Things Fall Apart, The Center Does Not Hold: Sunday Open Thread With Horatio

Litre sent up a flare in the back channels this morning saying he wouldn’t be available for tonight’s open thread, because he was “away”, which I’m just going to interpret as “smashed out of my mind on good red wine and firing flares at opposing lesser footy fans”, because that’s how I like to imagine Western Canadian “away.”

I stepped in because it turns out I will likely not be going “away” tonight. It may be time to pour one out for my beloved 2011, (although I bought it in August of 2010), six-speed Subaru Outback. I was out and about yesterday, running the Saturday errands and whatnot, when the symbol for “overheating engine” popped up. Not being mechanically inclined more than to know that this wasn’t good, I consulted the internet and owner’s manual and was directed to check the engine coolant levels. There was some left in the reserve, but not much. So I swiped my daughter’s car, (technically mine), and went off to the store whereupon I procured engine coolant. I even went so far as to write down what Subaru suggested, (other than ‘bring it to a dealership and let us do it’), and made sure I got the right one. Brought it back, poured it in, and figured I was good to go.

Today I drove to the bank and grocery store, probably four miles round-trip, noticed that the AC was rather warm, and then the red light came back on. Coasted into the driveway, (try that in an automatic), and popped the hood. The radiator was whistling and coolant was bubbling. Again, not a mechanic but also know that is very far from good.

We live within walking distance of a mechanic’s shop, (also a liquor store; I leave it to you to decide which is more important), and tomorrow I’ll be calling them to bring the car in. My fear is that we’ve entered the ‘declining returns’ phase of a car’s life. In the last year or so I’ve had to replace some rotting pipe underneath, get a new battery, and replace the muffler. I haven’t had a car payment in 8 years, and I do not miss them. I also, however, do not want to pay hundreds of dollars, (Or more! Who knows why my car is seemingly intent on boiling itself!), every few months just to get the car back on the road until the next problem.

I’ve had the car 12 years, and it’s closing in on 230,000 miles. I’d hoped to get 300,000 but that may not be in the cards. It’s also a 6-speed, and those are being phased out. Apparently you can no longer get an Outback, (and I am sold on Outbacks after this one), with a standard transmission. My position is that using an automatic isn’t so much driving as it is aiming, and I will sorely miss driving stick, (make bad jokes here), if it comes to that.

Hope your Sunday was better. Clearly my car issues are the worst thing that happened in America over the last few days.

Are there sports on TV tonight? You bet!

7:00 PM Dodgers vs Braves. ESPN

8:10 PM Stanley Cup Finals. ABC. Will tonight be the night we get to boo Gary Bettman? Fingers crossed!

Your local options may vary.

Have at it, folks.

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Doktor Zymm

Wow, It’s just things, but I am not as okay with this car break in as I thought. No rational reason, but not okay.

BC Dick

I’ve had my car pilfered. It’s disconcerting. Probably worse with the breaking of window you had.

Doktor Zymm

Thank you. I’m a humanist and against hurting people in general, but I really do want to inflict some pain on whoever did this. Or at the very least make them feel as shitty as I do. Not really okay at all.

rockingdog

LOL

Look at the dude on the far right

Hahahaha!

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Doktor Zymm

Democracy is the best form of government we’ve come up with so far, but it is far from perfect, and we’ve seen some clear flaws in the US version thereof. I do wonder…how much would anti-abortion activists be willing to pay to keep abortion out of their state? If we gave them a choice between paying $100/year in say, enforcement tax, and letting abortion be legal, how much do you think public opinion would swing? What if it was $1000/year? What’s the price?

BC Dick

You drive a hard bargain so I’ll give you forty bucks a fetus but not a penny more. And if I see any flippers you’ll be hearing from me about a refund.

Last edited 2 years ago by BC Dick
2Pack

For work I drive between Italy and Germany a lot so I am rental car experienced. I drove Mercedes, BMW, Alfa Romeo, Volvo, you name it. At very high autobahn speeds for 6-12 hours per TDY trip. After that analysis I brought a VW Golf 6 speed 2 liter turbo diesel. Had it for over 10 years now, I like it a lot gets great mileage too.

Doktor Zymm

Rentals are a great way to test drive a bunch of cars, appreciate the analysis!

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Rental cars during European vacations are basically the only time I drive stick shift. Suck it, clutch!

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Howdy. Steely Dan was pretty good, though they should just call it Donald Fagen and friends at this point.

BugEyedBoo

Aja is an awesome album. Everything before it is pretty good. Everything after it is kind of terrible.

Doktor Zymm

I’m gonna puke, the Time Warp from Rocky Horror is in an AirBNB commercial

Dunstan

Once they started using “Lust for Life” in a commercial for cruise ships, nothing surprises me.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I was so disappointed they cut the line: “Here comes Johnny Yen again…with liquor and drugs…”

Dunstan

Exactly! And if I remember right, the commercial is a lot of shots of smiling kids on waterslides and shit.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Yep. Not a single one of them going through withdrawal symptoms as they try to kick heroin.

2Pack

Posers

2Pack

Have they no shame?

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BugEyedBoo

Since it’s automotive day, an old page from the past.

http://www.turbovan.net/van.html

12-second Dodge Caravan daily driver.

Doktor Zymm

Probably unpopular, but I think I’m going to buy a gun. I agree with Akin-Olla than the solution to gun violence (and violence in general) is a remaking of society, not gun control, which is subject to the same unequal enforcement as any other laws. I’m especially disturbed by Red Flag laws, because we already know we can’t trust the courts to determine who is a threat. It’s just a vehicle to strip minorities of rights without real due process. I’m really happy I learned about Akin-Olla, because he publicly states my position much better than I’m able to, and maybe people will even take it more seriously coming from a Nigerian-American Socialist. I’m also just amazed that there is someone with an audience who agrees with my political position. https://twitter.com/thisisrevshow

BC Dick

I have just recently passed my firearms licence tests and hunting licence tests. It’s not the guns, it’s the culture. The highest gun death rates in the world are in countries with very strict gun laws. My own country of Canada has one of the highest gun ownership numbers in the world but not anywhere close to the highest gun murders.
And personally I find Nigerian-American socialists very untrustworthy. Right up there with Swedish heiresses and Cambodian “women”.

Doktor Zymm

I used to skeet shoot, and have done target shooting with a number of weapons. I’ve never been afraid of guns or gun owners. I’ve always found it odd that people are focused on decreasing gun violence rather than just decreasing violence. Although I probably shouldn’t since it’s easier to pretend to solve one than the other, and people love easy solutions. We really need to decrease inequality, expose people to various types of people and cultures from a young age, and make sure we teach our kids empathy. But that’s hard and lots of people increasingly don’t want to do it because cultural backlash or whatever, but that’s the real solution and it pisses me off that it isn’t even mentioned in the national discourse. If you’re trans or whatever and you see someone like you in literature and that makes your life better than awesome, but your individual reaction isn’t the best argument for making things like that available, the best argument is integrating those things into general culture. Most mass shooters are not psychopaths, they kill because they think SOME people, not all people, are less than human, and that’s the belief we have to prevent if we’re going to prevent gun violence.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

>The highest gun death rates in the world are in countries with very strict gun laws.

India and China have some of the most strict gun laws, and they both have very low rates of gun deaths. And population-wise, that’s like 1/3 of the entire world.

Doktor Zymm

Having been to both those countries, and working with many of their ex-citizens, I don’t think we want to model ourselves on them. Feel free to disagree, but they’re both countries that have far fewer freedoms and are closer to authoritarianism than we are (although I would be lying if I said we weren’t on a downward Orban-type slope). There are also huge cultural differences, so it’s not really valid to attribute the difference in gun violence rates to their gun policies, and they have some really disturbing instances of non-gun violence. I don’t really want to be gang raped and have my intestines pulled out of my vagina with a pole afterwards, so let’s not hold them up as an example please?

Doktor Zymm

The pipe-intestine rape is India btw, China is better at controlling the narrative, but I have no doubt they’ve done the same or worse in their Uighur “reeducation” camps.

BC Dick

I think it would be assumed that India was the pipe rape place. Is it any better to be murders with a knife or a club versus a gun? As you said, it’s violence in general that’s the problem, not the tool

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Oh, I have zero interest in emulating just about anything from those societies. I’m just disputing the assertion that stringent gun laws correlate to any degree with rates of gun deaths.

Doktor Zymm

Totally fair, but I don’t think it’s an important assertion. I personally would rather be shot and quickly killed than lynched by a mob or tortured and worked to death in a government camp. There are far worse deaths than gun deaths, and if we focus on the means of the violence rather than the cause, even if we’re effective (which we won’t be) the only result will be a shift in how people die, and probably to something worse.

BC Dick

But then Venezuela has high rates and strict controls.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t check to make sure I was right about that. I just hoped no one was checking.

BC Dick

I should’ve asked earlier but what kind of gun? I favour the old styles. Big ol’ revolvers and break action shotguns. Nice 30-06 rifle with a real wood stock.

Doktor Zymm

I’m most familiar with shotguns, but probably something handgun range, haven’t started researching yet really

Brick Meathook

9mm Glock 19 Gen-3 w/ 10 rd mags

The perfect pistol, and California compliant. Start your research here but you probably won’t need to go farther.

Mr. Ayo

They already dented the cup!

herodotus450

I tried to warn you all about the dangers of Colorado winning the cup, but noooooo, no one could be bothered to call in fake bomb threats to delay the series indefinitely.

Mr. Ayo
Mr. Ayo

Wait, dammit. What am I supposed to do on Tuesday now?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

[sips cup of tea]

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Dunstan

Now, if only they’d said “Congrats Nordiques!”

Dunstan

Though to be fair, as much as I would have liked to treat the Washington Nationals’ title as a win for the Expos, it didn’t really feel like that.

BC Dick

Not at all. I think that bridge always gets burnt when you move. I can’t see St. Louis fans cheering for the rams or san diegoites rooting on the chargers. Certainly not Cleveland fans pulling for Baltimore or that one guy in Atlanta who went to flames games. If the expos built a decent stadium maybe they’d have stayed but Canucks are cheap as hell

WCS

“San Diego? Chargers?!”

/femur drums begin rolling in the distance

Mr. Ayo

Ugh, Stan Kroenke’s on the ice.

Someone do us a solid and give him a good bump.

Last edited 2 years ago by Mr. Ayo
Doktor Zymm

Fuck eHarmony because of course the woman loses at chess. Also for the attempt at pleasing everyone by picking racially ambiguous actors, because even though it’s true that race is a social construct and not a real thing, those choices in advertising matter because it’s a social construct with real consequences for real people.

BC Dick

To be fair, nothing kills the mood like losing the your woman in chess. She should throw the game even if she can win. Like when they pretend they can’t open jars or carry things so you get to feel like a useful man

Doktor Zymm

I think this explains a lot about why I hate dating and am not married

WCS

Noap

EVEN MORE BOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mr. Ayo

Appears Intergalactic Disgrace Gary Bettman is not present.

Mr. Ayo

Covid is correct!

Doktor Zymm

Holy shit, this 2018 Zinf is amazing, I kinda feel bad that I’m about to ruin my palette with pizza

Doktor Zymm

Actually they pair well!

Dunstan

Pish-posh, the pizza will only enhance your palate

SonOfSpam

I think Zin, like Zinc, helps you fight the common cold.

Not a doctor, but I’ve been to one once.

WCS

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Doktor Zymm

I like this theory

Dunstan

So here was my Korean-inspired (aka cultural appropriation, gasp!) octopus stew:

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Dunstan

And the strawberry-rhubarb pie:

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BC Dick

Octopus and strawberries, a natural combination

Dunstan

Well, they’re both in the titles of Beatles songs, so yeah!

herodotus450

Or Mrs. Rigby

Doktor Zymm

If you didn’t cut up a live octopus into the broth it’s not authentic and therefore probably not appropriation

Dunstan

That’s a relief!

yeah right

Reason number 14,621 why I love this site: many if not most of us are people of considerable means and could drive the pimp ass rides but you all think the same way that I do. A vehicle is a conveyance device period. Not to mention drawing attention to yourself in LA is not a great decision.

I like the low profile.

Doktor Zymm

A car has one job, I see no reason to pay extra for it to do other non-essential jobs. Besides, I spend my extra on totally gratuitous luxury travel.

yeah right

You made the right choice.

BC Dick

Excellent choice. I love muscle cars but if it’s just one I want an enormous Cadillac.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/1978-cadillac-eldorado-biarritz/

SonOfSpam

Why do you assume that?

Because I drive a 98 Accord?

Like that somehow proves your point???

Anyway, hells yeah, much better uses of hard-earned scratch than an overpriced penis substitute.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Yeah, you don’t want to overspend on a penis substitute. A discount one will work just fine.

Mr. Ayo

*toes garage under nearby rug*

Totally!

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

[looks around nervously] – Balls

ballsofsteelandfury

The funny thing is that, in LA, my car doesn’t really stand out.

Doktor Zymm

In line with others, ordered a pizza. Papa Johns as a good pizza would have been $60 with fees and such

yeah right

If I may inquire about toppings?

Doktor Zymm

extra cheese, salami, onions, roasted garlic, mushrooms

yeah right

Fuck me that sounds righteous.

Doktor Zymm

For me, onions are the most indispensable pizza topping. And about a year or two ago I discovered I preferred salami to pepperoni. The rest is just universally YUM

Doktor Zymm

Just started watching The Oroville, and am enjoying

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Tangentially, did you win most improved player?

Doktor Zymm

One more week in the season, if I don’t play I win cuz getting second last week gave me a big enough lead. Probably still going to try and play though, although it’ll be from the airport before my flight to Mexico City.

Doktor Zymm

And most improved is probably a lock, although I think Kate could theoretically still win.

BC Dick

Yea! I quite liked it. A nice bit of work from an obvious trek fan. Probably his dream. It gets comfortable with itself after a season if I remember

BC Dick

It actually got me into watching the trek series. Series’? Seems backward but I had to see what he was so enamoured with.

Last edited 2 years ago by BC Dick
Doktor Zymm

The most expensive part/repair I’ve had on my car was replacing the gas tank, which was totally unnecessary. After replacing a fuel pump, the check engine light kept coming on and gas would slosh out if I had a full tank. This is usually because the fuel filler hose is degraded, and I told the guy at the shop as much when I brought it in. Of course the dude didn’t pay any attention, possibly because I’m a middle aged woman, or maybe because the shop is in Atherton and most of the clients are fucking billionaires, but they said they checked it and that wasn’t it, it was the gas tank. When I called a few days later to check on progress, I talked to a different guy who said it would be a couple more days because when they took the tank off they discovered the fuel filler hose was totally rotted and they had to order a new one….never going back there, and even though this was a few years ago I’m kind of tempted to go write the negative online review I didn’t bother with at the time

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

This Greatest Order Of All Time is nonsense. Everyone knows the *real* GOOAT is when you and your coworker are expensing dinner and you go to White Castle and tell them to give you one of every single thing on the menu.

herodotus450

Oh no I think you misunderstood: that’s the greatest (pejorative) odor of all time.

yeah right

One of my favorite New York City moments was taking youngest right to Manhattan the first time. We had an incredible Sicilian pizza and wandered all around Times Square then we stopped and got a sack of White Castle with some onion rings and destroyed the entire thing. Youngest right still says that’s one of her most memorable moments of NYC.

herodotus450

Oh well la-dee-dah, didn’t know I was in the company of so many Standard Transmission-heads. How are you supposed to hold a cigarette in one hand, cell phone in the other, and still be able to drive if you also have to shift gears every five feet?

ballsofsteelandfury

Easy peasy. I don’t smoke, but I could add a drink on the hand holding the dart.

Brick Meathook

In high school I had a VW squareback 4-speed stick. Steer, shift, bong hit, and beer? No problem.

SonOfSpam

Why do you call beer “cell phone”?

Brick Meathook

1996 Ford Explorer XLT w/ Cologne V6 engine 2WD
375,000+ miles still purrs like a kitten and passes smog checks with ease. Never missed a filter or fluid change.
Coolant system replaced at 150K and 300K, transmission rebuilt at 200K, driver’s seat rebuilt and reupholstered at 250K, all “soft” items replaced numerous times at specified intervals.
Only weakness: has gone through 5 fuel pumps and 6 window motors.
Insurance is cheap because it is statistically more likely to kill someone than maim them; insurance companies prefer a dead body over a lingerer for accounting purposes. I offered to install daggers and impact-detonated explosive charges on my front bumper to increase my discount but they wouldn’t go for it.

LESSON: replace your entire coolant system now, it’s much cheaper in the long run. Always perform routine maintenance, especially on filters and fluids. Also try to be a former nuclear submarine engine room crewman and this shit is like religion. Easy too.

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yeah right

I’ve ridden in that and she’s a sweet purring ride indeed.

BC Dick

Impressive. 375,000 miles is awesome.

ballsofsteelandfury

Unfortunately, the days of the cars you can keep forever are gone. Everything new is disposable and with all the tech on it, it’s not maintainable.

The only vehicles they’re still making that could theoretically last a while are pickup trucks. And that’s only if you get a simple one with no high-end tech toys.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I’m curious to see how many miles the newer electric cars go before they stop kickin’. I hope it’s a lot.

ballsofsteelandfury

My worry is that the electric cars will follow computer technology in the speed at which they become obsolete/unsupported.

Doktor Zymm

At least the batteries seem to be better now. I’ve known a couple people with older (but not that old!) hybrids that experienced battery failures that basically bricked the entire car. It’s thousands to do a replacement

yeah right

Got lucky with the Civic hybrid, there was a recall notice about the batteries, it’s a 2009, and they replaced them and that fucker is golden to this day. TAJ drove us to San Diego and back for less than half a tank of gas.

scotchnaut

“The Center Does Not Hold?” [muffled laughter]

-B. Laimbeer, Detroit

BC Dick

An you can barely get any new car with a stick these days. Autos are much better than they were though, and stick shifts make it hard to eat and drink and smoke while driving.

ballsofsteelandfury

Hard but not impossible. I consider it a true mark of an expert driver when you can steer with your knee or gut while shifting gears and drinking a beverage.

BeefReeferLives

The Good Mrs. Reefer was steering with her knee while flossing her teeth, going ~80 mph down I-55 when she had a Illinois State Trooper suddenly pull up beside her. Apparently, he stared her down while she put both hands on the wheel, slowed down, and smiled embarrassedly. He just shook his head and floored it past her.

Doktor Zymm

Nice thing about having tits, you can stick a drink in your cleavage and drink hands free, so if you wanted you could steer, shift, drink, and play pokemon GO all at the same time.

BeefReeferLives

brrrr. (although that might be nice on a hot day)

Last edited 2 years ago by BeefReeferLives
BC Dick

But when I do that I end up drinking a bunch of chest hairs

BC Dick

That’s tough. 2011 isn’t old and Subaru makes a quality vehicle but 230,000 miles is a good chunk of work. 370k Km. She doesn’t owe you much at that point. I’ve got a 2011 (bought last year) a little under 120,000 miles. You must commute to work?

BC Dick

A lawyer in a Subaru? Now I’ve heard everything. Next thing I’ll see David Suzuki in a hummer full of plastic grocery bags.

Doktor Zymm

Oh that is tasty. If any of y’all ever visit Sonoma, this winery is totally worth a visit: https://taddeiwines.com/

WCS

My sister-in-law works at Gunlach Bunchu in Sonoma, if you’re ever out there.

Ask for Abby, tell them I sent you.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Oh, that is well past Sonoma. I was actually quite disappointed at the tasting options in Sonoma itself; everything was very pricey.

BC Dick

Yeah, they should bring back the Sonoma. That was a good little truck.

Doktor Zymm

My car is also a 2011, although far fewer miles since it spent the first 6 years of its life being owned by my father, who mostly only drove to the store occasionally to get milk. It’s a good little car, but it’s a Mazda 2 and Mazda stopped selling them in the US in 2014 and only ever sold about 50k of them here, so it’s hard to find any parts that are model-specific. I’m not looking forward to the time when it starts getting unreliable.

At least windows aren’t model-specific, so the guy who just replaced my car window that got busted out was able to find a used window in the area that fits my car. It wasn’t that expensive so I’m thinking it might not be worth filing a claim with my auto insurance.

Dunstan

I’ve owned two cars in my life: a 1994 that I bought used and drove into the ground, and a 2003 that I’m still driving.

Doktor Zymm

I’m gonna keep mine until it stops running, hopefully many many years from now

BC Dick

Mazda makes a good vehicle. I was surprised to read about how they sell far fewer cars in the US compared to Canada, relatively. 300,000 vs 60,000 per year. How do they function as a company?

Doktor Zymm

I really don’t know why they don’t do well in the US. They did hit record sales numbers in the US during the pandemic though, so maybe they’re picking up in popularity here. I think part of it is the Miata getting branded as a “girl car” in the 1980s maybe? And maybe the typical car consumer here is too dumb to notice some of the really innovative stuff they’ve done, like the RX8’s Wankel engine.

BC Dick

And they don’t sell trucks so that takes out a big piece of the market. Strange, still.

WCS

If they’re Dodges, you’ve unlocked an AL BUNDY FOUR TOUCHDOWNS IN ONE GAME Award.

Dunstan

Nope. First one was a Saturn. Second one I treated myself to a BMW Z4 convertible, which is now in that weird place where some people think it’s a fancy car and others think it’s an old piece of shit.

ballsofsteelandfury

I had a Z4! I actually liked it but I agree that it’s in a weird spot. I think BMW fanboys didn’t like it because it wasn’t a “true” BMW, but it drove great and was a lot of fun.

Dunstan

Beats me, it’s the only BMW I ever drove. I never saw myself as a “BMW guy,” it was just that I was looking for a convertible with an automatic transmission (yes, yes, I know) and that was the best option at the time.

It’s been pretty good to me. The roof (the 2003 still had the softtop) isn’t working right now and I’ve been too lazy to have it fixed, but I need to do that before my next road trip.

I don’t have much of a commute, so it only has ~ 80,000 miles

ballsofsteelandfury

That’s awesome! I’ve had several BMWs, but I don’t consider myself a BMW guy. Those people are annoying.

The beautiful thing about living in LA is that you don’t need to worry about the roof much. I always used to park it with the roof down. I never left anything inside, so I wasn’t worried about anyone stealing it or breaking into it.

The biggest worry was bird poop.

Dunstan

Yeah, the birds were the main reason I always put the top back up when I parked. That and the seats were black and would get scorching hot in the sun.

Dunstan

The alternator on mine kept dying. When I bought my new car, it died again, incurred a bunch of parking tickets, got towed and impounded, and I (correctly, I think) calculated that I wasn’t going to do better than they would by auctioning it off.

yeah right

My first car was a 1964 Corvair Monza. It was easily the coolest car I’ve ever owned. Engine in the trunk!

Doktor Zymm

Oh, I totally remember the episode where his car odometer passed 999,999 and reset to 0!

yeah right

I like to think I’m driving my last car ever. It’s a 2012 Kia Forte Koup. Jet black. I call it the Batmobile. It just recently hit 80K on the odometer.

I’ve probably owned 12 cars and besides my Civic hybrid this is easily the simplest car to own and maintain ever.

As a former cab driver – in a previous life – I talked about owning a Checker cab because that bastard was one mean motherfucking rolling piece of Detroit steel. 7,000 pounds empty with the pop up seats facing backwards in the back of the cab. I drove one for years. Cab #56 by its call letters that thing was awesome.

I’ve never been a “car guy” but if given the chance that would be my dream car. Paint it black, extra chrome and it’s worth the shit gasoline mileage.

BC Dick

7,000 LBs? That’s a load. Take it to the demo derby. I’m driving a full size sedan and it’s only 4,000.

yeah right

It’s one bad motor scooter.

yeah right

This is exactly the model that I drove…

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Last edited 2 years ago by yeah right
Doktor Zymm

My dream car is a Peele P50. I love tiny cars and it’s the tiniest!

Redshirt
Dunstan

I get it, but what’s the theory here?

That Maxwell is totally about to “name names,” and so The Establishment is planting the seeds for her murder to be branded a suicide?

That only makes sense if Maxwell has a line of communication to the public, e.g. her lawyer.

If that’s the case, then said lawyer should be loudly announcing right now “Ms. Maxwell is prepared to name names.”

If that happens, and she still “commits suicide,” then I’ll be on board with the suspicions. But otherwise, Occam’s Razor applies. She’s facing a long time in prison and a lifetime as a pariah, after living the good life in high society. Entirely plausible that she would be suicidal.

Edited: Sorry, should have read the link first. Her lawyer is refuting the suicide reports, but is NOT saying she’s negotiating a deal. So the most likely explanation here is that the state is just putting her on suicide watch to punish her, not to set up some murder.

Shit, does this count as a political opinion? Damn you!

Last edited 2 years ago by Dunstan
Redshirt

The lawyer should say that if anything happens to her, a list of all the names she knows will be released immediately. There are multiple copies of the list.

BC Dick

What, is this a PI novel? She just wants to be in the news.

SonOfSpam

It’s ok, Bill Barr doesn’t run the Bureau of Prisons anymore.

Dunstan

It’s a new thread, and I have made much progress to rectify my earlier lack of drinking, so let me assure you all that I will only be boring you with food and drink opinions in this thread rather than political ones.

Probably.

I mean, I have been drinking, so further rants are not out of the question.

But what are y’all eating/drinking tonight?

Redshirt

Vanilla Malt because it’s hot and my fat stomach is the boss.

Doktor Zymm

About to open a bottle of wine. I picked up my club shipment from Taddei earlier this week and it’s been a shitty day dealing with the car break in so I’m going for the good stuff.

WCS

Diet Coke and later, Le Crouix.
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BeefReeferLives

pFriem pils

Dunstan

I’ve liked everything I’ve tried from them

yeah right

True to form I ordered a pizzAndrea from Buono’s. In a strange bit of symmetry it’s the exact pie we had the day after the ex passed away so it made sense to have it again the day after the memorial service.

Currently drinking La Crema pinot noir and it’s very delicious.

Dunstan

One of the reasons I didn’t get into pinot for a long while is that it’s tough to find decent options at reasonable prices. La Crema is pretty solid.

BC Dick

Eating pizza because of the last post and drinking cheap rye and beer.

Dunstan

Actual rye, or the Canadian we-refer-to-all-whisky-as-rye thing? I had a bit of culture shock when I would order a rye and 7 up (yes, yes, I know — I was young) and would be told “we don’t have rye”

BC Dick

I drink Alberta Premium. 100% rye whisky. It’s weird though, yeah, that you can call anything rye whisky as long as it has one rye grain in it.

Dunstan

It’s changed here in the U.S. of course — these days pretty much every bar has an actual rye stocked (and here it actually has to have 51% rye).

BC Dick

Nuts that you have a more stringent standard for Canadian whisky than Canada does. Not quite bourbon rules but still something.

BC Dick

They didn’t even have crown royal? I thought was a border-crosser. Like Canadian club, cause I saw it in Mad Men.

Dunstan

Probably >50% of places had it, but not all. Bear in mind that I was a law student and was frequenting the cheapest establishments I could find….

yeah right

There was no way I wasn’t going to order pizza after reading the responses.

It was a great idea.

BC Dick

After all that talk of good pizza joints I ordered dominos. I got good expensive pizza last week and after a fifth of rye tonight I can’t tell the difference.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Nothing exciting. We’ll be having a vegetable-heavy dinner and then maybe some jynnan tonnix.