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Shutdown Theater Mini-Rant

So the latest version of shutdown theater is over. Congress once again fails to do it's job during the spring and summer, and we live through two more instances (thus far) of the all too familiar pearl clutching and doomsday blame-gaming. This rant is not about that, instead it is about the in-fighting on the Republican side. 38 of the most fiscally conservative members of the House voted against the first version of the Continuing Resolution (CR) because it contained the usual massive amounts of pork and also because there was a provision for raising the debt ceiling. This ignited a firestorm between factions on the right. President-elect Trump apparently wants the debt increase and pushed Republican House members to approve the CR. He called out no-voters such as Chip Roy of TX and threatened to help primary them. Right-leaning pundits who reflexively support whatever Trump says or does jumped to his defense. It's baffling that Trump attacked some of the most fiscally conservative members of the House. They are the ones most likely to help carry his agenda through Congress. And he slung arrows at them over the CR. Bold strategy.

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R.I.P. Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson, 'greatest of all time,' dies at 65

Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter and base stealer in Major League Baseball history whose blazing speed, discerning eye and unusual home run power complemented an irrepressible swagger that led him from the sandlots of Oakland, California, to the Baseball Hall of Fame, died Friday. He was 65.

The Henderson family released a statement Saturday evening confirming the Hall of Famer's death.

"A legend on and off the field, Rickey was a devoted son, dad, friend, grandfather, brother, uncle, and a truly humble soul," the statement from his wife Pamela and his three daughters read. "Rickey lived his life with integrity, and his love for baseball was paramount. Now, Rickey is at peace with the Lord, cherishing the extraordinary moments and achievements he leaves behind."

The family did not announce a cause of death but did thank the doctors and nurses at UCSF hospital, which they said cared for Henderson with "dedication and compassion."

With a fearless, flamboyant style of play, which thrilled some players and fans thirsting for theatrical energy from a sport known for its staidness and irritated others who believed the iconoclastic approach disrespected old traditions, Henderson broke boundaries alongside reams of records during a 25-year career spent with nine teams.

In a sport that relies on the historical consistency of its numbers, Henderson obliterated the record book, owning the all-time stolen-base record with 1,406, an astounding 468 more than St. Louis Cardinals great Lou Brock, who held the record of 938 for a dozen years before Henderson surpassed him in 1991. Henderson holds the records for the most stolen bases in a single season with 130 in 1982, the most times leading the league in steals with 12 and most consecutive years leading the league in steals with seven. As a 39-year-old in 1998 with Oakland, Henderson became the oldest player in history to lead the American League in steals with 66.

More about Rickey here. Why no leadoff hitter will ever top Rickey Henderson.

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Wholesome Content

So heartwarming 🥰 pic.twitter.com/i5DkCHknH7

— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) December 22, 2024

This guy has a heart of gold ❤️ pic.twitter.com/pY6zxiiwrr

— Restoring Your Faith in Humanity (@HumanityChad) December 21, 2024

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Turning Back the Christmas Clock

(Christmas at the mall, 1980s)

"CHRISTMAS GIFTS 40 Years Ago | Toys & Action Figures FROM 1984: What We Got Under the Tree in 1984"

How much of that stuff do you remember?

(Christmas downtown, 1960s)

(Great question!)

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DJ Doof – Sounds of the Season (Part 7)

Another fun one from Bob Rivers. The Chimney Song.

One for my fellow Balti-morons. Essex Wonderland.

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Tonight’s ONT brought to you by Unfortunate Placement

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Your feedback may or may not be very important to me. Follow AoS_Doof on X @doof2112 or do the email thing – doof2112 at proton dot me. All I want for Christmas are some Rush deep cuts!

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FUNdamentals
No Gun Thread would be complete without a focus on fundamentals, now would it?

Q: Weasel, may we please get a break from your stupid fundamentals for Christmas?
A: No. No you may not.

No watch, but this guy is a professional shooter! whatever that means.

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More one vs. two eyes open.

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Christmas Memory Lane

Here's a fun look back at the guns of Christmas from yester-year.

Thanks Santa!!

Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun

Introduced in 1940, the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun quickly captured the imagination of red-blooded American boys and girls across the country. Developed and marketed in conjunction with Dell Comics and the Western hero by the same name, the Red Ryder fires a .177 cal BB at 350 fps with a maximum range of approximately 195 yards. Careful! You'll put an eye out!

In the era before electronic distractions and overly protective parents raising impossibly overprogrammed children, the Red Ryder was often at the very top of a young person's Christmas wish list. A mainstay of backyard ranges, the BB gun was frequently their first introduction to shooting; teaching responsibility, safety and marksmanship. These were the days when stay-at-home moms told their kids to go outside and play in the morning and to be home before dark, never worrying about life-changing social injustices suffered on the playground, or worse. The fact that the Daisy Red Ryder is still in production today is frankly a little surprising, having somehow not yet succumbed to the rabidly hysterical anti-gun mob and toy fun-police.

For nearly 140 years, the company now known as Daisy Outdoor Products has been manufacturing air guns. Originally a steel windmill manufacturer, the company began making air guns in 1880 as a premium offered to farmers purchasing a windmill. Eventually the rifles were in such demand the company discontinued its main product line to concentrate on the air gun business. Today, the company actively promotes gun safety through a series of online programs and printed material and has an extensive competitive shooting program holding matches since 1966.

Daisy is but one of many manufacturers offering these types of programs. Do you know a young person who might benefit or otherwise enjoy participating?

Did you have an air gun, and was it a Daisy Red Ryder? Was it a surprise from Santa, or did you have to beg Mom and Dad for it? Were you allowed to roam with it at will, or were you more closely supervised?

Do you still have both eyes?

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New Red Dot?

How they're made for those of you who need to know this kind of thing.

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Gun Shop Ettiquette
First time gun owner? Our pal SEH Gal on not being stupid at the gun shop.

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NORAD Tracks Santa
Another Christmas favorite!

Want to track Santa? The official Santa tracking site of the North American Aerospace Defense Command has you covered.

Origins of this annual service (wiki)

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Our Pal the Flush Rivet

Bonus FUNdamentals!!!!!

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Holiday Madness!

Fun Size Joe and Gertie in Holiday Madness!

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The 27th Day!

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Musical Interlude
The Peanuts gang with a Christmas favorite.

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Ammo Link-O-Rama
I'm really very seriously not kidding around anymore. Buy Ammo
AmmoSeek - online ammo search tool
GunBot - online ammo search tool
SG Ammo
Palmetto State Armory
Georgia Arms
AmmoMan
Target Sports USA
Bud's Gun Shop
American Elite Ammo NEW!

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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?

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very interesting, and maybe a little disturbing. My impression was that most outbreaks of disease occurred in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I hope this is an isolated and atypical event, because damn...those oysters from Washington and British Columbia are superb.

FDA Advises Restaurants and Retailers Not to Serve or Sell and Consumers Not to Eat Certain Oysters and Manila Clams from Pickering Passage, Washington Potentially Contaminated with Norovirus

FDA Advises Restaurants and Retailers Not to Serve or Sell and Consumers Not to Eat Certain Oysters from British Columbia, Canada Growing Areas BC 14-8 and BC 14-15, Potentially Contaminated with Norovirus

Norovirus is unpleasant but rarely life-threatening, but the warmer water oysters can also carry Vibrio, which is absolutely nothing to play around with. One of the strains is also called Cholera, so that should give you a sense of how bad it can be!

But I'll still eat oysters.

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Dessert? Sticky Toffee Pudding of course. It's one of my favorites, and it's pretty easy to make, so don't think it is some special and difficult thing. The version I make isn't particularly sweet, which I think is the allure for many people.
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I'm usually not a big fan of short-cut recipes. They are often pale reflections of the more difficult or time-consuming original, and they seem to be filler recipes written by junior food writers who are told to produce three recipes each week or go find a job pulling espresso shots at Starbucks.

But...I do recognize that sometimes the real world intrudes upon our (or at least my) desire to make satisfying and delicious meals every day. Hell, last week I made dinner that consisted of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Admittedly I used fresh, homemade bread, but that was already sitting on the counter and just needed to be sliced. The whole thing took 15 minutes, and was absolutely dellicious!

So...this looks pretty good, and it really doesn't take much time, at least compared to a real lasagna. Lasagna Soup comes with no guarantees, but I'll bet it is good. I might give it a shot next week, when I am sure to be heartily sick of cooking!

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J.J. Sefton and I will sometimes chat about food before we record our podcasts. He recently mentioned a delicious-sounding chicken dish by a British chef who is completely unknown to me! Rick Stein? Who? But his stuff looks solid, especially this! Rick's crab and sweetcorn soup sounds like a festive meal for those of you who like seafood during Christmas. It reminds me a bit of a Thai seafood soup I used to obsess over when I was a callow youth.
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What the hell happened to all the vegetables? And send me garlic that isn't grown in heavy metals and human waste in China, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls We know who shake their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

$1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. 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 of fifty years, but it is worth it!

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LINUS EXPLAINS THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

ORIGINS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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(HT: mindful webworker)

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PSEUDO-CHRISTMASES IN FICTION

Christmas has been a huge cultural touchstone of Western civilization for hundreds of years. Nowadays, it seems like it's both a religious and secular holiday, so most people in the Western world can find something to celebrate, even if they are not explicitly Christian. It's not surprising that Christmas would serve as inspiration for fictional holidays in fictional worlds because of how important it is to us in the real world.

BOOKS BY MORONS

Moron Author Celia Hayes has another book ready to go! As of this Sunday Morning Book Thread, it looks like only the Kindle version is available, but the print version should be ready soon.

West Towards the Sunset by Celia Hayes

It's the year 1846, and Sally Kettering is just twelve years old. Her parents have decided to sell their farm in rural Ohio and go west...west to California. Sally and her six-year old brother Jon must leave everything they knew—friends, kinfolk and the little town where they had lived all their lives so far. Pa and Ma Kettering packed what they could take into a single covered wagon, and they set out to follow a trail through the wilderness west, along with a party of other families and adventurers.

Unknown dangers lay around every bend of the trail...wild animals, wilder Indians...Indians who might be hostile or friendly, and no way to know for certain...treacherous river crossings, trackless deserts, and jagged, dangerous mountain passes.

And still, the Kettering family and their friends boldly set out...following the trail that led west toward the sunset!

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I'm home sick with a cold I caught from a grandkid: worth it. Anyway, I went to NYC for a couple of days to visit a daughter, and at the same time was rereading Tyler Anbinder's City of Dreams. This is a very good history of NYC, specifically the immigrant history. It covers the city from its inception, including the waves of Dutch, English, German, Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigration. Anbinder also covers the later waves of Hispanics, Chinese, Indians, West Indians, and Puerto Ricans, but begins to get a bit preachy and woke at that point. Still, it's well worth reading.

While in NYC, we visited the Tenement Museum, which I recommend. It was difficult not to be a know-it-all, not only because that is my natural bent, but because I knew so much about the tenement experience, having just read the book. Our guide was a lovely young Chinese woman with a PhD in history, and she really knew her stuff. The combo of the book and the real-life museum was exceptionally interesting.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 15, 2024 09:16 AM (xCA6C)

Comment: Although New York City has its problems, I don't think anyone can deny that it has shaped American culture in numerous ways since its founding. It's been a hub of immigration for well over a century, for better or worse. How many Moron families can trace their origins back to Ellis Island?

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Recommendation for Lanier's book Hiero's Journey.

I've been going through Gary Gygax's list of rec reading in his Appendix N to the DM's Guide. Obv, he had great taste. Hiero's Journey is on the list. I'd never heard of it and it was cool. Clearly the inspiration for TSR's Gamma World rpg.

As to the disaffected Catholic, I guess I would ask him to ponder what exactly the Bible should mean to a Catholic. That's an important question and interesting. He might be doing Catholicism wrong idk.

As to books? I think RA Lafferty's Past Master and William Thomas Walsh's Histories would be good. That's some powerful Catholicism in action historical and fictional. And, very profound and high level intellectually.

Posted by: Thesokorus at December 15, 2024 11:56 AM (z6Ybz)

Comment: I looked in the Appendices for my first edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide to see the full recommended reading list by Gary Gygax. I found it amusing that he referred to Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien as the "Ring Trilogy." Although Tolkien certainly influenced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I would argue that other authors like Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, and Robert E. Howard has a bit more influence in the final product.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Seize the Night by Dean Koontz

Finished this book and it got progressively weirder and weirder as the story went on. Definitely see shades of Odd Thomas as well as story elements that have been recycled into other stories since this one was originally published.

Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon Volume 2 - The Dark Abyss by Bruce Coville

Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon Volume 3 - The Valley of Thunder by Charles de Lint

Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon Volume 4 - The Lake of Fire by Robin W. Bailey

Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon Volume 5 - The Hidden City by Charles de Lint

Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon Volume 6 - The Dark Abyss by Richard A. Lupoff

I reread the first book in this series--The Black Tower by Richard A. Lupoff--back in 2023. I decided that since I began 2024 by reading an epic fantasy series, I might as well end the year by reading an epic science fiction series, though I think it's much more fantasy oriented than science fiction in many ways.

In 1868, Clive Folliot, the younger son of Baron Tewkesbury of Victorian England is tasked with seeking his elder twin brother, who has disappeared while exploring Africa. As Clive follows Neville's trail, he finds himself abducted into a strange world known only as the Dungeon, where he and his otherworldy companions will struggle against impossible odds through time and space to find their way out.

It's a very weird series, as each author was given quite a bit of free rein to take the story in any direction they liked, though they did have some loose guidelines. Characters, for example, should not vary wildly between books, though there are some interesting variations as each author interprets characters in their own way. Inpsired by Philip José Farmer's own creative style of writing, the authors imbue the story with the spirit of PJF, drawing upon a wide range of literature and pop culture. It gets *very* existential towards the end as Lupoff wraps up the storylines, eventually revealing all of the mysteries that have plagued both the characters and the readers for six books. Is the series great? No, but I was entertained enough on my reread to consider it a nice way to end 2024, leading up to the next book...

The Stormlight Archive Book 5 - Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

I don't even know how to describe this book. It's 1300+ pages, and serves to close the first part of The Stormlight Archive, so most of the storylines will need to be wrapped up in the end. Fortunately, Sanderson *excels* at providing readers with a satisfying conclusion, and he'll leave enough loose threads that will be taken up in the next part of the series, which is expected to take place thousands of years in the future of the world of Roshar. It took Sanderson around 15-16 years to finish just this first part of the series. I expect him to take another 15 years or so to finish the next five books, assuming he doesn't get distracted by other projects.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 12-15-2024 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

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Tech News

• Embodied, the startup that produced an $800 robot for children and has now run out of money, is working to release code and documentation to allow hackers to keep the robots working after the company shuts down. (Ars Technica)
  
  Good to hear.
  
  
  
• The jury in the Arm vs. Qualcomm suit has sided with Qualcomm on two of the three questions put to them. (Yahoo)
  
  Qualcomm, which has a license to produce Arm chips, bought startup Nuvia, which had a license to produce Arm chips.
  
  Qualcomm then produced chips based on Nuvia's design.
  
  Arm sued Qualcomm saying Qualcomm was not licensed to do that.
  
  The jury verdict said Qualcomm did not breach its Arm license in buying Nuvia or producing the chips - which are used in the new Arm based laptops which are not selling particularly well so far.
  
  They did not reach a verdict on the question of whether Nuvia was in compliance with its Arm license. I'm not sure how relevant that is, though Arm plans to continue legal action.
  
  
  
• You're not fired. You're just locked out of the building and put on mandatory leave without pay. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Electric van maker Canoo is not looking too healthy.
  
  
  
• What is Broadcom doing with VMWare? Slashing costs. A lot. (Ars Technica)
  
  Not making many friends in the process, but they can worry about that after taking a dip in their swimming pool full of money. Based on the latest figures sales have increased only slightly, but costs have been cut in half.
  
  In addition, Broadcom has effectively killed the VMWare reseller market, so that if you want to migrate your company off VMWare, you need to get technical support from Broadcom.

Happy Birthday Everyone Video of the Day



Disclaimer: You need to read the comments for once.

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The Book

I'm reminded of a quote from Orson Welles when discussing his own approach to adaptation saying, that it's required of a filmmaking making an adaptation to make changes. The mediums are simply different and cannot transfer directly. The most loyal adaptation that recreates every line would just be a recitation of the book's text with still images. One must change things, a lot of things, to adapt. So, IT is kind of an ideal source. There's going to be disagreement about what to change, what to include, and what to outright excise (that late scene with the Losers Club in the sewers and Bev's solution to get out...that should get excised and I don't think I want to know anyone who argues otherwise).

All of the choices are subjective, of course. I think I could make the case for not including Pennywise the Clown (not a decision I would make should I be suddenly granted the money and opportunity to make another adaptation), so you have to take a step back and look at the large choices to be made. The book is filled with large (and many, many small) things, so what do you keep? What do you highlight? What do you downplay?

Well, I have my own preferences, and they start with the book's structure. On the grand scale, the structure jumping back and forth between the two time periods is easily the best thing in the whole book. It creates this path of discovery for the audience that mirrors the main characters in both timelines (the execution is often clunky and unnatural, especially transitioning from one to the next, but it overall works very well), and it provides framing for the adults that that half of the story desperately needs (the adults really don't do much in the book until the finale). I would like to see that built into any adaptation.

Another really good thing in the book is the relationships between the kids. Aside from Mike, who's introduced to the Losers Club shockingly late, the kids feel like...kids interacting with each other and facing down something bigger than them. There's a genuine aspect to them that goes beyond the often poorly written dialogue from King. The secret to King's success is always his characters, and IT is a good example of that.

I also find the history of Derry to be interesting, Mike's research tracing back in time the different awful history of the town that is Its bloody trail, mostly told through oral histories he picks up from the older members of the town. It's not something that's easy to dramatize, working better in a literary form than a cinematic one, but it's something I'd want to see in an adaptation.

However, talking about good things, one must also mention the bad things. As previously mentioned, the dialogue is generally not good. No need to keep that for the sake of loyalty to the source. Stan is largely a non-character. The adults don't have a lot to do. Both adult and child sections have long stretches that are little more than loosely connected horror vignettes that end with the characters involved getting away. Having that happen repeatedly makes the monster chasing them far less scary, no matter how gross the vignettes can get (emblematic of King's tendency to just write in circles until he eventually found something like a point). The ending is a disappointment with the Lovecraftian terror that is IT ultimately just being a big spider. Also...getting out of the sewers is just...wrong.

So, in terms of adaptation, there's a lot to sort through. What choices did the two make?

Television

The biggest thing that television series tries to port from the book is the structure. Well, sort of. The television series works best in the first hour or so when it does do the jumping back and forth from the adults to their memories as children. However, because the television movie was broken into two parts to play over two nights, the first one has to end with a climax and denouement, so Wallace chose to show how the children defeated the eponymous monster at the end of the first episode. One of the points in the book where the cross-cutting of timelines works best is when King is cross-cutting during the competing confrontations with It across the two timelines. It's a tense way to deliver the information on the two events as they feed into each other with, essentially, different characters going through the same space at different times. It works really well. Isolating the child and adult confrontations with It robs the two events of that supplementary quality.

Regarding structure, that decision also makes the second episode...really weird. The children's story is finished, but the adults are still digging up memories and marching towards their own confrontation with It. So, that means that we're getting a bunch of memories, like Bev's moment with the blood in the bathroom sink, well after we've watched the kids defeat It. The decision is very bizarre, and it deflates the second half even more than the overall focus on the adults who are generally not that interesting and don't do much but wander around, experience horror vignettes, and eventually find their way into the sewers. Highlighting the adult section by letting it stand on its own is a mistake.

The medium of network television also prevented Wallace from getting too deep into the horror that King described in often vivid detail, so things like Richie facing the werewolf end up feeling a bit tame. Scary enough for network television, but not much else. This isn't helped at all by the rather cheap budget and short filming time which creates a very flat visual look to almost everything, death to most horror. It ends up being a fairly literal adaptation, making few major changes, condensing heavily, trying to keep focus on the characters, and eliminating the vast majority of small side characters that King populated the book with.

Being fairly literal, though, it retains a lot of what makes the book frustrating to me, namely the feeling of random vignettes in a row. Kid/adult encounters It. Kid/adult gets scared. Kid/adult runs away without getting touched. I think it works slightly better here, though, because it just doesn't take as long as in the book which is two separate sections of a solid 100 pages each that does the same thing that the series does in a few minutes. It also retains King's disappointing ending where he reveals It in Its full form, and it's a giant spider. I mean, King spends a lot of time calling It this otherworldly, eternal thing, but he doesn't have the imagination to even imply some truly alien form. He settles with "the closest thing they can come up with is a giant spider" before he ends up calling it "the giant spider" for the rest of the section. So, the film just puts a giant spider in its finale. What doesn't work in the book doesn't work in the TV movie.

Overall, the TV adaptation is a very literal adaptation that makes plenty of changes to fit the story into the medium of network television movie. It makes some curious changes to the structure while trying to retain some of it, but ultimately it's a safe work that retains more issues from the book than tries to fix them.

Feature Film(s)

The assortment of production companies (including New Line Cinema, who funded a three-part adaptation of The Lord of the Rings before the first one was even fully written) would only fund an adaptation of IT one at a time. So, they made the first part, released it, took in the cash, and then greenlit the second part. So, this led to major structural changes, especially in the first part, and I think it requires treating to two separately to some degree.

Chapter One


The biggest choice that Andy Muschietti made regarding the adaptation is keeping the children's story wholly contained in the first part. If one were to split the original novel into two halves, between the tales of children and adults, it's the children's story that works best independently. The adult section is so intimately tied to the children's section, King playing (not entirely successfully) with the idea of memory in the adult section that it cannot stand alone. The children's section is fodder for its own telling, and that's what Muschietti does.

The biggest difference between the feature film's treatment of the material and the television adaptation of this part of the book is the overall approach to cinematic storytelling. The TV adaptation feels like a book adaptation. The feature film feels like a movie. It still retains much of the issues with the book, but scenes aren't quite as choppily put together, and the whole thing actually looks like a movie instead of a cheap TV production. I mean...I appreciate that. There's also this effort to make the series of horror vignettes feel more impactful and spread out rather than in a row, like the adaptation largely maintained. It ends up retaining a lot of the events of the film like Eddie encountering the Leper, for instance, but because they're spread out and spaced out better than the book, it's less obvious that it's just a series of close calls. It's interesting, though, that there's no werewolf. It's very prominent in the book, and even the TV adaptation included it.

And the werewolf isn't in it because Pennywise the Clown gets far more attention than even the book gives it. Pennywise is the most prominent form of It in the book, but he's far from a majority. He's more like a prominent plurality. The rest is largely dedicated to the Mummy and the Werewolf with a smattering of other things all over the place (like the insane bully's dead friends guiding him in the adult section), but the most prominent scene of It with the group of kids outside the finale has It being in the form of the werewolf (when they all go to the rundown house). This means that It is in only one form when it scares the children: a clown.

The Pennywise shape is explicitly done to lure kids in close to then feed on them. And then, the film has him be a source of terror in that form too. It's both, but those are mutually exclusive things. That leads to these amped up terror moments when Pennywise shuffles forward fast with his head jerking about as the only way to scare things. And that's kind of how the whole film approaches horror: big and obvious. There's no tension. It's mostly just big scary noises. It's more of a general approach to horror in film in the 2010s, but it's a difference in adaptation from the source. It's something that irks me, not because it's different, but because that type of horror is not scary, I don't think.

Another change is that they give the kids a more personal motive to go into the sewers to face It in the form of It kidnapping Bev. They have to come back together after a fight (not in the books) to save their best friend, and it even gives us a moment where It demonstrates why he scares kids instead of how King does it: giving It a handful of chapters late where It essentially explains itself.

In terms of adaptation, I think Chapter One is the best of the three. Not the most faithful, but the one that does the job best of moving the story from one medium to the next.

Chapter Two


And...then we get to the adult section. The adult section in the book is just not that robust. The adults receive the calls from Mike. They leave their lives to go to Derry (or not, in Stan's case). They meet at the Chinese restaurant and bond again. And then Mike...has them wander Derry for an afternoon to recover more memories, or something, which leads to the horror vignettes. Afterwards, they meet at the library, talk some more, one gets attacked by the old bully Henry Bowers, and they have to go down to the sewers two short instead of at full power with seven. For half of a 1200 page book, it's not a lot of story.

A nearly 3-hour movie about this is going to go very thin, and Muschietti made the choice to do what the TV adaptation did: input childhood memories into the story when the childhood section is already complete. This time they invent things not in the book, though, which is...whatever. It's nice to see the clubhouse appear, I guess. This really feels like an attempt to pump up runtime so that the producers could call the finished product "epic".

Anyway, the film actually moves through the reunion pretty quickly, and leaving us with a lot of time to focus on the dispersal across Derry. However, Muschietti comes up with an actual reason: The Ritual of Chud. The Ritual of Chud was in the book, but it was more about locking eyes with It and making it laugh, a facade for facing down this thing of fear and making it clear that you're not afraid of it. The film introduces busyness to collect mementos from the adults' childhood to burn in an old Native American urn for reasons. I mean...it's really just a fetch quest of dubious use, but it's something other than, "Just go, we'll meet up later."

That does create the series of vignettes again, and it's where the film suffers the most. The reappearance of the kids' storylines ends up creating new events where the kids faced off with It, and they're aligned with the adults' encounters. So, we're getting double encounters with It where we know that the people will survive...for more than an hour. It drags. The movie drags badly.

The confrontation with It in the end is much, much longer in the film than it is in the book, with each adult going into hallucinations from their past with Pennywise taunting them. At least Muschietti was determined to not just do a giant spider. We do get Pennywise's head on a giant spider with a heavier emphasis on the Dead Lights (from the book, but also present in the first feature film) that implies It being something bigger and more menacing than just a scary monster. I mean, the whole third act drags out way too long, but at least there's a real attempt at making the spider a mask for something more, though King's own description was that the spider form was It unmasked.

Choices


I've gone long, so let's wrap this up...

It used to be that film was seen as this idealized form for a story in popular culture, that every great book needed to become a movie. That has shifted over the past decade or so where everyone wants their favorite book to be a long miniseries like Game of Thrones. And yet...imagine Jaws as a 10 part miniseries instead of the tight 2-hour film that Spielberg put out in the 70s.

Anyway, my point is that IT doesn't need a 25-hour adaptation on Prime, or whatever. It needs, at most, 5-6 hours. You don't need to spend pages of the pseudo-intellectualizing by 10-year old characters. You don't need the series of repetitive horror vignettes. Heck, I don't think you need all of the characters (Stan, in particular, could get cut pretty easily, and I think there's an argument for combining Mike and Ben).

That being said, the two adaptations, purely from the angle of the task of adaptation, are not bad. They retain the core of the book (the kids and their relationships). They retain a lot of events from the book. They ultimately feel like they belong in their own medium instead of being awkward attempts in the wrong one (this is how I view Pet Semetary). The most loyal would be the television adaptation. The best of them is probably Chapter One (though I don't think I'd quite call it good). The most improved is honestly Chapter Two because the adult section of the book is such a wet fart for a long stretch, and at least the ending of the movie works decently.

They all make choices. They all change things. Some big things get changed a whole lot. A whole host of smaller things get changed (Ben being the historian of Derry instead of Mike feels like a crime against Mike). The choices are subjective. The source is flawed. The flaws come through. Some are fixed sometimes, but they're often just left along, translated into the new medium uncritically.

Anyway, I'm done. That's enough. It was an interesting thought experiment. I think the end result is as messy and cluttered as King's original novel.

Sorry about that.

Movies of Today

Opening in Theaters:

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Mufasa: The Lion King

Movies I Saw This Fortnight:

The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Rating 1.5/4) Full Review "Anyway, it's generally not that funny. The plot doesn't really work. The special effects and production design are really good." [Library]

D.C. Cab (Rating 0.5/4) Full Review "He ends up creating this slog of a film that never comes together, never entertains, and never engages." [Library]

St. Elmo's Fire (Rating 1/4) Full Review "Joel Schumacher really wanted to be the Robert Altman for Gen-X, didn't he?" [Library]

The Lost Boys (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "I mean, I sort of get its enduring appeal. It's pretty fun, but it's also frustrating at the same time." [Library]

Flatliners (Rating 2/4) Full Review "So, I didn't hate it, despite my long list of narrative grievances targeted at its script. Schumacher is a largely unimaginative director, unable to take the material from Filardi and take it in a direction more interesting, but he makes the most of what's on the page." [Library]

Dying Young (Rating 0.5/4) Full Review "This movie is trash. It was approached poorly by Schumacher and then fixed badly by him after test screenings." [Library]

Batman Forever (Rating 0.5/4) Full Review "So, no, I don't like this movie at all. It's really bad. I do appreciate the visual look of the film, which is pretty consistently interesting, but it's far from enough to get me through even singular scenes much less the whole thing. Really, this is the worst Batman live-action film." [Personal Collection]

Batman & Robin (Rating 1.5/4) Full Review "Is this fun? Some childish part of me doesn't hate it, but it's poorly written, poorly performed, and kind of dumb. It might be some of the closest I get to ironically enjoying a film because I don't enjoy it." [Personal Collection]

Contact

Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.

My next post will be on 1/11, and it will be about the directed works of Joel Schumacher.

Close it up

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Even though it is arguably religion, college football is fair game. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants are optional.

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Gifts, cards, decorations, nativities, food, stockings, advent calendars, ornaments, etc. Anything you make or fashion for Christmas or Hanukkah is eligible. What are you crafting? What have you crafted in the past that was memorable? Do you make gifts for others? Are you guilty of taking on projects that involve a last minute push to complete? Do you make your own decorations? Do you have friends, neighbors or relatives that are noteworthy for their holiday crafting?

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Top photo: when the Germans say that their Nutcrackers are handmade, they mean it. Good history on Nutcrackers here from Atlas Obscura.

Nutcracker Museum Website in German. Worth a visit if you are in the area.

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Yum!

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Crafty goodies from German Christmas Markets:

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How cookie cutters are made:

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Piper sent photos of two different Buche de Noels and a box of cupcakes.

I make the meringue mushrooms and I made the little mouse. My mom had a decorative saw that I hope I can get my hands on next time I visit my stepfather. The ornaments on the cupcakes are made out of white chocolate that I hand painted with edible paint to make them look metallic. The silver hangers are marzipan with edible glitter.

Yum! Thank you!

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TRex is not wise in the ways of making cookies and is generally banned from the kitchen. However, it is great to see that the holiday theme includes those of the dinosaur persuasion. (Hat tip: Iris)

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YouTube has many 3D printing videos for Christmas. Picked this one at random based mostly on the snowmen and custom gift boxes:

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Old school 3D. More elaborate than snowflakes TRex made as a youth, but these look great:

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Looking for a White Elephant gift? The Hobby Thread has you covered. Some assembly required:

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What is a White Elephant gift and why is is called a White Elephant?

Wikipedia describes a White Elephant as a party game where amusing and impractical gifts are exchanged during festivities. The goal of a white elephant gift exchange is to entertain party goers rather than to give or acquire a genuinely valuable or highly sought item.

White Elephants are common among office parties but calibrate your gift ideas with the correct degree of irreverence in your office culture.

Where does the term White Elephant come from? Wikipedia says the phrase comes from the historic practice of the King of Siam (now Thailand) giving rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him, so that they might be ruined by the upkeep costs. The story is likely more legend than fact, given that albino elephants are rare, valuable and sacred. Short answer? No idea.

Here is the part that TRex did not know until doing research for the thread: Other names for White Elephant include Dirty Santa, Yankee Swap, Shifty Santa, Bad Santa, the Grinch Game, Thieving Elves, Snatchy Christmas Rat, Cutthroat Christmas, Redneck Santa, Machiavellian Christmas, Kamikaze Gift Exchange and Bastard Secret Santa.

Snatchy Christmas Rat?? Kamikaze gift exchange? Dirty Santa? Huffington Post says so. Which means nothing, so looking to the Horde for your knowledge.

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From PA Dutchman:

Photos of my finished 1/35 Willys MB. I will be giving it to my dad for Christmas. He served in Company L, 3/34, part of the 24th Infantry Division in Korea and it is only in the last few years that he has begun to talk about his experiences. So I wanted to do something special to honor his service and sacrifice.

Outstanding. Thank you for sharing!

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Snickerdoodles from Lurker NorCal Sierra Nevada Foothills:

Yum! Thank you!

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Christmas ornaments from Lirio100:

I have made Christmas ornaments on and off for years, but I usually make them to give away, My sister sent me a picture a couple of weeks ago because she has some questions about ones I had made her (the ornaments in a row). I have no idea now why I thought it was a good idea to send Valentine hearts for Christmas ornaments!

The other picture is a cross stitch ornament I did keep, along with a hanging. The third ornament is in progress (yes, a very late start) that will be a Christmas tree in the center of a small hanging. I'm making two for my daughter and daughter in law.

Thank you!

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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week with a theme of toys and games? The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Someone mentioned Chinese Checkers last week. TRex saw a set (metal playing board and marbles) in good condition at an antique store today with a price tag of $36. It stayed at the antiques store.

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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 Christmas or Hanukkah crafting is not your thing and you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different hobby next time. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com All Christmas items are 60 percent off (exclusions apply).

Close it up

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A good reminder that it is easy to get over-stimulated this time of year:

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Who wants stuffed toys?

Rescue beavers want stuffed toys.

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Be sure to "turn the pages".

I love this teacher 😹🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/VI3x2RVQAg

— Puchy Catto (@PuchyCatto) December 17, 2024

Best regards from Jerusalem,

Biden's Dog

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This lovely moment of tenderness. pic.twitter.com/BPtfswJfSG

— Figen (@TheFigen_) December 19, 2024

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Meet The PetMorons

These are Sangria and Rooney, both Maine Coon cats. Sangria (the black/gray) is two and a half years old, and she is just over sixteen and half pounds. Rooney, my orange himbo, is a year and a half, and twenty pounds. The table they are sitting on is bone of contention between the two. Sangria considers it hers but Rooney wants to be near her. She likes to sprawl full length on it but he gets up on a corner of it and nudges her until they both are sitting up on it together. The size difference is not due to forced perspective, he really is that much bigger than her. She is rather compact while he is rangy with long legs. (the green blob is a grandchild's Squashmallow picture).

Lirio100

What a pair! Thanks for sharing this great photo and the details about the differences between the siblings. Family life!

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Hi KT, it’s Quarter Twenty.

Passing along a note about my friend Charlie’s dog Buddy.

He passed over the Rainbow Bridge this week.

A black lab mix, he was special to me and a group of friends because we meet weekly for what is essentially a house church. And Buddy was always there to revel in the controlled chaos of a bunch of guys trying to prepare some haphazardly planned meal in a tiny kitchen with an abundance of appetizers, snacks and dropped food. Dutifully cleaning the plates before they entered the dishwasher, he would also incessantly lick hands, arms, and exposed knees of anyone within range. Charlie would usually have to explain to newcomers: “Please excuse my dog. He can’t control his licker.” 70 pounds of friendliness, he loved to accompany the group for a post-dinner walk so he could check his pee mail.

Charlie is also a talented photographer and captured this silhouette a few years ago while watching sunset at Shenandoah National Park. Buddy will be sorely missed by all his friends from The Church At Charlie’s House.

I think Buddy qualifies as a PetMoron. So sorry that Charlie, you and all of your group have lost him. What a great photo.

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This is Belle and she is mesmerized by the Christmas lights.

I wish to remain a lurker.

Thanks!

Thank you for sharing the great photo of Belle and the lights! She's an example to us all of the possibilities of appreciation.

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PetMoron Adjacent Animals
Encountered by Members of The Horde

Great Egret, tired of my shenanigans.

By-Tor

Wonderful action photo! We recently had egrets and cranes hanging out locally, but they have moved south for the winter. Nice to see that By-Tor can still photograph one in Southern California.

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Thank you for sharing your pets, photos and pet wit and wisdom with us.

If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:

petmorons at protonmail dot com

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Until next Saturday, have a great week!

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If you start feeling nostalgic, here a link to last week's Pet Thread, the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, December 14.

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

Close it up

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The second amaryllis above looks similar to one type grown to bloom in spring outdoors by Neal in Israel.

He got a lot of blooms from one bulb! Glorious.

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It's Winter Solstice Today

Is Winter Solstice the beginning of winter?

History, folklore, verse and weather forecasts at the link.

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Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Starting to feel like you've already had too much rich holiday food? Turning toward salads? Tomatoes have been pretty awful around here - even those grown in greenhouses. Have you had any good experiences? We've had some good avocados and some bad ones.

We should probably talk again about endive and escarole - classical winter greens.

How about some old-fashioned lettuces, or some newer ones bred for dramatic color or climate adaptation? Get out those catalogs.

Tom Thumb is 150 years old. A miniature Bibb/Butterhead type. My Mom and I used to take a bottle of vinegar and a salt shaker out into the garden to munch on it.

Little Gem is another old single-serving sized lettuce.

Cos. This is a very small, green romaine type. One of the very best tasting lettuces we’ve encountered. A superb heat-tolerant variety that is sure to please! Famous among chefs and home gardeners alike!

Merveille de Quatre Saisons

Bibb/Butterhead. Translating to “The Marvel of Four Seasons,” this famous French butterhead is a standard for flavor and quality! A true marvel both in the kitchen and the vegetable patch. A pre-1885 heirloom; crisp and tender. The fine flavored leaves have a reddish color, and it can be grown almost year round in many locations. The ruby-rose leaves form a distinctly attractive rosette head, but can also be enjoyed as young baby greens.

30-48 days to maturity (30 for baby greens)

Devil's Ear

Leaf. Originally Devil’s Ear comes from Abundant Life Seed Foundation. It has very large, spreading, loose-leaf heads. Leaves are large, wavy-margined, and suffused in burgundy. We love its nutty, crisp texture and bitter-free flavor. Slow to bolt, and it stands a very long time in the garden.

This may be one of those lettuces from which you can cut the outer leaves and leave the center ones for the next week.

Merlot

Leaf. Reputed to be absolutely the darkest red lettuce in existence, making it tops for anthocyanin (antioxidant) content as well! Leaf lettuce with wavy to frilly leaf margins and very crisp, waxy leaves! Excellent bolt resistance, and good cold tolerance for a late fall to winter crop. Recommended as a cutting type for baby greens production or cut-and-come-again harvesting. We feel, along with our friend William Woys Weaver, that this variety is destined to become a classic, and it certainly deserves it! A rich source of potassium and vitamin A.

What is your favorite type of lettuce? Do you prefer a single type or a mix?

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Cut Flower

Are you giving anyone flowers for Christmas? This one, or a relative, might be included:

Star of Bethlehem

How long since you have read a South African gardening magazine? I have met some people who are really dedicated to protecting the plants of this region.

Ornithogalum thyrsoides - Chincherinchee, Tjienk, Star of Bethlehem

Chincherinchees or ‘tjienks’ belong to the genus Ornithogalum and are members of the Hyacinth family that includes indigenous garden favourites like Eucomis, Lachenalia and Veltheimia.

There are more than 120 species of Ornithogalum and the name is derived from the Greek words ornis and gala, meaning ‘bird-like’ and ‘white’ respectively. In Roman times, bird’s milk was used to describe anything special or admirable.

Ornithogalums have a disjunctive distribution in Africa, the Middle East, southern Europe and western Asia, but most species occur in Southern Africa – mainly in the winter rainfall regions of the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape. There are also a number of summer-growing and evergreen species such as Ornithogalum Saundersiae (Giant Chincherinchee) and Ornithogalum Longibracteatum (Pregnant Onion).

There's a lot more information about the plants than you see in most American gardening magazines. More at the link. Blooms may last 6 weeks when cut. The plant is very poisonous. Don't you love the name "Chincherinchee"?

"Ornithogalum Thyrsoides is seen to great advantage when grown in rock garden pockets inter-planted with the mauve, late spring-flowering annual, Senecio Elegans (Wild Cineraria)."

The latter is recognized as a potentially invasive weed in coastal sand dunes in California.

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Puttering

Super-puttering with friends and family

Something fun for the kids in a little city:

Want to take a Magic Elevator ride to the North Pole? Ten months ago I approached the City . . about a special project I had in mind. Inspired by a video I had seen about an attraction in a mall in Canada. .

With a budget to buy materials, I got started. I had to build the magical elevator, Santa's Workshop, and design the computer program that would take the families to see Santa. The journey starts by a greeting from Santa's elf, step into the elevator, and the journey begins. When you arrive at Santa's house, you ring the doorbell and Santa is there to greet you.

I have never worked on anything of this magnitude and there were times I just didn't think I could get it done. . .

A special thank you to so many people who helped out.

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Adventure

Thread of the world's most beautiful towns and villages at Christmas 🧵

1. Locorotondo, Italy pic.twitter.com/Nnw7LUL3yt

— James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) December 20, 2024

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Gardens of The Horde

Hi Katy,

Just back from some early winter maintenance at our vacation home in northern Israel. The gardener was at work the other day and managed to save some birds of paradise for Mrs. BD to take back home to Jerusalem.

Regards from Jerusalem,

Biden's Dog

A fascinating flower. It's the City Flower of Los Angeles.

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From Don in Kansas:

While most of the yard is dormant, one of the daffodils got the dates mixed up and is blooming now. Unless the temperature gets extremely cold soon, I should have flowers in the garden for Christmas.

What a happy Christmas gift!

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Hope everyone has a nice weekend and a lovely Christmas and Hanukkah.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure 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.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Dec. 14. Check the late comments you may have missed.

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

Close it up

Imagine taking budgeting into consideration when designing university programs.

First, I am sure that if the Trump Administration cuts off NSF and other federal funding for university social sciences and humanities, the campus whiners won’t call it “astonishing.” They’ll call it “genocide.”

Remind you of anything going on in the USA right now?

Hayward also got curious and looked up the bio of a professor quoted by Science because of her interest in the importance of social sciences to New Zealand’s economy and “social cohesion.”

Read her research accomplishments and interests at the link. She seems to be fascinated by the concept of "nation", especially with regard to Northern Ireland, and she has been concerned about pre-9/11 stereotypes of Irish terrorists. One could imagine by trying really hard how that research could improve the social cohesion and economy of New Zealand for certain people. But can she show us her data?

How about her other interests? Does studying them improve social cohesion and the economy? Where are the data?

She has a PhD from Stanford, so there may be some professors pretty much like her stateside. And some who are more feisty and disagreeable. There is an appealing photo of her at the link if you're into professors who are into cosplay.

Students are not being well-educated at our current universities pretty much anywhere in the West. Got any suggestions for federal or state authorities, or donors here in the USA?

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There are some distinctive elements to transportation in New Zealand. They reportedly have only a couple of remaining train/road bridges. Always let the train go first. But they still have quite a few one-lane bridges on two-way roads. Friends who visited New Zealand this summer sometimes found them to be quite unexpected. How do you think these bridges affect social cohesion and the economy of New Zealand? Any classes about them in universities?

Is New Zealand ready for self-driving cars for immigrants?

Do you think China has any thoughts about those one-way bridges, since they think of New Zealand as within their Circle of Influence?

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Weekend

Steven Hayward's The Week in Pictures: Droning On and On

The droneswarm has only intensified over the last week. And that’s just in New Jersey. On Capitol Hill, the spending drones have suddenly hit some electronic interference in the form of Elon Musk, and boy are they hopping mad about it. Imagine—a billionaire not named Soros or Bloomberg having the audacity to get involved in politics! And media drones such as George Stephanopoulos and Chris Cillizza are losing altitude fast.

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Some specifics about an issue which has been in the news lately in a number of contexts. Roman rewards for families with 3 or more children?

The fall of Rome is widely misunderstood.

It wasn't invasion, disease or famine that truly brought it to its knees.

Rome collapsed because the birth rate did… (thread) 🧵 pic.twitter.com/IxbMVp69hv

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) December 17, 2024

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Music

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, Sydney Opera House

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Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

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Last week's thread, December 14, Happy Bill of Rights Weekend

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

Close it up

*****

Could there be a Mystery Click? You'll just have to explore.

Good morning Horde and welcome to the Classical Saturday Coffee Break and Prayer Revival. As we approach Christmas The Fabulous and I wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas.

Now before we enter the Prayer Revival there are just a few housekeeping matters to take care of. (Rulz for those of you at the North Pole)

1) This is an open thread. Please feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate away.
2) Be kind, be nice. No jumping on the furniture and no open flames by the Christmas tree.
3) Running with sharp objects could impact your consumption of eggnog and fruitcake, be careful.
4) Have a great weekend.

AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List

Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo atsign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.

Prayer Requests:

11/8 – Jim in Kalifornia could use prayers. He was scheduled for laparoscopic surgery to clean abscess(es) and add a drain.
11/16 Update – Jim was released from the hospital on 11/12. He still has the drain, is on 2 antibiotics and an antifungal for another 12 days. His anti-rejection regimen was reduced to allow him to fight the infection(s), but at a potential risk to the transplanted kidney.
12/7 Update – Jim is hospitalized again with sepsis again. His blood pressure has slumped again and his heart rate is too high. Also, the drain in his abdomen is not working.
12/11 Update – Jim had surgery, and the doctors removed “a couple of feet” of his small intestine and resected the large. Jim will be living with a colostomy bag for 6 months.

11/23 – Jewells sent an update. She has been taking ivermectin for 2 weeks, and the only side effect is extreme fatigue.
12/7 Update – Please keep praying. The past few weeks have been bad. Jewells is in a lot of pain. The bone lesions are spreading in her arms and rib cage. She is supposed to start radiation Wednesday, and is waiting to hear about a permanent drain to be put in her lungs.
12/14 Update – The drain was put in on 12/11. She was supposed to receive a sedative and medication for pain while they worked, and she received nothing. She felt everything and it hurt like hell. It also hurts when it is being drained, and that is daily for the first week. She has a great home health nurse coming in now, and she has shown Jewell’s daughter and husband how to do it.

11/30 – Tonypete offered prayers of thanksgiving - #4 son and his wife have announced the (estimated) May arrival of their first baby. They are all so thrilled.

11/30 – PabloD asked for prayers. He is currently on a two-week heart monitor and waiting for more tests. They are not sure what’s wrong. He is praying for favorable results, or at least a clear answer as to what the problem may be.

11/30 – DiddlySquat requested prayers. After doing his normal weighted leg lifts, his foot went numb, with pain down his calf. He’s had constant pain and many sleepless nights for the last 6 weeks. He’s finally scheduled for a nerve test EMG.

11/30 – Megthered asked for prayers for her son-in-law. He had stepped on a nail, and it became infected. They took him to the hospital, and they did surgery to try and save his foot.

11/30 – W offered the following prayer, as a follow up on the election:
“Almighty and most merciful father, we thank thee for the great blessing you have heaped on the citizens of the United States. We thank the Lord for protecting President Trump from the assassin’s bullet. We thank the Lord for providing a fair and just election, and for the great electoral victory which you have granted us. We offer thanks for your guidance during the electoral contest, and humbly beseech thee to continue providing each of us and our leaders with courage and guidance so that we might crush the wickedness of the swamp and establish justice and moral rectitude in the United States.”

12/7 – Hrothgar sends continued prayers for future president Trump, to keep him safe from harm and that the many forces of corruption and evil arrayed against both him and our country be made ineffective and come to naught!

12/6 – Fenelon Spoke requested prayers. She was in the hospital, after having gotten sick while out with friends. She didn’t end up having to stay the night; tests showed she was dehydrated and had a UTI.

12/7 – Our Country Is Screwed asked for prayers. Just as his daughter completed her cancer treatment (and is now cancer free, praise be to God), he has been diagnosed with cancer as well. More tests are needed, but the biopsy was malignant. What is supposed to be a season of joy is once again dampened by cancer.

12/7 – Grammie Winger updated that Rev is scheduled to have a colostomy reversal in January. Thanks be to God.

12/7 – Jordan61 requested prayers for his mother, who is going in for a CAT scan. Mom has been coughing and congested ever since she caught a cold in August. They have done antibiotics, etc. since, and a chest X-ray revealed something that caused the doctor to recommend an urgent CAT scan.
12/14 Update – The CAT scan showed she had pneumonia. They gave her antibiotics (fourth round) and are continuing with prednisone. If this doesn’t work she will have to see a lung specialist.

12/7 – rhennigantx asked for prayers for his friend Mike, who lost his best friend of 50 years.

12/10 – Village Idiot’s Apprentice requested prayers for his father, who had a major stroke on 12/9, with not a good prognosis.
12/14 Update – His father has entered hospice. He is only expected to last a few days.
12/19 Update – His father was called home to be with God at about 1 am. It is so bittersweet to know that he is no longer here, but yet already at the side of God.

12/10 – Tonypete asked for prayers for his buddy, Larry, whose mother passed away during the night. This is after Larry’s wife passed away last year. Larry is having a tough time.

12/10 – Nurse Ratched asked for a prayer for Marine. He was in a motorcycle accident yesterday. He’s got a broken nose and arm, but no spinal injuries or concussion.

12/11 – Lady in Black requested prayers for her dad. He’s 89, in declining health, and suffers from mild dementia. Lady in Black’s dad’s wife of 45 years died on 12/3. Dad is lost without her and very sad. His dementia challenges are making it even worse. Prayers for his mental and physical well-being during the time would be greatly appreciated.

12/11 – Teresa in Fort Worth has had her second round of chemo, and it went well. Thanks to God for that! Also, the anti-nausea meds are working very well for her. (We have been praying for Teresa for a couple of months, as she found she had bile duct cancer, which had metastasized into her liver. It is very rare and very serious. She hopes for at least 12 months more to live, with chemo and surgery and prayers.)

12/12 – Cybersmythe is supposed to have outpatient surgery on 12/16, but he got an abnormal ECG. He’s asking for prayers for the best of all possible outcomes.

12/12 – Bulg asked for general prayers for himself and his family.

12/14 – Dash my Lace Wings asked for prayers. She has had chronic hip pain for years, but it has really started to affect her mobility. The MRI showed torn tendons. She is going to try platelet-rich-plasma injections to stimulate healing, in lieu of surgery. That will happen in January. Please pray that the tendons are healed and that she might have reduced pain for a few years, and not have to have more expensive surgery. Thank you. Also, if anyone has had this treatment, what is your opinion of it?

12/14 – About That Time asked for prayers for a daughter who is trying to give them a second grandchild. The daughter lost a baby in early October, and is pregnant again. Prayers for success are appreciated.

12/14 – Commissar Hrothgar would appreciate a prayer or two for Tim, an acquaintance from Southern Virginia. He apparently dodged a deer while driving, but went off the road into a ditch, jamming the driver’s side door, and then the car caught on fire. Amazingly, there was an ongoing house fire nearby, so the fire department EMTs saw the flames and were somehow able to extract him from the car. However, he suffered severe burns on his hands and legs. He is already receiving skin grafts on his hands and legs and will be in a bad way for some time.

12/14 – Sock Monkey asked for prayers for Publius. His cousin passed away suddenly on 12/13.

12/14 – Sharon (willow’s apprentice) could use some prayers. She had a CT scan of her hip, and may be headed toward a hip replacement. She is not worried about the surgery, which probably will improve her life, but is concerned about the loss of autonomy during recovery.

12/14 – Duke Lowell asked for prayers for his father, who was taken to the hospital 12/13 in respiratory distress. They are thinking it’s an infection, but he’s 87, and at that age anything can be serious.

12/16 – Teresa in Fort Worth requested prayers for Paul’s niece, Amanda, who had a heart transplant 4 years ago. Now her body has started to reject it. She needs another miracle.

12/17 – Bulg asked for prayers that he would find a job soon.

12/18 – neverenoughcaffeine could use prayers. She has 3 minor medical issues. One she can ignore, but the other 2 are causing loads of pain and discomfort. They may be related. She is praying that her ortho doctor has an answer for both.

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.

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Tech News

• For consumer hardware, it's not achieving much. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  AI PCs just aren't selling. That is, people are buying PCs, and some of them are labeled "AI", but nobody is buying a PC because it is labeled "AI".
  
  Notable Qualcomm's sales of its new Arm-based Windows laptops can be best described as meh.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile here's an M.2 card that contains a 24 TOPS AI accelerator. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  More precisely, four 6 TOPS accelerators.
  
  Why? I don't know. But it costs $149, which is reasonable if you need one.
  
  
  
• How types make hard problems easy. (Mayhul)
  
  Yes, thank you. We figured this out sixty years ago. Then JavaScript happened.
  
  
  

Disclaimer: Posted slightly early because I'm going out to dinner. There may be pizza.

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Fido Friday: Firsty

pic.twitter.com/ERf9L6syrI

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 21, 2024

Feel good story

I think maybe he was high

Cool

pic.twitter.com/a4sIDYfflz

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 21, 2024

ND

Obamacare

The universe has a sense of humor

pic.twitter.com/pkABfHxLW1

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 21, 2024

Christmas cartoon

True 'nuff

Build a better rattrap, and the world will beat a path to your door

pic.twitter.com/OAfrrg5gKu

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 21, 2024

Unsocial Media

Man-aging a bad situation

I'm speechless

OMFG! I try (and fail) not to be profane, but OH MY FUCKING GOD!
Coach: We need a theme for the halftime show
Cheer coach: 9/11?
Coach: You son of a bitch, I'm in! pic.twitter.com/xM7fs8Geb6

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 20, 2024

SMDH

75% chance she fucked him. Maybe 85. No doubt in my mind.

Villians

Woman moment

pic.twitter.com/MZrgaDiZk1

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 20, 2024

Christmas service

Hard to argue

When you're grown up you can recycle this bit when you're working blue

pic.twitter.com/5TimW5Tg1a

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf) December 20, 2024

BUFF

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by conspiracy theorists:

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This is not a horse. Bro is riding a Mythical Beast. pic.twitter.com/aa9YtZTC8g

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 17, 2024

This is strange and creepy. Fits in with the "giant" theme, though:

Ice skating skates
pic.twitter.com/QLw5Ydl9ff

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) December 20, 2024

It's like one of those Interdimensional Cable shows they watch on Rick and Morty.

Hello, we're from the State Snausage Pick-Up Service...

He brought a friend home.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/B14dlFyUlV

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) December 20, 2024

Happy tails!

These shelter dogs pick out their own Christmas toys! 😊

🎥 IG: heschatt
Humane Educational Society, Chattanooga, TN pic.twitter.com/v1pGOQ2ST4

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) December 20, 2024

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🚨 A father rips into the Vista Unified School District Board after students at Rancho Buena Vista High School in California were put through an activist-séance during school hours.

“I don’t think this assignment should ever be taught to children. It does not do anything other… pic.twitter.com/Pz86QtYo4f

— rooted.wings (@BrittRooted) December 18, 2024

Illegals with foreign flags protest Trump, Border Czar Homan at ICE facility (Los Angeles) pic.twitter.com/Rc5fyu2lCs

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 19, 2024

Robby Starbuck @robbystarbuck

Big news: Nissan is ending a number of woke policies today. I can now exclusively tell you what's changing and how it happened.

Weeks ago I informed execs at @NissanUSA @nissan that I was doing a story on wokeness there. Instead we had productive conversations about how to fix this.

Below are the changes they committed to:

* Surveys: Nissan will no longer participate in the HRC's woke Corporate Equality Index nor will they participate in any 3rd party survey that has a political activism angle.

* Funding for events: Nissan will review future funding of events to ensure that sponsorships align with brand standards and business priorities. This means no more funding for Pride events that expose kids to sexually inappropriate content like the San Francisco pride event they sponsored recently which exposed kids to extremely inappropriate content.

* Supplier diversity and hiring: No quotas for hiring, promotions or diverse suppliers. Focus is now on merit and performance.

* Trainings: Nissan will only require training related to the core business going forward. This means no more forced DEI or LGBTQ trainings.

You didn't think I was going to let Christmas come and go without giving @X
the gift of another company changing woke policies, did you?

This list is a bit shorter than other companies we've focused on because Nissan was not as far gone as other companies we've changed but Nissan was important to me because they're one of the top employers in Tennessee and I wanted to get this done for my fellow Tennesseans.

This won't just have a positive impact for their employees who will have a neutral workplace without divisive issues being injected but it will no doubt also extend to their many suppliers dropping woke policies.

We've now changed policy at companies worth well over $2 Trillion dollars, with many millions of employees who have better workplace environments as a result.

Our campaigns are now so effective that we're getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies. Companies can clearly see that America wants normalcy back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are the trend, not the anomaly anymore.

We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America.

If you love what we're doing, subscribe to my X page for $5 a month to help fund our growing team! You can also support us by sending any amount once at this link: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8xC7Qs5uXcSc3cc

If you want to expose your woke workplace, send tips at http://robbystarbuck.com/dei

So far you've helped me change corporate policy at Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Lowe's, Ford, Coors, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniels, DeWalt tools, Craftsman, Caterpillar, Boeing, Toyota, Walmart and now Nissan! We are a force to be reckoned with and we won't stop until wokeness is extinct.

Share to make sure everyone knows this is happening so that we keep this movement growing. Also, feel free to download this video and spread on all platforms.

Link here. Starbuck gives his video summary of this report.

NEW: Democrat Rep. Delia Ramirez says she won't be attending President Trump's inauguration because she's a "brown woman, daughter of immigrants, and I would feel unsafe."

Source: Newsweek pic.twitter.com/zEMGvLgzWX

— Resist the Mainstream (@ResisttheMS) December 18, 2024

The bleachers that she would have sat on emailed me. "We felt even more unsafe," they said. #Prayers4Bleachers

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In Sept. 2022, Biden prompted more concerns when he wondered, "Where's Jackie?" even though she had died over a month ago.

The White House defended Biden as having her "top of mind" which is why he asked the question. pic.twitter.com/BWMLSwaCht

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) December 20, 2024

Weird how they could all admit he was senile when Democrat megadonors began emailing them during the Trump debate, or when Friend of Obama George Clooney said it was okay to admit it.

But before they secured permission from Reid Hoffman and other Democrat billionaires and celebrities? Nope, can't report on it, you need official confirmation from a Democrat official.

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Are we pretending the only way reporters could know Biden was incompetent is by asking his staff?

We observed his incompetence since 2019. https://t.co/M95N5NLVmW

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) December 20, 2024

But everyone on the right could report this without an admission by the White House, because we could see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears. Cillizza is claiming that a reporter cannot report anything he sees himself, unless a high ranking member of the Democrat Cult confirms the report of his own eyes officially.

This says a lot. This tells you what the media's idea of "confirmed story" vs. "conspiracy theory" is: A "confirmed story" is one a Democrat endorses. If no Democrat endorses it, it's a "conspiracy theory."

All claims that hurt Democrats are disinformation and conspiracy theories until they are so obvious to everyone that the media is forced to admit them. Here's "reporter" Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monty informing you that all of your impressions that Biden is frail and incoherent and protected in a Basement Bubble is just "disinfofmation:"

🔥VDH just unleashed on legacy media, the Obamas and the Democrat hierarchy for lying abut Joe Biden’s cognitive state for four years:

"This was the greatest presidential fraud and deception since Woodrow Wilson had a stroke in 1919, and Edith Wilson kept that from the American… pic.twitter.com/3KsUCURE1T

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 20, 2024

* Actually that wasn't in the Five Deadly Venoms, but I know I saw a Shaw Brothers movie (or that type of movie) featuring kung fu artists assembling into human pyramids to fight as some kind of Ninja Voltron. Anyone remember what that movie was? Maybe a sequel to Five Deadly Venoms.

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