Sunday Roast: And now for something completely different…

Posted on by

I don’t know about you, but I really need a laugh…

David Mitchell is a British comedian and writer, and in my humble opinion, one of the best ranters in the world.

First up, David rants about the art of giving flowers:

Next, a follow-up regarding the awkwardness of giving compliments:

HT: Gary Herstein

This is our daily open thread. Feel free to rant on whatever tickles your fancy!

Advertisement

158 thoughts on “Sunday Roast: And now for something completely different…”

  2. Perhaps this will change:

    Our nation was passive, starting in the 60′s. Nixon was elected twice! And Reagan! And W! There has been very little liberal intervention in the last 42 years. Clinton and Obama have not reflected true liberal values.

    We must be vigilant against the new Conservative wave. Otherwise, New York City will become the Venice of the New World!

  3. American society is akin to a middle school playground, the bullies terrorize while the smarter kids huddle in disparate groups for their own safety.
    America is a very immature society, with a lot of growing up to do.
    On a global perspective, America has been the playground bully for the past 60 years

  6. Yesterday, I blocked all the ads that were tracking my activity on the computer and now I can’t view Youtube videos. I get sound but no picture. So who’s watching the man that watching the man that watching me?

  7. Zooey, thanks for the videos. I like that guy, he’s funny.

    The Monkees were funny, too. I remember going to my grandmother’s house to watch them because she had a color TV and the Monkees were, of course “In Color”. I used to watch them and William Daniels as “Captain Nice,” thought I remember him less in that role and more as the voice of KITT.

  10. And I love the Monkees! Especially when Davey falls in the love ” for the first time today” and his eyes get all “googley” and spin around

    **giggle**

  11. I did not have color TV until the 1980. I am always surprised at what shows were broadcast in color without my knowing.
    It will be warm here today, so I am off to work in the flower beds.

  12. My family didn’t have color until I went out and bought one in 1980. I got the cheapest 27 inch set with almost no options, because I also bought an RCA VCR and ran the audio from the VCR to my stereo. The tv stayed on ch3 with the sound off, as I controlled the volume with the stereo and the channel with the VCR.

    One reason I like to watch The Virginian in the afternoons, is they were all in color, which I never saw when they were first run, and the scenery is great. Most of the western shows on Encore are black and white, so they are as I remember them.

  13. My interwebs did the same all weekend, Zooey! It is still snowing here – total accumulation in the last 48 hours here is 21+ inches and counting! And reading you Outstanding is really giving me spring fever – can’t wait to get outside and get dirty!

  14. Blowing horizontal snow this morning, had to put the aircard in a ziploc outside the window.
    Good day inside to stay inside and havva cuppa…

  15. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! have a cup o’ tea”

    The Kinks sounded so C&W on that great song!

    —

    (California) cold and sunny – a nice break from the rain. The thing is: we really don’t have elaborate ‘winter wardrobes’. Ours comprise of putting on a sweater/sweatshirt/hoodie and a jacket. Not used to ‘layering up’ to keep the icy wind out of our…

  16. Dick Morris’s latest poll shows Wisconsin voters unwilling to remove most collective bargaining rights. By slipping this collective bargaining provision into the bill – something he did not campaign on – Walker has blundered. Moreover, this measure would presumably be the most fatal to his opponents anyway:

    By 54-34%, Wisconsin voters support ending the automatic deduction of union dues from state paychecks and support making unions collect dues from each member.

    In a poll relying on Rasmussen’s pro-GOP skewed sample, we get the following result:

    More than half (56%) of respondents said Wisconsin state workers should have collective bargaining power. Just 32% sided with Walker and said state workers should not be allowed to collectively negotiate benefits and other compensation.

    Almost identical. Why doesn’t Walker concede on collective bargaining, declare victory and move on? Because he envisions himself as a latter day Messiah of the GOP, or another Ronald Reagan minus his wit or charm.

    • badmoodman,

      Walker has already waited too long to concede on collective bargaining, because he’s a Koch succor-ing ego maniac. But thanks to the Imperial Walker, the slumbering beast that is the United States has been awakened; we’ve caught the protesting bug, and we’re not afraid to spread it around.

      We might just come through this national nightmare, and I hope it happens in my lifetime.

  18. Almost identical. Why doesn’t Walker concede on collective bargaining, declare victory and move on? Because he envisions himself as a latter day Messiah of the GOP, or another Ronald Reagan minus his wit or charm.

    Or because his corporate masters won’t let him. After all, that was the real goal all along. Perhaps they thought it was well buried in all the budget nonsense and no one would notice until it was too late.

  19. Walker does believe himself to be the anointed one. GoOPers throw out dung to see how many will step in it before the ‘clean up’.
    This isn’t going away.
    The MSM won’t ‘catch on’ until the uprising swells, then it’ll be “this came out of no where”.

    The media just can’t equate WI with what is happening in the ME – we supposedly have democracy so how can it be that citizens are “carping”.

  20. No, you see, I’m actually one of those E-trade babies and that’s me at my computer banging out another post for The Zoo or TP.

  24. Seven billion humans on the planet is plenty plus six billion. Enough is enough. Contracept to your heart’s content, EVERYONE out there! Do something positive for a change.

    I’ve about had it up to my ass with this religious meddling shit. Can’t quite figure why those people never managed to find an interesting life.

    Is there, somewhere — anywhere — a Republican free zone? Man, count me in if there is!

      • The anti-choice crowd goes on and on about 45 million “babies” being aborted since Roe v. Wade, and I never get an answer from any of them about who would be taking care of those children, and where the fuck would we have put them all. Never! It’s just “babies, babies, babies!”, and never any thought as to how the world actually fucking works.

  28. I never get an answer from any of them about who would be taking care of those children, and where the fuck would we have put them all. Never! It’s just “babies, babies, babies!”, and never any thought as to how the world actually fucking works.

    Indeed. And assuming that over half of that figure would be adults now, where are the jobs that they would need?

    • Exactly, zxbe. Jobs, housing, food, resources, etc.

      What about all the prevented pregnancies? How many millions more would that be? Assholes.

  29. Ebb, yes it was. From a hired boat that took us around the tip of the Baja to the Pacific side, then back again. The critter was enjoying life on the rocks which I think are called Los Frailes, right there on the very tip.

  30. “Oh there are so many couples who would love to adopt”

    That one always got me.
    Yeah, a woman is in crisis and should be made to carry for nine months and give up for adoption. That wouldn’t break an already frail psyche.

    • Yes ebb, what a romantic thought, right? For those women who would like to complete the pregnancy and put the child up for adoption, that’s great. It’s their CHOICE!! It can’t be the only option.

      There already plenty of adoptable children out there, waiting for a loving family. Uh oh, they failed to be blond and blue-eyed and got a little older than chubby infancy, so they can just lit in foster care and rot.

  31. Why do these people hate sex? The same people who get thoroughly agitated knowing that someone out there is fucking their brains out claim that it’s “immoral”, yet have no qualms about bombing families living harmless lives.

    • For Cons, the object in focus regarding morality is the bedroom; for Libs, the focus is on what we do in public.

      And pretty much, the Cons don’t think the rules apply to them, especially their own.

  32. Let’s just ask ol’ Newtie how that morality/family values shit works, shall we?
    Oh, that’s correct – he’s been absolved for all prior f’g around by converting to catholicism.
    Now that’s how to live your life.
    Cheat on wife #1 – serving divorce papers while she’s in hospital.
    The mistress becomes wife #2 – whom he cheats on with mistress who
    becomes
    wife #3.
    That is all wiped away by becoming catholic so he could marry #3 in the church!

  33. Both of my daughters are adopted. Each of their mothers made the CHOICE to carry them till birth, and for that I’m as grateful as anyone could ever be about anything ever. OTOH, there is no way in hell I could EVER support ANY law or policy that would not allow the birthmothers all the other choices as well. NO ONE has the right to interfere, period, and anyone who proclaims otherwise is just plain fucked up (to say the least).

    Presuming the right to interfere via issues of banning contraception or banning abortion are almost exclusively religion-based invasions of privacy, and therefore are unconstitutional. I don’t understand what’s so goddamned hard to understand about that.

    I look at those people and remember the rhetorical question posed by cartoonist Al Capp back in the seventies: “What I want to know is where were the liberal abortion laws when we really needed them?”

  34. Lopez was born with choice. No clue about scrambling to find ‘someone’, anyone who would perform a ‘back alley’ abortion – putting life in jeopardy.
    Contraception was also prohibited. How many women were permanently scarred or lost their lives attempting self abortion? The concoctions for self-induced abortions: caustic lyes, etc?

    That’s why I want to turn back the clock — to a time when we valued love and marriage and didn’t expect, support and even encourage promiscuity.

    What a naive twit. Look at that ‘lover boy’ from yesterday’s news: the water bottle fellow – not wanting to jeopardize his marriage by fooling around but would ‘let loose’ in someones drinking water.

    That’s how sacred marriage is to some folk/sheesh!

    • Well said, frugal & ebb.

      Basically, I just wish people would monitor the wreckage of their own lives, rather than trying to regulate the lives of others. MYOB!

    • Lopez lives in a dream world. Everyone I know values love and marriage (if that’s their thing), and no one I know encourages promiscuity. I can’t speak to what people expect or support, since I don’t live in their heads.

      I think what we’re dealing with in regard to Lopez, are her bridal and baby magazine fantasies, which is fine, but she uses her inexplicable public platform to try to enforce her fantasies on all women.

  35. When I was a college boy, pre-Roe v. Wade, there was hardly a month went by when there wasn’t another college boy wandering around campus dorms and apartments taking up a collection. He needed round trip bus fares plus a couple hundred dollars to cover the costs it took for his pregnant girlfriend to visit Nogales and then return not pregnant.

    That dangerous and disgusting back alley shit is exactly what will happen again if the Republican dimwits get their way. It is, of course, the “moral” thing to do.

    Uh huh.

    • frugal, I remember the pre-abortion days when it wasn’t unusual for ladies in the neighborhood to go in for what my mom called, “Dusting & Cleaning” aka a D&C.

      I was too young to know what abortion was, and just assumed that “dusting & cleaning” was a normal part of being a woman. A few years later, I realized I wasn’t hearing about D&Cs anymore — those were the post-Roe v Wade days.

  36. That’s why I want to turn back the clock — to a time when we valued love and marriage and didn’t expect, support and even encourage promiscuity.

    I do believe Mr Peabody’s Wayback Machine just had a nervous breakdown. Sproing!

  37. My wife had an abortion while in college (pre-Rove v Wade). Now, the arc of time and flow of events is uncertain but if she has that baby, we never meet, my two great kids aren’t here, and that little treasure banging on the keyboard over there was never born.

  40. Bad, that’s an excellent point. And it really goes the heart of the conservative psyche. They’re more interested the negative than the positive. For example, we know policy-wise, that they are against a great many things. But they never really tell us what they’re for. In the case of their argument against abortion, they lament what will never be at the expense of what is.

        • From the WI statehouse:

          Late Update: We’re less than 15 minutes before the capitol building is supposed to be cleared. The top two floors are almost totally cleared. But our reporter in the building says the bottom two floors are packed and loud with protestors chanting, “Hell no, we won’t go!”

          Late Update: New chant “Stand our ground, stand our ground!” Looks like we’re heading toward some very peaceful protest theater, in the best sense of the word, in about 5 minutes.

          Later Update: And it’s 4 PM in Madison and a ton of people are still in the building. Official announcement: The Capitol is now closed.

          Closed, but with people still inside. Rock on, Wisconsin!

          This was from TPM.

  45. I never knew the Republicans were such ABBA fans. First Waterloo. Then Chiciquita for Boner and now Fernando. Sorry, I just fired up the CD player while I cooked and am sort of free associating while I chop.

  46. Taking on unions in Wi is like taking on a Daley in Chicago or betting against the Yankees in NY. Good way to lose yer ass. But then, we always knew R’s aren’t real bright. Very greedy but not bright.

  47. Posted on FB by a friend:

    A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea partier and says,”look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie”.

  48. And the union guy volunteers to give up part of his cookie and he’s called greedy. The Tea Partier gives his cookie to the CEO hoping some of it will trickle back down.

  50. I was out cooking a Cuban Sandwich Casserole for my brother- and sister-in-law. He has MS and we do Sunday dinners, but skip holidays, 1st Sundays and our birthdays {spouse or I.}

    Up to new years, we were doing all Sundays except for Thanksgiving, Xmas and New Years week.

    Sister-in-law (Spouse’s sister) was in bad shape with gal bladder problems starting early-on last year. Her only care was; Who would take care of her husband, if she died.

  53. Raven,

    I will scan it and send it to you later. It’s from a store recipe, but is a mix of ham, sausage, swiss cheese, rice, mustard, dill relish, cilantro and complete seasoning.

    It is meant to bring home the flavor of a Cuban Sandwich – the rice replaces the bread.

  59. Americans tend to go for bland food. Spices and herbs that have a tendency to stand out and say ‘Hello’ make them feel nervous. Food should only talk to them in Biblical verses. ;)

  62. Too much of any herb or spice can be gross. They are supposed to enhance and tittilate the palate. Cilantro, cumin and curry are often abused.

  65. Yes Ebb, it’s my interpretation of an Ivory Billed, back a few years ago when they were thought to have been found again.

  67. Pretty damn cool, Raven. You’ve got the touch.
    I admire those who see, in their mind, and can do.
    That site badmoodman linked to – that artist works with a vision that translates well.

  70. The ivory bill is about 8 inches high, I’ve got one more block of this particular black soapstone, in the process of becoming a raven.
    The feet are cast sterling silver, using the cuttlebone technique.

  72. A quick note from my nephew in Wisconsin who’s just started reading The Incessant Voice of War:

    Through the first chapter. … I’m going to cross my legs and read on!

    :8

  75. …in the process of becoming a raven.
    The feet are cast sterling silver, using the cuttlebone technique.

    We’ll require a photo of the finished product, please! Sounds stunning – especially sterling against that black!

  77. That it does. Requires an open mind to see all the possibilities. Cons have closed minds, tunnel vision, blinders on…ergo no inspiration to go beyond and create (sad, truly it is).

  80. Sometimes I want to pretend Raven doesn’t exist. This usually happens when the sight of one of his carvings sends me to in a green haze of envy.

  81. I have never experienced this “too much cilantro” of which you speak. I did prove to myself that “too much garlic” exists, but it might have been the squid.

  82. That’s all chapter one was, Hooda, a hook plus a small setting for a future stage. Gotta start somewhere. In fact, it first appeared as part of chapter four, but later it talked me into moving it. I’m glad I listened.

  83. I feel much the same when you write about what you are cooking and having for dinner gummitch..

  84. Gummitch, I would have disagreed with that statement regarding ”the stinking rose” had I not just moments before your post accidentally licked the fork that crushed three fresh cloves …

    **eeeekkk**

  86. frugal, I’m in the process of finding a book holder for Mom because she started to read your book but it is too heavy for her to hold. Take her desire to read it as a good sign.

  91. frugal, I am doing all I can to reach the Mom I have known for years. I can feel that the desire is there in her but the machine is winding down. The wheel of life will spin as it will.

  92. I hope it was a small bird, badmoodman. You should see the crow poop around here. I’m just glad the Canada geese leave it on someone’s lawn instead of on me or my car.

  93. hooda – all positive energies sent to you and your Mom – to get through.

    I’ll be dating myself and uncertain if it’s still used in hospice –
    Brompton cocktail
    “relieve pain and promote sociability near death”.

    That she is comfortable is good.

  94. badmoodman & gummitch – one of the reasons hats were invented ~!~
    We never go out birding without a head covering ;>

  95. “Inception’s” Wally Pfister won the Oscar for cinematography, the second Oscar winner, “….and I wanna thank my union crew….”

  97. Hi critters:

    Yeah, Ive been off line for a while for various reasons. So I’m back on line and go to gmail and have to log on again but then I couldn’t remember my password!

    What a lot has happened while I’ve been away, a lot of catching up to do on my part.

    Zooey, my dear, what an alluring new gravatar, I like it.

  98. Hooda, been there done that with both parents. It’s not easy, but it is, of course, inevitable. Be thankful for all that went before. Just yesterday, we were chatting with a neighbor about such things and I mentioned, within the context, that my dad was the best friend I ever had or ever could have. Debbie remarked, “And he lives on — hardly a day passes when you don’t mention him.”

    Meanwhile, carpe diem. Every one of them.

  100. frugal, the hardest part for me right now is the suffering. That human drive to keep trying that Mom, tough Polish farm gal she is, to just keep going. I can’t help but admire it and respect it but damn.

  103. Thanks, Wayne. And Jane. Life goes as it will, not as we would have it. I’ve been a Taoist for most of my life but the past few months have done a great deal to help me re-engage with that.

  104. Please work with me here. Yes, I am dealing with a traumatic event. I did it ten years ago when my Dad died but I was distracted when I also had to deal with a divorce. This time, the thinking is clearer. Don’t get me wrong, I miss Pop but there is more happening today.

    We really are at a nexus. And the planetary alignments are auspicious (if you partake of that). Man has lived his entire recorded existence as a slave to money and power. Personally, I find that repulsive. After some 3,500 years, I would like to think man could get past the big bucks and pay attention to the reality of the world he lives in.

    If we don’t get that idea real soon, we will be screwed. America isn’t the answer unless we wake up to the money manipulation real soon. If we don’t recognize that it is about the planet and people pretty soon we are going to be able to wave bye bye to mankind in a generation.

  105. Hooda,

    As you may know, I have been a lifelong Star Trek fan. Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr William Riker) said when he started doing Star Trek: The Next Generation that Gene Roddenberry described his vision of the future as this: “In the 24th Century, there will be no more hunger, there will be no more greed, and all of the children will know how to read.” How wonderful is that?

    In the movie “Star Trek: First Contact”, it was explained that the quest for material possessions was no longer the driving motivation for people in the 24th century. This was, though it wasn’t explained but I imagine, the result of replicator technology. You could have a computer transform energy into any material, including food, that you wanted.
    We are, of course, a long ways away from replicator technology, but we can find new ways to grow food, and without genetic manipulation a la Monsanto.

    I think if we can eliminate world hunger, we can begin down the path you and I envision of a world of peace. And if we can eliminate the need for Capitalism (as practiced today, which is a system of winners and losers), we can move that much closer.

    It can be done. maybe not ion our lifetimes, but it can be done,. We just need to convince people that it is worth doing.

  106. Capitalism is not the best system precisely because it is a system of winners and losers, instead of just winners. And as long as someone has to lose, there will be “the powers that be” making sure it isn’t them.

    The first step is to convince everyone we know to stop voting for Republicans (whom I often refer to as the Ferengi Party). Republicans are all about maintaining the status quo. They are not interested in what;s best for humanity, they are interested in what;s best for themselves and the people who keep them in power.

  107. I will take it one step further, Wayne. When man realizes he is part of the world, not it’s ruler, we will move forward. We are at a point where if we refuse to acknowledge this, we will be removed and the world will start again. Maybe the ceteceans this the next time.

  108. From the transcript of MtP interview with the insane Walker:

    It’s real simple.Those 14 state senators need to come back and do what they were elected to do, come back here–they don’t have to vote for it, they don’t have to support it, but they need to come back and do their job.

    Does he really think the Dems will fall for that trick? Just show up – you don’t have to vote for it…
    (then we’ll have our quorum and you are f’d).

  109. I agree, Hooda. Of course, Man has the idea that he rules the world because Christian Theology tells him so. Ann Coulter likes to say that God told us we could rape the planet. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a correct interpretation of Scripture. And we need not go into how it;s a work of fiction anyway. (How could Moses write a book that tells how he died?)

  110. Ebb,

    The man is so disingenuous that I think he really does think they’ll fall for that. His party has the majority, all they lack is the ability to legally proceed with their voting.

Comments are closed.