From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Just Once
For years people here have been asking to see my undisclosed location in Portland---aka C&J HQ, aka Chez Billeh aka "Where the MAGIC happens." I've resisted, mostly for privacy reasons, but what the hell. For one day only, I've put up a LiveCam across the street and aimed it at our house so you can take a look at our humble abode. Enjoy:
See me waving? Hi!
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Note: If C&J doesn't appear here tomorrow, it means one of two things: either the blizzard knocked out our power, or the blizzard didn't knock out our power and we're just lazy. In either case, have a nice day. ---Mgt.
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10 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Super Bowl:
5
Days 'til the
Delray Beach Garlic Festival:
10
Per-gallon price of gas in Oklahoma City as of Friday:
$1.68
Year that Skymall catalogs started appearing in the backseat pockets of airliners:
1989
Percent chance that the #1 pizza toppings in the U.S. and Europe are, respectively, pepperoni and tuna:
100%
(Source:
Parade)
Cost of a cashmere hot water bottle from
Restoration Hardware:
$49.99
Percent chance that everybody hates Chris Christie:
100%
(Source:
FiveThirtyEight)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
From World Net Daily:
TEXAS WILL SECEDE. THAT IS A PROMISE.
---Sharonfromtexas
Please do! And what's with the all caps? It's very rude.
---Amrcan standard
U HAVE GOT 2 B A YANKEE.
---Sharonfromtexas
Why are you yelling?
---madthespian
All together now: 1…2…3…
I LOVE LAMP!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: This might be cuter if I didn't get the feeling that the owner stuck the cup on the cat's head to create an "America's Funniest Home Videos moment." But, still…good dog.
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Yesterday.
CHEERS to seeing (and using) the light. President Obama wrapped up his visit to India and headed to Saudi Arabia so he could pretend to pay his respects to that horrible, terrible no-good leader who just died (and POTUS will also pretend to like the new guy---I guess oil habits die hard). Yesterday Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to proceed with a massive $160 billion solar-energy program that will
substantially reduce India's carbon footprint and be partially funded by the U.S. Hey, when we're done with that, I have a great idea: let's do that
here!
CHEERS to name calling. You know the White House is on the offensive when it starts issuing major policy announcements on freakin' Sunday. This week Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said that the oil and gas companies have fucked up so bad and so often that they should never be able to get their mitts on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:
Hands off, Big Oil.
[The plan would] designate 12 million of the refuge’s 19 million acres as wilderness…[which] would forbid a range of activity that includes drilling for oil and gas and construction of roads.
“This is a big deal,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “Big oil has long wanted to get its hands on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” he said, adding that Fish and Wildlife Service scientists have said that the area “is just too special to drill in. We wholeheartedly agree and celebrate this announcement by the Obama administration.”
The oil barons are furious. Goody.
JEERS to pesky pests. Early yesterday morning a four-propeller drone sailed over the White House fence (clearly that dang thing is too dang low) and crashed on the lawn. In the afternoon a lowly government worker stepped forward to say he was the one flying the drone, but it got away from him and he crashed it on the White House lawn. Moments later, Joe Biden discreetly handed him a C-note and slipped out of sight.
CHEERS to the recuperator. Harry Reid had his eye-socket surgery yesterday to repair a flex-band injury, and doctors say it went well:
Harry 1 hour after surgery.
"The surgery took three and a half hours and was successful in removing the blood clot in his right eye, additional blood from the front of his right eye and repairing the orbital bones in his right brow, temple and cheek," [spokesman Adam] Jentleson said. … Doctors have said they are optimistic about his prospects for regaining vision in his right eye but there is no definitive verdict yet," Jentleson said. "Sen. Reid will recuperate from his residence this week and continue to monitor the Senate floor closely through meetings and phone calls with his fellow
senators, the White House and staff."
Meanwhile, the flex-band is steadily recovering from its Harry Reid injury.
JEERS to Germany's great shame. Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.
Liberated January 27, 1945.
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In Auschwitz alone, some 1.1 million died — about 90 percent of them Jews. The journey back to Auschwitz is not simply a personal trip of remembrance for many returnees. Marcel Tuchman, 93, says he owes a debt to those who were exterminated to travel back.
"Their voices have been silenced by gas chambers and crematoria, so we the survivors have the duty to honor their memory and speak the best we can for them, and tell this unprecedented story of destruction of millions of people," said the doctor of internal medicine who is originally from Heidelberg, Germany.
Today we'll mark the occasion as we do every day---by not joking about it.
CHEERS to positive omens. If Hillary Clinton decides to run for president, she'll have some wind at her back. In a recent ABC News-Washington Post poll, she leads all her main Republican challengers by at least ten points. That's the good news. The bad news is, if you print this item, write "coupon" on it, and present it to any retailer in your town, what you'll get in return will equal the value of this poll.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 27, 2005
JEERS to exporting democracy. The New York Times says two-thirds of Iraq's voting districts have been attacked in the past month (even in the "safe" Kurdish area). That goes up to 85% if you include verbal assaults by the feared Iraqi Freedom Teasers.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Snuggle Town USA. I swear, you can't swing a cat without hitting a news story about how Portland, Maine has been voted the #1 this or the #1 that. We're so embarrassed that none of you can keep up with us. So while the rest of you are eating our dust, we'll just curl up and get cozy. Os should I say… coziest:
Even our cozies are cozy.
U.S. Environmental Health & Engineering has identified America’s coziest cities. And Portland, Maine wins the number one slot as Coziest City in America! Dr. Ted Myatt at Environmental Health & Engineering says, ”While we again looked at factors like the number of restaurants and coffee shops, which contribute to ambiance, we also looked at other elements that make a city more accessible and comfortable, such as number of museums, florists, breweries, and bed-and-breakfast hotels.”
That explains why the sign at the city line reads: "Welcome to Portland, Maine. Wanna spoon?"
Oh, and today is Chocolate Cake Day, so I tossed a few in the kiddie pool. Enjoy. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"You have these right-wingers coming out and saying, 'Go read Cheers and Jeers!' Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are saying, 'Go read Cheers and Jeers!' without having even read it themselves, just because.”
---James Franco
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