A Bug's Life

Pete Hegseth either has no idea what a pocket square is and/or what it’s for, or he uses the American flag as facial tissue, for blowing his nose. You might point this out to any flag patriots who still worship the shitstain and his minions:

Normally, I probably wouldn’t bother with something this stupid and petty, but they’re trying so hard – so hard – to pretend to be old money and yet have no fucking idea what any of the symbolism means that this basically became a small but perfect snapshot of the sick delusional fraud encompassing literally every aspect of their worthless, filthy lives.

There are nearly infinite reasons to want to punch this cretin directly in the face the moment you see him, this is merely one of many.

But it’s just so completely on the nose, isn’t it?

Just like someone’s fist should be.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

And I don't think I've had Edna before??

Recuerdo

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

I talk with my hands. This amuses A. to no end: She's the one who's part-Italian and yet I'm the one who can't talk without gesticulating. Whether I'm talking about sending an email (fingers typing on a keyboard), sending a fax (hands palm-down, fingertips guiding the paper into the machine), or chopping vegetables (left hand moving the knife up and down, right hand advancing the the vegetable toward it), I don't even think about it, but my hands accompany my words.

Yesterday, we got some small cucumbers and I was talking about using some of them to make oi muchim (a Korean cucumber salad with thinly sliced cucumbers in a gochugaru-seasoned dressing). I was talking about slicing the cucumbers, and she looked at my hands and asked "What's that?" I looked at my hands and saw that my right hand was flat, palm-up, while my left hand was palm-down, in a claw grip, moving back and forth over my right hand. And then it hit me: When I make oi muchim, I don't slice the cucumbers with a knife. I slice them with a mandoline. And without even thinking about it, my hands were doing to the correct motion for the action I would be doing.

I don't even notice that I'm doing this until she points it out, so I don't know if I could stop it if I tried.

Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/congrats-2

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Well now I wish it were twins.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/congrats-2

Posted by fromtheheartofeurope

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/presidential-and-vice-presidential-babies-an-update/

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/?p=65931

This is an overdue correction and addition to a post I made in January about babies born to Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States, and their partners, while in office.

In particular, I erred by restricting my coverage to babies born to the spouses of Presidents and Vice-Presidents. I therefore omitted those babies born to women who were not married to the presidential or vice-presidential father of the child.

There are probably several such cases that we don’t know about, but there is one that we definitely do know about. Thomas Jefferson, who was Vice-President from 1797-1801 and then President 1801-1809, was almost certainly the father of the six children born to Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman on his Monticello estate, between 1795 and 1808. Given the DNA evidence and documentary records, it’s basically proved beyond reasonable doubt. Sally Hemings incidentally was probably the much younger half-sister of Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles, who had died in 1782.

So the full list of Vice-Presidential and Presidential babies is as follows:

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, Vice-President 1797-1801) and Sally Hemings (1773-1835)

(William) Beverley Hemings (born 1798 – after 1873)
Thenia Hemings (born in 1799 and died in infancy)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, President 1801-1809) and Sally Hemings (1773-1835)

Harriet Hemings (born 1801, lived to adulthood, date of death unknown)
(James) Madison Hemings (1805-1877)
(Thomas) Eston Hemings (1808-1856)

All were born on the Monticello estate in Virginia. Madison and Eston Hemings moved to Chilicothe, Ohio, and are known to have living descendants. The later lives of Beverley and Harriet are not known. (Harriet was in fact the second child of that name; Sally Hemings’ first child, who loved only from 1795 to 1797, was also Harriet.)

John C. Calhoun (1782-1850, Vice-President 1825-1832) and Floride Calhoun (1792-1866) – NB Floride’s maiden name was also Calhoun; she and John were cousins.

James Edward Calhoun (1826-1861)
William Lowndes Calhoun (1829-1858)

Both were born in North Carolina, the ninth and tenth of the Calhouns’ ten children. James moved to California and is not known to have had children. William stayed in North Carolina, married twice and has living descendants. Both died comparatively young (James at 36 and William at 29).

Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891, Vice-President 1861-1865) and Ellen Hamlin née Emery (1835-1925)

Frank Hamlin (1862-1922)

Born in Maine, Frank was the sixth and last of Hannibal’s children, and the second and last of Ellen’s. (Hannibal’s first wife Sarah, who died in 1855, was her half-sister.) I have not found any record that he had children.

Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885, Vice-President 1869-1873) and his second wife Ellen née Wade (1836-1911).

Schuyler Colfax III (1870-1925)

The only Vice-Presidential baby born in Washington, DC, Schuyler Colfax III started off in politics, becoming mayor of South Bend, Indiana at only 28, but ended up working for Kodak for most of his career. He has living descendants.

Grover Cleveland (1837-1908, President 1885-89 & 1893-97) and Frances Folsom (1864-1947)

Esther Cleveland (1893-1980)
Marion Cleveland (1895-1977)

They were the second and third of the Clevelands’ five children (Grover already had a child by a previous relationship). Esther, the only Presidential baby to be born in Washington D.C., was actually born in the White House. One of her daughters was the philosopher Philippa Foot, the co-inventor of the Trolley Problem. Marion was born in the Clevelands’ holiday home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her second husband was John Harlan Amen, the chief interrogator at the Nuremberg tribunal. Both have living descendants.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963, President 1961-63) and his wife Jacqueline née Bouvier (1929-1994)

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (1963-63), born prematurely at the Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and died two days later.

All being well, the Vances will add to this tally in a couple of months.

My thanks to Tim Roll-Pickering for putting me right.

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/presidential-and-vice-presidential-babies-an-update/

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/?p=65931

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/21/otter-really-doesnt-care-for-close-talkers

Via MTSOfan

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/21/otter-really-doesnt-care-for-close-talkers

Have you noticed that the middle is gone from everything? Restaurants, companies, careers, music, retail, the economy itself. What replaced it is a barbell: one enormous weight on each end, nothing in the center, and most of us trying not to get crushed by the bar.

And the replacement does look better every single time, I grant you that. The A24 film is better than the $40 million adult drama from 2007, yeah, we can all agree on that. The Sweetgreen bowl is better than the Applebee’s chicken parm, sure. Your favorite Substack is sharper than the mid-list magazine that folded in 2019. Every replacement is a genuine upgrade. But every replacement serves fewer and fewer people.