the camera, without a bunch of adult references, and with only a handful of short pop-music interludes.
I presume you're sitting down, but if not you might want to now: All of the characters in the movie are white. The black-haired Krums vs the red-haired Ellingboes and, out on the tundra separate from everyone else and only speaking Saami, the blonde Lapps. The only sexuality on display is the sort of bog-standard heterosexuality of traditional children's movies, where a boy and a girl get married and are shown in distant years with children.
Saami clothing stands out beautifully against the less colorful Smeerensburg fare.
I hate that I even have to notice these things. But it's extraordinary today (and was in 2019). And, according to Pablos, Netflix only gave suggestions, not requirements.
It cost a mere $40M to make—did I mention it was beautiful?—and apparently got streamed over 30 million times in the first month.
Is it perfect? No. A very minor issue is that some of the jokes don't land. The movie actually handles humor well by not trying to hammer in a joke or add a big take so you have plenty of time to appreciate that joke you didn't like the first time. It typically just goes on to the next joke. A lot of Jesper's humor is in a kind of modern, sarcastic, talk-a-lot style, which is a bit weak and way overdone these days.
The weakest part of the movie is the Doc Hollywood plot, in particular the second act low point, where Jesper's treachery is revealed. The thing is, he really wasn't very treacherous. He didn't lie or even exaggerate much. Except for Alva and Klaus and the little Lapp girl, he doesn't really form a lot of deep bonds. And even with Alva, the bond is mostly our presumption that this is the sort of movie where Alva and Jesper end up together.
But you know what? The movie kinda blows that off, too. Like "OK, here's the downbeat we're all expecting. No need to drag it out. Let's get back to the jokes."
We liked it a lot. I daresay more than we expected. I can easily see it fitting into the annual Christmas canon.
And to all a good night.
Little bit of an "Up" crib here, too, come to think of it.
*Or possibly southern end. The country is never named and I initially thought of Tierra del Fuego, but there was an actual Smeerensburg in Norway.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. This is the LAST HOBBY THREAD of 2025!!
I started to write some words in recognition of the year-end thread. Part way through, I began to realize that my words felt familiar. After puzzling a bit, I went back and looked at what I wrote for the same occasion last year. What do you know? I sound a lot like myself.
With apologies for the replay, I'll echo what I wrote last year. The same sentiments are applicable for 2025.
TRex treasures the people who make things happen. Hobbyists are the makers, the creators, the crafters, the builders, the designers, and the visionaries. You are those people. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing and contributing. Thank you for encouraging others. Thank you for the notes (especially from shy lurkers who are kind enough to pop in periodically to affirm their existence).
Inspiration is a wonderful part of the Hobby Thread. It happens when someone is inspired and takes action. It might be to pick up a forgotten project, attempt a build, or learn something new. TRex respects those with a bias towards action and the bravery and humility involved in tackling something new.
Another fun part of the Hobby Thread is connections between Gray Box friends through shared memories and interests. The Horde is a collection of oddballs, but there are likely to be some among the Horde that resonate with each other. If not, at least the Horde will sympathize and empathize and offer encouragement and support.
Thank you for being among the Horde and thank you for being involved with the Hobby Thread. A special prayer for those among the Horde that are struggling with loss, health challenges, or the other weirdness that life can produce. No Hordeling is ever alone. Shoot me an email any time if you require confirmation.
A special word of thanks to the COBs and contributors. I still have no idea what I am doing. No, really. No idea at all. We are making it up as we go. Thank you for your help and support. Anyway...on with the show.
***
We're not quite done with the Christmas theme. After all, decorations stay up until Epiphany, right?
From Victor Tango Kilo:
***
We can continue talking about Christmas hobbying or... rather than a theme of a single hobby, we can speak of hobbying accomplishments and aspirations.
Looking back, what were your favorite hobby projects from the past year? What new skills did you learn? What did you boldly attempt and succeed in doing? Has anything from prior Hobby Thread themes inspired you?
Looking ahead, did Santa bring new hobbying supplies? What do you plan to tackle in the coming year? Are there hobby projects that have been on your list that you FINALLY want to address or complete? Are there new skills that you want to learn or new hobbies that you have always wanted to try?
We are looking for pure and undiluted enthusiasm, optimism and ambition. This is not about guilt for prior hobby attempts or a competition for who has accumulated the most unbuilt kits or unfinished projects. Looking for the positive parts of hobbying: pride of accomplishment and the fresh energy that a new year brings.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Even though it is arguably religion, college football is fair game. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants are optional.
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As tech costs decline and knowledge spreads, more people are doing their own sophisticated home holiday light displays. It seems like more and more homes do something more than just throw a string of lights across the roofline and around nearby shrubbery. Seeing more and more, you wonder "how hard can it be?"
There are a ton of videos on YT with all kinds of advice. Some are deep into the tech details and others are geared more towards newbies. DIY home light shows qualifies as a hobby. I am not wise in the ways of such things, so I'm not knowledgeable enough to know which YT videos are good and which are not, but here are a few videos that seemed helpful and lower on the clickbait spectrum.
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God is in the details.
Hat tip: Anna Puma
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did another Christmas Ornament theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute hobbying comments that resonate with you. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
Sending this on Christmas Eve. Hope all of you have a happy and merry holiday. This is a holiday image of our mated pair of Eclectus Parrots, Marley and Avery.
Regards, David
Delightful!
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Merry Christmas, KT.
Thanks for all your Saturday threads, always enjoy reading them.
Attached is a Christmas ornament of our doggo, Sadie - she crossed the rainbow bridge this year. Our first Christmas without her clawing at presents, trying to eat wrapping paper, and generally being chaotic - zooming around. She will be remembered.
Enjoy your Christmas,
scampydog
Awwww . . . .
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Here's a picture of The Boyz. Just enjoying winter here in Minnesota. We're fleeing the land of Tampon Tim for four months; going to Texas! Yeah baby!
From a longtime lurker: Tom H.
Great photo, great plan!
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
These photos were not taken during the holidays, but I have been saving them for the holidays, because I think they fit. Don't you agree?
Howdy Katy,
4 out if 5 years I get no blooms, then only one. This year I got about 20 on 3 different plants.
May you and yours be well and prosperous.
Kindest regards
As for outdoor decorations, I can see taking down the snowman and some of the high decorations, but if you live where there is fog or other challenging weather, why not leave up some lights as guides for visitors a little later in the year? Why the rush to remove them all?
We have tons of inside and outside decorations. I take everything down after new year's, but I leave my tree up in the living room till Valentine's Day because it's basically silver red and white and I have a lot of heart decorations,etc.. I put on for Valentine's day pic.twitter.com/ak0HMft0Z8
Don in Kansas provides us with a lot of great plant information and photos, but he also posts other interesting content. During the holidays, perhaps we can think about musical "pastimes" to share and enjoy with others.
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Scott Joplin may be the most famous of the ragtime composers published by John Stark, but the others are well worth listening to (and playing, if you have the fingers), notably Joseph Lamb and James Scott. And Artie Matthews, who wrote five “pastimes” for piano.
Ensemble: Avatar Brass Quintet
Composer of the quintet arrangement: William Ryden
Any tips for easily cracking hazelnuts? (Squirrel nuts?)
SEE RECIPE, COMMENT 4
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And how about some light in that Alaska darkness? It's now the Winter Solstice, after this photo was taken on or before December 13:
Notice the sun. It won't get higher than that until the end of January.
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Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee,
where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam
'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold
seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way
that "he'd sooner live in hell."
-- Bob Service
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 20, 2025 02:02
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I got the charmingly old fashioned Shumway's seed catalog the other day. I can picture Zeke and Clarabelle poring over it and pondering Georgia Rattlesnake watermelons, Colossal Giant Red mangelwurtzels, and Box Car Willie tomatoes.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at December 20, 2025 02:04 PM
It's a fun catalog. Anybody else pondering catalogs?
I grew mangelwurtzels once. It wasn't a "giant", it was big (for a beet) and long like a fat carrot. Reputed to be a variety good for humans as well as cattle. Wasn't bad. Cooked up tender, verging toward potato from beet in texture, without a strong beet flavor.
Here's a thread on this veggie, with discussion of some literary works.
The mangelwurzel is a type of beet vegetable. Mangel comes from German “mangold” meaning "chard", and “wurzel” meaning "root". Another name for the mangelwurzel is "root of scarcity", derived from the word mangold’s similarity to another German word "mangeln" meaning "a lack of". pic.twitter.com/P5hjPnrSGH
John Stossel: People criticize capitalism. As a recent Axios-Generation poll found, “College students prefer socialism to capitalism.” Why? Because they believe absurd myths: Like the claim that the Soviet Union “wasn’t real socialism.” Socialism guru Noam Chomsky tells students that.
Irony!
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Oh the irony of the European censors, sanctioned for pressuring American tech platforms to censor speech under force of law, complaining about the sanction uncensored on @x, the very platform they most sought to censor.
One day last week I was walking down the street when a van with blacked-out windows pulled up to the curb. Three masked men jumped out and before I knew it they were bundling me into the back of the vehicle. They chloroformed me and for a while I was out.
When I came to, the van was pulling up to a building, a brand-new skyscraper with a Japanese name on the front that I didn’t catch. They hustled me into the building, which seemed deserted, and on to an elevator. We rode the elevator to the top floor.
I still had no idea what was going on, but when they headed for a flight of stairs that led to the roof, I realized that they intended to push me off. So I broke free and ran into a ventilator shaft. Miraculously, there was a semiautomatic pistol in the shaft, and I used it to dispatch the three ruffians.
Dazed, I rode back down the elevator and left the building, looking around for a likely spot to call an Uber. Suddenly the front doors to the building burst open and the leader of the gang stumbled out, firearm in hand. This time I took no chances and finished him off.
It was not until I got back to civilization that I realized what had happened. The purpose of my kidnapping was to enable Steve Hayward to stage a coup. While I was occupied, he seized control of Power Line’s back end and posted an unauthorized Week In Pictures. Why? To promote the heretical theory that Die Hard is a Christmas movie! . . .
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Music
A young entrepreneur: Experience the enchanting blend of Italian charm and global pop culture in my unique violin cover of Bella Ciao from La Casa de Papel (Money Heist). Recorded while riding a gondola through the historic canals of Venice, Italy, this performance captures the rebellious spirit of the iconic song and the timeless allure of Venetian landscapes.
Plays in tune, like a classical violinist, repetitive, like "global pop culture", I guess.
Venice looks nice there.
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Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend. "The Holidays" are still upon us.
Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.
Notable comments:
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I demand that the DOJ release all files and information that hurts Trump and redact any information that may cause Democrats any Senate or House seats in 2026.
It's the only fair thing to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Chuck Shumer at December 20, 2025 01:14 PM
Irony!
213
Our son came home scowling from his first day of kindergarten. When I asked what was the matter he said, "I could do math all day, but I am not the coloring and pasting type."
Posted by: Wenda at December 20, 2025 01:22 PM
218 212
'Just read in the NY Post that the Brown president makes $3.1m a year. Cut all student aid and that crap stops real quickly'
The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
[I should have a cup like that. Because it is so true.]
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. I hope those who celebrate Christmas had a wonderful and joyous Christmas Eve and Day. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to take care of. (Rulz for those of you in Brokaw Maine.)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind. Be nice. The list is starting fresh.
3) Running with sharp objects? Do you have Health Savings money you need to spend?
4) Have a great weekend and see you next year!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
11/6 - D sent an update on his wife Susan, and her battle with cancer. He sent his thanks to everyone for the prayers. They are helping and much appreciated. Susan had an infection which is being treated, but her sodium levels are bad again. She will be sent home soon, but is on restrictive fluids until this is cleared up. The good news is that she has gained some weight back and her voice is much stronger now. Thank you, and please keep up the prayers. They appreciate everyone!
11/20 Update – Susan is out of the hospital, after 2 weeks. For the first time in months, she doesn’t have any drainage tubes. Chemo is on hold for the next 2 weeks, to give her time to rest, recover, and gain some weight back. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers – please continue them!
12/18 Update – Susan has been receiving IV antibiotics at home for the last few weeks. Thankfully her white count is back to normal, and she was able to start chemo again. Some of that cancer did come back, in the meantime, but they think it will be knocked back down now. She has been having abdominal pains. Thank you, everybody, for your prayers.
11/15 – Sponge posted an update on the “First lady”. She is doing OK from the surgery pain-wise, however it appears her compromised immune system from chemo is susceptible to viruses. She has been spiking a fever all weekend.
12/13 Update – The First lady is doing well. She is still on restrictions but things are progressing nicely. The last mammogram showed clean. They are grateful to all who have been praying for her.
11/20 - Bluebell sent an update on grammie winger - good news! At her appointment, the doctor said her bloodwork is nearly perfect and her cancer cell count is dropping. She is in minimal pain. The chemo is working, thanks be to God! She will go back in 3 weeks for another round of chemo and then they will do a CT scan to see if she can have surgery to clean out the rest of the tumors. She is convinced – CONVINCED – that this is due in no small part to the treasured prayers of friends and family! They gave her weeks, and now she is looking at possible remission.
12/17 Update – Bluebell sent along another update from grammie winger. She has had 4 rounds of chemo, which have fried her short term memory (her words) and caused great fatigue. She was scheduled for surgery this week, but the doctor decided she was too weak, so she will continue with chemo until she is stronger. She apologized for not being around much because she can’t follow conversations, but is praying that will get better once her chemo is over. In the meantime, she wishes to share her Christmas greetings with the “motley crew”, and she appreciates every prayer.
11/29 – From about That Time asked for prayers after a lymphoma diagnosis. From about That Time has already begun chemo, and the kids and granddaughter had fun cutting off a ponytail and shaving hair in preparation.
12/13 Update – The first week of chemo was “like buttah”, but the second week was spent in the hospital, dealing with side effects.
12/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. She had an MRI on 12/3, and will meet with the oncologist on 12/4, the surgeon on 12/8, and the surgery on 12/11. This is a good thing, because it looks like more tumors are starting to crop up in her liver. It doesn’t appear to have spread beyond there yet, thank goodness.
12/18 Update – Teresa will have a “pump fill” on Friday, then head out of town. (The fill is just Heparin and saline to keep the pump flowing for the next 2 weeks.) After they are back, the pump will have the new chemo medication. The best Christmas present is, if this pump works, she could go 2-3 YEARS before worrying about the cancer coming back. It is truly a Christmas miracle. She wrote that they are blessed to have such stellar medical care nearby and so many people saying prayers on their behalf.
12/6 – M requested prayers for Ron and Sherri. Ron has late stage Parkinson’s/dementia, and he recently fell and shattered his hip. He also requested prayers for Al, who fell through a railing and then down 12 feet, and broke seven ribs. He also punctured his lung. He is home now, recovering.
12/6 – Comrade Flounder asked for prayers for his FIL, who went to the hospital for AFIB, congestive heart, and received two stents. FIL is home now, still short of breath, and has a long road ahead. He is a kind-hearted man and a loving father. Comrade Flounder’s wife lost her mother a few years back to brain cancer, so having this go on is even more difficult during the holidays.
12/6 – neverenoughcaffeine asked for prayers for Tim, an acquaintance through church. He has prostate cancer and begins 28 days straight of radiation.
12/6 – pawn asked for prayers for a dear friend named Julia, who was told by her doctors that she has very little time to live. Julia has an incredible mind and drive. She was a Naval officer, a college professor, a competitive sailor, and a mother. She went to the hospital with pneumonia a couple of weeks ago and left with a terminal illness diagnosis. Please pray to God to give her the strength she needs in these last few days, and the peace that comes from acceptance.
12/12 – Bulg requested prayers for his wife’s brother’s wife, whose dementia has taken a turn for the worse. This week she entered a memory care facility. He asks for prayers for her, Bulg’s brother-in-law, and their two grown daughters. Bulg also asked for prayers for a woman from church who has cancer, and the woman’s granddaughter, who lives with her.
12/13 – Our Country is Screwed asked for prayers for a dear friend’s 3 week old granddaughter who is battling meningitis. They are waiting on results from an MRI. Another friend’s wife is having kidney issues. She has only one kidney, and it isn’t functioning well.
12/13 – San Franpsycho requested prayers for Mrs. F, who sprained her foot due to a fall on 12/12.
12/13 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for retired organist Jessie, for strength and for her to feel God’s love. In the past month Jessie’s daughter has died from cancer, as have her two closest friends from church, whom she had known about 85 years.
12/13 – Schnorflepuppy asked for prayers for his wife. She was diagnosed a few weeks back with inflammatory breast cancer and started chemo on 12/2. On 12/3 she spiked a 104 fever and had to be brought to the hospital, where they discovered pneumonia. She has been in ICU for most of the week, to get her enough oxygen and work on the pneumonia. She is improving, but slowly.
12/22 Update – Unfortunately, the improvement trend has reversed. She has spent the last 8 days on oxygen support. The doctors would like to wean her off the vent eventually, but they need to see more improvement in her condition and thus far, they haven’t.
12/16 – Jim in Kalifornia sent an update that surgery went well, and his thanks for the prayers.
12/16 – Banana Dream asked for prayers for his wife, who is having surgery on 12/17 to remove pins, steel, hardware, etc. that was put in a year ago after a really bad break of her ankle. The hardware has caused various nerve issues and inflammation over the last year, so the surgeons will be removing it.
12/17 Update – Banana Dream sent his thanks to everyone who offered prayers for his wife’s surgery. It went well. The surgeon removed most of the hardware. There was one part that was too fused with the bone, so it had to stay in. She is doing well. In about 2 weeks, she should be able to walk and then in 6-8 weeks she should be fine.
12/17 – Annie’s Stew sends thanks to God for notsothoreau, who sends many, many prayer requests from the various comments and postings. Notsothoreau is so diligent and such a sweet person!
12/17 – Weird Dave requested prayers. His parents have realized they need to move to assisted living, but they are 1500 miles from Weird Dave. Prayers for clarity on how to make the necessary changes as efficiently as possible, as well as to find the best place for his parents, that will also work for the entire family.
12/20 – Legally Sufficient asked for prayers for a brother who was having carpal tunnel surgery on Christmas Eve. There was a cancellation, so he took the spot, even though the brother is hosting the family dinner on Christmas Eve.
12/20 – Morgan, longtime lurker, takes tango lessons from Sebastian, whose son, Matias, is recovering from brain surgery. The MRI were read on 12/19, and the surgeons did not remove the entire tumor. Even though the biopsy indicated the tumor was benign, the boy is probably facing several rounds of chemo. Please pray for the boy’s continued recovery in El Salvador.
12/20 – Nurse Ratched requested prayers for her friend T. He is having some unrelenting (probably cancer treatment related) pain and needs comfort – both physically and spiritually.
12/23 – Joe Kidd asked for prayers for his friend, Bill, who is grieving the sudden death of a former girlfriend. They had broken up a few months ago over her alcohol use. Bill describes the loss as the toughest thing life has dealt him. Bill is the sole caregiver for his 90 year old mother and may need to take early retirement to continue in that role. Prayers for comfort, strength, and wisdom are welcome.
12/23 – Prayers are requested for Inspector’s boss, “B”, who is in his early 40s, and is being hit hard by Covid. He went to ER, after coughing so badly that he separated a couple of ribs. The pain in his ribs is so bad he doesn’t want to cough, which increases the odds of pneumonia. Please pray for healing.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
AMD stopped making the 5800X3D probably because it was too competitive against newer models. Maybe they'll consider restarting production if nobody can afford memory for the new models, which are DDR5-only.
Intel's 12th through 14th generation CPUs support both DDR4 and DDR5 depending on the motherboard.
DDR4 memory is also astronomically expensive as well - though not quite as bad as DDR5 - but people likely already have it. A relative mentioned he'd recovered at least 50 DDR4 modules from PCs being scrapped at the office, and he's not alone in that.
It's only about 2% faster than the regular 9950X3D on general benchmark results, which is precisely why AMD hasn't produced such a chip before. The company already sells server chips with V-cache on every CPU die, so it was always possible, just not useful in most cases.
All with high refresh rates, so the graphics card you can't afford in the computer you can't build won't be able to keep up but if you just need a new monitor and plan to hang onto it after the present insanity dies down, the 27" model might not be bad.
Sharon and Andy Longhurst started Burntisland Hedgehog Haven nearly three years ago after rescuing two sick hedgehogs they found by the roadside. The experience inspired them to learn how to care for the tiny creatures -- and before long, their passion turned into a full-time mission to save them.
Since then, the Longhursts have treated 567 hedgehogs, caring for sick, injured, and orphaned ones around the clock. Their garage has been transformed into an ICU with seven incubators and 40 cages, while their garden now hosts a special hedgehog maternity ward. A dedicated team of 18 volunteers helps with cleaning, feeding, and transporting hedgehogs in the rescue's "Hogbulances."
Sharon, who works as a school crossing guard, and Andy, a bus driver, have poured their hearts -- and much of their free time -- into keeping the rescue running. They even fundraise through local events, raffles, and races to cover monthly costs of about £800 for food, bedding, and electricity, plus another £3,500 a year for vet bills.
"If there's a hedgehog out there that needs help and it's in pain, I can't say no," Sharon told BBC News. "It's a full-time job -- we always say we have to draw a line, but then the phone rings and we say, 'Bring it in.'"
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Of the hundreds of hedgehogs they've treated, 65% have survived and been released back into the wild -- a meaningful achievement given that European hedgehogs are now listed as "near threatened" due to habitat loss and other environmental pressures.
"We'll do this until we're unable to," Andy said. "They're adorable -- really lovely animals."
Yes, jetpacks are actively being tested by militaries, especially the British Royal Marines and Royal Navy, to move personnel between ships or from ship to shore for faster boarding, reconnaissance, and tactical access, using companies like Gravity Industries's suits that resemble Iron Man's tech and offer potential for combat medics and pilot rescue, moving beyond simple transfers to tactical swarming
The Most Played Movies on HBO During the 80s Open Thread
—Ace
I would call this The Beastmaster thread, but prepare for disappointment: Even the guy compiling this list is shocked that Beastmaster doesn't actually make his list.
But I do have questions. He counts by air dates. Not by times. The difference is that HBO could show a movie on a specific date, but how many times did it show it on that date? He doesn't have that information.
I know that kid-friendly PG movies played all day long on HBO, so maybe a listing of airings by number of times actually aired would give some love to Beastmaster.
The Biden family Christmas picture is a perfect metaphor for his "Presidency" as I am sure he was as fully obscured in that role by Hunter and Dr Jill as he is in this picture. I am surprised though that the auto-pen was not also included. pic.twitter.com/JVlnIwXrQN
This is insane. He starts off skiing from the top of Mount Everest pretty slowly, but then he hits some very steep areas where slow skiing is pretty much impossible. For long dangerous runs, he's just grinding down on steep ice.
I kept wondering: What happens if he loses a ski?
Also, I wonder: What if he goes over the edge?
And he is on the edge of a precarious ridgeline a few times.
For example, at 6:45 in the video, and 10:00. And around 16:00.
For those with vertigo: Content warning.
This took place a month ago. Apparently it's a first. At least, climbing Everest and then skiing down without oxygen tanks is a first.
Really amazing. Insane! Consider going full screen for this one or watching it on your TV.
Having watched it all, the fish-eye lens he uses makes the drops appear steeper and deadlier than they are. But... that's really only adding a little bit to it.
And he wasn't even the only guy to ski down Everest last month. An American, Jim Morrison, skied the very dangerous North Face. Though he skied a "gnarlier line," he had the benefit of supplemental oxygen.
THE MORNING RANT: We Should Cheer for Bari Weiss to Fail in Her Effort to Rehabilitate CBS’ Reputation
—Buck Throckmorton
There is a civil war being fought at CBS News. The battle is being played out between Bari Weiss, its new left-of-center editor-in-chief, and the left-of-Trotsky journalists she inherited at the laughingstock news operation.
There are many conservatives cheering Ms. Weiss on in her battle against her hyper-partisan corps of journalists. I’m not one of them. In fact, I’m cheering for the insurgent “journalists” to prevail, and to maintain CBS News’ well-earned reputation for being unethical, dishonest, and openly hostile to impartial political coverage.
In fact, my worst fear is that Ms. Weiss might succeed in restoring CBS News to a level of respectability such that it might able to reassert its liberal influence on politics as it once did.
The recent imbroglio is due to Ms. Weiss yanking a typical 60 Minutes hit job just hours before it was to air. If you are reading this, you are almost certainly acquainted with the story. A 60 Minutes journalist, Sharyn Alfonsi, who has a history of dishonest hit jobs against Republicans*, produced a sob story about Venezuelan illegal immigrants being deported to “CECOT,” a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. (*In 2021, Ms. Alfonsi famously ran a hit piece against Ron DeSantis accusing him of prioritizing Publix as a provider of Covid shots in exchange for campaign contributions. The story was subsequently debunked and widely criticized by Florida politicians of both parties.)
Ms. Alfonsi’s story alleged that these Venezuelan deportees were being tortured at CECOT at the behest of the Trump administration, but she did not bother to provide any rebuttals from the Trump administration, which had been provided to CBS News, as acknowledged by left-wing outlet Axios:
• One of the main reasons Weiss cited for pulling the segment was that the "60 Minutes" team didn't include any of the three on-the-record statements from the White House, State Department and Department of Homeland Security that were provided to CBS News journalists.
• According to a source familiar with the "60 Minutes" team's correspondence with the administration, journalists reached out to press officials at the White House, State Department and DHS, all of which provided comment to CBS News ahead of the piece's anticipated run date.
• None of those comments, which varied in length and substance, were included in the piece.
We all know 60 Minutes as the show on which Dan Rather self-immolated his career by using forged military documents in an effort to harm George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign. It’s also the show that spliced together various ramblings of Kamala Harris in 2024 to try to make it sound like she was making coherent answers to questions. And 60 Minutes is also the show that falsely claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was not really his in the last weeks of the 2020 election, in an effort to push Joe Biden over the finish line.
CBS News has a well-earned reputation for being a place where journalistic malpractice is not considered a problem, it’s policy. I don’t want that to change. As Margot Cleveland joked about 60 Minutes”At this point I wouldn't even trust CBS News division to tell me how many minutes were in an hour...”
Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is down from 31% last year and 40% five years ago.
Meanwhile, seven in 10 U.S. adults now say they have “not very much” confidence (36%) or “none at all” (34%).
The legacy media is fully discredited, and that is a good thing. There is no “scandal” that network news divisions can promote at this point that will be taken as fact.
It’s important to remember that Bari Weiss does not dispute the general thesis of the 60 Minutes piece that was pulled, specifically that deportees are being subject to Trump-approved torture. She simply wants the story to come across as impartial journalism, not as another clumsy “we finally got him” hit job.
Therefore, I hope Ms. Weiss fails. The last thing we need is for the legacy media to have its reputation restored to a point that it can once again promote left-wing propaganda with a veneer of respectability. Instead, let CBS and the rest of the legacy news media proceed down the path to permanent irrelevance.
This isn't Christmas Eve fare, and I thought about waiting until the 26th to post it, but supposedly an amateur detective has solved the Zodiac killer mystery. And the horrific Black Dahlia killing. He says it's the same person! I always thought of them as very far apart in time but I think Black Dahlia was mid-fifties (nope, 1947) mid and the Zodiac murders began in 1968 so it's possible it's the same killer.
The killer, if it's the same man, would have been in his 20s when he killed the Black Dahlia and his 40s when he did the Zodiac murders. Possible.
A little caveat: I saw someone snark on Reddit, "The Zodiac case gets solved more often than Wordle." There are a ton of coincidences here, supposedly, like a Zodiac cipher being solved by the name "Elizabeth." Elizabeth Short was the name of the so-called Black Dahlia.
If you don't know about the Black Dahlia, don't look it up. Just accept that it's grisly on the level of Jack the Ripper.
Yes, the named suspect resembles the police sketch of Zodiac.
Podcast: Will Ukraine be a flashpoint for a Korean conflict, Trump's intemperate Reiner comments, it's the economy stupid! the Monroe/Trump Doctrine, Bondi, Brown, MIT, and more!
Megyn Kelly finally calls out Candace Owens
Whoops, I meant she bravely attacks Sydney Sweeney for "bending the knee." (Sweeney put out a very empty PR statement saying "I'm against hate." Whoop-de-doo.)
Megyn Kelly claims she doesn't want to call people out on the right when asked about Candace Owens but then has no compunctions at all about calling people out on the right.
As long as they're not Candace Owens. Strangely, she seems blind and deaf to anything Candace Owens says. That's why this woman calls her "Megyn Keller."
She's now asking her pay-pigs in Pakistan how they think she should address the Candace Owens situation, and if they think this is really all about Israel and the Jews.
Podcast: Pete Hegseth is everything the left hates...and we love! Illinois is the next flashpoint for federal supremacy with regard to our borders, Trump's communication leaves something to be desired, and more!
I have happily forgotten what Milo Yiannopoulos sounds like, but I still enjoyed this impression from from Ami Kozak.
Well, bamboo is actually a type of grass, and underground, it's all connected in a sprawling network, just like the parts of this story I never wanted to tell. I wish I hadn't been put in this position, that I didn't have to write about any of this, that I didn't have to subject myself or my loved ones to embarrassment and further loss of privacy.
We're back to the fucking bamboo. Guys, I don't think I can pay for bamboo ruminations.
I think he added that because he was embarrassed about all the bamboo imagery from Part 1. He's justifying his twin obsessions: His ex, and bamboo. Which is not a tree but a kind of grass, he'll have you know.
On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi's story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a "New & Notable" rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai's "Finding My Way." Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.
A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them, or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though the store had procured "several dozen" copies, not a single one had yet sold -- a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.
"We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door," Howe said. "I'm not sure where we're gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand." (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)
She trashes Ryan Lizza for his "Revenge Porn" here. Emily Jashinsky says that when the Bulwark's gay grifter Tim Miller asked why she didn't report on the (alleged) use of ketamine by RFKJr., she broke down in tears and asked to end the interview.
"Be a (post) man!"
