Yesterday was not my day. The gastroenterologist told me I need to get an endoscopy, or camera down the throat. It’s a same-day inpatient procedure at the hospital. She told me that I have already eliminated the foods I should avoid, and that I have already tried all the palliative medications she could give me and that I am currently on the the one she would recommend. They can’t offer more relief because they don’t know what’s causing it. The length of the wait is because this week and next are holiday weeks. I’ll be scheduling on the first Tuesday I can get. That’s the day of the week WWWendy can take me home. Next, my oncologist called. Those nodes in my left lung are carcinomas, so I’ll have to have them surgically resected. ARGH!! Stay holiday safe please!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Fantasy Football Report:
Here’s the news from our own Fantasy Football League.
Congrats to Vivian and me for winning our games. Kudos to me for beating the Regular Season Champion and for the highest single-week score of the season. This weekend, I play Vivian in the Super Bowl, WWWendy plays Squatch for 3rd place, and Patty Monster plays the empty team and will win 5th place. Perhaps we can get Colleen to join the league next year. Good luck to all!
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.
The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.
“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”
Actually, Andy, that strain it not new. It is a devolution to a pre-hominid state: Sphincterpithicus Republicanis. RESIST!!
From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Track Santa around the world
Santa, save lots of reindeer turds for Trump* stockings in Palm Beach. RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the past): Country Joe McDonald – I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag
This was one of my favorites, back in the day. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!
Vote Blue!!
8 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/24/2019”
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4:53 That picture takes me back to my infancy when I was terrified of Santa. Maybe I was precocious about grasping the dangers of old white men. Or maybe it had something to do with both my grandfathers having died before I was born. Whatever.
A terrible day indeed. I hoped you were due for a respite from medical mayhem, but I guess not. Prayers and thoughts coming your way.
Football – So it wasn’t that much too early for the Superb Owl puzzle yesterday.
Cartoon – Let’s hope that Santa has bulletproof protection all around the sleigh and the reindeer (ideally, it should ricochet the bullets exactly back to their origin.)
NYT – is THAT the problem!? Well,that’s depressing. I hope you are right, TC, because if so, it was possible to deal with it before, so maybe sufficiently deep study of history can help us learn how to deal with it again.
WaPo – Is this really practical? The people who believe in Santa are the same people who believe the earth is flat, so where’s the audience?
Past – I don’t remember it myself. It surely wouldn’t take much updating to be spot on now, would it?
Cartoon: Be careful, Santa. The children can’t wait to see you!
Kudos to all who played FF, and Congratulations!
NYer: Pretty sad. What a bummer.
WaPo: Years ago, when we waited for Santa, the excitement grew and grew. Talk about memories. NORAD used to do it for the kids.
Here’s a short clip, of ‘Training to be Santa is tough.’
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/24/us/norad-santa-tracker-2019-scli-intl/index.html
BFTP: Ahhh….Country Joe. What a great song!!
Oh…! I’m so sorry that you have to experience that kind of discomfort (and pain) with your forthcoming appointments. I too, will pray for your comfort in getting this procedure done (and hopefully finished).Hope that you have a good rest of your day, take good care, and Thanks, Tom.
*This just in: “For the love of all things holy, stop saying we can’t affort to provide health care for all Americans. We’re spending $738 B on Space Force.” ~ Robert Reich ~
2. “Evangelical’s are big on doing Missionary work, so why aren’t they down at the border helping the migrants?” ~ Cynthia B. ~
So much bad health news in one day and just before the holidays too, TomCat. I’m so terribly sorry.
I have to go and prepare some salads for the Christmas lunch I was invited to, so I hope to come back to this later this evening.
Conga-rats on making it to the Fantasy Super Bowl! Go Teabag Trashers!
Endoscopy – ugh. Not a lot of fun. You are in my thoughts.
Country Joe McDonald’s song needs just a little tweaking to make it up to date. Swap out “Vietnam” for “Afghanistan,” for example. Not much else needs to change.
Cartoon: I pray that Santa is safe out there. Awful we have creeps out there who love ruining it for others.
FF: Congratulations on you and Vivian. Good luck to you when you play the Super Bowl.
NYT: Shameful. Hope they can figure out how to reprogram their brains. Otherwise it is very depressing.
WaPo: I like Pat remember NORAD being the one to track Santa. I just checked and I see that he’s over in Canada.
BFTP: Sure brings memories hearing Country Joe and the Fish. agree with Freya that it would be fit today, just changing “Vietnam” for “Afghanistan.”
Sorry to hear that you have to wait so long to get in for the Endoscopy. I’ll be praying that something/someone cancels so you can get in sooner.
Plus not happy hearing about your nodes being carcinomas and that you’ll have to have those nodes surgically resected. Prayers being sent.
Take care. Thanks TomCat
2:58 Creepy Santa
TNY: Oh, but they’ve been around for millennia, but until recently they were found at the bottom of the pit and harmless, happy where they were. After an unexplained rise through the ranks, they’ve become violent members of the NRA and are running the country.
WP: Couldn’t watch it.
BFTP: Awsome. I still knew the lyrics.
Thanks and Christmas Hugs to all! 🎄