Monday – Open Thread, Time for a Little Whimsy

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JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

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43 thoughts on “Monday – Open Thread, Time for a Little Whimsy”

  1. Thanks Walt, I was taking the day far too seriously until now…. brilliant.

  5. here’s a pic of Lewis Carroll’s house in Guildford, Surrey. If you squint I’m pretty sure you can see some mome raths outgrabing in the evident borogroves

    http://tinyurl.com/ce9n2o

    The house is about about 150 yards from the 900-plus year old castle.
    http://tinyurl.com/Guildford-Castle

    Far less interesting is the now defunct indoor pool just a few yards up, where I learned to hate swimming in Britain.

  8. Zooey, well I swam in the Hudson once, and that was more fun than my itroduction to swimming in the UK (despite being indoors the temp was always about 45 degrees) That was in the 1960s.

    BUT, in the mid-1970s Guildford got a ‘Sports Center’, a concept still unknown to the US whwe all manner of sporting activities were accommodated in a huge building—swimming, basketball, tennis squash, etc–on a first-come first-served basis for a nominal at-the-door fee for an hour or two ( depending on the recreation).

    There was an Olympic sized pool, a diving pool with 1, 5 and 10 meter boards and a kiddie pool that wen from 18 to 3 feet in depth. The best part about that was that it was about 75 degrees whereas the main pool was more like 55, so after some time in the cooler water one could run into the kiddie pool area and get a quick warm-up for a minute, then back to the main pool.

    I’ve always wondered why the US doesn’t have Sports Centers which anyone can attend, and I think it’s because it smacks of ‘socialism’ and is therefore verboten! Pathetic!

  10. CNN/Opinion Research Poll Feb.7-8
    How Obama Is Handling His Job
    Approve 76%
    Disapprove 23%

    Senate Bill Will Stimulate Economy
    Favor 54%
    Oppose 45%

    Senate Bill Will Stimulate Economy
    Favor Oppose
    Democrats 75% 23%
    Independents 51% 48%
    Republicans 32% 68%

    Will Senate Economic Bill Spend…
    Too Much Money 55%
    Not Enough Money 13%
    Right Amount Of Money 30%

    Is Obama Doing Enough To Cooperate With Republicans?
    Yes 74%
    No 25%

    Are Republicans Doing Enough To Cooperate With Obama?
    Yes 39%
    No 60%

    3 out of 4 Americans seem to support Obama, but that’s not what the Rushpublicans are saying.

  11. 61 to 36 in favor of the Collins/Nelson amendment makes the amendment the base bill! I know Specter, Collins and Snowe voted aye.

  12. HoR,
    Isn’t this the provision that strips out 80 billion in job creation funds and inserts about 120 billion in welfare to the top 5% of income rapists?

  13. You wouldn’t ask that question if you didn’t already know the answer, Walt. (little smiley face goes here)

    Yes, I’d say that these were the most expensive votes in the history of Congress. But a bad bill is better than no bill at all, and a number of Rushpublicans wanted no bill at all.

  14. HoR,

    (little smiley face goes here)

    Try typing a “:” followed by a “)” to make that smiley face. It works on this blog, but not on TP. We can show you how to make others, too, if you want.

  16. Another one I haven’t figured out is how to put a line thru a word, like you wrote it then crossed it out.

  17. The best thing about Obama’s speech is it’s going to take up most of Campbell Brown’s time slot tonight. Listen up!

  18. watching Obama Press conference ( now 8.30 pm ET_

    This President is informed and smart. He is scoring some points against GOP bs. He goes from the broad to the specific. No effing baseball analogies!
    He just got a question from a Bloomberg reporter asking why the Stimulus bill isn’t big enough! ( see Krugman).
    Now Jake Tapper asks how the public measures the progress and effect of the stimulus/

    DUUUUUHHHHH! Jobs you ASSHOLE! MORE STOCK on my local shop’s shelves that he USED to HAVE before everything went to SHIT!

    YOU DUMB FUCKING “VILLAGE IDIOT !” ( Chuck Todd of NBC too—MORON!).

    NOW someone just asked about media coverage of the dead coming home—good question! Obama is hedging on it at the moment. ( I can’t think why he should—except for the idea that maybe it can wait a bit, he’s got this Economic situation to get squared away. Priorities.

    AND how come no-one in the MSM pressed that question when Bush was ‘Resident’ ?

    • I want to know if anyone is going to ask him about what Glenn Greenwald wrote today.
      This was upsetting to me. This was the change I was waiting for.
      I better add to this.. I too thought it was an excellent press conference. It is so refreshing to listen to a leader speak who actually understands what he is talking about, and can express that understand with such clarity, confidence (not arrogance), and presence. Watching this made me feel like our country was without any leader whatsoever over the last eight years..
      I still have concerns about the torture/rendition/transparency issue though. This matters. Looking back at what took place over the last eight years and holding people accountable matters. That is the ONLY way to prevent abuse of power like took place from happening again. It is the ONLY way to fully restore the rule of law.

      • Excellent news conference by President Obama.

        I can’t say how much I enjoy having a President who can answer a question with more than one part in a clear manner, without being a dumb fuck smart ass, and who can explain things so well.

        And, I’m proud to be able to call the man in the White House “President.” I haven’t done that in a long time.

        Back to the books. Sorry I haven’t been around as much.

  19. HoR,

    The “del” function is tricky, and I’m not sure how much if this is necessary, but here goes:

    “del” this would get struckthrough “/del”

    (see if that works, fifth time’s a charm!)

    Well, that was fucking surprisingly easy.

  20. John King on CNN made note of Obama calling on Sam Stein of Huffpost. Also Mara Liasson of NPR got to ask a question. And Helen Thomas of course got to ask a question.

    Nwmuse,
    How can they say they aren’t going to continue the practice of renditions, and repudiate the use of torture in interrogations, without transparency?
    Wasn’t Glenn Greenwald on Bill Moyers over the weekend? Might be worth a look at the Bill Moyers website.

  22. nwmuse…

    I’m with you (and Glenn Greenwald–brilliant and steadfast) on this BUT….

    He’s been our President for THREE weeks! Bush waited over a MONTH for his FIRST press conference which was of no import except for the fact that it was his first.

    I’m upset too, and as I feared and still fear, this fundamental issue may get ignored if it isn’t addressed NOW, with terrible and REAL consequences.

    BUT
    the calculus may be that we will be all better off if by addressing the most pressing ‘tangible’ issues, such other crucial issues may be more effectively addressed a little later.
    After all, the economic recovery plan this nation needs has already been diluted and delayed in the face of blindingly obvious need.
    What chance, then of starting criminal proceedings against almost the entirety of the Bush administration?

    I know one can argue; if not now, when?
    But now is surely not the time. IMHO after 2010, increase in Dem seats or no…. THEN it should be ‘go time’—better chance of indictment and successful prosecution.

    But after that time frame, yeah it will be all bollocks, as usual.

    .

    • I am totally thrilled with Obama so far. Don’t get me wrong. There are some things I will continue to watch closely. I really don’t know how much power he actually has to change some things. He’s up against an awful lot of powerful forces that are pretty darned ingrained, and through the last eight years allowed to run amuck..
      I am very impressed with our president. Very.

      The reason I mentioned Glenn Greenwald’s article was this, from his first update:

      UPDATE: I just spoke with Wizner about today’s court hearing. It’s really remarkable what happened. One of the judges on the three-judge panel explicitly asked the DOJ lawyer, Doug Letter, whether the change in administrations had any bearing on the Government’s position in this case. Letter emphatically said it did not. Instead, he told the court, the new administration — the new DOJ — had actively reviewed this case and vetted the Bush positions and decisively opted to embrace the same positions.

      There’s no doubt about that.

      That just got my attention. President Obama took a strong stand on torture and also transparency during the campaign. This just seemed an odd thing to happen.

      Andrew Sullivan also did a post regarding this case in question: “The Strange, Disturbing Case Of Binyam Mohamed”
      He posted this before this hearing took place in San Francisco that Greenwald refers to.

    • 5thstate, I do understand it’s only been president for three weeks, and I believe he has done SO much already in such a short time. I am supportive of him, but I am still watching some things closely.

  23. Alex Castellanos said Obama’s answers were “professorial”, but wanted to know if they could get somebody to give short, crisp, answers, like Joe Biden maybe. Funny line, but Alex is still a jerk.

  24. muse,

    The only way to get an emphatic court ruling on the Bush policies is to let them be judged. I am sure that Obama knows they will lose, and I think he wants to, to help make the point that the Bush System was unconstitutional.

    I know that means that the criminal goes free because the constable erred, but that’s the only way to prove that we are a nation of laws. Besides, we keep an eye on him when he gets out and we nab him before he does something else. That’s the way the system is supposed to work.

    Back to Rachel.

  25. And whatever you do, muse, my friend, do not stop watching him!

    I will feel just that much better knowing there are people like you, people I trust, watching out for me and all our fellow citizens.
    :)

  29. HoR,
    To strike through text, you use <DEL>text</DEL> inline in the comment. That string would yeild text in your comment. It’s all standard HTML.

  31. Thanks Walt,
    I’m not a student of HTML, but I found a web page that explains it better than I usually get things. I have to need a function before I can learn it. Did manage to learn the code for href because some links are so full of letters that they clutter up the page and look terrible. I don’t normally use much other than regular text. I started at Huffpost, and they have little to teach the commenters anything. Those that use it there learn it somewhere else.

    I’m assuming that HTML character escapes allow the code itself to display instead of executing?

  32. HoR,
    You are correct on the character escapes.
    You can display a ‘less than’ symbol by inputting a string of ‘&(no space)lt;’. I inserted the ‘(no space)’, which means exactly what it says in order to override the HTML translater.The “HTML for Dummies” book contains the character codes at about page 160.

  33. I’ll try to pick up a copy of HTML for Dummies. Thanks again.

    Liberal Talker Randi Rhodes off the air … for now

    Once again, Randi Rhodes is MIA from her syndicated talk show. She’d been off the air since last Wednesday, Feb. 4.
    According to the Radio Equalizer blog site, Rhodes and syndicator NovaM Radio are battling, and NovaM has pulled her off air for now. This is the second time within a year that Rhodes has been off air due to negotiations. She left her last gig with Air America in the spring, when contract negotiations between the two went south. The Miami discussion boards have been talking about her absence on Clear Channel’s WINZ (940), which has also been rumored to be flipping to Sports in the coming weeks.

  34. HoR,

    Check out this site to learn some basic HTML codes. From there, you can go to their other (totally free) lessons.

    http://www.dtp-aus.com/get_strt.htm

    Don’t be intimidated by it, because it’s actually easier than you think to do a lot of things. In fact, for many of them, if you can do one HTML tag, you can do most of them. Some require parameters, but that’s for when you’re going beyond simply leaving a comment on a blog.

    And some sites will ignore certain HTML tags so that comments won’t mess up their page formatting. (For example, if you enlarge the font and forget to put in a closing tag, it might make everyone else’s comments that follow larger. It might. It might not, by why take that chance?)

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