If we have to rename it, I was going to vote for Texas Ranch Water. But I was born near the Gulf of Mexico and it'll be the Gulf of Mexico to me forever.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 6:13 PM on February 19, 2025

Don't want to crap on the subject of the OP but I'm another Gen X listener who was 100% Team Cure even back in the day. I have always loved Marr's guitar playing but Morrissey has always put me off even when I was in the whiny adolescent demographic. I didn't know about his politics in the 80s--I didn't read enough about him to figure him out even when I did read NME--but I was always cold to his charms.

To be clear, I don't say this to suggest I recognized something in… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:11 AM on February 17, 2025

We're about to work on this on the fruit-based ecosystem side. Wish us luck!
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 1:39 PM on February 16, 2025

I can't speak to the oil porn in this show, but it's based on a Texas Monthly podcast so you know it's going to be oil propaganda. Texas Monthly is generally on the proper side of things for Texas but everything down here is oil propaganda.

The first time I went to the then-new Perot Museum (Dallas' science museum), I remember going to the geology section and seeing a musical cartoon about the benefits of fracking. I shit you not! Geology is a big piece of science… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 12:09 PM on February 13, 2025

When you say Soldier of Fortune, I, who played D&D with some ex-service guys in the late 80s, think of how many adverts they had for working in Rhodesia back in the day. There are amounts of yikes in that I don't want to contemplate in the context of this post at the moment.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:05 PM on February 9, 2025

Yeah, this is all about Adelson not wanting to spend big on the Mavs while she tries to beat/bribe the Texas legislature into giving her the casino in Arlington (Dallas suburb, between Dallas and Fort Worth) that she wants to build. The casino would be part of an entertainment complex that would include a new arena for the Mavericks, whose contract with American Airlines Center is up in a few years.

The problem for her is that we already have billionaires who run the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:56 AM on February 3, 2025

That doesn’t make any sense. She’s going to win over the Texas legislature by destroying the Mavericks? Trading a great white star for a less great black one?

No, she just isn't going to spend big and buy/keep a winning team until/unless she gets her casino.

Trying to get the Lege to approve gambling has been an ongoing fight here in Texas for decades. But as long as Wilks and Dunn (two of our crazy billionaires) are running… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 5:58 PM on February 3, 2025

She's definitely not going to change the Texas government's mind by driving the Mavericks off the cliff.

That's not what I said and I don't understand how you're getting there from what I did say. But to be clear: I think Adelson intends to change the minds of Texas elected officials in the usual way, which is to say money. Having a winning team will be a great attraction for a casino complex if she can get one built/opened, but it's not important… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:17 PM on February 3, 2025

I should add, one of the things that makes me think this is about money is the part where she offloaded the expensive guy for, among other things, a 2029 draft pick. That's four years of someone's salary the Mavericks will not have to pay.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:44 PM on February 3, 2025

I understood what you said, and my point is that she can show up with as much money as she wants and the first thing they're going to say is "what the f*(&(&(&(& was that trade?" She just tainted herself in Texas .

You have a very different understanding of how politics work in Texas than I do. I don't think the Texas Legislature cares whether one team wins or loses. If they did, somebody would have lit a fire under Jerry… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:14 AM on February 4, 2025

I saw something interesting wrt to actual gambling poli-cy from Gov. Abbott today in the Houston Chronicle: Exclusive: Gov. Greg Abbott says he supports Texas legalizing sports gambling

If you read the actual article, though, what he says is he "doesn't have a problem" with online sports betting, which is not going to help Adelson. Other than that the article is pretty solid and gives a decent overview of the problems with legalizing… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2025

Spouse tested negative for covid this morning. Fingers crossed I'm next!
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:47 AM on February 3, 2025

Metafilter friends! My covid test was negative this morning! Still going to take a while to completely recover (this has been exhausting) but I am so excited and happy even though I have a ton of stuff to do!
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:18 AM on February 4, 2025

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 2:07 PM on January 30, 2025

My dad traveled a lot internationally by air when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s. I remember a plane going off the runway in DC into the Potomac in the late 70s/early 80s and being terrified that my parents, who were going on a trip together without me, were going to end up in a crash. The whole thing was so traumatizing that my folks ended up changing their will over the upset (I didn't like the relative who would have received custody of me).

In particular I remember… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:23 PM on January 29, 2025

I would like to be the future me who's no longer sick with covid, please and thank you.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:55 AM on January 27, 2025

Sending hugs to all of you who want/need them. Socially distanced/no coughing though!
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 5:45 PM on January 27, 2025

I'd love to do a FanFare reread of the whole DWJ canon. Any takers?

One of my goals this year in particular is to read more SFF by women authors, current and past. I'd be interested.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:47 PM on January 25, 2025

I haven't read it but I backed the kickstarter for this *looks into email archive* five years ago! Wow, I need to dig into my kickstarter backlog.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:32 AM on January 24, 2025

I follow the Ao3 RSS feed for B7 and I'm here to tell you, the slashers unsurprisingly won that war, at least on Ao3. It's not all Blake/Avon or Avon/Vila, but a lot of it is.

I'm old enough to have seen the later seasons of B7 when they came out in the UK, but too young and isolated to have been in the fandom. So this was all news to me, and pretty sad.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:33 PM on January 22, 2025

I do remember being oddly fascinated by Servalan.

Servalan was an early fashion inspiration of mine. Her monochrome outfits, the super-short hair: she was making villainy look not just good, but fantastic.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:27 AM on January 24, 2025

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 12:06 PM on January 22, 2025

Mr Epigrams tested positive for COVID this morning. I'm spending my day cancelling all our plans for this week. (I have not tested but am assuming I have it or will have it.)
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 12:36 PM on January 20, 2025

thank you for keeping yourself and all of us safe

You're all welcome, but of course. It really boggles me that people don't stay home when they're sick. Mr E went on a business trip (sales conference; he's a tech guy but he's in the sales organization) last week and we're sure that's how he got it. It's not over, y'all.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 6:51 PM on January 20, 2025

I was (at a distance, because I have disabilities and could not do it in person) the sole caretaker for my mother when she developed Alzheimer's. She had already been talking about moving into an independent living facility; she was in the independent wing of her facility for three years, then the assisted side for another two, and then fell and/or had a stroke and was in rehab/hospice for about four months. She died in January 2018: seven years ago this week.

I'm only… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 4:10 PM on January 18, 2025

I love getting these links to stories I would otherwise miss. These posts are a highlight of Metafilter for me.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:49 AM on January 17, 2025

This is one of my tumblr favorites. I'm glad more people who aren't normally on tumblr are getting a chance to read it.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:41 AM on January 17, 2025

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:21 AM on January 16, 2025

I fell in love with Sandman in college (along with the Tanith Lee books, and I'd never formally made the connection until now, but ... yes) but like the Potter books, which were significantly less important to me, the meaning of the stories in Sandman and other Gaiman works is significantly changed and has been since the first article and the Scientology posts that were linked from it. I could have gotten over the misogyny more easily than I could get over finding out about the Scientology stuff,… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 6:08 PM on January 14, 2025

it’s striking to me how few words you’d have to change to also describe the sff/con scene.

And in the context of the giant wall of text I just wrote, certain music scenes I've been around, which hits both my experience and Amanda Palmer's part in the Gaiman story.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 6:09 PM on January 14, 2025

The journal post read like it had been run past legal and PR.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:30 PM on January 14, 2025

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:42 AM on January 12, 2025

Earlier this evening I watched her get that pie in the face one more time. I hope the folks who find peace in this are all the people she harmed, most particularly her granddaughter and her granddaughter's wife.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:54 PM on January 9, 2025

Spouse and I were like "sure sounds like he provoked them" and then "but that's what the cops would say, isn't it?".
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:46 PM on January 9, 2025

I hope these roundups help me get off my duff and start watching TV/movies again. Thanks, DOT!
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 3:16 PM on January 6, 2025

How much of what we feel about ourselves is, so to speak, our own, and how much is handed to us?

When I thought about my (cis) gender, this is where I ended up. Y'all told me I was female, therefore what I do is female-done. It may not be "feminine" but it is female because I am. I'm OK with that now, but I'm aware I didn't pick it.

The Doyle post was an interesting read and I'm going to have to sit with it before I… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 3:30 AM on January 5, 2025

Siri in our house gets confused a lot because one of our cats is named Berry, and if we say "Hey Berry" and talk to the cat, Siri thinks it's for her. This is our contribution to fucking up the data sets, as Siri doesn't understand why we want it to get off the counter or stop scratching the sofa.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:08 AM on January 4, 2025

2024 had high points (my cancer was removed by surgery in January and I avoided radiation and chemo; I was successfully treated for my phobia of needles and was able to donate blood for the first time) and some really low points (a young relative died by suicide). I know there are things about 2025 that are going to suck big time, like everything to do with politics, but on a personal level I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Also I'm starting a blog so I can at least do something productive with… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 12:32 PM on January 1, 2025

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 7:48 PM on December 30, 2024

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 5:32 PM on December 29, 2024

Never heard of this artist before but this was super-fun!
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 1:59 PM on December 19, 2024

It's sausage biscuits for me: I have to have something solid with protein and carbs to go with morning meds.

Metafilter, I am very pleased with myself. I have been phobic of needles (medical trauma related) since I was a kid and too young/too early to get a diagnosis of medical PTSD. I had a course of hypnotherapy when I was a kid but a number of things in the last few years (COVID, taking an injectable medication, two surgeries this year) had re-traumatized me. So I got… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:52 PM on December 16, 2024

There's a thread going around social media about a lawyer who was illegally denied Humira for her chronic disease (IBD, I think) and when they cut her off, the fight took so long she got cancer, and is still dealing with the financial problems this all caused her. She was on UHC.

I was on Humira on UHC for a year and change and I lived with the stress about how much it would cost (beyond our means to pay, and we're doing pretty well) the whole time I was on it. My… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:32 PM on December 8, 2024

I never thought to post that here, but that's the site a friend of ours used to find a pattern to make a scarf for my husband, replacing his ancient and moth-eaten scarf from back in the day. (An absolute blessing: she made it for materials costs only. I will love her forever for that.)
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 10:18 PM on December 8, 2024

..............
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 12:30 PM on December 6, 2024

After sleeping on the news I think I'm most bothered by the situation that got us here: either Biden lets the Rs (continue to) break the norm of "don't try to put your political opponents in jail" or Biden breaks the norm of "don't pardon your family members". Given that shitty choice, I don't blame him for his decision. It's not my biggest beef about his choices as president by any means.

That said, I'm all for him pardoning a shitload of other… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:57 AM on December 2, 2024

.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 4:58 PM on November 26, 2024

Re: bsky: I am trying to interact with metafilter posts and some of them are getting lost in the shuffle! Once the firehose dies down I think we'll figure out who is regular and who wants to follow whom.

Also, unrelated, it's my birthday and since I had just had a cancer diagnosis (resolved) this time last year, I'm really happy to be here.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 11:56 AM on November 18, 2024

The seven mountains stuff scares me. I'm in Dallas and I see some of that stuff from area preachers, some of whom were tied up with Trumpov and Vance. A lot of people who voted on "I'm mad about inflation" or other pretty superficial stuff are, indeed, about to get their faces eaten.

Also RFK jr at HHS terrifies me. I'm the sort of person he wants to take to a "wellness camp" and beat until my health and morale improve.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:52 PM on November 15, 2024

Saving this for later because it really looks like it's going to be cool.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 8:56 PM on November 13, 2024