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It's stuck

My friend, hoping to find photos of tugboats working on freeing the ship, image-searched “ever given tugs.” She did not receive images of tugboats.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 7:03 PM on March 23, 2021

“That will set us back days at least, because where to leave all those containers will be quite a puzzle.”

I’m sure there’s a reason not to but, could they just stack them on the other end of the ship? I feel like that would make the whole process faster/more effective but I am not a boat surgeon
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 3:54 PM on March 27, 2021

call me when you need

Sometimes I think about how when I started high school less than 20 years ago it was literally illegal to have gay sex in like half the country and then I see something like this and I just. Have a lot of feelings.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 6:19 PM on March 26, 2021

The Indignities and Mediocrity of Brute White Patriarchy

"Everybody" (by which I mean people who pay more than passing attention to local politics, which is not the majority of people) knew he was a shitty bully. Now everybody knows.

Thing is, the whole state has been changing around him politically for several years, and many of the newer state legislators simply don't want to play his games anymore. Even so, he still had this aura of invincibility around him. He's been primaried from the left… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:07 PM on March 12, 2021

The "power corrupts" narrative tends to imply that this kind of shit is inevitable. It takes the blame off Cuomo, where it belongs, and places it on the abstract concept of "power." Screw that. Don't blame the power for his being an asshole. Some people are just assholes, power or no power.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:25 PM on March 12, 2021

I just want to highlight this incident from the New York Magazine article (which is great, really, yall should read it):

In March 2019, Camille Rivera, former political director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who had a cordial — if delicate — relationship with the administration, was growing irritated by what she viewed as Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi’s habit of publicly directing vitriol toward women. When she saw him belittling Andrea… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:41 PM on March 12, 2021

I'm of the mind that we're still not out of the Trump forest, so the NY governorship concerns me as an important issue to protect. Doesn't mean there won't be consequences, it's "justice delayed.." but...I don't know. I just find the timing suspicious and the Trump-risk incredibly high.

1. If Cuomo is pushed out or resigns, he will be replaced by his Democratic lieutenant governor until the next scheduled election. The Attorney General… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 4:10 AM on March 13, 2021

Wasn’t it a woman that said re power corrupts, that power reveals?

Robert Caro, re: LBJ:

Although the cliché says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said, but what is equally true, is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary: to hide traits that might make others reluctant to give him power, to hide also what he wants to do with… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 6:22 AM on March 13, 2021

I will say that he handled the pandemic in New York quite well. His record on that stands, the Nursing Homes issue not withstanding.

That is certainly a version of the story he would like people to believe.

Guardian: Andrew Cuomo is no hero. He's to blame for New York's coronavirus catastrophe.

Atlantic: Democrats gave a hero’s welcome to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo despite his mistake-filled… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 6:59 AM on March 13, 2021

Also: There are two people whose names I cannot recall who are vying for office of Governor of NY State in the upcoming 2022 election. They are both Republicans

Last election, the Republican candidate for governor got around 36% of the vote. Cuomo is not the single bulwark standing between New York State and a Republican takeover. In fact his support of the turncoat coalition of IDC "Democrats" handed control of our legislature to the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 7:03 AM on March 13, 2021

Then you have just as many people saying that Cuomo has not opened fast enough. I'm done commenting on this thread.

I just really am not sure where your info is coming from. Did you know that nine top state health officials quit during the pandemic specifically because of Cuomo's handling of it?

The deputy commissioner for public health at the New York State Health Department resigned in late summer. Soon after, the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 9:18 AM on March 13, 2021

I read that as "I'm comfortable dating women as young as 22."
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 9:44 AM on March 13, 2021

For those saying the pace of the denouncements feels orchestrated - I think it is! It’s just that it’s being orchestrated by Democrats. The denouncements are escalating as the public response has escalated, in a way tailored to grab and maintain media attention. And... fine! Good! Why not use those tools to get rid of a guy who needs to be gotten rid of? That’s politics!

Couple that with historical Democrat wimpiness --… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 3:51 PM on March 13, 2021

Cynthia Nixon had a pretty solid background of activism and advocacy before her run, but there’s another reason she was his only serious primary challenger last time, the same reason it was Occupy-adjacent Zephyr Teachout before that: they were both outsiders to the New York political establishment.

Because the general perception was that, if you were an established Democratic elected official and you tried to primary Cuomo, he would take it very fucking personally and… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:25 AM on March 15, 2021

I do want to point out that “wait to see what the investigation says” is basically what Cuomo has been saying, in opposition to the calls for him to resign now - but yes, this is definitely good news. (And it’s not like Cuomo would ever, ever actually resign without being forced to, the calls for that are rhetoric.)
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:45 AM on March 17, 2021

What matters isn’t whether something is a crime - what matters is whether it’s a crime you have a chance of being convicted of. The NY legislature is actively gunning for Cuomo at this point. That’s not the case in Florida is it?
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 12:54 PM on March 25, 2021

Americanisms are uniquely American thoughts, beliefs, or actions

Date format in the US arrrrrrgh. It's like Fahrenheit in how unique-in-a-bad-way the US is in its usage.

I mean, people (including you in that very post!) are much more likely to say “March 18th, 2021” than “the 18th of March 2021.” We just abbreviate the dates exactly like they’re spoken. You might prefer a strict smallest-unit-to-largest-unit format, but you can’t reasonably claim that the American way doesn’t make sense.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:51 AM on March 18, 2021

But... when you put pizza on a bagel...
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 4:15 PM on March 21, 2021

I just look forward to the day when restaurants in the US can just put "naan" and "chai" on the menu,

Maybe it's just because I live in NYC but, every Indian restaurant I've been to DOES just say naan. TBH in my experience "naan bread" is more of a British-ism than an American-ism!
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 4:17 PM on March 21, 2021

A Trip Down Crooked Old Peanut Brittle Lane

As a kid with a much younger sibling and no neighborhood friends, I would play War with my stuffed animals. Nothing like losing to Raggedy Anne for the ol self esteem.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 12:35 PM on March 19, 2021

"Nevada's Democratic Party belongs to the socialists now."

When you do have 90% of positions in common, it takes an awful lot of being bad at coalition-building to get people to say things like what Donna West is quoted as saying.

Having 90% of stated positions in common is not the same thing as having 90% of actual goals in common, and I do not believe that Democratic politicians (not voters, politicians) actually align 90% with socialists.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 6:02 PM on March 9, 2021

One is forced to conclude that they don’t actually WANT those things.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 4:32 AM on March 10, 2021

When the incoming team says they are going to kick you off the field — or in this case “we were going to fire them all anyway” — not sure if “taking your ball and going home is a choice.

Hold up, where is that quote coming from? Who said the incoming leadership were planning to fire the staffers?
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 8:09 PM on March 10, 2021

I just keep coming back to this story and I still can’t see it any other way than “how dare these pinko bastards have the audacity to run? Don’t they know they’re not allowed?” Like, what were they supposed to do? Leftists are told over and over that splitting off into a third party will destroy the country by handing it to the Republicans, so they must work within the Dem party system - but when they successfully work within the system and actually… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 4:14 AM on March 11, 2021

Government is back: The first 50 days of the Biden-Harris administration

I went to a state school and took only federal loans and have paid over $180 a month for a decade and still owe almost as much as I started with. I just got a new job that barely pays more than unemployment and today I signed up for health coverage which will take an extra $50 a week out of that.

I am 33 and I have given up on the idea of ever having what I once thought of as a normal life. I will be working poor until the day I die if this country does not RADICALLY… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:05 AM on March 9, 2021

My heroes are people like AOC who find a specific and realistic target (a Democrat who does not act to represent their district) and put in the hard work to vote in someone better without overly risking throwing the seat to the other side. Working the margins like that is unsexy stuff, generally, but it's where we'll make the most progress.

I think it’s important to point out that the local Democratic establishment considered AOC a damned loudmouth… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 6:04 AM on March 10, 2021

The State Birds Are Garbage (SLYT)

This whole video was surprisingly gripping! And I’ve long complained that North Carolina’s state bird is bullshit - it’s one of the seven cardinals - but I don’t think I can get on board with the tundra swan as a replacement. That feels like a weird quirk of the model he’s using. We are not exactly lousy with tundra.

I am quite proud though of our state carnivorous plant the Venus flytrap, which is completely endemic to the Carolina coast. Almost everyone who isn’t from… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 7:37 PM on March 2, 2021

Joss was the Vampire.

I worked for a boss who I now definitely feel abused me, but at the time I didn’t see it - because she was also brilliant, and we were doing good work, and I felt Important and Special to be a part of the mission. Other people thought so too, they were impressed when I talked about (the good parts of) my job. So I worked endless 14-hour days and put up with her endless unreasonable demands because at the time they didn’t feel unreasonable. They felt normal. They WERE normal.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 5:07 PM on February 13, 2021

Nicholas Brendon is not mentally well and hasn't been for a long time.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 11:03 AM on February 19, 2021

30 years in, The Silence Of The Lambs’ Jame Gumb still deserves better

A few years ago I read Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs after falling deep down a Hannibal rabbit hole. In Red Dragon, the first book, I was struck by the incredible compassion that the narrative has for its villain Francis Dolarhyde. He is a monstrous, horrifying serial killer, but the book goes into long digressions about his awful twisted upbringing and shows you exactly how a sensitive, innocent child could become this irredeemable killer. It was impressive, and I was looking forward to… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:08 AM on February 17, 2021

There is something to be said, although I'm not sure exactly what, that, what are typically picked as the top horror films, Psycho and Silence of the Lambs, and what is typically picked as the top two comedies, Some Like It Hot, and Tootsie, feature men dressed as women.

Huh. That's... huh.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:38 AM on February 17, 2021

It gets even worse in Hannibal, which has a villain who literally drinks martinis made from the tears of children.

Yeah that book is fucking weird. I wouldn't really recommend it even if you read the first two, unless you're a completionist or you want to compare it to the show or the movie. It goes out of its way to ruin Clarice's life in a way that I found decidedly not fun or earned.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 11:26 AM on February 17, 2021

Hear me out: The Lion, the Wick, and the Wardrobe

I have only seen the first John Wick and I liked it a lot, but I'm surprised that the article says this stuff is subtle in the first movie. To my mind it was incredibly obvious that this was taking place in a fantastical version of the underworld. I mean they have a secret special hotel just for assassins, with elaborate rules that literally everyone agrees to follow! They have their own secret special currency! Who watched John Wick and thought "sure, sounds legit"?
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:15 AM on February 17, 2021

The Secret Society of Lightning Strike Survivors

Horrible that this woman got her worker’s comp taken away because “it sounds like you’re just stressed out.” What an injustice.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 8:33 AM on February 17, 2021

James E. Gunn, 1923-2021

He edited many anthologies, including the six-volume Road to Science Fiction (1979-1998).

I found the first volume of this in a used book store for like four bucks and it was one of the best thrift finds of my life. It goes for stupid amounts online.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 12:21 PM on February 13, 2021

Biden / Harris Inauguration

Roy Blunt just said this is the 59th inaugural ceremony. Biden is president #46. What were the other 13 about?

You get to have a second one if you get reelected, I assume
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 8:31 AM on January 20, 2021

What is the pathway for unity for neo-Nazis and the people they want to exterminate?

My cynical/hopeful take is that if you can brainwash people that easily, our side just needs to get better at it.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 9:15 AM on January 20, 2021

"Everyone says to me: why the 70s? And I say: why not?"

We do not appear to have crafted many design classics, unless slab-like corner sofas in mud-grey velvet are Eames chairs in the making.

I actually think slab-like corner sofas in velvet are going to be a pretty distinctive marker of this era. Dark teal ones especially. (And I like them! They're comfy!)
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:25 AM on January 15, 2021

The Wages of Sedition: Speaker Pelosi will impeach Trump a second time

I said to my wife over the weekend that the more I read and learned, the more it felt like what happened on the 6th came closer to being a successful coup than we wanted to believe. So far this week, I feel like that’s only becoming more clear.

I don’t know about that. A successful ATTACK, sure. But an actually successful coup would require MILLIONS of people to just give up and go along with it.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 8:15 AM on January 13, 2021

As I recall those were not actually the only copies.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 8:38 AM on January 14, 2021

The day r/AITA may have saved a life

Hoooooooly shit, the OP. There are layers of dysfunction built into her husband's family there.

Man, yeah. Like certainly Ash's disfunction could be partly chemical/physical, but it sounds like this family also developed a kind of internal culture that really really made it worse. And the lack of specificity about the bullying Ash experienced is kind of scary - being bullied/abused certainly wouldn't absolve him of his behavior but I can't help wondering just how far it went, for how long.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:17 AM on January 11, 2021

I'm seeing more "disagreeing" than "yelling" here.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:44 AM on January 13, 2021

Man Escapes Cougar: 'Dude, I Don't Feel Like Dying Today'

If she had wanted to fight, we wouldn't have this video to watch.

Well, we’d have part of it.

It’s hard to see in the video but I guess he finally got her to leave by throwing a rock. I had been thinking the whole time “just pick up a rock and throw it dude what are you doing” but I guess I can’t know how I’d react in that situation. And maybe he didn’t want to take the time to stoop down and make himself vulnerable.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 12:17 PM on January 12, 2021

Btw, he says in this longer interview that when he started filming the babies, he thought they were bobcats, not baby mountain lions. And he also addresses the “why didn’t you pick up a rock sooner!!!” thing.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 12:21 PM on January 12, 2021

I Want To Believe

Of course, the term "UFO" is not synonymous with "aliens." In fact, if a previously unidentified flying object were definitely established to be an alien ship, it would no longer be a UFO. This will probably not be the year we learn about intelligent alien life forms.

But oh, what if!
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 12:33 PM on January 11, 2021

Robson wasn’t looking for a murder-cow when she found the specimen

Too cool. And this is something I think about a lot: "And there are millions of specimens like this one sitting in museum collections all around the world. They’re just waiting for the right person, with the right tools and expertise, to take a look."
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 4:12 PM on January 10, 2021

Do you think the ’90s were five years ago?

I'm a late Millennial, but got on the internet very young, so I've consumed billions of kbs of discussions about how whatever Gen X touchstone is the coolest thing ever. I hope this has inoculated me from inflicting the same upon Gen Z.

Bleh, yes. I’m 33 and for most of my young life I was bombarded with messages that I ought to be obsessed with 80s media from several years before I was born.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:49 AM on January 10, 2021

You attract the attention of a shark. Maybe they can help you catch fish

Oh, the truly dreadful things in Kittens Game come later. Just wait until you’re sacrificing unicorns by the thousands.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 9:17 AM on January 9, 2021

You're using your dishwasher wrong

I've never understood dishwashers: you have to wash dishes before putting them in,

Whyyyyyy do people think this? Why would anyone design a washing device that was incapable of washing things unless they had already been washed? What kind of sense does that make?

My old roommate jumped up my ass for this all the time despite there never being any evidence of my evil non-pre-washing ways causing any problems whatsoever. It drove me fucking nuts.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 7:10 PM on January 8, 2021

RIP Michael Apted

I suppose I assume there’s always been a plan to finish it without him. Certainly he expected his much younger subjects to outlive him.

An incredible project that has given me a lot to think about over the years. He’ll be missed.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 3:03 PM on January 8, 2021