lucius septimius 2/13/2020 5:42:58 AM

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vxbush 2/13/2020 6:06:35 AM

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In #1 lucius septimius said: Wake up to find it raining in my kitchen.

WHAT???? What happened? 

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 6:25:41 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2: 

No idea.  We've had torrential downpours lately.  Got up to find water coming out of the header between the kitchen and the family room.  It's where they put on the addition 15 years ago.

I've pretty much decided just to sell the house to developers and let them rip it down.  

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 6:28:51 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 1:

The best I can do is offer you the first verse of "Leaky Roof Blues":

It's rainin' in the kitchen, water all round my floor

Yes, it's rainin' in the kitchen, water all round my floor

Got to call the roof repairman, so it won't happen no more...

doppelganglander 2/13/2020 6:29:24 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 3:

I'm sorry. It does sound as if it's not worth fixing .

doppelganglander 2/13/2020 6:31:16 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 5:

I mean, not worth putting on a whole new roof. A patch might be necessary until you can arrange the sale 

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 6:36:29 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 6: 

It's on the back of the house, so some blue tarp would do it.

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 6:48:03 AM

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Whenever people talk about "fixing our broken system," they usually start with "term limits," forgetting that we already have "term limits"---they are called "elections"---and that it is on ourselves if we do not use them properly.  They forget, too, that automatic "term limits" are by no means an unmixed blessing; they automatically get rid of good public servants as well as bad ones, and someone who is a lame duck due to term limits, who knows they cannot run for re-election, is thereby freed to do all sorts of rotten things; we've seen this time and again with second-term presidents.

The more-sophisticated will talk about repealing the election of Senators by popular vote and returning selection of Senators to the state governments.  This is a good idea not only to restore the proper function of the Senate, but to make people once again interested in the workings of their state governments, which are now pretty much allowed to run wild.  Time to get citizens more concerned with who/what they are sending to their state capitals to represent them there.

One thing, however, seems to get lost in the mix.  Originally, the Vice President was not the lower half of a party ticket, but the runner-up in the Presidential race.  In a two-party system, that would mean that the "leaders" of the two parties would have to work together in bipartisan fashion, and each party would have a stake in the actions of the Executive Branch.  It would also mean that there could be independent or third-party candidates for President who could, conceivably win either the presidency, or the vice-presidency, as runner-up, even if they were not part of a from-the-ground-up national party.  Reviving this piece of Constitutional originalism might go a long way towards healing some of our national divisions.

doppelganglander 2/13/2020 6:49:32 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 7:

Good enough. 

Alice in Dairyland 2/13/2020 7:01:09 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 8:   Would that mean Hillary would have been Vice President?  I think Trump would have been suicided by the end of January 2017 and HILLARY WOULD BE PRESIDENT!!!!!!!  Other than that, it sounds like a good plan.

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 7:01:15 AM

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In #8 buzzsawmonkey said: Reviving this piece of Constitutional originalism might go a long way towards healing some of our national divisions.

Or result in assassination and coup d'etat.

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 7:06:34 AM

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In #10 Alice in Dairyland said: Other than that, it sounds like a good plan.

And even on a less dramatic note (by the way, not that I think that the assassination incentive would not be a real thing); if we think the Dems are frenetic NOW in their permanent-impeachment mode, just imagine...  etc.

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 7:08:38 AM

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Mid-February is supposed to be (traditionally) a fairly calm time here at work.

It ain't.  Not this year. 

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 7:12:04 AM

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Reply to Alice in Dairyland in 10:

Reply to lucius septimius in 11:

There actually was a film comedy some years ago, "My Fellow Americans," which obliquely touched on this, in which two former presidents from opposite parties, who couldn't stand each other---played by Jack Lemmon and James Garner---escape an "accidental helicopter crash" which they realize was an attempted assassination.  They make their way together across the country, learning a certain amount of mutual respect in the process, and eventually discover that it was, IIRC, a chief of staff who had worked for them both.  I could be wrong there---it's been some time since I saw the film---but I believe it ends with the two of them running together on a national-unity ticket.

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 7:29:14 AM

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In #12 Occasional Reader said: if we think the Dems are frenetic NOW in their permanent-impeachment mode,

... and there are signs they are already gearing up for the next round. 

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 7:56:43 AM

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Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 8:05:15 AM

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In #1 lucius septimius said: Wake up to find it raining in my kitchen.

i recall writing a poem back in grade school that began, "It is raining in the house/ there are oceans in the rooms".  My teachers loved it.

So, there's that. 

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 8:10:06 AM

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doppelganglander 2/13/2020 8:23:41 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 18:

It's not just you. It's infamous for being confusing. Based on what Buzz said about the book, it may be muddled because they had to omit or disguise so many elements to conform to the Hayes code.

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 8:34:36 AM

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In #19 doppelganglander said: it may be muddled because they had to omit or disguise so many elements to conform to the Hayes code.

From what I understand of the plot of the novel, if anything it's a bit more confusing, if anything. 

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 8:40:13 AM

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In #20 Occasional Reader said: if anything it's a bit more confusing, if anything. 

(This message brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department)

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 9:23:01 AM

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In #20 Occasional Reader said: From what I understand of the plot of the novel, if anything it's a bit more confusing, if anything. 

Actually, no---the novel is much clearer.  First, the missing Regan is the husband of the older sister, not merely a factotum of the crippled father.  He's missing because Carmen, the nymphomaniac younger sister, made a play for him and he turned her down, so she shot him after persuading him to "teach her to shoot" down by the old oil wells on the Sternwood property.  The older sister gets Eddie Mars and his man Canino to dump the body in one of the old oil well sumps, and she is being blackmailed over the murder.  She tells Marlowe, "I knew Eddie would bleed me white, but it didn't mean anything compared to keeping it from Dad.  He would have called the police, and then in the night he would have died; it wasn't so much that he'd die, it's what he would be thinking before he died."  (Quoted loosely from memory)  In other words, she was trying to preserve his pride in his "blood," and in thinking that, in Marlowe's words, that "while his daughters may be a trifle wild, as many girls are these days, they are not perverts or killers."

The whole plotline stems from the fact, revealed at the end, that Regan was murdered by Carmen, and that Eddie Mars, having engineered the coverup, was not only blackmailing the other daughter but trying to find out whether or not the old man knew, which was the reason for the Geiger blackmail.

The film does not "solve" the Regan murder, which is the McGuffin for the whole story.

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 9:43:00 AM

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Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 9:58:30 AM

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In #22 buzzsawmonkey said: The film does not "solve" the Regan murder

I thought it did?  There's the Big Exposition in the climactic scene near the end (the scene that winds up with Mars dead, shot by mistake by his own thugs), in which - I thought - it's revealed that Carmen killed him.

Left unsolved is the murder of the chauffeur; Brody denies killing him (says he only sapped him), I saw no resolution of "was that true, and if so, who pushed his car into the water with him in it". 

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 10:13:23 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 24:

Well, in the film it never really explains why Carmen killed Regan; that is much clearer in the novel.  In the book, Marlowe comes home to find Carmen naked in his bed; he throws her out into the hall half-dressed.  Later, she asks him to return the gun she brought with her to Brody's, then asks him to "teach her to shoot," at the same place where she killed Regan; since he loaded the gun with blanks there was no damage, but it showed him where and why she'd killed Regan before.

In the book it is more-or-less presumed that the chauffeur, Owen Taylor, who has killed Geiger and stolen the porno shots he's made of Carmen, has suicided in the car after being sapped by Brody and relieved of the plate(s); he's committed a murder and there's little way out for him.   IIRC, the film leaves out the backstory that Owen was in love with Carmen, and tried to marry her, but she had merely wanted a jazzy weekend when he took her off somewhere to marry her.  His remaining passion for Carmen was the reason he'd killed Geiger in the first place.

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 10:16:35 AM

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Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 11:20:41 AM

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In #26 buzzsawmonkey said: does anyone think that there might be a market for a disc collection

Frankly I have no idea if there is currently a market for disc collections, period. 

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 11:36:16 AM

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In #27 Occasional Reader said: Frankly I have no idea if there is currently a market for disc collections, period. 

Well, I know that "streaming" is the big thing these days.  What people don't realize, or possibly don't care about, is that even if they license a "stream," they own nothing.  The music is not "theirs," the way it is if you own a hard copy.  What they get is limited by/to what the licensing company will allow them.  

As an archivist in a small way, I have a number of, if not rare, rare-ish records.  I believe in the importance of owning something, not in merely temporarily renting it from some company for a brief listen.  If you rely on Disney for "Song of the South," you won't get it; you have to own it.  If you rely on whoever owns the Marx Brothers' "A Day at the Races," you have no guarantee that they won't give you the bowdlerized version which excises the black sequences, because somebody "woke" has complained that they are "pejorative."  You have to own it, or you are the prisoner of what other people deem is "right" for you.

My question is more related to whether there is a market for the subject matter; if so, then the fact that it is on disk will take care of itself.

vxbush 2/13/2020 12:12:22 PM

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In #28 buzzsawmonkey said: As an archivist in a small way, I have a number of, if not rare, rare-ish records.

Do you know the business Archeophone Records? They have stuff you might light from the earliest days of recorded music. (Full disclosure: I know the folks who run this business.)

vxbush 2/13/2020 12:12:54 PM

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In #29 vxbush said: stuff you might light

Well, I don't know about lighting up, but you might like it. 

*Sheesh* Fumbly fingers. 

buzzsawmonkey 2/13/2020 12:18:15 PM

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In #29 vxbush said: Do you know the business Archeophone Records? They have stuff you might light from the earliest days of recorded music. (Full disclosure: I know the folks who run this business.)

Not familiar with them, but will check them out. 

BTW, the film "Desperate Man Blues," about the record collector Joe Bussard, who saved many, many rare records of jazz, blues, bluegrass, and country music, is an interesting watch.

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 12:36:32 PM

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In #28 buzzsawmonkey said: Well, I know that "streaming" is the big thing these days.  What people don't realize, or possibly don't care about, is that even if they license a "stream," they own nothing.

This is one of several reasons I don't use streaming services.  I own what I listen to.

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 12:38:25 PM

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Rejection letter number two arrived.

Three more to go.

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 12:41:49 PM

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Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 12:44:39 PM

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In #32 lucius septimius said: This is one of several reasons I don't use streaming services.  I own what I listen to.

I love my streaming music!  Why, I was rocking out to "We're At War with Eurasia Eastasia - Fight Fight Fight!" just this morning. 

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 12:45:46 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 34:

I don't think opposition to Buttigieg is at all queer; in fact it's quite sensible, really.  

lucius septimius 2/13/2020 12:56:46 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 36:

Queer is one of those delightful words lost on account of special pleading.

The German cognate -- Quer - means diagonal or sideways. It has not yet, so far as I know, been co opted.

Occasional Reader 2/13/2020 3:17:25 PM

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