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Home » Open thread 4/7/2025

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Open thread 4/7/2025 — 34 Comments

  1. From the “Kubler-Ross On Steroids” File…

    Looks like dem yurpeons just upped and skipped over a few important stages of grief.
    (Don’t these people understand that there’s a distinct order to their ordeal? Don’t they have any patience?? Don’t they have any self-respect???)

    ‘…Europe Says “Ready To Negotiate”’—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-surge-europe-says-ready-negotiate-us

    Gosh. So much for bargaining and depression …
    (Kubler-Ross must be really, really angry….)

  3. Re:Old Blog Entry on being an extra in “The Turning Point.”

    Where I used to work, we had a film shoot come in for the day. It seemed to be a LOT of standing around, for very little footage. They were there for twelve hours. the final bit in the film was about five minutes.

    In the late eighties, where I was in grad school, another film shoot came in. For three days of shooting, about a half hour appeared on screen. That was when I learned I never really wanted to be an “extra” in a film. I didn’t make the cut for that one, but friends did. BO-RING!!

    I remember that movie. I had danced ballet for years, and around the time that movie came out, my dad trained me to stop walking like a duck. I remember watching that moving thinking, “Aha! That is why my dad did that!” When yo see Leslie Browne walking around in the film, because of her turnout, she kind waddles like a duck A very lovely young woman, graceful in stage, but walking like a duck.

  4. “Walking like a duck” is one of my husband’s girl-watching most frequently-voiced comments. He’ll see an attractive young woman who walks with toes pointed out. Quack, quack. I have turnout when I want to, but I don’t walk like that.

  7. Re:Old Blog Entry & Anne Bancroft

    I’ve reading this blog for many years, but that old post was before I started coming here.

    I saw the Miracle Worker film when I was a kid and was super impressed. Thereafter, I always associated Bancroft with the classy actresses that are genuine artists. At some point I saw the film Don’t Bother To Knock, with Widmark, Monroe, and a young Bancroft playing a night club singer. Anne’s roll was that of a young “eye candy” distraction in an otherwise dark thriller.

    However, when I started going through her films that I could easily get on streaming services, I watched an old film called The Girl In Black Stockings (1957). A fairly bad film, but I enjoyed it. In it, Bancroft was again essentially playing the role of a bimbo, till the end anyway.

    Cast photo for The Girl In Black Stockings (1957)
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050439/mediaviewer/rm2028362753/

    I discovered that around that time she became so disgusted with the roles she was offered in Hollywood, that she quit and gave Broadway a shot. There she connected with her Miracle Worker director who turned her career around.

    How on earth did Bancroft and Mel Brooks connect? Apparently, Mel was a barrel of laughs in real life. This quote of hers is a good clue:

    [on being married to Mel Brooks] When he comes home at night and I hear his key in the lock, I say to myself, “Oh good! The party’s about to begin”.

    This quote is quite funny:
    When [Mel Brooks] told his Jewish mother he was marrying an Italian girl, she said: “Bring her over. I’ll be in the kitchen – with my head in the oven”.

  8. Just how is the Trump Admin suppose to get the gang banger (very nice guy, right) back form El Salvador? Is the judge advocating military action to get him back?

  9. Re: Baryshnikov

    Wow!

    So much so art, so little time. It’s good to touch base with Baryshnikov.

  10. the judge who was a party to the J6 fraud, where innocent people were railroaded, so he protects the guilty, the attorney who furthered the fraud, erez rezoner (sic) was a swamp creature, surprise, who started out at morrison foerster, a very leftwing firm, he was suspended by bondi,

  11. I am in support of Trump’s efforts to improve the US trade situation, and his program in general. That said, we listed our house for sale on Thursday morning, timed perfectly for a stock market crash. Ouch.

  13. @Kate, well in the short term it’s possible the new tarrifs on Canadian lumber may actually increase existing home values. We currently import something like 30% of our “softwood lumber” (basically different types of pine wood) from Canada. Softwood lumber is primarily used in the building of new houses. So obviously the tarrifs will drive the cost of building new homes up, which in turn will likely increase the prices of existing homes.

  14. People have noticed that Amy Phoney Barrette allows the unconstitutional anti-gun laws to stay on the books while the challenges move through the fed court system at the speed of continental drift while these assholes practically knocked each other over racing to protect enemy aliens.

  16. Way back in the mid-70s, here in WA, they raced to get the thirty year cut out and shipped to Asia. Everywhere around here were piles of logs waiting for export while various woodworking companies closed.

    Except for Crown Zellerbach, they got taken by a leveraged hostile buyout in the 80s. Their formally well managed land got sold off to pay the debt and looted. They at one time owned my property.

    Wikipedia

    Crown Zellerbach was an American pulp and paper conglomerate based in San Francisco, California, purchased in a hostile takeover in 1985.[1][2] Most of its pulp and paper assets were sold to James River Corporation, now part of Georgia-Pacific.

    Its name lives on through the Crown Zellerbach Building in San Francisco (One Bush Plaza) and various philanthropic projects of the Zellerbach family. The company invented folded paper towels, molded pulp egg cartons, and the window envelope.

  17. Nonapod, thanks for the encouragement. At the moment we think people are looking at their investment accounts, aghast. It will pass.

  19. “On October 19, 1987—known as Black Monday—the DJIA fell by 508 points, or by 22.6%.” I still remember it. We were very little invested, but my parents were aghast. They kept their heads and rode it out, and therefore lost nothing. We learned from their experience and rode out every subsequent downdraft, never losing a thing.

  20. Trump posted on Truth Social:

    “Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set. “Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

    So the high stakes game of tarrif chicken continues.

  21. I remember ‘87 also. I was testing a robotic 6-axis milling machine. Only a union machinist could actually operate the equipment. We were flailing. The machinist finally said “I am sorry I am so distracted. I am leveraged to hilt in the market and I’m going to lose my house”.

  22. I had forgotten about Black Monday. Yes, I have lost money this month, but it will come back. May already on that road.
    Kate, Mortage rates may fall with the money that the Fed Govt isn’t spending. Just hold on.

  24. Neo: Will you please point out which one is you, if possible? I.E. at which time mark, etc. I think your anonymity will remain safe.

  25. We also remember Black Monday. And 2008, when the market crashed while we were on a dinner boat on the Nile in Cairo, and our American fellow guests were frantically calling their brokers. We remained calm, held on, and we’ve been fine.

    Our broker told us the average time on the market here is thirty days. Mortgage rates are down somewhat, and actually our house is likely to be bought by someone else like us, already financially solid and not needing a huge mortgage.

    But still, awful timing for a listing. We’ll be okay.

  26. chazzand:

    If you read the link I gave, I explain that it was a scene that was supposed to be a rehearsal, and in the actual movie it was very very brief – and what’s more, I was in the back and even I couldn’t tell which person I was. So unfortunately I haven’t a clue. But the filming of that scene took a whole, exhausting day.

    I was living in LA at the time and most of the dancers – although not Barishnikov – took class with us. I wrote here as well as here about the dance studio in LA where all this happened, and the teacher who ran it. A great guy!

  28. Mead-Westvaco was the kids selling off and getting out of the lumber/paper business. They kept the land to sell off to developers and HUMONGOUS developments are being built. But it takes a hell of a lot of land that was used for lumber out of circulation. And it’s going to sting in about twenty years. Badly. I

    t’s really bad in South Carolina re: the lumber business.

    For awhile, it was bad because the large diameter logs were being shipped to India to be milled, then shipped back. It was more “cost effective.” Not like they paid great at the lumber mills here.

  30. Re: Trump / Netanyahu / Iran

    Trump met with Netanyahu today to discuss tariffs, trade and … Iran.
    ____________________________

    During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Trump said that “we’re having direct talks with Iran,” beginning Saturday. “We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” he said. The president said Iran is “going to be in great danger” if the direct talks don’t go well.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-netanyahu-meeting-tariffs/
    ____________________________

    Meanwhile the US has moved six B-2 Stealth Bombers, capable of transporting the heaviest bunker buster bombs, and the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group into the area.

    I don’t believe Trump is bluffing.

  32. 25 years later after my Turning Point comment and I still like my memories of the movie. And the reality of choice remains.

    Recently I read a great note on How To Write a Killer First Sentence. By Michael Totten, quite well written.

    Neo potential author of “Diary of the 21st Century”, vol. 2004-2025+
    My latest fantasy is to use Grok ai to collect all the Neo posts into yr-month groups, then exclude most open thread & dance videos, or replace with a link.
    With the idea that as a set of daily diary entries, it is great current history review.

    Hopefully Kate will be OK selling her house. Prices go up as mortgage rates go down, which go down as interest rates go down, which go down as rich sellers of stock buy more bonds, as is happening.

  33. I accidentally got
    Involved with texting someone accidentally,romantically not dirty, but talking about marriage and a future together.it was my landlord. I’m glad it wasn’t more intimate . Am I uniquely stupid?

  34. I wa s acci8texting someon,romantically not dirty, but talking about marriage and a future together.it was my landlord. I’m glad it wasn’t more intimate . Am I uniquely stupid?

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