The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: October 19, 2019 — Open Table Edition

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inSaturday Brunch

The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: October 19, 2019
Open Table Edition

Coming back from a long trip usually takes me about three weeks to recover. This time it has been better, but it still required readjustment back into the daily work schedule and so on. Bottom line is that I’m pretty tired here at the end of the week and don’t have a lot of energy to put on a full-scale brunch this morning.

So, we’ll hand you the implements and let you cook up a feast of conversation today.

This will be an open table brunch. You choose the topics and discuss them.

Please, no food fights.

73 thoughts on “The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: October 19, 2019 — Open Table Edition”

  1. I lived in the Minneapolis area for 41 years before moving to the Atlanta suburbs. I am not surprised that Minneapolis is not ranked. But I will say this, they (MSP) may be the most passive-aggressive drivers around….won’t let you merge…somehow they take it personally if you try to merge ahead of them. But other than that…MSP drivers don’t act like it’s life or death and drive 20mph over the speed limit on the right side of the freeway.

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  2. Surprised Atlanta was ranked 6th instead of higher, but then of course I haven’ been to those other cities. Seems like everyone thinks where they live has the worst drivers. And now I can say, after living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro in Minnesota, and living in the Atlanta area….Twin Cities drivers are a breath of fresh air compared to here in Atlanta. Seems like everyone thinks it’s a NASCAR event!

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  3. Having to classify and back up all my bookmarks to FIMFiction (My Little Pony fanfics) accumulated over the past eight years, I could probably go down a dozen of those bookmarks at random and find stories that would make better movies that what’s coming out these days. (A dozen in order to beat Sturgeon’s Rule that 90% of it will be bad). I know I’ve had the movie for a famous ponyfic called Past SIns (which actually saw print as a high-grade subscription hardback) playing in my head since I first read it through links from EquestriaDaily website as Pen Stroke first uploaded it chapter-by-chapter.

    And then there’s my bookshelves of SF paperbacks; before I Bronied, my example was I could probably grab five of them at random off the shelves and adapt one to the screen. Early Sci-Fi Channel actually did some good adaptations of a couple classics (Dune as a miniseries and Riverworld as a one-shot) before new management changed the name to SyFy and went after the Bored Housewife market with “All The Occult, All the Time”.

    And my hardback pulp collections from the likes of Manly Wade Wellman and Seabury Quinn; people remember Bob Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, but Wellman and Quinn were the prolific ones that kept Weird Tales in print during those years of the Twenties through the Forties. They’d be best done as period pieces, and the Quinn stuff would require some serious rewriting away from his “Talking Heads” lecture format and casual racism, but they’d be a cut above what we see now. Wellman especially… Do I hear a silver-strung guitar? Best bet for these would be an equivalent of the BBC classic stuff like Sherlock Holmes and Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.

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  6. Thanks to all who expressed concern for my little sick pup in hospital. That was most kind and helped me much during this sad time. He is eating a little bit, but if having some more difficulties than before, so it’s touch and go.

    Your kindness to me is a blessing. Thank you all so very much. Our pets give much and ask little and I will stand up for that little dog as long as the vets think he has a chance and is not suffering. I hope they will honest with me and they seem kindly and caring.

    God Bless you all.

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  9. I bet it was different in the cities 🙂 When I was there, in Rome especially, nobody stopped for pedestrians; they just drove around you, hardly slowing down.

    Actually, it was worse in Germany, in that drivers would stop for people in the crosswalks, but they’d give you the stinkeye. At least in Italy you were a minor inconvenience, not an insult…

    Dana

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  12. Which part of the panhandle? If you’re going to destin or Panama City, southeast Alabama without benefit of a controlled access freeway, possibly on a two lane highway, can be a real pain. Then you can get stuck behind a log truck or farm implement. Pensacola gets you all the way to 60 miles north of there all via interstate highway. Then 4-lane all the way to the coast. Usually not too bad. But there is a lot of construction between bham and mgm.

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  15. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia2.s-nbcnews.com%2Fi%2Fnewscms%2F2019_41%2F3046086%2F191010-lev-parnas-donald-trump-al-1016_78d060ea51477e8dcdb36071fc03ae7e.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fpolitics%2Fdonald-trump%2Fflorida-businessmen-who-helped-giuliani-ukraine-arrested-campaign-finance-charges-n1064606&docid=uh1gmOH40PPqjM&tbnid=pqreA8WVmrsmhM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjDmqG-iKnlAhUOU98KHbnhAfEQMwhOKAYwBg..i&w=478&h=482&bih=751&biw=1344&q=photos%20%20Lev%20Parnas%20at%20White%20HOuse%20with%20Trump&ved=0ahUKEwjDmqG-iKnlAhUOU98KHbnhAfEQMwhOKAYwBg&iact=mrc&uact=8

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  16. –> “Imagine Moe as the The Bride in Kill Bill.”

    Okay, I have a dang good imagination and not even MY brain can get me there…LOL…

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  17. I-95 just about anywhere is a mess. Completely clotted up much of the time–even out in the hinterlands. Then when the road opens up a little people drive like it’s the Daytona 500.

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  18. I think it has to do with the fact that traffic is so awful for so much of the day that nobody’s going fast enough, most of the time, to be killed in a crash.

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  19. I live not-too-far from the DC Beltway, and it’s certainly the fastest way to get to Virginia–but I refuse to drive on it. Rush hour or not, those people are nuts.

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  21. I found in Italy that drivers on the highways were remarkably consistent. Left lane was fast lane, and people certainly drove fast enough to blow your doors off. But the center lane and right lane were civilized. No one passed on the right, few tailgated (and then only until they could get into the left lane). A pleasant surprise.

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  23. There is an old saying that rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen, and soccer is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans.

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  24. Worst traffic outside a city: DC to Fredericksburg. On 95. Bumper to bumper at 75mph. Then you stop for no reason. Then you race off again at 75. And the weaving in and out, which gets you nowhere.

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  25. Not surprised about California, but what’s up with Florida? and Louisiana?

    The last time I was in San Francisco, I saw a car run a red light and sideswipe a bicyclist (at low speed on a flat street, thank God). Bicyclist probably got away with some scratches and bruises. Did the car’s driver stop? Nope.

    Dana

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  26. Whenever I’ve watched rugby on TV I’ve been surprised by the sportsmanship. Here’s a sport might be rougher and more physical than any other, yet I never see guys going at each other.

    Then you got guys in soccer flopping over nothing and then getting in the faces of other players, and fans going nuts…

    Oh, the irony.

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  31. Worst traffic outside of a city: Birmingham to the Florida Panhandle. I’ve done it 3 times now, all in Sep/Oct, and it horrible! Turns a 4 hour drive into 6-7 hours

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  35. San Diego main highway going west . . . at rushhour . . . yikes

    New Jersey . . . . any road going into NYC and the merges to get on bridges . . . and all the roads going to airports, you have to watch out for the speeders trying to make their flights . . .

    NYC Manhattan . . . crazy traffic . . . watch out for the pedestrians, worse than the drivers

    DC Beltways OMG, the worst!

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  37. Supporters don’t beat each other up? I’d always thought otherwise. Perhaps I’ve been misinformed. I’d always thought that rugby shared a hooliganism problem with soccer.

    Re: Ice hockey: I’m no longer a fan of hockey, but I rarely hear of supporters beating each other up at hockey games in the U.S. The National Hockey League certainly is not hard on fighting, but hockey fights are not especially dangerous affairs; two or more guys already winded from skating hard (which you can only do for 2 or 3 minutes at a time) rolling around on the ice until they go limp from exhaustion. What is dangerous is hooking a skating player with a hockey stick, or hitting them with it, both penalty infractions; or hitting them body to body the wrong way, from behind or the side at high speeds.

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  38. Baton Rouge worst – Savannah is number two. Cities that surprisingly did not make the top 25 include NYC, L.A. [ though Pomona and San Berdo did] Minneapolis and Chicago.

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  40. Australia lost to England in the quarter finals tonight. Much cushion chewing while watching.
    Very disappointing.

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  41. Ha! But in reality, rugby is very hard on fighting. Red cards come out very quickly. Followed by strong disciplinary action. Also, supporters don’t beat each other up. Very civilised.

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  44. Well, they probably were among the main influences for just about every Quentin Tarantino movie. Imagine Moe as the The Bride in Kill Bill.

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  45. Tomorrow, Japan plays SA in the World Cup Rugby. Last week they defeated Scotland to qualify for the Quarterfinals for the first time ever in one of the best matches I have ever seen. It is always great to see new teams rising.

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  46. I grew up loving the Three Stooges. My mom always hated them because, and I quote, they were “too violent…”

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  47. Thank you Christiane
    We love our four legged companions as if they were our two legged brothers and sisters.Maybe more so.
    I feel for you. My last still living playful kitten is almost 19 years old. She is my companion and talks to me in accents clear and meaningful. I will not get another cat when she goes. I am too old to train a newby not climb curtains and how to pee in a tray.
    I have had 13 cats over my lifetime so they have been part of the furniture, the house and my life.
    I think it is Dana who says that our pets are in heaven waiting for us. I do hope so. I am sure you do too.
    Our trusted and trusting friend deserve a place in Paradise.
    Blessings, Susan

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  48. Neil Young included those words in his song “Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)” in 1979, some four years before Def Leppard wrote “Rock of Ages”; Def Leppard were inspired to include them in their song by the sonic urgency of Neil Young’s thrash rock anthem.

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  50. Hello Susan,
    I wrote you a note but it got posted below instead of in the comment stream usually place.

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  56. Oh Christiane! I will be praying for you & your little beastie as I walk my own. I love my dogs with a burning passion & they have returned it in kind, in spades.

    I have had 2 super-beloved dogs make old bones & complete their lives here over the last 4 years, I felt both of them move inside their respective Mums, & they both died with me holding them. We had all the love, & all the fun. I pray that you’ll have some more time with your little one.

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  57. We need more movies featuring singing cowboys.

    There.

    I said it.

    I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.

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  59. Glad you had a good day, Susan. Occasional good days are not to be underestimated in their ability to bear us up even through the long, dark seasons of our lives.

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  66. Hello Susan!
    Good to hear from you!

    today for me is sad, as little dog is in hospital and the highlight of my day will be to visit and to hold him for twenty minutes or so . . . . we may loose him, but everything is being done that can be done

    glad you had a good day with your friend Joan and yes, may she be blessed

    stay in touch

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  67. don’t know, but he does look strangely familiar

    the one all the way to the left has got the same barber as ‘Moe’

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  68. ‘All Roads With You Lead to Putin’: Trump and Pelosi Have It Out Over Syria

    well, let’s test for gas: connecting the dots from T to P
    Have fun!

    Trump – Rudy Giuliani – Lev Parnas, the crook – Igor Fruman – Dmitry Firtash, the oligarch – Putin

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  69. I SPENT 10 minutes googling the pie thrower on the right. I thought he might have been a regular with Laurel and Hardy but I couldn’t come up with him.

    Anybody know?

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  71. I went today to my dear friend’s surprise 80th Birthday Celebrations.

    So much joy. Her extended family and us her friends attended and gave us the opportunity to acknowledge the love we all all share in our community.

    Sometimes day which dawn dreary can expand into so much joy.
    May Joan be blessed.

    Susan

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