Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
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MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
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
Good morning kids, We are overloaded with links this morning as we kick off the last week of April and the overwhelming majority of course are about the failed third assassination attempt on President Trump over the weekend at the White House Correspondents Dinner. There are links peppered across almost every section of the Morning Report. Despite the Leftist/terrorist, (please pardon that redundancy, because let's face it that's what he is) releasing his manifesto just prior to his attack, perhaps the most ridiculous commentary came from the horrid purple lipped dog hole of Barack Obama:
Former President Barack Obama insisted Sunday the “details” of the motives of an armed man who allegedly tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner were unknown, hours after a media outlet published the suspect’s manifesto.
“Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents [sic] Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,” Obama wrote. “It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay.”
I refuse to quote this evil Leftist degenerate but hE/it's extensively quoted in virtually every link where you can read for yourself the litany of slanders and blood libels hurled at our President.
There was nothing radical about Cole Tomas Allen: the attempted White House Correspondents’ Dinner assassin. Allen’s manifesto reads a lot like that of the previous three-named assassin Ryan Wesley Routh who was stalking President Trump at a golf game. . . There’s a vagueness to the litany that suggests Allen had a weak grip on where these supposed things were even happening and what the connection to it was beyond justifying his attack.
Rather than Marxism, Routh and Allen offered tepid shopworn liberalism as their justification for murder, “U.S presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity” and “the United States of America are ruled by the law, not by any one or several people. In so far as representatives and judges do not follow the law, no one is required to yield them anything so unlawfully ordered.”
. . . Allen and Routh's views were generally those of mainstream liberal Democrats. They were no more extreme than your average MSNBC viewer. Probably even a smidgen more moderate. And they were probably no more radical than the average committed Democrat.
This is not some grassroots phenomenon but the messaging from the top down of the party and its media apparatus. That&'s why Allen’s views are entirely reflective of their rhetoric. He wasn't a Marxist, a Communist or a Socialist… his views were those of the mainstream of his party. (The amount of distance between the Democrats and the Marxists of course is rapidly shrinking.)
But Allen didn't try to kill Trump and members of his administration officials in the name of socialized medicine, a command economy, the working class or any affirmative leftist cause.
He did it because he had been brainwashed into believing he was stopping Hitler 2.0. . .
. . . But the record number of assassinations shows that they have created a party of assassins. Those who have created a party of assassins bear the ultimate responsibility for the violence.
A Party of Assassins cannot offer America anything except murder, treason and death.
So then, what is to be done about a party of assassins? The bitter irony here is that the deranged motivations to kill President Trump and to physically wipe out all of us who either support him or at a bare minimum simply disagree, openly or secretly, oppose Democrats via normal political discourse and processes and debate (when/if permitted), are or would be the sane choice we may yet have to make to stop the very real existential threat to our lives, liberty and nation.
I hate the Left not only for what they are, believe and what they have done to this nation virtually unchecked for at least the past 70 years and indeed our entire history, but for what they may one day force us to visit upon their collective head, not out of revenge but out of simple self-preservation.
Have a great day!
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
The suspect was ultimately stopped. But that isn’t proof that the system worked, in fact, it’s evidence that every decision made leading up to the moment didn’t. The Secret Service Failed Trump — Again
“I have no personal problem with Donald Trump at all,” Raskin fired back. “I mean, I talk about the policies of this administration, the authoritarianism, like we saw on display in Minneapolis, where two of our citizens were gunned down in the streets simply for exercising their First Amendment rights: Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and others have died in custody.” Watch Dem Rep Jamie Raskin’s Deer-In-Headlights Reaction To Suggestion To Turn Down Anti-Trump Rhetoric
The document, which a family member provided to law enforcement, outlined Allen’s plan to target Trump administration officials in order of rank while carving out an exception for FBI Director Kash Patel, The New York Post (NYP) reported. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen wrote in the manifesto, according to the NYP. Alleged WHCD Shooter Reportedly Sent Anti-Trump Manifesto To Family Just Before Rushing Ballroom
Trump administration Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Jared Kushner were scheduled to travel Saturday morning to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and participate in direct talks with an Iranian delegation. Trump, however, announced in a Saturday afternoon Truth Social post that he canceled the trip, stating it would be “[t]oo much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” Trump Pulls Plug On US Delegation’s Trip To Iran Talks
Netanyahu’s disclosure comes as he prepares for a high-stakes visit to the White House, where discussions on a long-term peace strategy in the conflict with Iran are expected. His health update comes as the new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, is also reportedly facing health issues, and may require a prosthetic leg and plastic surgery due to injuries suffered in an Israeli air strike. Israeli PM Netanyahu Undergoes Treatment for Cancer.
Roger Kimball: Trump isn’t negotiating with Iran—he’s dismantling its regime piece by piece, leaving a hollow state with nothing left but bluster and collapse. Chekhov’s Lesson for Tehran
The case is one of more than 50 espionage-related indictments filed against Israelis since the October 7, 2023, terror raids against Israel by Hamas and the subsequent outbreak of the Gaza war. Israeli security commentators are reportedly describing the espionage issue as an “epidemic... Israeli Air Force Technicians Arrested for Spying for Iran.
The changes aim to close loopholes that allow “dark money” to flow through non-profits. The changes aim to minimize the chances for anonymity provisions to be used for fraud while also addressing the growing concern that groups like the SPLC help manufacture “hate” in order to generate revenue. How the SPLC Indictment Will Change ‘Dark Money’ Operations Forever.
The Democrats' facade is starting to crumble, and once it has fully cracked it will reveal an anti-American organization and voting bloc. The Potemkin Party
Tillis previously announced he would oppose any of Trump’s picks for the Federal Reserve after the Department of Justice opened a probe into the renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, placing the nomination of Kevin Warsh in jeopardy. Tillis was later asked about reports that U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro closed the investigation. (RINO Scumbag) Sen Thom Tillis, A Key Holdout Against Trump’s Fed Nominee, Backs Down, Says He’ll Vote To Confirm
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY, PLUS VARIOUS & SUNDRY GODLESS HEATHENS
The real grift isn’t $3.8 billion in aid that returns to American factories many times over. It’s telling millions of listeners (Carlson's, Owens' et al) that America gets “nothing” from its most productive alliance — and cashing the ad checks while the algorithm rewards the rage. The podcasters aren’t serious. The numbers are. Sorry, Israel-haters — US aid pays off big for America and the numbers don’t lie
Times and attitudes shifted, but in 2026 the mainstream, broadcast, print, and entertainment media still persist in making excuses for unhinged acts, particularly in major metropolitan areas. How the Fourth Estate Morphed Into a Fifth Column
There is substantial evidence that the Iran war is creating economic uncertainty. The ongoing conflict has caused significant disruption to the airline industry and a spike in fertilizer costs, impacting already strained American farmers. U.S. Consumer Sentiment Hits Record Low.
Rep. Elise Stefanik’s new book exposes institutional rot and outlines how to restore the Ivy League’s commitment to truth. An Antidote to Ivy League Decay
Federal agents arrested Evan Michael Sands, 26, a “staffer” at the Randazzo School in Coconut Creek just north of Fort Lauderdale on multiple charges after he allegedly used the chat platform Discord and the gaming site Roblox to get the sexually explicit material. Florida Private School Worker Charged with Soliciting Sexual Material from Minors Online
ABORTION
A cabal of “elite Supreme Court litigators” tried to warn Mississippi State Solicitor General Scott Stewart against using Dobbs v. Jackson to target the high bench’s abortion precedent because they believed it would be a “devastating mistake.” The litigator was unconvinced. Dobbs Lawyer Was Pressured To Avoid Taking On Roe. He Chose Courage Instead
The legislation, which would allow citizens to use deadly force to prevent arson, burglary, animal cruelty and robbery in certain situations, passed on party-line votes in the Republican-dominated Tennessee House of Representatives and Tennessee state Senate. Supporters of the legislation argued that law-abiding citizens should be allowed to protect their life’s work, Nashville-area TV station WKRN reported. Fear That’s Long Haunted Gun Owners Could Be Erased In Tennessee
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY, INSANITY
“We need to have a very concrete, coordinated strategy.” House Democrats “should build up the case so that when we are in power in January, we’ve created the conditions … to be able to impeach [Trump]." Report: House Dems Already Pushing for Day One Impeachment of Trump
The end of the federal investigation into Powell removes a key hurdle for the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, President Donald J. Trump’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Warsh is on track to take over from Powell when the latter’s tenure ends in May, but the takeover has been obstructed by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who objected to the investigation into Powell. DOJ Abandons Investigation Into Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
“We were there front and center,” Fetterman wrote in his post. “That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government. After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.” Fetterman to Democrats: ‘Drop the TDS and Build the White House Ballroom’
London has long been regarded as a Labour stronghold, and if it cannot maintain its strong position there, it is likely to face even heavier losses elsewhere in the May 7 elections. Notably, Khan’s mayoralty is not at risk, as he is not up for reelection until 2028. London Mayor Sadiq Khan Says He’s ‘Scared’ That Britons Are Waking Up.
It is unclear how the U.S. might impose some of the most robust punishments proposed in the email, such as pushing Spain out of NATO. Britain’s reaffirmation of sovereignty hints at the potential for further friction between the Trump administration and Starmer’s government ahead of King Charles III’s state visit to the U.S. Notably, Starmer’s position on the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is much different than his position on the Falklands, with the British premier actively attempting to give the territory away to China-allied Mauritius and Trump urging him to retain it. Rumored Memo Suggests U.S. Could Turn on UK Over Falkland Islands.
Orbán’s rule may have ended, but Hungary’s election shows a deeper shift: nationalist politics remain dominant, even as leadership and strategy evolve. Orbán v. Magyar: The EU Got Played
ISRAEL vs IRAN & GAZA/HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH . . . AND LEFTISTS
Residents of Deir al-Balah, one of the few Gaza Strip cities not under the control of the Israeli Defense Force, will cast their ballots in Palestinian Authority municipal elections. The war-torn city of 75,000 is still recovering from years of conflict and destruction that has unfolded since the Israeli ground invasion following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Gazans Set To Decide Hamas’ Fate With First Election In 20 Years( Meh, t's the other way around! - jjs)
CommonSpirit Health is the parent company of Dignity Health, which owns and operates Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, California, and Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, according to a report from local outlet Broke Ass Stuart. The outlet shared documents and detailed the accusations of loved ones waiting — in one alleged instance for over a year — only to learn that their family member had died and their corpse had decomposed. Healthcare Giant Prepares For Hearing After Allegedly Mishandling and Desecrating Corpses of Deceased Patients
ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY
The Science article also included this howler: “the mass firing is the latest indication that the White House is ignoring the board’s authority and dictating policies at NSF.” Um, who elected them? No one. In fact, they were appointed by the president himself, and he is the only one with the constitutional authority to decide these matters. Trump fires the entire governing board of the National Science Foundation
The timing of the DOJ announcement and the Pope’s comment on the death penalty could reignite tensions between the White House and the Vatican. President Trump has not hesitated to criticize the Pope, recently claiming that Pope Leo, an American, was selected last year by the College of Cardinals because of him. Pope Pops Off At Trump Again, This Time Over the Death Penalty.
America is built on the concept of equality, but that concept has to be understood properly to prevent the country’s downfall. How Equality Destroys a State
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Thursday that families of USS Arizona crew members have submitted enough genetic reference samples to meet a 60% collection threshold, according to a DPAA press release. Department of War policy mandates that general level of family reference samples before the agency can exhume unknown remains for identification, Stars and Stripes reported. Nearly 150 Dead From Pearl Harbor Attack Could Be On Track For Identification After Milestone Reached
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
It's been a while since we've had a big tech news story. No disasters, no miracles. Things haven't suddenly gotten better - or at least, not much, and they haven't gotten drastically worse.
The company PocketOS was using the AI tool Cursor to do some routine maintenance in their staging environment. Cursor found a problem and decided to fix it. To fix it it decided to... Delete the database and all backups.
Okay, not the end of the world; it's the staging environment, not the production environment.
Right?
Oh.
You might ask why they gave Cursor access to the production environment when it was only supposed to be working on staging, and the answer is, they didn't. It hunted around the files it did have access to until it found an API key, and it used that.
On top of that, the hosting service they were using only had snapshots, not independent backups. Delete the database volume (virtual disk) and all the snapshots disappear as well.
The hosting service did manage to recover the volume, though it took some time and was not something a user could do themselves. Remember folks, it's not backed up until you have three copies, in two different formats, on two continents.
The new model is substantially more powerful while being a 100% precise hardware emulation of the original, using an FPGA - basically a chip that you reprogram its circuitry on the fly. But if you reprogram it wrong you could end up with a moderately expensive (the Commodore 64 Ultimate starts at $325) brick.
But it will void your warranty, so brick at your own risk.
Sunday Overnight Open Thread - April 26, 2026 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Howdy Hordelings! So glad you could be here for the Sunday night ONT. Open thread, as always. Fashion and music, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?
Fifty years ago on Saturday, an innocuous fourth inning at Dodger Stadium gave way to an indelible moment in baseball -- and American -- history.
On April 25, 1976, the Dodgers hosted the Cubs in the rubber match of a three-game series. In the bottom of the fourth inning, two fans jumped the left-center field fence and hurried onto the outfield grass. Chicago center fielder Rick Monday noted a sound that didn’t match the rhythm of the game. He glanced to his right and saw the trespassers huddled over, unfurling an American flag.
“I can see the guy pull out something real shiny,” Monday told the LA Times in a story published last Sunday. “It turned out to be one of those gigantic cans of lighter fluid. They were dousing it.”
Seriously - would any of today's players do this under similar circumstances?
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Speaking of baseball, this struck me as pretty kewl!
Did you know home plate used to be an actual plate?
In early baseball, players sometimes used dinner plates as markers, which is how “home plate” got its name.
Then it evolved like this:
• 1857: round, about 12 inches across
• 1868: 12-inch square
• 1874: square rotated on its point, creating a ~17-inch diagonal
• 1877: other bases increased to 15 inches, home stayed 12 inches
• 1887: white rubber became standard
• 1900: five-sided plate, 17 inches wide
That last change solved a real problem. The 17-inch width came from the rotated square, but the new angled edges lined up with the first and third base lines, making the strike zone easier to judge.
Baseball really spent 40 years redesigning a dinner plate… and ended up with the most important pentagon in sports.
At the bottom of some mezcal bottles sits one of the most recognizable curiosities in the world of spirits: a pale, curled "worm" preserved in alcohol. It has helped give mezcal an air of mystery for decades, but scientists have now shown that this famous bottle stowaway is not a worm at all.
This has been bothering you for a while now - admit it.
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Have influencers jumped the shark? These parody videos keep hitting my feed.
This is so spot on I almost blocked myself for watching and posting it 😂 The eye contact, the lid toss and the bread squeezing sent me 😆 pic.twitter.com/nVeTOCGyPb
It's that time of the week - when we turn the ONT over to our good friend Piper for a bit. Here's this week's fashion pr0n.
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Spring 2026’s Hottest Fashion Collaborations: Fresh Drops Blending Heritage, Vibrance, and Italian Glamour
April feels like a bridge between collections and major events. There is plenty of pre-Met anticipation, but we must get to May for the Met itself. What April has delivered is a wave of exciting collaborations with joyful prints, beachside luxury, and fun silhouettes. Here’s a closer look at four standout partnerships making waves right now.
Le Sirenuse: 75th Anniversary Resort Vibes with Emporio Sirenuse Expansion
The iconic Positano hotel Le Sirenuse is celebrating its 75th anniversary in style with the opening of Le Sirenuse Mare, a new standalone beach club in Nerano on the Amalfi Coast (opened April 23, 2026). This passion project from the Sersale family blends contemporary design, artisanal details, and Mediterranean glamour.
Highlights include sun-lounging terraces, a 180-cover restaurant, three bars, and—most exciting for fashion lovers—the first Emporio Sirenuse flagship boutique outside Positano. Expect signature chintz prints, date palm motifs on embroidered cabana fabrics, resort wear, and home collections that distill the brand’s “new dolce vita” ethos. It’s the ultimate fusion of hospitality and lifestyle, perfect for channeling effortless Italian coastal chic.
Giorgio Armani: Armani/Archivio Capsule Revives 1979–1994 Icons
In a heartfelt tribute to the late designer’s legacy, Giorgio Armani has launched the second chapter of Armani/Archivio. This capsule reproduces 13 men’s and women’s looks from collections spanning 1979 to 1994, making archival pieces available for purchase (rolling out in select stores from early May).
Shot by ERL founder Eli Russell Linnetz, the campaign emphasizes timeless tailoring, essential construction, and the iconic Armani jacket as a defining element. Presented during Milan Design Week with a custom installation, it’s a beautiful bridge between heritage and contemporary culture—proving Mr. Armani’s designs remain eternally relevant.
Barbour x FARM Rio: British Heritage Meets Brazilian Joy
This dynamic duo has reunited for a second collection (following last year’s hit), bringing Barbour’s waxed jackets and countryside classics together with FARM Rio’s vibrant, hand-painted prints and tropical energy. The Spring/Summer 2026 drop includes quilted jackets, showerproof trench coats, floral midi dresses, graphic tees, and accessories—think daisies and cornflowers reimagined in bold, dopamine-boosting motifs.
Available now across the UK, EU, US, and for the first time in Brazil, it celebrates shared values of nature, craftsmanship, and expressive design. Perfect for layering joy into spring outerwear.
(I have already grabbed this!)
Dolce & Gabbana x Ray-Ban: Reimagined Aviators with Italian Flair
Just in time for sunnier days, Dolce & Gabbana has teamed up with Ray-Ban to reinterpret the legendary Aviator silhouette (nearing its 90th anniversary). The collection features fresh takes on the Shooter and Outdoorsman II models, infused with D&G’s bold Italian heritage—think premium details, distinctive frames, and that unmistakable glamorous edge.
Launched mid-April, these sunglasses blend timeless cool with contemporary attitude, making them a must-have accessory for the season.
These collaborations highlight fashion’s love for meaningful crossovers: celebrating anniversaries, preserving legacies, and mixing cultural energies for something fresh and wearable.
Stay tuned for a wedding season trend edition, and of course the Met itself.
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Thanks, Piper! Although I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention Melania in tonight's fashion segment.
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the End O' April Edition? Know what comes next? That's right! The First May Edition!
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Why do you people fight me on the fundamentals thing? Are you fundamentals deniers?
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Who's Your Daddy?
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Speaking Of Browning
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Ammo Storage
Well you've bought the ammo, now how do you store it?
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You're Doing It Wrong
Well, probably for many things, but in this specific case - sharpening.
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Our Pal The Starting Motor
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Scooter School!
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Midnight Rider
Too good not to share.
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NoVaMoMe 2026
What - you thought there wasn't going to be a NoVaMoMe in 2026?
Note: One of the great joys of NoVAMoMe season, at least for me, is being able to cut and paste the entire block of text below and haranguing you to attend the event. Are you attending? Are you focusing on the fundamentals of attending?
Alright, guys and gals, the long awaited and highly anticipated details of the 2026 NoVAMoMe are here! That's right, I finally got my act together and updated the information page for 2026, and need to go over a few details. First, the date is June 20th, 2026 from 11am to 3pm. Nextly, my bestest blog buddy bluebell and I have decided 2026 will continue the longstanding tradition of NoVAMoMe simplification, and want to pass along the changes from prior years.
First, no registration and no advance charge for food. If you would like to attend, send an email to WeaselBell Productions, and let us know. You will be directed to a sekrit webpage with all of the details. We do ask once you have decided to attend to let us know so we can coordinate an expected count with venue management. Once there if you are hungry or thirsty simply order from the onsite menu and pay separately. Cash and credit cards accepted. Next, although fun, we have decided to again take a break from the raffles and mug sales this year. Depending on how it goes, that may be something we bring back in future years. While your generosity is always appreciated, with no prize table, please leave donations and contributions at home, but bring your appetite for a great afternoon spent with your imaginary online friends.
Next, a NoVAMoMe PSA from our pal bluebell
Hi folks - just a quick PSA. If you write for info about the MoMe, please give us a few words in the body of the email just so I know you are a Moron and not a spammer (moron). I do receive spam on this email account because it's sitting right here in my nic, so that's why I'm asking. I don't want to give our details to a spammer. Also, remember to check your spam folder if you don't receive a reply email.
Thanks.
bluebell
Seriously, just send an email then go to the website with the password provided. If you forget, a link to the email is on the main page, left sidebar. If you do not sign up, bluebell will be disappointed. Weasel will be disappointed, too, but it's bluebell you need to worry about.
This week our pal Diogenes scores again with this recap of what he's been revisiting lately!
So, I haven't been writing any reviews for a while as I have found myself hanging with some old favorites that I have reviewed previously. I figured no one wanted to reread the same stuff so the typewriter has been silent. But I figured it was time to bring things up to date.
"Well Dio, what have I been sticking with?" you ask. Well, first is the Romeo Y Julieta 1875 Reserve. A classic for me and I tend to refer to it as Old Reliable. Always a good smoke. Balanced and smooth with no surprises. My "Go To" cigar. Then there was the San Cristobal Elegancia. Just a really fine mild cigar with a pleasant aroma from Nicaraguan tobaccos and an easy draw. And finally, there was the Cohiba...the standard by which so many are judged. I don't necessarily go along with all of that, but the Cohoba has never been a disappointment. I have several examples but lately I have enjoyed the Rubicon. It offers a blend of several Dominican, Honduran, and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos that produce a fine taste, easy smoke and pleasant experience. And at about $6-7 it doesn't terrorize the wallet.
But into every nice day, a bit of rain must fall. So it was with a corojo-based cigar sold at the local golf course. Sealed in individual tubes "for freshness" they said, it was a pleasant looking cigar that should never have been taken from the tube. This stick was sold as a Specialty Cigar made exclusively for the golf course so I could not find the source supplier. More the pity as it would have earned them a strongly worded letter! A mild cigar, it was difficult to light, hard to keep lit, and a pain in the ass to relight. A tight draw, and uneven ash contributed to the regret of wasting $8 that would have been better spent on a beer. A shame too as I've had other brands of corojo tobacco and they were fine. But... lesson learned. Never buy a cigar from the Pro shop at the golf course.
Excellent update, Diogenes! Thank you!
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Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: Wash That Knife! Carve That Leg! Peel That Carrot!
—CBD
Ah...lamb! Specifically, a boned-out leg of lamb, which I think is the best way to prepare lamb! Why? because the leg is thick in places, thin in places, has wildly different amounts of fat, and cooks very unevenly. But boning it yields a large piece of meat that can be trimmed to one's own preferences, and then tied up so that it cooks perfectly evenly.
That's why!
Now, a slow-cooking leg of lamb on a rotisserie is going to cook very nicely, no matter if it is bone-in or boneless. This isn't an existential crisis. And besides, I sort of like well-done lamb, especially if it is nice and fatty and the fat has crisped and even charred a little.
But for convenience, the boneless is hard to beat, which is why I am gravitating toward one for a birthday dinner I am hosting in a few weeks. Well, that and a roast chicken on a bed of leeks, carrots, and potatoes, because I think I will have a full table, and the guest list has at least three people who would in another age be considered trenchermen!
And because there isn't enough meat on the menu, I think I will make my cauliflower gratin, but this time with lardons, which is a snooty French word for bacon chunks!
And some green stuff...I guess. For a well-balanced meal.
[...]While clearing the grounds of an upcoming residential development about 20 miles northeast of Zurich, specialists at the Aargau Cantonal Archaeology service found what they believe is a chunk of charred, 2000-year-old Roman bread.
The "alleged pastry" described in an online post from the Aargau Cantonal Department of Education is approximately four inches wide and 1.2 inches thick and likely a type of flatbread. Researchers spotted the burnt morsel in August 2025 while combing through a 43,000-square-foot area near the Roman site of Vindonissa. Known for its strategic position along major river routes, Vindonissa began as an outpost for Roman legion soldiers in what was once the empire's northern frontier.
And why do they "believe" that it is bread? Maybe they were digging in a latrine, and discovered something completely different?
I'm not trying to denigrate archaeology, but in the grand scheme of things, discovering the remains of someone's meal isn't the most exciting thing in the world. People have been eating for a very long time...obviously the remains of those meals carpet every archaeological site.
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Sweetbreads! They are marvelous, and I will brook no argument. Sadly, they are no longer inexpensive! I have noticed over the last several years that even in France they have become a bit of a delicacy, with prices to match, so some of you bastards have discovered how delicious they are, and have driven up the price. Please stop that, and tell all of your friends that sweetbreads cause gout (do they?) and flatulence and will turn your hair green! The Glory of Guts
As steak became more available and prestigious, and eaters have become more removed from, or repulsed by, the reality of food, guts have largely disappeared from cooking. When was the last time you went out and ordered a big calf's liver in vinegar sauce? They, like sweetbreads and tongues, used to be standard fare. Sweetbreads have just barely survived the dulled modern American palate, which has banished guts from its table. One still finds this fine offal on menus in a few fancy places, even in Los Angeles.
I don't know how dulled the modern American palate is, but we have stopped eating things that were common fare just a few generations ago. Whether that is good is a different question, and I'll bet that with the advent of easy transportation and communication, our range of foods has expanded.
In fact, that comment is a throwaway just to sound hip and cool and 0h-so-European, so...
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scampydog's SiL is just showing off with those sourdough crackers! My first thought was that she is a chemist, and that is a benzene ring, but scampydog tells me she is an engineer.
I have a tough enough time getting my sourdough crackers to be the same size, much less cool shapes that absolutely make them taste better!
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Misanthropic Humanitarian thought he would troll me with this recipe, but I will have the last laugh! It doesn't sound awful. Maybe a bit boring, and there are definitely more tasty things to do with carrots than make them into soup. The Comforting Soup My Family Can't Stop Eating
I think this woman's family is a bit retarded in the food arena...there are lots of foods that I would describe as being unable to stop eating, but carrot soup? Really? Maybe nicely marbled NY Strips, grilled rare, or freshly shucked New England Oysters, or even a loaf of freshly-baked bread with great butter.
Her family needs to get out more.
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That looks delicious! From the kitchens of commenter "Rhode Island Red" and the cooking files of commenter "redmindbluestate!" It was no doubt a result of a discussion on these august pages, so really, I will take credit!
Actually, RIRed's lovely wife cooked it, and you will have to guess who took the photo, but clearly, RIRed is an afterthought in his own kitchen.
On a bed of skins-on mashed potato. Red wine for cooking was a hearty Zin.
I guess some people go through that thought process, but I once got myself sick from food poisoning (I know the source; it wasn't a contaminated knife), and I never want to repeat the experience, so why risk it?
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The garlic is busily growing, with pretty impressive green shoots that are pushing a foot tall! I even fertilized them! And if they survive the deer and squirrel apocalypse, and actually grow into something edible, I will be in garlic heaven! In case it doesn't, send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
There is a very interesting but immensely frustrating correlation between the number of flashlights in the house and the probability of a power outage. Obviously the local utility tracks my flashlight purchases, and only turns off the power when the number of functioning lights in the house drops below the number necessary to navigate a several-hours-long blackout.
I am tempted to purchase flashlights by the case, and then simply return them, but I suspect that the surveillance capabilities of PSE&G is more sophisticated than simply counting flashlights in and assuming a failure rate that increases with time.
Do they have a spy in the house? Is it one of the brats? Is that why they come visit? My original assumption was for the free food and drink, but now I might have to reevaluate!
Shipbuilding As A Priority For Our Navy? What A Concept!
—CBD
The recent firing of the Secretary of The Navy was a reasonable action if one assumes that the members of the administration are subordinate to the President and are tasked with implementing his policies. That the former secretary was resistant to some of those policies is ample reason to fire him, and in fact should have been expected.
“He’s a very good man," Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office, referring to Phelan. "I really liked him, but he had some conflict, not necessarily with Pete. He’s a hard charger, and he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying new ships. I’m very aggressive in the new shipbuilding.”
As the saying goes, "Quantity is a quality all its own." And as the Chinese build their navy to compete directly with ours in the Pacific, it is imperative that we accelerate our ship building to more than match theirs.
The issue of course is that ship building in the United States has declined to almost nothing, and the design and procurement process for military vessels has become so unbelievably convoluted and slow, that we essentially have no military shipbuilding. When it takes 10 years to design, approve, and build a new navy vessel like the pathetic Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), it is clear that the system needs revamping, or wholesale destruction and rebuilding from scratch!
Any Navy secretary must understand that and work to change the status quo. Instead, Phelan slow-walked it!
So now we have Hung Cao, whose resume is impressive, and whose dedication to the United States Navy is clear.
Cao said his first and foremost priority is to care for the sailors and Marines of the force.
“We will take care of your needs and make sure you can do the mission,” said Cao, who previously served as an explosive ordnance disposal officer in the Navy and participated in special operations assignments in combat zones.
Cao listed his second priority as shipbuilding.
“We need the platforms we need in order to defend this country,” he said.
President Donald Trump said the previous Navy secretary, John Phelan, was “an excellent guy” but that he had conflicted with other members of the Trump administration on shipbuilding efforts.
Whether Secretary Cao succeeds in revamping a broken system remains to be seen, but his first pronouncements are gratifying, and seem to follow the tone that the Secretary of War is setting for our armed forces.
Is he politically astute? Can he navigate the rats nests in Congress and the Pentagon that are filled with craven opportunists whose every waking hour is consumed by the single-minded goal of personal aggrandizement, or financial gain, or both?
Inquiring minds want to know, but keeping corporatism out of the military seems like a good start!
Welcome to the Book Thread, Guest Poster edition! I will be your host as we explore all sorts of book-related topics. All usual Book Thread rules are incorporated by reference (pets, beverage, clothing covering the lower limbs, etc.) with the special Sabrina Chase exemption for those stylish persons preferring kilts. Now let us proceed to today's topic, which is ...
Taking a break from the book industry, let's take a look at how a book is constructed. Not the contents, the form those contents take. When we say book what do we mean? The history of bookmaking begins with words that need recording in 1) a permanent form that is 2) portable. Oog's treatise on the best locations to spear a mammoth (and survive), being painted on the walls of a cave, fail the second test. Aishtupur-al's My search for a honest copper merchant in Akkad inscribed in cuneiform on a series of clay tablets was a little better, as long as you didn't get it wet (so not so permanent).
Then we get to papyrus. The oldest writing found is more than 4.5 millennia old and was a work invoice for the stone used in the Great Pyramid. (Really!) Ah, but there were also books! Only they were scrolls, long rolled-up lengths of papyrus, and if you wanted to go back to an earlier section to confirm your copy of the Book of the Dead was reincarnating the right person you had to unroll the whole thing. And papyrus is brittle, so scrolls were the only practical form it could be used in. Furthermore the papyrus plant is hard to grow in bulk so it was expensive to have lots of scrolls in your library, and we are all about Vast Amounts of Books here in the Book Thread!
China got clever. First they invented characters, which are easily read in vertical and horizontal alignments, and that, with the huge amount of bamboo available, led to the bamboo slip books known as jiandu. The picture at the top of the post is a fancy jade version of a jiandu. Bamboo books are tough, flexible, and cheap. They also need to be rolled up, and those rolls get heavy. The Chinese also invented bureaucracy ... which requires lots of record-keeping, and finally the bamboo scroll book was too much of a headache and they invented paper.
The books made with paper were much lighter. The paper was still in a long piece, but it could be folded unlike papyrus. The first books were basically accordion-pleated with a thicker piece of paper on either end. If you squint, looks pretty booklike. And paper is much cheaper, so finally we can have government paperwork AND our immense library! At one point they figured out how to sew one edge of the accordion-pleat so the book didn't collapse on you just when you got to the good part, but the covers were still just different paper and, horror of horrors, they did not cut the folds of the page! One whole side was unused!
Because they were all floppy, an ancient Chinese library was either a series of boxes containing the folded books, or books laid on their sides and piled up on [TRIGGER WARNING FOR ACE] shelves. Very hard to search for the book you wanted. The paper was so thin they could not stand on edge, and there were no spines to write helpful hints about the contents, like Yet Another Collection of Poems About Bamboo. This format persisted for thousands of years. I even have a Japanese Meiji-era junior-high history book, still in the floppy original form (and with the doubled, uncut pages).
The Romans decided this was an engineering problem and fixed it by inventing the codex around the first century AD, binding pages between boards. And that is pretty much how we got where we are now, with hardback books that can stand on their own vertically and with spines for title and author information. Much easier to scan the shelves!
The pages themselves gradually improved as well. European printing would take a large sheet of paper, printing both sides, and then carefully fold it to get the size book needed. Print layout for this was a headache, and at the end the purchaser often had to use a knife to cut open some of the folds that didn't get trimmed properly.
And this all ties into the great paperback vs. hardback discussion. Once books were plentiful, readers wanted ... more books. But the costs add up, especially the binding part. So books were often sold without covers. If the owner were wealthy enough they would just pay a binder to make a custom binding that matched the rest of the library (this is what Samuel Pepys did for his famous library). If you were a poor student, well, it's coverless books for you! Much later on publishers discovered they could do this out in the open with thick paper covers with lurid illustrations and ... we're back to the Chinese floppy book system. Only Western books had stiffer paper so we can still put them on shelves properly.
But never fear! If you have a paperback you love and want to make it fancy like Pepys did, it is not hard to do. I took a class on how to make a hardback from a paperback, so the Old Ways would not be forgotten. I encourage the Horde to try it out. (Might make a good Hobby thread!)
You don't need to feel bad for them though. Samsung's memory division - all by itself - is now the third most profitable company in the world, behind only Apple and Saudi Aramco.
This comes from using AI tools to scan this code for bugs, finding lots of them, and not really having any active users. ATM died twenty years ago; ISDN is still in use in a few particularly backwards places, such as the United Kingdom.
That's the fourth generation. There won't be any mainstream third-generation "Celestial" cards, though the design is already being used in the company's Panther Lake laptop chips and there are two professional models expected.
Tasting Misery Video of the Day
Tasting History is a fun YouTube channel (and cookbook) where the presenter tries to prepare historically accurate recipes. Sometimes that fails, and sometimes that's because it's just awful.
Making Misery Video of the Day
Don't have time to let authentic Roman garum ferment for three months in your back yard? Try new Bachelor Chow, made from an artisanal blend of McDonald's hamburgers, Domino's pepperoni pizza, or complete KFC meals.
Saturday Night Club ONT - April 25, 2026 [D Squared]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. Come in in, grab a drink or 3. Have fun if you can, Wang Chung if you must!
The White House Correspondent's Dinner was interrupted earlier this evening. Fog of war rules are in effect. It appears an uninvited guest may have tried to force their way through a security checkpoint in the lobby before being stopped with force. POTUS, FLOTUS, VPOTUS and other administration members were evacuated from the ballroom. Other attendees remained but took cover under tables and immediately took to social media (except Wolf Blitzer who was going to the men's room). The dinner will be rescheduled. POTUS will make a statement from the White House shortly. Developing...
An old pastor lay dying. He sent a message for a the local tax assessor and the town Mayor to come to the hospital.
When they arrived, they were ushered up to his room. As they entered the room, the pastor held out his hands and motioned for them to sit on each side of the bed.
The pastor grasped their hands, sighed contentedly, smiled and stared at the ceiling. For a time, no one said anything.
Both the tax assessor and Mayor were touched and flattered that the old man would ask them to be with him during his final moments. They were also puzzled because the pastor had never given any indication that he particularly liked either one of them.
Finally, the Mayor asked, "Pastor, why did you ask the two of us to come here?"
The old pastor mustered all his strength, and then said weakly, "Jesus died between two thieves, and that's how I'd like to go."
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Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson went on a camping trip. After sharing a good meal and a bottle of wine, they retire to their tent for the night.
At about 3 am, Holmes nudges Watson and asks, "Watson, look up and tell me what you see?"
Watson said, "I see millions of stars."
Holmes asks, "And, what does that tell you?"
Watson replies, "Astronomically, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and we are small and insignificant.
What does it tell you, Holmes?"
Holmes replies, "Someone stole our tent."
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Drink of the Night
Tonight we drew the six of diamonds from our deck of playing card cocktails
In 2024, Newark became the third city in the U.S., and first in New Jersey, to allow 16-and-17-year-olds to vote in school board elections. The change was spurred by a student-led campaign aimed at giving young people more power at the polls.
On April 15, eleven candidates are running for three seats on the nine-member board that governs the Newark School District, the first election in which 16- and 17-year-olds who live in the district can cast a ballot. As the election approaches, students are seizing on the opportunity to make their voices heard.
"It feels very good,” Collins Esubonteng, 16, told Bolts. Esubonteng and six other students coordinated the forum with the help of The Gem Project, a Newark organization that promotes youth leadership. "Now, they're actually gonna have to listen to us and they have to make changes to cater to us or else they won’t get our vote."
Caption: What could possibly go wrong?
Alt caption: Wait until they figure out that the board won't really make changes to cater to the teenage vote.
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Club ONT Department of Food
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Club ONT Department of Classical Music
Keyboard skillz!
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Club ONT Department of History and Science
In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, Unit 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant became famous. Have you ever seen the inside of the enormous facility? Walking tour:
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Club ONT Department of Marital Harmony
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The Club ONT Jukebox
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
Better with or without context?
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Club ONT is brought to you tonight by creative solutions
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Club ONT receives no compensation, remuneration, or appropriation from the SPLC. This explains the need for restroom tokens.
BREAKING: As five (5) shots rang out at the rear of the ballroom of the White House Correspondents' Assoc. Dinner, First Lady Melania Trump quickly ducked under the dais before President Trump could be pulled down by Secret Service, and Speaker Mike Johnson's wife Kelly hid under her table as Johnson's security detail whisked him out of the ballroom before circling back later for Mrs. Johnson ... developing ...
If I understand this, the left-wing Democrat assassin attempted to get into the White House Correspondents Association dinner, and was stopped at the magnetometers, which detected his gun. I guess he pulled out the gun and was shot by Secret Service agents.
The psychopath left is doing what they did after the Butler assassination -- pretending it was just "loud noises" that TACO Trump got a-scared by.
JUST IN: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer says he was just feet away from the White House Correspondents dinner shooter, says he was thrown to the ground by a police officer.
“It was a very, very serious weapon, he starts shooting.”
Most people don’t know the name Alan Trustman. But they do know The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen. Alan Trustman wrote that movie, and his story as a screenwriter is at once inspiring and infuriating.
I was friendly with him, and that itself is an inspiring and infuriating story. I had lost touch with him the past few years, but recently my father gave me Alan’s obituary, which he saw in The Boston Globe. Alan died on March 5th at the age of 95.
I graduated from Boston University’s film school in 1998 where I concentrated in screenwriting. In the early 2000s, I teamed with another writer to pen a number of scripts which we shopped to Hollywood. Many of our screenplays were Boston-set, of the true-crime or suspense variety.
Though his career as a Hollywood scribe was long since over, Alan Trustman, a Beantown native, was someone you sought out if you wanted to discuss Boston crime stories. I can’t remember how I first got in touch with him, but in the early 2000s we began to correspond by email.
Before the days of doxxing, people were less guarded about protecting their locations, and I frequently noted the signature line of Alan’s emails, which listed his retirement address—a place called Fisher Island in Florida.
Our correspondence petered out, but in 2005 I met a woman who was to become my wife (eventually ex-wife). As the relationship deepened, I was invited by her father to visit him in Florida, Fisher Island to be exact.
Fisher Island is an islet off Miami Beach. You can walk around it in thirty minutes. Not everyone knows everyone on Fisher Island, but when I mentioned to my former father-in-law I had exchanged emails with Alan Trustman, who also lived on the island, it didn’t take long for him to track Alan down.
After that, I would see Alan a couple times per year. Maybe once in Florida and then sometimes when he was back in Brookline/Chestnut Hill for the summer, where my wife’s family lived, as did Trustman when not snow-birding.
At the time, I was still making attempts to sell my own scripts while paying the bills in the family real estate business. Alan’s advice to me was consistently –and bitterly—as follows: forget screenwriting, stick with real estate.
I always listened patiently but was annoyed. ‘You had your time in the sun’ I thought, so why attempt to talk me out of going for it? Why be so negative about a passion people spend many years cultivating?
In one sense he was correct: screenwriting is a tough row to hoe. You’re unlikely to be able to support a family pursuing it. Even if you can grab a little success, you’ll eventually hit a dry spell. I knew this to be true, having many screenwriting friends and acquaintances who were on top of the world after selling something one year and then broke or waiting tables the next. There are only a handful of writers who spend their entire careers living off the income screenwriting provides.
Even so, one can be realistic without being discouraging, and Alan routinely chose the latter. What irked me more was he had put almost no time into developing himself as a writer before rocketing to the top.
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One of the first lines in Alan’s obituary notes he had nothing to do with the film industry or any kind of creative writing until one night, in his mid-30s, he was so disgusted by a bad movie he saw, he vowed he could do better.
I never got the full story on how his script made it to Hollywood and eventually Steve McQueen, but Alan did work for a prominent law firm and probably a few calls via the old boys network got him access.
It’s a story that is inspiring because we have all been there. We see a movie (or many, many movies) that are horrible and say 'I can do better than that.'
But I was never able to dash something off, make a few phone calls, and leapfrog to the top. I would say Alan’s story is nearly unique in this regard, which is why it’s so frustrating.
According to the obituary, “Although he had never written a line except for contracts and legal briefs, Mr. Trustman spent every Sunday afternoon for two months hammering out a script about a bank heist. When the William Morris Agency quickly sold The Thomas Crown Affair script to United Artists, he felt like Lana Turner, the star who was discovered ‘sipping a malt in a drugstore.’”
Yes, there are discoveries in screenwriting every day. In fact, that’s how it almost always goes. A writer, struggling for years, finally gets his or her script to the right producer or an agent takes a shine to a screenplay and brings it to studios. When the sale is made, the nobody becomes the toast of the town.
Except, with Alan, he did it on his first try. Only a few months into his new endeavor he not only completed a script, but also sold it—a feature that actually got made (when so many get lost in development hell), snagging one of the biggest stars of the day.
I don’t know whether to celebrate an industry that picks winners and losers like this or feel thankful it could happen to anyone, at any time.
Over the years, as I have presumably become wiser, I’ve recognized the Alan Trustman path to success is an indictment of the system, not a cause to celebrate it.
All it really demonstrates is that Alan had a good idea and got that idea to the right person. I doubt the original script he wrote was earth shattering, but it was a good vehicle for McQueen and his agents recognized it. Alan was lucky he wasn’t rewritten and cast aside, but for most this is the rule.
I never understood this about Hollywood. How can you praise something so highly and laud the writer who birthed it but quickly bring in others to redo the work? Clearly you didn’t think the script you proclaimed to be superb was really that. You probably liked the idea and thought it could eventually be worked into a movie, but rather than admit this is how most scripts get selected, you pretend the screenplay and the writer are the finds of the century.
It’s a gestalt everyone in the system is in on, and the system will circle the wagons rather than admit its dishonesty. It’s like listening to professional wrestlers insist matches are not staged.
Part of the trick is Hollywood convincing you they know something more. That they can judge material and potential in a far better way than an outsider can. After 25 years of observing this, I can say with definitiveness, they cannot. If you doubt me look at the amount of movies produced each year. Maybe 10% are good to superior; the rest could have been written by the first 100 people in the Cambridge telephone book (hat tip to William Buckley).
These days, the better writing is to be found in television and independent cinema, but most successful, contemporary feature scribes working toward Hollywood glitter can’t pull off what Alan did. They do put in years before breaking through, but that still doesn’t mean what they produce is beyond the ken of most reasonably intelligent people.
Nevertheless, Alan’s story is a slap in the face to all the people who grinded for years before getting a seat at the table. And it’s even more of a blow to so many talented people who never got a break but possessed similar skills and ideas. Screenwriting success is maybe 20% talent and the rest luck and timing. But few in Tinseltown will cop to this.
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Why am I going on about Alan Trustman, a relatively minor player in the history of Hollywood? If I hadn’t come to know him personally, I might have nothing to say. But because he had instant success with minimal effort, while at the same time advising me to abandon my own dreams, his passing engendered many conflicting thoughts. Both anger and appreciation for his success, as well as the same for an industry that operates this way. I love movies and have devoted much of my life to the cinema in one form or another, but I hate the process by which many films are developed—and even more the lionization of that process.
I haven’t even discussed Steve McQueen and the movies Trustman wrote for him, The Thomas Crown Affair, and, perhaps, equally noteworthy, Bullitt. They are both solid movies, but I never was a McQueen guy. Nothing against him, but I suppose I’m more of a Lee Marvin or Charles Bronson and The Dirty Dozen fan as opposed to McQueen and The Great Escape.
Alan’s screenplays were also solid. He wrote a few more after he parted ways with McQueen, and his run as a successful screenwriter came to an end in the mid 1970s.
Would Alan have had the same success if he tried to break into the business today. I don’t think Trustman was the kind of high concept scribe every manager and producer is looking for these days. He wrote good screenplays with taut dialogue. They were well-structured and paced.
There really is something to be said for simplicity, and that may be why mainstream American movies are in such dire straights right now. Instead of telling interesting stories with clearly defined dramatic purposes, it’s a race to the bottom for the most surprising hook one can conjure. Either that or another sequel.
Originality is at an all-time low, and so perhaps Hollywood wouldn’t be a fit for a sui generis kind of writer like Alan. Whatever the case, rest in peace, Mr. Trustman. You have inspired and bedeviled me, and that is, perhaps, the mark of any effective writer.
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. It is that time of the year, a spin of the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) came up with honey bees as a theme for this Hobby Thread.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. I understand that some people pay attention to military hardware, tactics and strategy as a hobby. Discussion of current military events permitted but must be made in the form of hobby commentary. Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged. Puns are a hobby of sorts, right?
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Anyone among the Horde involved in beekeeping and making honey? Bees are very active in the spring gathering pollen and nectar. They need pollen and nectar to feed the brood in the colony (pollen for larvae and youngsters, nectar for adults). Spring is also the time to repair and build the hive after the winter.
Do you (or have you) kept bees? Seems like the people that are into beekeeping are REALLY into beekeeping and stick with it for a long time.
Do you have a spiffy and stylish beekeeper outfit? Can you explain why beekeepers cover their whole body and then pull frames out of a hive with bare hands?
Do you use honey in your food preparation? Do you put honey in your tea?
Do you use honey for home health remedies?
Do you use beeswax products? Lip balm, candles, polish, etc.
Did you dress up like a bee for Halloween? Have you done crafty things with bee inspiration?
Young TRex had an allergy to bees which caused a life-long discomfort with flying things armed with stingers. Will need Horde help on this one.
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Random honeybee trivia gathered from around the interweb:
They have five eyes. Two large compound eyes for detecting shapes and movement, plus three smaller simple eyes on top of their head for light intensity and navigation.
The waggle dance is their GPS. Forager bees perform a figure-eight "waggle dance" inside the hive to communicate the exact distance, direction, and quality of food sources to other bees.
Honeybees have an extraordinary sense of smell. They have 170 odorant receptors, giving them a sense of smell about 50 times stronger than a dog. They can even be trained to detect explosives or landmines(!).
One queen, thousands of eggs. A healthy queen can lay up to 2,000-2,500 eggs per day and may produce over a million eggs in her lifetime.
Tiny honey producers. A single worker bee makes only about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her entire lifetime (usually 4-6 weeks as a forager). It takes roughly 2 million flower visits to produce one pound of honey.
Hexagonal perfection. Bees build honeycombs with hexagonal cells, the most efficient shape for storage and strength with minimal wax. They produce beeswax from special glands on their abdomen.
They see ultraviolet light. Honeybees can't see red but can see UV patterns on flowers invisible to humans, acting like landing strips that guide them to nectar and pollen.
Thermoregulation experts. A colony keeps the hive at a steady ~93–95°F year-round. In summer, they fan their wings for air conditioning. In winter, they cluster and vibrate to generate heat.
Worker bees have specialized careers. Female workers change jobs as they age: cleaning the hive, nursing larvae, building comb, guarding, and finally foraging. They are all female (except drones).
The ultimate sacrifice. When a worker bee stings (to defend the hive), her barbed stinger gets stuck and rips out, fatally injuring her. The queen has a smoother stinger and can sting multiple times.
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Beekeeping for beginners:
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Beehive parts explained:
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How do bees actually make honey? What's all this about a second stomach?
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How to "read" a frame. Lots of up close detail.
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Why do bee keepers use smoke?
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Spin the frame to extract the honey and re-use the wax hexagons:
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A flow hive? Never heard of a flow hive:
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Its not all about the honey. Don't forget about the beeswax:
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What's the buzz with all the yellow spots on your car? It is bee poop!
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Bee DIY crafts:
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Did you know that counterfeit honey is a thing? Honey is the third-most-faked food in the world, behind milk and olive oil. The FDA tests honey each year.
What makes honey counterfeit? Adding undeclared cheaper sweetener ingredients like corn, rye, or sugar beet syrup.
In 2021-2022, the FDA collected and tested 144 imported honey samples and found 10% of those samples to be "violative." In the 2022-2023 assignment, the agency collected and tested 107 imported honey samples and found 3% of those samples to be "violative." The 2025 number was 4% (same for both domestic and imported). Data here.
The exact amount of fake honey in the world is up for debate. An analysis by the Honey Authenticity Project, an association of activists and industry members, places the number of fake or adulterated honey at 33%. A 2018 study of honey for sale in Australia found that 27% of the products tested were faked or had other ingredients mixed in.
Are you wise in the ways of "honey laundering?"
"Honey laundering" became widespread when Chinese laboratories began modifying high-fructose corn syrups to make them look like pure honey.
The sugars in these syrups - known as C4 sugars - became popular for honey counterfeiters in the 1970s, with the invention of high-fructose corn syrup, according to Richard Anderson, director of Siratech, a private lab in Texas that detects fake and adulterated honey.
But they were soon easily detected in tests, so honey counterfeiters modified their methods to use syrups developed from plants with C3 sugars, like rice, beets, or cassava.
The adulterated syrups can be used to dilute a smaller batch of real honey. They can also be fed directly to bees, replacing flower nectar, Anderson told Insider.
Earlier honey authentication tests analyzed the pollen inside honey and traced them back to their source. But some honey launderers have gotten smart, treating honey so that it's difficult to trace.
First Lady Melania Trump announced the expansion of the White House honey program with the addition of a newly installed and fully functioning beehive on the South Lawn. Hand-crafted by a local artisan in the image of the White House, the beautiful, new hive will add two new bee colonies to the existing two colonies that already produce the signature White House honey.
The new hive is expected to increase annual honey production by an estimated 30 pounds, allowing for even greater use in preparing White House culinary dishes, serving as official gifts from the President and the First Lady, and supporting charitable donations of healthy foods to local food kitchens.
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Public Service Announcement: by popular demand, next week's Hobby Thread will be car repair.
Think of it like our very own Car Talk (with Click and Clack), Under the Hood or Motor Medics. We can expand to anything with a motor - truck, RV, motorcycle, quad, etc. Bring your ills and mechanical gremlins. Ideally, the experts among the Horde can join to offer their wisdom and advice. If they don't, the rest of us can make wild and uninformed guesses.
Either way, the advice will be free. (That also means it may be worth exactly what you paid for it.)
Credit to RandomDave and ARiK for the suggestion.
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an castles 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 your own. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
The first strawberry ripened! After taking the picture I tried it, it is indeed as flavorful as advertised. They are very small, though. I'd say this one was maybe 5/8 inches, seems to be the typical size. It's continuing to flower, and there are more berries forming--as long as the squirrels don't find the bowl on my porch I might get a few more. It also looks like I probably should divide the plants, they're rather over filling the bowl!
There seems to be some confusion among various sources on line about this plant, Fragaria vesca. I've seen it called the wild strawberry, woodland strawberry, alpine strawberry. I've also seen pictures of the fruits varying from the cone shape of mine to almost round. Don't know, I'll just enjoy the plant I have.
I sent pics of our dog once before about a year ago for the pet thread.
Not much of a green thumb here, so we often go hiking to experience God's garden - particularly, starting this time of year.
Springtime is in full swing in East Tennessee - and if you're a hiker, you'll discover large patches of "Virginia Bluebells" (Mertensia virginica) on hillsides and in hollows at this time of year. We always pause when we come upon on them.
Thanks for all y'all do.
-SmokyMtvol
We love bluebells here. Thanks for the photos. Keep in touch.
The iris is "Bequest" from Schreiner's Gardens last summer. It's the first of them to pop. I've got 2 others, "Air Time" and "Ghost Train." Pics to follow later, as they flower.
This peony is now 3 years old and has bountiful buds. We're not expecting rain for the next week, so we'll be able to enjoy them for a long while. I've got some of those curved support posts for when it does rain and they want to flop over onto the ground. They look like the ones Mom-Mom had when I was a little girl.
Miley
What's happening in your garden?
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Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Old Boomers believe anything "the elites" tell them
because of the "Rockefeller education system"
Younger folks learn the truth from
20 second videos with commentary by "influencers"
There has been some recent concern about deaths and disappearances of scientists and others involved in the study of nuclear issues, UFOs and related matters. Yesterday's Daily Wire piece linked above the fold in JJ's Morning Report took the sensible position that some of these cases deserved more attention than others. There was one recent death, that of David Wilcock, that did not make their list of dead or missing scientists, but a People Magazine article about his death was linked. David Wilcock, Paranormal YouTuber and Writer, Dies by Suicide at 53.
This piece was not included in my conspiracy theorist influencer's information sources for his followers. Neither was a longer piece in the New York Post. Those pieces would expose his followers to the "Rockefeller education system", no doubt. Instead, he posted extremely short clips of Wilcock talking about life and his philosophy.
Boulder County Colorado posted a very careful update on the investigation of Wilcock's death which included a nice quasi-obituary. Due to "public interest". Police arrived before he shot himself, but took cover because he fired a random shot after their arrival.
Nevertheless, commenters at our influencer's site, rather than looking up the information, asked each other
"Where is the body cam footage?",
"Where is the 911 recording?" (included in the government release), and so forth.
Many commenters did not believe he was dead. He was in a witness protection program. He had been taken to another astral plane. Or he had been murdered before a staged suicide. All of these takes were more plausible than the government's report. Even if they contradicted each other.
Anyway, Wilcock had some reasons to be deeply depressed. According to one report I saw he was 500,000 dollars in debt due to the failure of an airplane company. There were other fall-outs with those he had counted on as friends. Never mind. He had spoken against suicide in the past.
In any case, more of us need to engage in "global meditation", as urged by Wilcock.
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This same influencer calls anyone who believes anything that NASA (or any other organization that sends something into space) says or writes a "believer".
Once you’re forced to hypothesize whole new technologies to keep your conspiracy possible, you’ve stepped over into the realm of magic. It demands a deep and abiding faith in things you can never know.
What’s dangerous about that is that it blinds you to the real conspiracies that authorities are perpetrating on you right now.
The "All Conspiracy" folks must ignore this kind of thinking.
Looks to be a race on to see whose assets shrink fastest: Ilhan Omar from “better accounting,” or the Southern Poverty Law Center from criminal prosecution, fines, and more lawsuits to come. (By the way, why hasn’t Omar or someone ever launched the Northern Poverty Law Center? Is there something extra special about southern poverty?) Move over turtles: It’s frauds all the way down. (Plus, did you know that pickleball is now one of the leading problems in America? See the headline section.)
Pope Leo claims that “hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are immersed in extreme poverty” because “disproportionate wealth remains in the hands of a few,” and this needs to be fixed by a “more equitable distribution of wealth.”
IN FACT, extreme poverty is concentrated in nations with high levels of government corruption, communistic policies, and low levels of human capital like useful skills and mutual trust. Although the root causes of poverty are varied and hard to objectively measure because association does not prove causation, the following facts suggest that wealth attainment didn’t cause it, and wealth redistribution won’t fix it:
See particulars at the link.
Comments are closed on last week's thread so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on an old thread. But don't try it anyway.
Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over (Rulz for those of you in Markesan)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind. Be nice. Keep your permanent record spotless.
3) No running with sharp objects.
4) Have a great weekend!!
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:
3/5 – IrishEi has learned that she needs major surgery on 3/16, and she would really appreciate prayers.
4/4 Update – Irish Ei posted her health update. She quit smoking 8-10 years ago, after reading Alan Carr’s “Easy Way to Quit Smoking”, on Ace’s recommendation. Since then, she has gone for the annual low-dose CT scan of her lungs that is offered to smokers/former smokers. They were always negative, until this year. She had one very small spot, which was confirmed as Stage I CA. The spot was removed, and no chemo or radiation is needed. She has been home for a week and is feeling better and stronger every day. She did want to encourage everyone to take whatever screenings are offered. She had no symptoms at all, and her doctor had suggested that she could stop with the annual CT scans. But early detection is crucial.
3/10 – Update on Susan, who we have been praying for as she battles cancer. She is hospitalized again with an infection in her colon that quickly turned bad. The doctor says the signs are sepsis but they are running tests to make sure. The good news is that the pancreatic cancer was and is responding to the chemo and her cancer numbers are going down. God bless and thank you!
3/23 Update – Susan finally was able to come home. She is doing better than expected. Thanks to everyone for your prayers.
4/18 Update – Susan is doing outstanding. Her weight is better than expected. They have increased her dosage for chemo, and her cancer numbers are the lowest they have been since they started keeping track of them. They are so thankful for the mercy they have received. Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers.
3/14 – Retired Buckeye Cop asks for prayers for Mrs. Cop’s cousin, “A.B”. He has been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. He is a retired police officer who was hit by a car years ago. He attempted to deal with the pain by self-medicating with too much Tylenol, which ended up poisoning his liver. His only alternative is a liver transplant, but he is uncertain if he wants to have surgery.
4/11 Update – A.B. got a second opinion and testing determined his live score was 15. (21+ means transplant time.) That’s bad, but not as critical as initially thought. He went to the Cleveland Clinic for a third opinion, and testing found that his score had dropped to 9 and a liver transplant was not even something to consider. The doctor suspected a reaction to Ozempic and told him to stop taking it for 6 months.
3/21 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for her son, who is still looking for work. He has a horticulture major, and would ideally like something related to research, but he is certainly willing to labor outdoors.
4/10 Update – FenelonSpoke’s son got a job. She sends her thanks to everyone who prayed on this thread here and elsewhere.
3/28 – Cosda posted the happy news that a new grandson should be arriving on 3/28.
3/28 – Defenestratus asked for prayers for grief at the loss of a dear friend and boss of 20 years, who passed away unexpectedly on St. Patrick’s Day.
3/28 – San Franpsycho posted that Pnina bat Surel is not improving, sadly. She has had a third hospitalization, and this has taken a toll on her. She is not bouncing back like she has before.
3/28 – From about The Time posted that prayers would be appreciated after the last chemo treatment for Lymphoma. It went reasonably well - thanks for the prayers.
3/28 – Hrothgar asked for prayers for a dear and long time close friend and former neighbor, Daniel, who is scheduled for open heart surgery in mid-April. Prayers for his wife would be appreciated as well, as she will be carrying a heavy load for the next few months.
4/18 Update – Dad survived his complex open heart surgery. He is sitting up and it seems like it went well, but they are not going to release him as quickly as he would like, so he is not happy. Thanks to the Horde for the prayers and please keep praying for his dear wife, who now has even more to put up with.
3/28 – Jordan61 posted that Mr. Jordan61 is back in the hospital. His sepsis has returned and gotten into where his compression fracture is, and he has vertebral osteomyelitis. The doctor is supposed to come in today and let them know the plan.
4/9 Update – On 4/1 Mr. Jordan61 was released from the hospital with six weeks of IV antibiotics, which Jordan61 is administering every 8 hours. He’s in a lot of pain; they’ve given him oxy, fentanyl, and dilaudid, and nothing seems to touch it. From what they were told, the pain won’t subside until the infection is cleared up. For the time being, he is bed-bound and they are limiting his movement as much as possible to keep the pain to a minimum. Jordan61 will send updates with progress.
4/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. Her chemo seems to be holding things steady for now. Unfortunately, as she is receiving a steroid, she has gained about 25 pounds. Her blood sugar has also jumped up about 40 points (which only happens when she is on steroids).
4/4 – Reforger posted that his wife’s father passed away on 4/3. After a 50 year battle with Hep C, he fell and broke his neck. He lasted about a month, in and out of induced comas, and now the pain is over. Reforger lost his father on Holy Saturday (years ago) and now his wife lost her father on Good Friday.
4/11 – Eromeros craves prayers for Mrs. E., as she has been diagnosed with lymphoma. She begins infusions on 4/23.
4/18 – Vmom deport deport deport asked for prayers for Captain Whitebread, who is back in ICU with a leg infection that sounds very serious. She also asked for prayers for her husband’s mental and emotional well-being as he faces transition of a possible forced retirement in 3 months.
4/18 – Warai-otoko offered a prayer of thanksgiving that he got a new job that he is really enjoying. Wifey also got an offer for a new job that sounds great, after a decade of putting up with her old job.
4/18 – fd posted that MIL went into the hospital with multiple issues. Then Dad went in. MIL is still there, and Dad is out. Both will be okay – as well as can be expected for 87 and 89 year olds. Also GSD Bruno started chemo for lymphoma and is responding well. Prayers from the Horde have helped.
4/18 – neverenoughcaffiene asked that Devyn be kept in prayers. She is a young mother of 2 with a mass on her esophagus. The Doc said it was scar tissue and hopefully the second opinion will agree.
4/18 – Smell the Glove could use some prayers as therapy and rehab occur after gout/sepsis.
4/18 – PA Dutchman asked for prayers for his family. His dad passed away on 4/9 after complications from a fall. He was 95 and a veteran of the Korean War, 34th Inf Rgt. Mostly prayers are need for PA Dutchman’s mom, who is absolutely heartbroken.
4/18 – PabloD has been having dizzy spells for the past few weeks. He is seeing a doctor soon, and is requesting prayers that figure it out and that it’s nothing too serious.
4/18 – Sam Adams requested prayers for a friend, Mary F, who was just sent to a long-term recovery facility after having a tracheostomy.
4/18 – Doof provided an update on his mother. She is doing better. She moved into her own room in an assisted living facility. It’s walking distance from Doof’s house, which is great. Her mental state has improved dramatically. She can no longer walk but she does stand with some assistance and can transfer between a wheelchair and bed or a lift/recliner chair. This facility is more of a home and less of a hospital, which hopefully will provide a good opportunity for her to enjoy life. He appreciates the Horde’s prayers and asks for prayers that she settles in comfortably and develops new friendships.
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.
Issues in the last month include Claude defaulting to a lower-effort mode - figuratively dumber; a cache optimisation error that constantly cleared saved data, making the tool slower, less effective, and more expensive all at the same time; and a rule that shortened responses to queries, making it literally dumber.
Manufacturers ran into a dead end with flash memory years ago: Shrinking the cells any further made them slower and less reliable; not shrinking them made progress impossible. The solution was to build up rather than out.
Manufacturers ran into a dead end with flash memory years ago: Shrinking the cells any further made them slower and less reliable; not shrinking them made progress impossible. The solution was to build up rather than out.
ZAM does the same thing but with memory.
When it's memory stacking time I guess you stack memory.
Do you know where the phrase "steal my thunder" comes from?
You might guess it has something to do with some mortal stealing Zeus' lightning bot.
It's more literal than that:
The idiom "to steal someone's thunder" originated in the early 18th century with English playwright and critic John Dennis.
The Origin Story
The Invention: In 1709, John Dennis created a new, realistic thunder-making machine (likely involving rolling sheets of tin) for his play Appius and Virginia.
The Failure: His play was not successful and closed quickly at the Drury Lane Theatre.
The Theft: Shortly after, Dennis attended a performance of Macbeth at the same theater and discovered the producers were using his thunder machine.
The Reaction: Outraged, Dennis allegedly exclaimed: "Damn them; they will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!"
ANOTHER LEFT WING ASSASSIN ATTEMPTS TO KILL TRUMP If I understand this, the left-wing Democrat assassin attempted to get into the White House Correspondents Association dinner, and was stopped at the magnetometers, which detected his gun. I guess he pulled out the gun and was shot by Secret Service agents. Erika Kirk was present.
Forgotten 70s Mystery Click You made me cry when you said good-bye 70s, not 50s Now that is a motherflipping intro
Podcast: Sefton and CBD wonder about the Chaos that Trump is creating in the minds of the Iranian junta, Virginia redistricting is pure power grab, Ilhan Omar is many things ...and stupid too! Amazon censoring conservative thought again, and the UK...put a fork in it!
The people in charge [Jews, of course -- ace] don't want you to know this, but Muslims love Jesus.
Islam reveres Him as a major prophet and messenger of the Lord, believes He performed miracles, and states that He will return to Earth to defeat the Antichrist. That's why Donald Trump's painting depicting himself as the Son of God offended the president of Iran. It was an attack on his religion as well as Christianity.
Trump's trolling tweet was ill-advised, but Tucker is just lying when he claims the Christianity-hating President of Iran was "offended" by this. He's one step away from announcing his official conversion to Islam. He literally never stops praising Islam. Well, he suddenly became Christian two years ago, there's not much stopping him from converting again.
You can track Tuq'r's official conversion to Islam with this Bingo card.
Podcast: CBD and Sefton talk Orban losing, but is it the end of Hungary? The Irish start a brawl, but is it enough, Pope Leo wades into politics, Trump calls Iran's bluff and blockades Hormuz, Artemis II! Swallwell is scum, and more!
People say that the bearded man in the video of Fartwell molesting a hooker looks like Democrat Arizona Senator Rueben Gallego, said to be Swalwell's "best friend" and known to take vacations with him.
Politico is reporting that multiple people have abruptly resigned from Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign: "Members of senior leadership have departed the campaign, including Courtni Pugh, a strategic adviser who served as Swalwell's top liaison to organized labor groups."
So the campaign is collapsing due to the truth of the sexual harassment allegations.
That hissing sound you hear is the air going out of the Swalwell campaign. UPDATE: No it wasn't, it was just Swalwell one-cheek-sneaking out a fart on camera
Eric Swalwell more like Eric Farewell amirite
thanks to weft-cut loop.
This is the dumbest AI bullslop I've seen in a while: the CIA can use "quantum magnetometry" to track an individual man's heartbeat from twelve miles away I wouldn't click on it, it's not interesting, it's just stupid clickslop. I just want to share my annoyance with you.
Classic Rock Mystery Click This is super-obscure and I only barely remember it. Given that, I'll give you the hint that it's by the Red Rocker. And I guess you think you've got it made
Oh, but then, you never were afraid
Of anything that you've left behind
Oh, but it's alright with me now
'Cause I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, yes, I'm bound to win Now twenty people will tell me it's not obscure, it was huge in their hometown and played at their prom. That's how it usually goes. When I linked Donnie Iris's "Love is Like a Rock," everyone said they knew that one and that his other song (which I didn't know at all) Ah Leah! was huge in their area.
