Baboontyme

I don't know how I feel about this. I'm conflicted. Obviously empathetic for the family. No idea what the insurance situation is like and if the district would have to pay out of pocket, or who would be financially culpable exactly. Also Feiger is a local ambulance chasing scumbag. He was the guy who made his name defending Jack Kevorkian if I recall back to my middle school days. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2021/12/09/oxford-high-shooting-lawsuit-riley-franz-family-school-district/6441764001/

I want to say it was Thursday. After having the conversation about what happened, and having the realization set in that yes he could be murdered by a classmate, my 12 year old was sitting on the steps just staring off into space. There was lots of staring off into space. Bed time - eyes open, staring off into space. But sitting there on the steps he'd stare for awhile, then he would ask another question. "What are the families going to do?" "How could the parents let that happen?" etc etc What got me though was when he said "When will we go back to feeling like normal? When we will start forgetting about this? Monday??" My instinctive response that I said out loud "Yeah, unfortunately probably Monday" "What do you mean?" "Nevermind"

Some general musings that I was not amused whilst thinking of. I just had to drive across town for an errand. I live in the largest city in Oakland County. Oakland County is one of the wealthiest counties in the country. The boring ass suburban hellscape (joking sorta) where we reside has been named the safest city in Michigan numerous times in the past decade, and top 25 in the country. Yet today when I was driving down to Ferndale, I passed: Gas station where there was a road rage murder this summer (https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2021/07/06/man-shot-during-argument-at-gas-station-in-troy/) This is just down the road from where a gas station clerk was murdered, and I don't believe a suspect was ever id'd or arrested (https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2014/02/15/troy-police-release-sketch-of-gas-station-clerk-murder-suspect/) Every time I get on I-75 to head South, I pass right by the whatever Suites that used to be the Holiday Inn, where when we first moved to Troy, the front desk worker was tied up and executed and a woman visiting from Cedar Park on business was shot in the face (https://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/charges-brought-against-two-troy-hotel-robbery-murder/) On my 4 mile trek down the Interstate I passed two Oxford Strong billboards. What the hell kind of society are we living in? The gun culture is completely out of control. What are we so scared of that we cling to the 2nd Amendment so hard? I think that common sense dictates the 2nd Amendment was written for vastly different purposes than it is retroactively applied today. That's an entirely separate argument that perhaps if we could get folks to reasonably agree upon, maybe could be a starting point for something. But back to - what are we scared of? Why do we as a society prolifically arm ourselves? To protect ourselves from bad guys with guns I guess? Are we scared that a big black guy from Detroit is going to come to our house with his gun and steal our Dodge Stratuses and shoot our children? I really don't know. Maybe if we could have people honestly answer that question we might be able to start some conversations. It would never happen but I would loosely propose something like this: We are the richest country in the world so I have been told, so buy back the guns at an absurd price point. $5k per gun. If you want to have a gun, substantial background checks on both past history, and physical and mental well being, as well. If an online algorithm can run through all of my past when I'm applying for a mortgage or life insurance, we can certainly do something robust for background checks and psychological evaluations. What is the objection to this? Slippery slope can get the fuck out of here. I think someone mentioned upthread some kind of biological key that only allows the person who owns the gun to fire it. Again I'm sure this is a technology that could be figured out. If you use an unregistered gun, or are caught with an unregistered gun, lock them up and throw the key away. Put them in a cell with the Cash back Cash match commercial on repeat. Just some thoughts. Depressing.

Mind boggling. I can't believe the backpack with the gun in it was in the office with the kid, the parents and the school administrators. The kid had to be shitting bricks at that point.

I always thought it was a girl. But also confused. Sees her soul mate, also a cos play loser, decides to talk to him, bumps into a garbage can, decides to eat burritos instead. The song is Doja Cat. Doja Cat is apparently using her influence as a music provider to lobby TB to bring back the Mexican Pizza. I'll live with the trade off. https://uproxx.com/music/doja-cat-taco-bell-mexican-pizza/

Dumb question but it's been a minute or two. If by chance we need to get a ride am I doing Uber/Lyft or looking for a light on top of a yellow car? Family of 4.

I lived in Detroit and I've never been robbed. Unless you consider paying money to watch the Lions in the early 00s. School is cancelled again tomorrow. There are no credible threats at all but our district is basically calling it a mental health break. Seems like a good idea to me. A lot of kids, parents, and teachers are on edge and upset right now. I will even go as far as to say that the thing UM is doing on their jerseys Saturday is pretty damn cool. A sure sign that I'm pretty worn down emotionally right now.

Quite a few districts closed. I thought it was just Troy and Rochester (in addition to Oxford obviously) https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/12/02/oxford-michigan-schools-closed/8833243002/

Well that's something else. They cancelled school tomorrow. I imagine they will on Friday, as well. We are a few districts away from Oxford but rumors are rampant and our district has been named in some debunked social media threats. Tensions and emotions are high so they just decided to cancel.

So you're saying I shouldn't take the kids to Barleycorn?

A 4th victim has passed. 17 year old kid. Fuck me. I'm crying right now. Fuck this shit.

I realized before school even was out that we were going to have to address it because otherwise he was going to hear about it the next day (first year in middle school). Turns out that he and his buddy already heard about it through friends and asked us. It sucked hard. He has pretty severe anxiety to begin with. Just laid out the facts of the incident. He had heard about other incidents and he asked about them, including Sandy Hook, which caused me to choke up and him to cry, realizing the full scale of how fucked up our world is, and what hit home was that it could happen at our daughter's elementary school that he just 'graduated' from. We explained how rare it is statistically and all of the things that our schools do to keep them safe, and that everything in life has some risk involved in it. We talked about bullying, and people who might have issues but don't have any support to work through those issues. I told him that kids would be talking today and to not believe any of the rumors because most likely they would all be lies. He asked if he could talk to the school counselor to help him worry less (specifically as it relates to this) and we encouraged him to do that today. It's so stupid that it's easy to compartmentalize these things and digest them when they're in Florida or California or Colorado but when they are in your back yard it has a way of crystalizing just how real and devastating they are. These things don't really seem to happen in Oakland County and so you just have a way of thinking they never will. I was not going to say anything to my 3rd grader until we got an email from the Principal this morning - the typical "Our hearts are with Oxford, kids are going to be talking about it" etc. She's much more mature than he is and I was much more vague, but she was like "Ok". I asked if she had any questions and she said no and that was pretty much that. I told her the same thing about rumors spreading. I'm so depressed. I know that here I am likely preaching to the choir, because there are smart people here with common sense, but I am so fucking sick of the rhetoric on this topic. So fucking sick of politics and partisan takes. Kids killing and shooting other kids in school should not happen. It seems everyone can agree on that. But anything beyond that and everyone starts screaming about their rights and the Constitution and puts corks in their fucking ears and isn't even willing to come to the table to discuss any kind of solutions, no matter how big or small they are. This country is fucked because time and again, Americans are willing to put self over community. I have no specific answers but it's got to start there, and that's why it's a non starter.

I'm just at a loss. So many meandering thoughts, frustration, anger, sadness. Had to do the whole conversation with my naive 12 year old. Innocence needs to get shattered at some point, I suppose and I'm fortunate to be able to do it preemptively. Hits close to home. RIP to lives lost way too young.

Sinbad as Del and Sinbad as Neal.

No HOA. The house is in Michigan. I've found some stand alone solar powered ones on HD and Lowe's sites but was hoping someone had some personal experience, particularly with a non traditional electrical type of post.

My parents house (built in probably mid 80s) has a detached light post in their yard. My understanding is that it doesn't work any longer - something to do with the wiring - and they want to fix/replace it. I was over there over the weekend and my dad had some electrical wire spools out and I'm like what the fuck is he doing, and my mom said he didn't want to pay someone. I told her to tell him to relax and let me look into some things because I'm pretty sure there would be some kind of solar option that would be a lot easier. If anyone has any recs, I'm all eyes and ears. I would prefer to not get some cheap crap from Hong Kong on Amazon that might only work for 23 days. I'm not sure what the alternative looks like - if it's something from Lowe's/HD and I have to have someone come install it, that's fine. Just not sure what my options are.

I've heard the "main" market downtown might be bananas and the Wrigleyville one is better. But that is a hike from where we are staying. I would be totally fine with not having to get in a cab, Uber, L car or anything else from the time we arrive until we leave. Still worth it trying to get up to Wrigleyville? Along those same lines, if we want to go to a deep dish pizza joint on Saturday but it just has to be 'good' and charming because my kids won't like it and will fill up on bread and noodles, Geno's East, Giordano's or Gold Coast Lou Mal's? Also what time to go if we don't want to wait?

I didn't have my phone with me when I got inspired last night after a vodka drink and busted out the DeWalt to de-spine this year's bird. He is resting in a nice salt bath in a bag in a crate in my basement fridge. I might have cut into the back of the breast plate getting a little aggressive with the reciprocating saw but man is it satisfying. I wonder if Jeff Dahmer started out as a spatchcocker.

Weekend in the City with kids in December. My kids have never been to Chicago, despite our proximity. I am pretty well versed in the City but have never been during Holiday time. Kids are 12 and 9. We have zoo lights here and have done it a hundred times. We also have ice skating downtown at Campus Martius but I'm sure it's not as nice as Millennium Park, and only one of them ice skates. The architecture tours are out of season. Staying near Millennium Park, big Christmas fans. Any thoughts? I can't wait to take them to try deep dish pizza and they take a half of a bite and decide it's gross. I'm thinking Macy's, shopping on Mag Mile, Hancock Tower (do you have to be 21 to go to the lounge level?), Millennium Park, maybe Shedd? Should arrive Friday afternoon and will leave Sunday morning.

In hand. Thanks for the help y'all.

Annual bump of Kenji articles. You don't need to brine. I like brining, particularly wet brining. But it is a large pain to do. Kenji swears by dry brining which is a helluva lot less of a pain. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-the-truth-about-brining-turkey-thanksgiving

See what does overrated mean exactly? They were overrated when they were 3 or 4 but we all knew that was just a speck in time before things were going to sort themselves out. If you are grounded in reality you knew that this team was not good enough to compete with OSU, Georgia, or Alabama. Beyond that are there just handfuls and handfuls of teams that are so egregiously better than a healthy Michigan State team? Not really. Not at all actually. Good football team. Was a lot better in September and October when they were healthy. Could not have competed with OSU then, either. Very little depth, and other than Walker and maybe Reed there isn't a guy on the roster that would be on the 2 deeps at OSU. Maybe 3 deeps. Yesterday changed nothing if you understand the reality of the situation. It's cool though, lazy national narratives gonna narrate. I'm good with that. It will be interesting to see how this mash unit responds next week against PSU on Senior Day. Walker and Reed are hurt now, as well.

You sound objective. Also can I ask you a serious question? Why the fuck would anyone, MSU alum or not, give two flying fucks what two billionaires shell out for a football coach? The U is not footing the bill. I hope they pay Tucker $400 million just so that it blows your mind and another $200 million to keep Harbaugh in AA.

Nothing has changed. Lock him up, lifetime contract. He's got a good thing going, and if anyone expected us to compete with OSU, they're a moron. The goal is to get talent on the PSU/UM level and combine that with Mel's approach and MSU's typical tough guy, chip on shoulder approach. Never going to compete with OSU or Bama on a year in and year out basis unless a massive sinkhole opens up underneath Columbus. Edit - and good call Clooney on the MSU/UM game.

Why so different this year vs a normal year and how does the above compute?