AS: Interesting Times-the 2020 USA thread

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  • Prayers for peace and safety irrespective of outcome
  • I plan to stay home for the rest of the week.

    I will watch no television on Election Day or Night. Wednesday morning will be soon enough.
  • I've watched television* twice in the past few years -- the first Presidential "debate" (Trump's shout fest) and the beginning of the Vice Presidential debate. Tomorrow evening I'll be keeping an eye on reputable websites rather than watch/listen to announcers feeling they have to say something even though they have nothing to say.
  • Just one indication of the level of fear going on... I received word that the NY Public Library, my place of work, will be closing several hours early on the day after Election Day, due to the possible conditions in the city. This is totally unprecedented in my 30+ years with the Library.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    Yeah, and no one thinks it will be the Biden supporters rioting in the streets if Trump gets re-elected. We'll be in our private spaces praying and weeping. If Biden wins it will be the maskless marauders who might well wreck havoc.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Praying for you all 🕯. Let there be peace.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I will watch no television on Election Day or Night. Wednesday morning will be soon enough.
    I haven't got a TV for the new château yet, so I'll be relying on either the Guardian or the Independent.

    These days I'm not sure I even trust the BBC - what a sad state of affairs.
  • Oh, but the BBC World News America anchors have such wonderful accents, especially Katty Kay and Laura Trevelyan.
  • Just thinking whoever named the thread this year was right on point.
  • Oh yeah. It's been interesting all right.
  • Just thinking whoever named the thread this year was right on point.
    That would be @Lamb Chopped, I believe.

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    To be perfectly honest, I'd have settled for "dead boring". :neutral:
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited November 2020
    It was from the curse, of course.

    I turned to my husband this morning, and in an attempt to reconcile him to the election results, said, "Hopefully now I can totally ignore politics". (He's worried Biden won't adequately scare China into staying out of Vietnam.)
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    I would like to have A Little Talk with whoever spoke the "interesting times" curse to the world this year. They've got a lot to answer for, and I'd be happy to Explain It To Them.
    ;)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Yay! 😊
  • Well, I think LL almost certainly has COVID, as he's now lost his sense of taste and smell, along with the fever, malaise, congestion... All of us have sky high anxiety right now, though there's every reason to expect it will be fine. But the testing people aren't calling back! He can't even get an appointment to be tested, as it's just a voicemail and a lying promise to get back to him with a date/time.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Sorry to hear that, LC - prayers continuing to ascend.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    {{{{{{{LL, LC, and household}}}}}}}
  • thanks
  • It was from the curse, of course.

    I turned to my husband this morning, and in an attempt to reconcile him to the election results, said, "Hopefully now I can totally ignore politics". (He's worried Biden won't adequately scare China into staying out of Vietnam.)

    Frankly, after 1979 (when China poked the border), I think that Vietnam scares China out of Vietnam. China would win, but at what cost? In my experience the Vietnamese are a tremendously hospitable people, but with a sense of pride with which I would not fornicate.

  • Oh, LC, just read down. Prayers ascend for LL.
  • Thank you! I'll be calling LL momentarily, hoping for better news.

    About Vietnam--they're smaller, poorer, and disunified (most overseas Vietnamese are there precisely because they fought the communist regime--which makes it problematic for Hanoi to expect help from them, if they've gathered either money or power in the years since. And yet Vietnam IS their heart home, which is hard.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    LL🕯
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    Prayers for LL.
  • Well, he STILL couldn't get a test appointment, so will now have to take the light rail in his COVID cooty-state and still won't be seen till Saturday. I think Minnesota must be in the Dark Ages of March and April, still--even Missouri has drive through, come when you want testing available.

    For everybody's sake, I have suggested that he pack his bags, call the university COVID cops, and submit himself to isolation. It's just not fair on the roommate, cafeteria people, fellow bathroom users, etc. to have him running around doing the necessary when he can't even get tested till Saturday.

    Of course, this has the drawback that, if by some miracle he IS negative, he will certainly pick it up from his fellow isolees.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited November 2020
    Augghhh. In real-time, you share my frustration: They've basically left him to handle his isolation completely on his own (so, with a roommate five feet away, good!) using the public dorm bathrooms and the public cafeteria, which has already indicated they don't want him around, and how's that supposed to work with a week to go before results? In his most contagious stage, too. Somebody's got their head where the sun don't shine.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    LC--

    I've heard of other students in such situations, so it's not just his school.

    Idea: do any drugstores where he is have testing available? Actually, I just now looked up one drugstore mega-chain. I'll PM you the info. It says it's free. You do a quick screening survey online, to see if you qualify. And there are testing sites in Minn. There might be other chains doing it, too.

    FWIW, FYI, YMMV. Good luck!
  • Well with Thanksgiving almost upon us, it will be just Mr. Image and me, so it is a turkey breast in the crockpot, and a single Thanksgiving dinner to share from our local restaurant drive-through pick up dinner. We know from past experience their holiday meal is way too much food for the two of us. We both think the next-day turkey sandwich is the best part of the holiday meal so the crockpot has that covered. Wishing all of my U.S.A. ship mates Happy Thanksgiving.
  • I'll be alone for Thanksgiving and have decided that the first Thanksgiving dinner very likely included scallops, based on the location. Whether or not it did, that's what I'm having. Turkey is fine, but scallops are special.
    (I did have a dinner invitation, but my hosts and I decided, separately but simultaneously, that it would be better to avoid it this year.)
  • I'll be alone also. I'm going to pick up a ham -- the smallest the supermarket has -- and will make baked sweet potatoes and corn on the cob in the crockpot. And have strawberry shortcake for dessert. And wash it all down with plenty of wine, of course. :smile:
  • Sounds good, Miss Amanda. How do you cook corn on the cob in a crock pot?
  • Strip and wash the ears, wrap in aluminum foil, cook on low for 3-4 hours.
  • Thanks -- I just may try that if I can ever find good looking corn.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    One of the things I miss about New Brunswick is the corn-cobs - there's a farm near Fredericton where they're grown hydroponically, and sold at the market. The season is short, but they're absolutely glorious.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    edited November 2020
    Wow, I've never heard of hydroponic corn. Herbs and greens and certain smokeable materials, yes. I'm surprised if the stalks are strong enough to stand up in water; but maybe they have help.
  • Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    Thanks -- I just may try that if I can ever find good looking corn.

    They still have it in Sprouts. Haven't had it in a while -- don't know how good it is or where they get it from, but I'll soon find out.

    But absolutely nothing on earth can compare to corn from Dutchess County, New York, the third and fourth week of August.
  • I've never fully understood the American attachment to Thanksgiving Day, how it rivals Christmas, but it's obviously very dear to you. In this strangest of years, I wish you all a very good one, especially to those who can't join the family and friends. I shall remember you all in my Thursday prayer.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    Thanksgiving is the best holiday. The only real requirements are that you get together with people and eat a big meal. Every family has its own specific requirements, of course, about what has to happen. But in general, you don't have to decorate or buy gifts or do a whole lot of other stuff. You might not even have to spend it with family; lots of folks do it with friends.
  • For the first time ever, my husband and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving alone. All the Beaky offspring will join us for a family zoom gathering after we have eaten. I will be cooking a reduced menu but will be baking and delivering pies to our locally based offspring. (Don't tell the other two, please!)

    Grocery shopping this week proved interesting as I kept reaching for far too many things like sweet potatoes and ended up having to put stuff back- All those years of catering for 10+ family and friends seem stuck in my brain.....

    This half'n'half across the Pond will be thinking of you all on Thursday.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Wow, I've never heard of hydroponic corn. Herbs and greens and certain smokeable materials, yes. I'm surprised if the stalks are strong enough to stand up in water; but maybe they have help.

    I'm not sure exactly how they do it, but it's the best corn I've ever tasted!
  • I've never fully understood the American attachment to Thanksgiving Day, how it rivals Christmas,

    Like Ruth says, Thanksgiving is the big eating holiday. Whereas in the UK growing up, images of tables piled high with roast fowl and 18 kinds of vegetables, and a drunk great-aunt in the corner would mean Christmas, in the US, those kinds of images mean Thanksgiving.
  • Ruth wrote: »
    Thanksgiving is the best holiday. The only real requirements are that you get together with people and eat a big meal.
    This! It's about really about nothing more than gathering around the table with people who matter to you, enjoying plenty of good food and expressing gratitude in some way or another. It's a wonderful day in my book.

    When she was younger, my daughter said she just really didn't "get" Thanksgiving, much less my love of it. "It's just about eating," she would say. She came home from college yesterday, but before she left she had two "Friendsgiving" meals, one with her teammates and one with her roommates. She seemed to look forward to and enjoy both. Tomorrow she plans to help make some of Thursday's meal. (The 4 of us will gather with four other very-nearby family members who are in our "bubble.") I think she's getting why I love it. :smile:

  • I've never been a big fan of Thanksgiving. When I was very young, my elderly, somewhat senile, grandmother always had to join us. Then when I was older, my sister insisted that we had to go to our High School football game on Thanksgiving Day. I have no interest whatsoever in football, and it was always freezing cold. One year I chose to stay home while my sister and parents went, but Thanksgiving is a pretty lonely day to spend home alone*.

    When I married, there was always the insistence from both sets of parents that we had to visit. Each set was just an hour or two way -- but his to the north, and mine to the south. (A month later would be the same argument at Christmas.)

    We moved to the opposite side of the country, and had to spend Thanksgiving with whatever boring people invited us, though I would sometimes cook (while my then husband did nothing).

    Now I'm happily single. Sometimes I invite friends, and sometimes I'm invited. This year I had an invitation, but just as I was deciding not to go, I received a phone call saying they had decided not to host. *But now I'm perfectly content staying home alone.
  • I can definitely understand the feeling, Pigwidgeon. Personal history with a holiday can have a big and lasting impact.
    Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    When I married, there was always the insistence from both sets of parents that we had to visit. Each set was just an hour or two way -- but his to the north, and mine to the south. (A month later would be the same argument at Christmas.)
    When my wife and I married, we and our families (mine an hour+ to the east, hers 3 hours to the west) agreed that we would go one way for Thanksgiving and the other way for Christmas, and then switch the next year. It made things much easier.

    My siblings didn't have such a challenge. My bother married his high school sweetheart, and after school and internship/residency, they moved back to our hometown, so both families were within 10 minutes of each other. My sister's in-laws lived where she (and my wife and I) lived, so an hour+ from our hometown, and her husband's one sibling and his family always went to his wife's parents a few states away for Thanksgiving. So my mother, who loved a crowded Thanksgiving table, just started inviting my brother-in-law's parents and my sister-in-law's parents and sister to our house for Thanksgiving dinner.

    Fortunately, everyone really liked each other.

  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Nick Tamen, everyone gathering together (in-laws, out-laws and everyone!) is how we've done Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Easter and birthdays! When my son-in-law's mom was still living (I miss her so much*) we would take turns hosting the family get togethers. The more, the merrier!! Plus, various strays and family-by-choice made for happy times.
    This will be a quieter, but still good Thanksgiving. It's different for most of us this year, but the Thankfulness is definitely being observed.

    *My daughter and her dear hubby have told people for years that his mom and I spent more time together than we did with our kids! Great, great memories. I need that :tear: smilie we used to have.
  • I can't even imagine a high school having a football game on Thanksgiving. The league schedulers should be shot.
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    When my wife and I married, we and our families (mine an hour+ to the east, hers 3 hours to the west) agreed that we would go one way for Thanksgiving and the other way for Christmas, and then switch the next year. It made things much easier.
    We agreed to that also (actually at our wedding reception, instigated by my mother-in-law). But do you think they stuck to that?

  • mousethief wrote: »
    I can't even imagine a high school having a football game on Thanksgiving. The league schedulers should be shot.

    Most unfortunately, we have a local rivalry going back 100 years that is expressed in the Thanksgiving Day football game. Fortunately, they were sensible enough this year to call it off.
  • When I was in high school (dinosaurs had to be removed from the field before the game), Thanksgiving was the biggest game of the year. People's meals, and the cooking thereof, all had to be worked around "The Game." Yuck!
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