open threads

2393 posts

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Good morning (or afternoon if you are single). Hope your weekend is off to a good start and you get some time to relax today.

I am staying with friends this weekend and ready for some serious cartoon time with two of my favorite elementary-aged boys. They learned long ago that crazy Aunt GI will let them eat cupcakes for breakfast and watch the really awesome cartoons dad won’t.
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Friday Night Open Thread Chaos

WhoooHooo! It’s Friday night. Hopefully you will have a chance to relax and wind down from the week.  Today is national Drink Wine Day.  We all hate conforming, so screw that.

Here is how you make a Manhattan, which is my favorite cocktail.

What you need:
Ice
1 ounce rye whiskey
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce dry vermouth< Lemon twist for garnish What you do with it: Chill a martini glass in the freezer. Place ice in a cocktail pitcher or shaker. Pour whiskey and sweet and dry vermouths into the shaker or pitcher. Shake or stir to mix. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon. (Note: The Grand Inquisitor prefers a maraschino cherry to lemon, and she pours just a little of the juice in with the vermouth. It makes it a grown up version of a Roy Rogers).

Don’t drink? Make one of these, they are tasty and easy.

What you need:
2 oz peach nectar
chilled sparkling cider
What you do with it: Pour the peach nectar into a Champagne flute. Slowly add the Cider. Smile knowing you won’t have a hangover tomorrow.

Have a wonderful evening.

The Heart of Darkness: Your Overnight Open Thread

Good evening/morning and welcome to the open thread. Here’s some headlines from our strange world.

The Smoking Gun reports on a Florida woman arrested for baring her breasts at an elementary school. Interestingly, she did this to register her displeasure with another parent who she believed was showing too much cleavage. Won’t somebody think about the children? Continue reading

Tuesday Afternoon Super-Fantastic Open Thread

Good afternoon. Just a couple of quick announcements for you Crasstalkers:
Please take a moment to read the new commenting guidelines and the writing rules posted by our Beloved Leader last night. Also, there will be a writers workshop thread starting about 8 pm EST tonight. Please join in if you are writing or want to in the future. Also Coffee and Cigarettes is hosting the first Crasstalk Book Club Meeting on Sunday. Better get to reading, kids. Continue reading

What’s a Nice Open Post Doing in a Place Like This?

Good morning. Hopefully you are more chipper than I am today. A couple of housekeeping announcements. Please take a moment to read the new commenting guidelines and the writing rules posted by our Beloved Leader last night. Also, there will be a writers workshop thread starting about 8 pm EST tonight so we can all get together and talk about our “art.” I hope that we can all use this as an excuse to exercise our pretension muscles.  Actually, I am really hoping we can give each other support and develop our ideas. Continue reading

Your Open Post Love

Happy Valentine’s Day, even if you are single you have the Crasstalk love to keep you warm tonight.

Just a quick rehash in case you haven’t been over here. We did a redesign last night and hope that everyone is feeling very pretty. Please give the new format a chance, but please also report any bugs or issues to crasstalk at gmail dot com. Here’s a few headlines to start of the conversation tonight:

Iranian security forces clashed with protesters today in Tehran. Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the street after last week’s detention of a number of journalists and activists.

Pro Publica has an interesting investigative report on disabled student loan borrowers. People who become disabled are entitled to get the loans forgiven, but apparently the process of doing this has become confusing and arbitrary leaving many disabled borrowers in severe financial trouble.

A report from Politico details the enduring nature of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy. While national politicians will not touch the issue state and local politicians have taken up the cause. Ten states so far have introduced birth certificate requirement bills before their state legislatures. I am sure this is a productive way to spend lawmaker’s time.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening.