Scarlet Pimpernel

14 minutes ago, Mrs.J said:

This is brilliant. I saw that horrible excuse for a tuna melt last night. I like mayo and all but holy crap! And not draining the tuna and then the ultimate kick in the gut with it in the microwave!! 
 

Here are the tuna melts I make! Just had them a couple of nights ago. 
 

That's great!  Somehow, just knew you'd have such a recipe handy!  I see you have a box of Stoned Wheat Thins there...I get those same crackers fairly often, very tasty!

(ETA:  I actually scored some yeast in the baking aisle the other day, after weeks of not seeing it!  It was like a veritable miracle, I thought I heard choral voices from above!  They had a couple of boxes filled with those packets that have 3 "servings".  I just took 2 packets...wasn't going to be "that guy" and take an entire box, haha!)

11 minutes ago, Mrs.J said:

Hot commodity was delivered today. 

Gotta love that name!  Makes one wonder...what would be in a box from some place called "Who Gives A F**K"?? 

3 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

It's entirely reasonable to expect at least a treatment protocol for COVID-19 by the end of 2020.  There are several promising treatment protocols being studied and this would at least provide us with options to significantly lower the mortality rate going forward.  

2 minutes ago, jaydreb said:

Well, if you believe Dr. Fauci we’re going to deal with it with increased testing, contact tracing and better therapeutics.  

Good points, and I have heard some about this.  With luck, having several month's "lead time" before the next season, we'll have better ways of treating this in lieu of a vaccine at some other time in the future.

24 minutes ago, wxtrix said:

I responded that way because he said "we were told something that didn't pan out".

that is straight up disinformation.

Exactly.  The more dire estimates of mortality, as I understood things, were *if* we did nothing or almost nothing.  That the numbers are now indicating a lower amount (thankfully!) would seem to me to be a direct result of stay-home orders, social distancing, and restrictions on what establishments can remain open (and how many people can be in those places at one time).  There's also the concern over a second wave next fall/winter, right at the same time as the regular flu season is going on.  In many ways, that actually alarms or scares me more than how to deal with things now.  How will we deal with that?

Just now, Mrs.J said:

My husband is banned from having that stuff. Lets just say it gave off a smell after consumption in a hotel room that required opening the door to the room to air out. 

Oh, my!!!  (Thinking of Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, where Jim Carrey says "Do NOT go in there...whew!!!") 

Personally, I've never had it myself!  I prefer my whisky to be of the single-malt variety (being of bastard Scottish descent!).  And not on the rocks...straight up, dammit!

2 hours ago, C.A.P.E. said:

I picked up a couple DFH 120s today, with the intent of saving them. But dammit, one of those suckers is calling my name from the fridge already.

If you hear voices from the fridge, might want to call Ghostbusters!  

31 minutes ago, Baltimorewx said:

In honor of probably the best thunderstorm to date this afternoon in Dundalk, drank the rest of my growler, a key rye barrel aged porter and now a shiner candied pecan porter in the home bar. Cheers

Damn, that looks tasty!  Like the mug, too!  I see you got it at Epcot Center??  I was at Disney a couple of summers ago, including at Epcot, but unfortunately did not get to that Biergarten!  On a side note, I know some people kind of don't care as much for Epcot compared to the other Disney parks, but I really enjoyed it (the Soarin' ride is incredible)!

32 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Other than the buffalo roaming through Pikesville 15 years ago, just saw the craziest thing. A damn turkey was trapped in my neighbor’s yard, hopped the fence and ran through ours on his way down the street. I thought it was a pet peacock at first, but no doubt about it, it was a wild turkey! I’m guess he got caught up in the thunderstorm gusts.

Well, if it were this kind of wild turkey, you should have grabbed it and run!!

48 minutes ago, showmethesnow said:

Haven't seen one of those Elvis paintings in ages. I remember they were all the rage in the 70's. Might have to hit you up if you start selling. 

Uhhh-huhhh! (said in an Elvis voice of course)...

16 minutes ago, Yeoman said:

Bonuses for front line folks are imperative - on the order of 50% or more of their salary. I've purchased $700 in gift cards for local restaurants and will continue to do more, so should others that have the means. These small businesses employ 50% of our workers.

They definitely should get bonuses of some sort.

On an individual level, I still patronize places I've liked (restaurants) when I can just to be supportive and hopefully help keep them afloat.  Of course, my contribution as one person is a drop in the bucket, but if enough people do that at carry-out or grab-and-go places, that's something.

2 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

That’s where things like paid sick leave matter. A business, especially a small one can’t just come up with money to pay employees, but I know a multi-trillion dollar government can. 

Before my conservative friends come out with knives lol I’m not talking about “free” money indefinitely, I’m just talking about looking out for the average American and the least among us and their economic security. I’ve been consistently saying we have to look at public health and economic security equally. There are people who cannot go into work right now. We don’t throw their actual or economic lives away because they just happen to be older or less healthy.

Wish I could recommend this 1000 times...spot-on concerning public health and economic security!!  This country has about the most minimal safety net in the western world, and yet everyone complains when there are attempts to expand it or help people in this type of emergency situation.  We cannot afford that, apparently...but hey, we can give $2T in tax cuts for multi-millionaires, so whatever.  Oy!

15 hours ago, DCTeacherman said:

Hey the covid thread wasn’t a disaster today 

May have spoken too soon...looks like it's gotten a bit chippy in there this morning from what I saw!

12 hours ago, Maestrobjwa said:

Boooooo...lol 

LOL!!  Well, when I saw @stormtracker appear in here the other day, Beethoven was wearing a mask!!  So there is that...

31 minutes ago, H2O said:

My dad was born in 1936 so he was a part of the tail end of the Great Depression and jumped right into WW2/  The stuff he told me of what they did/didn't have as a kid was stunning.  

Now we have groups of people going out to protest and butthurt they can't get a damn haircut or lawn gnomes with ease.  There are just ridiculous narratives being pushed when reality is that a ton of people will suffer if we don't listen to the experts.

Hey now...lawn gnomes are people, too!! 

Just now, SnowGolfBro said:

Have we done nothing? Are 30+ days of lockdowns, 10s of millions of lost jobs, closed schools, and so on showing no compassion?  We can’t know what would have happened if we did nothing.  I agree that these measures had a positive effect on hospitals not getting overflowed.  But i can’t prove that either.  But the compassion needs to go both ways.  I have compassion for the laid off employees, the kids missing school, those suffering depression or domestic violence due to our “compassion”.  

I also have compassion for kids missing school (I have one myself...though at least doing online stuff for what it's worth), employees who are now laid off, small businesses that are going under and losing employees, etc.  I'd wager that a huge majority have compassion as well, it's not just a one way street.

That's precisely why Congress needs to come up with some inventive ways to assist people during this whole crisis.  I'm far from an expert in knowing exactly what to even do (not an economist, and don't even play one on TV, and I have not stayed in a Holiday Inn Express any time recently!!).  Invest in some type of temporary income assistance?  Debt forgiveness?  Who knows...something like that, I suppose, and on a large scale.  We'll need to re-think things in how to deal with such situations again...much how we had to do the same in the Depression.  Not much of a time to be timid here.

10 minutes ago, Inverted_Trough said:

The restrictions during World War II were far more limiting than what we're experiencing right now.  I can't imagine how today's folks would have fared back then. 

Funny you mention that.  I was just talking to a friend the other day and we discussed just this.  What would some of these (loudly complaining) people today do in the 1930s or 1940s during the Depression and WW-II, with all the restrictions and required sacrifice to assist the war effort and to climb out of the economic disaster?

OK, this may be borderline political here, but aren't nearly all of these "protests" of the astroturf variety?  As in they're contrived and well funded by various groups, not some individual grass-roots organizers.  Think of the infamous "Brooks Brothers Riot" back during the Florida 2000 recount fiasco.

Now...concerning "opening up", I agree that it will have to be done discretely, and depending on how much testing is done...like what Gov. Hogan is advocating.  So open some things marginally, see what happens, and be prepared to close it up again if cases spike.  Something like that.  I cannot imagine anyone really wanting to go all in 100% at once.

Just now, mappy said:

I agree with you, just saying... they don't care. thats why they are doing it how they are.

LOL, I know...and I guess I'm agreeing with your agreement, haha!  Sorry to get a bit in a circular or repetitious discussion there!  Preaching to the socially distanced choir, I suppose! 

Just now, mappy said:

Right, but the majority of them think its a sham. so why would they care? 

Very true, and I'm sure they don't really care and think this is all a sham, even if that's wrong.  Doesn't change the fact that they present a potential hazard...

2 minutes ago, mappy said:

Its a tough one to "support" i agree one has the right to protest, and i get the frustrations, but how about everyone just stay in their cars, honk a lot and then go home. this gathering in groups, stupid signs and guns are just not needed.

Yeah, I agree.  I don't really "support" what they're standing for (and it sure looks to be a lot more than just a simple dislike of being forced to stay inside!  Guns and racist signs...really?).  And in a normal circumstance I wouldn't much care about them protesting as such even if I don't like what they stand for.  If a virus or other significant health issue weren't involved, I'd just roll my eyes at them and shake my head.  Because they wouldn't be harming anyone else just by being there spouting off whatever their message is.  That's really the significant difference here...they could potentially harm anyone else around them.

Nice day for a good walk and to take photos.  Here's a red-copper Japanese maple, against a brilliant blue sky.

On 4/17/2020 at 6:38 PM, WxWatcher007 said:

You’re right. It’d be a shame to lose all my annual profits to a wrongful reap suit. 

Let me ask you this...you think I can repurpose some of my Lye supply for that?

Hmmmm, that may just work, if you have sufficient extra next year!  Give it a whirl!

Oh, and I'm sure you have plenty of bespectacled legal minds ready to assist you in the event of such frivolous lawsuits!

Maybe some will do some...errr...pro bono work for you?

17 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

So far, I think it’s just Jacksonville. But like the mayor of shark city in Jaws said, if we don’t open our beaches, the $ goes somewhere else. Many will follow suit.

Gonna need a bigger...ahhhh, nevermind!

Just now, Maestrobjwa said:

Looks like that was aftert a pretty awesome ice event! Lolol

I kinda like his expression near the end when he's totally out of control...like he's saying "ohhhh, shiiiit, I'm about to crash a Barbie car!!"

15 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Duh.  They are vacationing. And then they can go back home and give the ultimate gift to all their friends.

Dayum!!  I didn't know whether to post the "haha" icon, or the "sad" one!  I think both are needed!!

4 hours ago, WxWatcher007 said:

We love the flame outs

Man, you really need to salt the driveway area leading into the Panic Room suites...you're opening yourself up to lawsuits!!