Careful, that’s how you summon the ghost of old Jacob Marley.

Video is here: https://files.catbox.moe/1l4r23.mp4

Just gonna leave this here…

As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, wove almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as. I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma,- literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger; while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or petulance, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.

Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,- Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.

Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side; the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.

Computer, delete that entire holiday.

🫵

Back when usb was first appearing on boards, some cases had their usb port cables broken out into individual pins that you needed to place in the correct order.

It was the migration from cooking demonstrations to celebrity presence content (Babsih tries every X, Babish ranks every Y).

Cooking demos keep the focus on the food; techniques, presentation, and results. Plus having an entertaining and charismatic host.

Now those videos lean on the now-recognizable host being entertaining and charismatic, and doing… whatever. And it kind of makes sense in a marketplace-y sort of way. I can watch anybody cook, but Babish has the corner on Babish content, so why not lean into that? Also I’m sure the guy gets tired of making the same content over and over again, so he’s trying to find something interesting that catches on.

I see Nat from Nats What I Reckon doing the same thing. And good on them for trying new stuff.

“don’t be a dick” is a casual and brief way of saying “we don’t tolerate anti-social behavior and will remove you if you engage in it.”

And it’s usually argumentative people with an agenda to disrupt and fracture communities who conflate rules of civility with overbearing mods who “can’t handle my truths”.

For context on the remarkableness of this outcome…

Solomon “Sol” Wachtler (born April 29, 1930) is an American former jurist, Republican politician, attorney, and author from the state of New York. He served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. Wachtler’s most famous quote, made shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge, is that district attorneys could get grand juries to “indict a ham sandwich”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Wachtler

Red Letter Media’s final thoughts on the state of Star Wars were pretty insightful: It’s become a container with a very specific aesthetic that Disney can pile an infinite number of things into: multi-quadrant science fiction blockbusters, preschool cartoons, carnival rides, political dramas, kids adventures, whatever.

It’s since stopped being a finite thing anyone can love anymore. When something becomes everything, it loses distinctness. That distinctness, whatever it was, is what early fans originally fell in love with.

Of course, those original objects still exist, but you have to specify them. You’re an “original trilogy” fan or an Andor fan or the made-for-TV Ewok movies fan†, but saying you’re a Star Wars fan is basically meaningless now. And for people who proudly wore that mantle, through eyerolls and ridicule, that’s a genuine loss.

† Teek from Battle for Endor has a posse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_pension

As of 2019, members who participated in the congressional pension system are vested after five years of service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Taylor_Greene

Elected in Dec 2020, sworn in January 3 2021. Re-elected Nov 2024, resigning effective January 5 2026, mere days after her pension eligibility kicked in.

She’s a fucking grifter. End of story.

It’s number 1.

She’s ridden the ride long enough to do speaking engagements and political commentary for as long as she can remain entertaining. Also book deals, but that depends if she can scare up a ghostwriter who’s willing to attach their name to her.

Ain’t no rule!

For context:

Half a dozen members of Congress who previously served in the military or intelligence community are urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey illegal orders that might be issued by President Donald Trump’s administration. Democratic lawmakers Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Sen. Mark Kelly, Rep. Jason Crow, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Rep. Chris Deluzio and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan said the “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home,” and repeatedly urged the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

The video was posted on twitter, but I’m attaching it below.

Exactly. It’s a proven that will only show up at scale, and these little randomized studies will never demonstrate it.

Halloween, it is said, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early.

I don’t know where the adorably precocious children in this screenshot are purported to come from. Every kid I’ve ever met who questions me about my gender has been an argumentative little shit that wants to make a point out of not believing me.

I have a better plan:

The way out of our present age of political violence is not scolding “we have to live here with one another,” at those who are not threatening anyone’s life, at those whose very existence supremacists refuse to accept. Rather the way out is standing between supremacists and their targets and telling them “no, you have to live with them, just like we live with you, and if you can’t do that, then you have a problem with us, too.” It’s turning to those who just aren’t comfortable with trans people and saying “we don’t negotiate about people’s rights over here, and if you want to see how hard we’ll fight for you against the billionaires and bosses who are robbing you blind, watch how hard we fight for them. If hating trans people is so important to you that you’re willing to get robbed to death to secure it, we aren’t the party for you.”

You know what? I think that message might just build a coalition.

https://www.the-reframe.com/eventually-youre-going-to-have-to-stand-for-something-2/

The only poor people at the Super Bowl are the ushers and concession vendors.