↓
 
Home » Open thread 12/20/21

Open thread 12/20/21

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s probably just as well that we live now and not back then. Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun:

Comments

Open thread 12/20/21 — 70 Comments

  5. The reactions on Bloomberg and CNBC to Manchin’s decision are just bizarre. (I watch biz channels all day for work). For example, I know Jim Cramer is an extreme partisan, but whoa.

    That one senator could deep six this unprecedented spending orgy is not an indication of how divided our country is. Instead, it is proof that one party was acting in a totally irresponsible way. Responsible people don’t try to ram through massive, over the top change with a 50/50 senate. That’s the lesson!

    Oh the whining! — “One senator shouldn’t have the power to block a law like this.” Indeed, And a responsible Democrat party should never have put itself in this position.

    Leave it to Democrats to always miss the point — fully and completely.

  6. The public latrine in Ephesus had a central stage for music to be played. Beneath the seats was a drain to carry away the waste. Pretty modern. The next water closet in Europe was in the 1851 Exposition in England.

  7. “…what prompted this…?”
    Perhaps the following—
    “Biden Staff Did ‘Inexcusable’ Things: Manchin”:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/our-entire-democracy-line-squad-fires-manchin-killing-build-back-better”

    (IOW when Ilhan Omar claims that Manchin is the enemy of “our democracy”, then one can be absoutely sure that Manchin’s done the right thing…)

    To be compared and contrasted with more shenanigans from this flatulent fraud:
    “John Kerry’s Financial Crusade Against Oil and Gas”—
    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/492350/

  9. Those olden days. “Rough as a cob”, as they used to say in The Volunteer State.

    Without moving from allusive to too explicit, I think it fair to speculate that a simple diet extremely rich in fiber might go some way to moderating the horror of it all. If not by eliminating the offensiveness of those communal systems, then, at least insofar as moderating the potential trauma involved in trying to keep reasonably clean personally.

  10. “One senator shouldn’t have the power to block a law like this.” Indeed, And a responsible Democrat party should never have put itself in this position.”

    I’ve asked several D friends who parrot the line about “end of democracy” with regard to Manchin’s decision, why the D’s didn’t put up candidates who better represent what their constituents want so they didn’t end up with no majority in the Senate? Crickets. Seems like it’s democracy only when it works for the Ds. Of course the idea of a representative republic based on democratic voting goes totally over their heads. They have obviously no knowledge of the Greek pure democracies and how those ended up.

  11. “Our democracy”

    It might be interesting to see the history of the origin and polemical deployment of that phrase laid out.

  12. Look, they stole the presidency.
    They likely stole several Senate seats as well.
    They went through ALL THAT TROUBLE (to “protect democracy”!!)…and now this?

    One can feel their pain….

  14. They probably need something like this in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It would be much better than what is going on now.

  15. This, with water running below to carry the waste away, was a lot more hygienic than medieval chamber pots emptied into the streets. I believe some medieval monasteries had similar arrangement, but not cities, until modern times.

  16. Idiot democrats expected a democrat senator representing the most republican state in the union, to vote for that crap bill. Brain dead democrats.

  17. It’s Manchin vs. Psaki/”Biden”:
    Who you gonna believe?
    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/manchin-dares-democrats-to-push-him-out-of-party/
    Key graf:
    ‘White House press secretary Jen Psaki blasted Manchin…accusing him of performing a “sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position.”
    ‘During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Manchin said: “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there….”’

  18. The same configuration was revealed by the dig in the Southern Rhone town in France, Savon La Romain. Also there was actually a main street with stalls fronting it and the foundations remained of homes to the rear of the stalls.

  19. It seems that the talking heads at CNN have switched their C-19 talk from we must lockdown to “just live with the virus”. And, that may be the topic of the lecture that Biden will be giving us on Tuesday.

    But, do y’all think that Biden will use the word “expodentially” to? describe the rapid growth of Omicron.

    Links:
    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/12/20/sure-looks-like-theres-a-coordinated-cnn-effort-underway-on-that-covid-messaging-n494273

    https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1470189441738326017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

    I can’t locate the link right now, but in a debate in 2020, Trump mentioned that we would have to learn to live with the virus and Biden’s response was we are learning to die with the virus. Biden flips again!

  20. I suspect that in his address tomorrow, pResident Biden is going to unload both barrels on an ungrateful nation. We have fallen short of his paternal expectations and now we must be locked down for real. Anybody not kowtowing instantly to the vaccine mandate will be rounded up and sent to the camps.

    And Mr. Manchin’s name will be heard no more.

  21. I imagine Neo may post on the Manchin announcement later, but the Democrat reaction is something to behold. As Manchin says, in Barry Meislin’s ZeroHedge link, the Dems did inexcusable things to try to pressure him, rather than trying to meet his expectations, and now they’re the ones saying he’s operating in bad faith.

  22. What tcrosse said. WWII era Destroyers used an arrangement that any ancient Roman would have recognized. A row of seats with a trough underneath with a constant flow of seawater to flush away waste. We made a few innovations over the past 2000 years. There were small “privacy” shields between the seats. And at one end of the row was a red seat. The Romans might have immediately understood the purpose of privacy shields but wouldn’t have had a clue what the red seat was for.

    Anyone who caught an STD was required to use the red “seat of shame.” People, including medicos, thought it was possible to catch STDs from toilet seats.

    Fletcher class destroyers remained in USN service until the 1970s. That was before my time. But they remained in service in foreign navies long after that. The last one was retired from the Mexican navy in 2001. I somehow doubt upgrading the toilet facilities from the WWII standard was much of a priority.

  23. The trick was for the guy on the upstream end to make a wad of toilet paper, light it, and float it downstream for his shipmates to enjoy.

  25. Manchin’s announcement is the latest signal that prog power has peaked and is collapsing for the rest of Biden’s term, probably longer.

    My main worry is that desperate people do desperate things and Democrats are desperate.

  26. — “One senator shouldn’t have the power to block a law like this.”

    The author of that canard is deliberately trying to disenfranchise the millions of that Senator’s constituents. Glad it didn’t work.

  27. “One senator shouldn’t have the power to block a law like this.”

    McCain is waving frantically from his grave.

  28. R.e. Manchin. On Friday it’s now apparent that the Biden WH was trying to set Manchin up.

    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/12/17/biden-tells-a-whopper-about-manchin-but-manchins-response-tells-the-real-story-n493256

    “Neither the media nor Joe Biden seems to be able to deal with the simple fact that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has always been clear that he had issues with the Build Back Better (BBB) bill, from various provisions to the price tag of the whole monstrosity.

    …Now, Biden has released a statement where he mentions Manchin three times and falsely claims that Manchin had agreed with him on a number.

    ‘In these discussions, Senator Manchin has reiterated his support for Build Back Better funding at the level of the framework plan I announced in September,’ he said.

    ‘I believe that we will bridge our differences and advance the Build Back Better plan, even in the face of fierce Republican opposition.’

    It’s really impressive how much Biden boldly lies, even with an official statement like this. There was never an announced agreement on the numbers, and Manchin has never said he supported the BBB. So Biden’s statement is a bunch of horse manure. He’s trying to put lipstick on a pig after he was rejected by Manchin, and paint it as just Republican opposition. Biden also is completely dismissing the reality of the CBO score with this statement.

    Manchin is a very genteel fellow, but his response to Biden’s statement, for him, seemed perturbed. ‘The president put out a statement. It’s his statement, not mine,’ Manchin said. That’s probably as close as Manchin will politely come to calling Joe Biden a liar. It also is a comment as to where they are at this point — which is not anywhere close to an agreement…”

    Everyone knew that President Trunalimunumaprzure was lying then. And apparently President Expodentially did so in order to feign outrage about being “doublecrossed.”

    Norms restored!

    What a train wreck this WH crew is.

  29. “ One senator shouldn’t have the power to block a law like this.” He doesn’t. There are also 50 Republican Senators against it. Once again the Dems demonstrate their innumeracy.

  30. Re Stan, physicsguy, and Barry. The first opines “Leave it to Democrats to always miss the point — fully and completely.”

    I draw a somewhat different point. CommieCrats need to learn what Islamists — like old stalinists knew –already practice: one (vote) and done is how it’s done. Otherwise, expect regrets and equivocation against the New Regime’s Order to pile up. And with that, you get messes like inquisitions and then bodies pile up. But at least the New Team gets its way completely.

    Otherwise, you’ll get all kinds of dissension to well up and spoil the glorious New Order. (Cf, Revolutionary France — see how that worked out? It didn’t).

    “Democracy” is best to tyrants when it goes one way only and you get off early enough that there’s No Way Back.

    Can’t – Have – That.

    But the anti-Democrat “Democrats” grasp neither the practical realties of history nor how Representative Republics work. (Nor do they practice self-reflection enough to be self-aware of what they are actually doing, besides the old motions.) They are in active denial of both. Virtue Chorusing, anyone?

  31. Heck, the Romans had it pretty good. In the 1930s on farms where electricity was not yet available, three or four holer outhouses were standard. Alway set well away from the house, they weres quite a challenge to use in the winter. Both the trek and the time on the hole. Of course, “Thunder mugs” were used for peeing at night and emptied into the outhouse in the morning.

    The use of Thunder mugs was very common even after indoor plumbing became available. I once bunked with a family that had one bathroom and three boys, all of whom slept in a loft above the main floor. The Thunder mug was very useful for nocturnal peeing in those situations.

    In post WWII Japan they did not have enclosed sewers outside the larger cities. They had Binjo ditches to carry the waste to collection points where tit would be carried out and applied to the fields. We were warned not to get drunk and step or fall in one of those ditches. A real health hazard.

    As recently as 2009, the Shanghai airport restrooms, had holes in the floor with foot stations on each side and no partitions. China is still modernizing.

    Many third world countries have toilets, but the sewage system is such that you can’t put toilet paper in it. They have cans for the toilet paper disposal.

    IMO, we have too little appreciation for the level of indoor plumbing and sewage treatment we enjoy. Just one more thing to appreciate about being blessed to live in the USA.

  32. “One senator shouldn’t have the power to block a law like this….”

    Translation (to Realspeak…from Newspeak):
    “One senator shouldn’t have the power to prevent us from destroying—sorry, that should be ‘transforming’—the USA….”

    No wonder they’re so upset. So close…yet so far…HOLD ON! Schumer’s working on it!!!

    (And old Chuckie’s probably contemplating his bag of tricks…Hey, how ’bout the old “What-a-nice-family-ye’-got-there-Joe-etc…” gambit; or “What-a-nice-state-etc…”—or both!!—or maybe he’ll start out slowish-like, by softening him up with “What-a-nice-car…”…You know, speak softly but carry a huge tire iron…. Manchin’s a pretty bright guy. He’ll get the message!! And Psaki’s already got the “We love Joe. We respect him immensely. And we tried to help him; we tried to warn Joe that what he was doing was really hurting the President and also…not exactly in his own self-interest….)

  33. IMO, we have too little appreciation for the level of indoor plumbing and sewage treatment we enjoy. Just one more thing to appreciate about being blessed to live in the USA.

    People take for granted the current standard of living. I’m sure that was true of the ancient Romans, who were likely pleased with all of their modern conveniences and aghast at how the Greeks before them lived, not to mention the barbarians around them. A couple hundred years from now people will look back at us and wonder how we tolerated our current living standards, though the way things are headed now maybe they will be envying our pre-2020 freedoms.

  34. J.J.

    I spent summers in Nova Scotia as a kid. East Pictou. Stayed with distant relatives of a family friend who lived in a cabin built by Uncle George. Two rooms, no running water. A well/pump in one corner of the property and a two seater outhouse in the other. Sure glad I only stayed there in the summer.

    In Nancy, France I went into a public toilet that had holes in the floor, two foot places and a handle bar.

    In Frankfurt, at the Crazy Sexy, there was a tiled wall with water dripping from a pipe and a trough at bottom instead of urinals.

  35. Oops… Correction….
    Should be—
    “…And Psaki’s already got the messaging down and rarin’ to go: “We love Joe….”
    = = = =
    BTW, John Durham—remember him?!—is approaching the holiday season with what he hopes is a useful, perhaps even delightful, gift:
    ‘The 2016 Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign and its employees are currently subject to “matters” before the Special Counsel.’
    https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1472985286879727618

    (Seems all he has to do is find the right wrapping…)

  36. I have sat on the ruins of the public toilet of ancient Philippi in Macedonia. It was a long stone with holes cut into it. Had water that flushed thru underneath, back in the day. Got a picture taken, with clothes on.

    There is a chapel just upstream that marks the area of where the first named Christian convert in Europe was baptized, a lady named Lydia. Acts 16:11-15.

    In the motel we stayed in the area, you could not put the toilet paper in the toilet, you had to put it in the trash can. One of my sergeants noted that these people had running water two thousand years ago, but you could not flush toilet paper now.

  37. A couple hundred years from now people will look back at us and wonder how we tolerated our current living standards, though the way things are headed now maybe they will be envying our pre-2020 freedoms

    “What did Democrats use before candles?” Electricity.

  38. “…standard…”
    …has come a long way (baby)…:
    https://www.americanstandard.ca/
    https://www.americanstandard.ca/search-results-products?q=toilet&page=1&plimit=21

    (I think Philip Roth, in one of the stories in “Good-Bye Columbus”, included a ridiculous character—a salesman for a toilet manufacturer—who expounded on the revolutionary cleanliness of American john’s demonstrating irrefutably that the country had achieved the absolute pinnacle of cuture… Or maybe it was another book…or maybe it wasn’t Roth….)

    OTOH, downright anti-social…and not very friendly.

    Guess it depends on one’s priorities….

  39. When I was mobilizing for my first tour in the Balkans, the Battalion I was assigned to was housed in some old barracks at Fort Stewart , Georgia. The toilets were in a long row, with nothing between them. This was in 2003.
    I would walk probably a mile or so to the PX when I needed to do more than urinate….
    Of course, what is “ fun”, is going to a port a potty with all your gear and carrying a rifle. When I was in Germany for another deployment, you had the choice of using the unheated port a potties in the winter snow, which did not stink so bad due to the cold, or the ones in the heated bunker, male toilets on one side, females on the other.
    Either way, you were required to have your rifle, pro mask, soft vest, helmet with you in the latrine, unless someone stood outside guarding them. Getting caught without them meant low crawling all around the Battalion AO in the snow, courtesy of the Vietnam vet Battalion Sergeant Major. This was in 2005.

  40. “I have sat on the ruins…”

    Jon, that’s what I find so fascinating about archeology. It really makes history come alive….

    (Actually, I thought you were about to break out into some kind of Tennyson-esque disquisition upon the, um, matter… I guess it could still be done…)

  41. Our tour guide in Bulgaria, who had spent time locked up thanks to the Communist, said that civilization is “good toilets and good roads” . She had tears in her eyes, asking why us Americans had not saved them from the Communist. I wish she could speak to many of the young people in America. This was in 2004. She was probably someone born circa 1940.
    I take it as a sign of the times that the left in this country is doing away with segregated by sex bathrooms, conditioning children to share them with the opposite sex in schools. Add to that water restrictions which limit flushing ability.
    Our civilization is being collapsed from within. The signs are all there.

  44. @Steve57:

    The USN commissioned a B&W documentary in (maybe) the early 60s about enlisted living conditions on destroyers in an attempt to get money for new ships or refits. I’ve seen it pop up on YouTube before and have skimmed it. Dimly recall the heads not being too inviting.

  45. In 1971, courtesy of the USN, a few of us took the bullet train up from Yokohama to Tokyo. The train let us out in an underground mall. After eating at the first McDonalds to open in Japan, I had to take a leak and spotted a bathroom in the mall. Unisex, partitions but with no doors and simply a hole in the floor with a pushbutton flush on the wall. No smell and seemed quite clean. A bit of a cultural shock.

    “pResident Biden”, Owen

    Lol Priceless! Best one yet. I’m using that from now on.

    Leland,

    Artictic license. “Facts are unfair!”

  46. Metaphor alert.

    https://tinyurl.com/yph8uhj9

    In a small Indian village, a few dogs killed an infant monkey. Vengeful monkeys then grabbed puppies, carried them to the tops of trees and buildings, and dropped them to their deaths. About 250 puppies have been killed this way.

    When people tried to defend their dogs, the monkeys started going after human children.

  47. @Cornflour:

    Things do tend to escalate.

    The monkeys have the right idea.

    Remember all the “What’s an Arab?” punchlines from 20 years ago? Where *did* they go?

    Probably some smart fraction Indian in that village will figure out how to monetize an ongoing War Against Monkeys. What’s the odd kid after all?

  48. China is still modernizing.

    I used a public toilet in the center of a Chinese village back in 1989. It was a double row of holes running down the center of a long, shed like building. Now try finding a toilet in an American city. American cities are hardly livable these days.

  49. When I started working at a big Silicon Valley company, I could tell by hearing that the Asian employees would often flush before doing their business, then flush again.

    At first I thought it was some germ thing about any minute leftovers from the previous occupant, then I realized it was probably a check in case the toilet were about to overflow.

  50. Re the China Still Modernising cf. Current State American Cities:

    What’s hard to convey is the sense and feeling in the air of things moving forward vs. the cope-ium fever dreams of stagnation or decay/retreat. Every day being a bit less cf. a bit more shit-smeared and potholed. It’s a feeling. Like it being Morning in America. Except more.

    It’s not just China. I once walked out of my serviced apartment in Bangkok and the security guard was all grins because there was a giant traffic jam of shiny expensive new cars in the soi. This was an almost minimum wage guy who had to work long boring hours under the hot sun and he wasn’t faking being proud and happy about the rising tide of prosperity and shiny new stuff in his country.

    And Thai toilets are pretty good.

    Don’t get me started on India and the Islamic World though. I have a theory that anywhere that notions of ritual purity and ritual ablutions are historically important, then practical mundane application of soap along with the ritual splash is far less critical to them. Ritual cleanliness and stinking to high heaven are not mutually exclusive states.

  51. Zaphod:

    Any hints on eating kimchi?

    Tim Ferriss is keen on fermented vegetables in one’s diet. I can handle the sauerkraut, but kimchi may be a probiotic too far.

  52. @Huxley:

    Yeah. A little bit goes a long way at first. Then it slowly grows on you. There’s lots of varieties of the stuff. I mainly eat the plain old cabbage kimchi. Check the sugar content. As you will know by now in your healthy eating thing, food technologists have an irritating habit of adding the stuff for ‘mouth feel’ enhancement even when you can’t taste the sweetness because of other ingredients.

    The brand I guzzle is exported from Korea: Jimi. Comes in plastic 1kg buckets with predominantly red colour scheme. 2.xg sugars / 100g. 6.xgcarbs / 100g. One would expect a good chunk of both of these to be either fermented away or indigestible cellulose. So nothing much to worry about unless eating in insane quantities.

    Some other brands have more carbs and I pick whatever I can find with the lowest.

    If you don’t like kimchi, don’t try natto.

    Koreans here are all expats. In the West you get your Rooftop Koreans and Restaurant Koreans, and Korean Supermarket Koreans as well. Many of them make their own kimchi. So if you have a Korean strip mall handy, I’d go hunting there for the good stuff. Ask around. Koreans are a fiery bunch, but they do get very happy when a Whitey takes interest in the dietary and cultural habits of the Master Race (Them. Of course).

    I find kimchi less irritating than sauerkraut because it’s easier to get sauerkraut all over my keyboard. Goddam stringy shit. Natto is stringy and sticks to everything. You’re going to love it.

    For probiotics, you can’t beat full fat no funny tricks and additives Kefir. Problem is it’s dairy. Barry Meislin was asking the other day how you managed to do it without intermittent fasting and my guess would be by cutting out all dairy. Forgetting any or no milk sugars present depending on which form once consumes dairy in, the dairy proteins themselves are simply too insulinotropic for most people to be able to lose weight without fasting as well.

  54. Don’t get me started on India and the Islamic World though.

    Give the Islamic world some credit. That hole in the floor with two footpads, the Turkish toilet, was a big step up from the more primitive squats that preceded it, and it put the bad stuff where the traffic wouldn’t spread it around. And since their Empire was a big one, that device was generally the best solution for the populations of the post-Roman centuries until the Brits revived the idea of Grand Cloacae underground in the cities.

  56. Zaphod:

    I’m eating a Napa variety: “Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi – Long Fermented Reserve – Full-Bodied Funky Spritzy” with real Napa cabbage and “0% added sugars” according to the listing. Got it at Whole Foods.

    Not too spicy. Main problem. It’s like eating octopus. Hard to cut up even with a steak knife. Lousy mouth feel. Gaggable.

  57. @Huxley:

    “I’m eating a Napa variety”

    First Problem.

    “Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi”

    Need I continue?

    “Got it at Whole Foods.”

    It *was* just a rhetorical question, but I’ll restrain myself nonetheless.

    “It’s like eating octopus.”

    What kind of Buddhism is this, Otto?

    Find yourself a New Kimchi.

  58. Zaphod:

    I can be wooed with humor…

    “Every man for himself” is a core Buddhist teaching.

  59. @Huxley:

    I haven’t quite managed to get my head around Japanese Warrior Monks during the Sengoku Warring States Period. Must read up one day. They certainly could be very bolshie.

    The Tokugawa Shogunate later used the mendicant monk guys wore funny hats covered their entire heads and wandered the land playing the shakuhachi as domestic spies.

    None of which excused Otto.

  60. Huxley:

    I must have missed some earlier comments, so I don’t know why you’re force feeding yourself kimchi. It’s been a while, but I worked in Korea for a couple of years and ate kimchi pretty much every meal. I liked it from the beginning. If you find it gaggable, I doubt that you’ll ever acquire a taste for it.

    Many Koreans make their own kimchi in their kitchen refrigerators. Maybe you could try that, and figure out a recipe for a version that you like. You’d also save a lot of money that way. I don’t understand why kimchi is so expensive here. In Korea, it’s considered a cheap staple. Also, most of it’s now imported from China, which greatly offends most Korean’s sense of nationalism.

  61. Cornflour:

    I’m doing Tim Ferriss’s “Slow-Carb Diet.” Sauerkraut and kimchi aren’t required, but Ferriss recommends them. They may shift one’s gut flora in healthy ways.
    _____________________________

    Fermented foods contain high levels of healthy bacteria and should be viewed as a mandatory piece of your dietary puzzle. I consume five forkfuls of sauerkraut each morning before breakfast and also add kimchi to almost all home-cooked meals.
    …
    Give your good bacteria an upgrade and get your microbiome in shape. Faster fat-loss and better mental health are just two of the benefits.

  63. Insufficiently Sensitive:

    I was under the impression that the hole in the floor with two footpads was meant to be used in the squatting position.

  64. I am convinced that squat toilets and living on the floor à la japonaise does wonders for their longevity.

    I believe there is an assessment metric for life expectancy simply based on being able to sit on the floor cross-legged and stand up again. All that’s necessary is to count off how many movements and rearrangements and uses of hands and knees are necessary to get from a floor sitting position to standing. Then one looks at a table to get an estimate.

  65. Zaphod:

    Then there’s the Turkish Get-Up, a magic Kettlebell exercise.

    Lying flat on your back with the bell on your chest, you shift the bell to one hand, raise it perpendicular above your body, then through a rather complex and strenuous set of movements, you arrive at a standing position with the bell overhead. Form counts.

    Then you lie back down by doing all the above movements in reverse.

    It’s pretty horrible.

    “Turkish Get-Up”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QEE1Q4iW-w

  66. @Huxley:

    I took one look at that and now I’m keen to find the Turkish GTFO.

    That being said, based on the experience of the last several weeks of intermittently doing rearrangement of furniture and device positioning and running power and network cables around and under and behind bits of furniture, I kind of wish I’d taken up the Turkish Get-Up at an early age and stuck with it.

  67. huxley —

    Sauerkraut and kimchi aren’t required, but Ferriss recommends them. They may shift one’s gut flora in healthy ways.

    I suspect there’s something amiss with my gut flora, but if fixing it requires eating sauerkraut and/or kimchi I think I’d prefer to just suffer.

  69. Righteous Food, Kimchi:

    Rooftop Koreans: A Synthwave Tribute
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df3ZL862vgw

    Kimchi-fueled Korean Student Rioters
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KgX-hb1amo

    I used to have a Korean colleague whose wife proudly supported him for two years while he went to student demonstrations and riots before *they* decided enough CV-padding gap year antics and he then went on to get his MBA and make bank.

    We used to put him in charge of company BBQs… Koreans are good at BBQing just about anything.

  70. @Leland,

    The picture seems OK. Heavy, sturdy hobnailed-sole Roman army sandals (caligae) could actually look very much like boots. I’ve seen various styles in reproduction.

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/51/1c/76/511c76af8fc947b1d38fc39853f00bad.jpg

    In fact, some people actually translate caligae as “boots.” But they’re not barbarian boots which were made from solid pieces of leather much like modern boots. Made from strips of leather they were easier to repair and also you could lace caligae all the way down to the toe, in colder weather particularly in more northern parts of Europe the soldiers would wear socks, in warmer weather particularly around the Mediterranean and inland to the east they’d go without, so it was important the caligae be adjustable. The third Roman emperor, Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, actually got his nickname from them. He was the son of the popular general Germanicus Julius Ceasar. Germanicus used to bring his wife and son on campaign. They made up a miniature soldier’s uniform for the kid. He was a favorite of the troops, who nicknamed him “little boots.” Caligula.

    Romans also wore underwear. Usually linen loin clothes, especially civilians, but the soldiers might wear short breeches under their tunics. They weren’t wearing them as outer garments so that wouldn’t violate the prohibition, and in any case regular army legionaries were supposed to be stationed within the walls of Rome at all.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

↑