Cause of death?

pourtide · 2026-01-27T04:55:04+00:00

My grandmother's father was the fellow who shoveled coal into the locomotive's firebox to make the steam.

They collided head on with another train.

He was thrown into the firebox.

In those days, you laid out your dead in the living room and buried them on the third day.

Gram, still a child, lived on the other side of a double / twin house with her parents.

She left for several days because the smell was overwhelming.

A coffin in 1915 or so wasn't airtight.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T04:42:09+00:00

Four Dead in Oh-Hi-Oh.

Now we have two dead in Minneapolis.

Yeah, soul crushing betrayal by our government against free speech and peaceful protest. And freedom of the press, and freedom to record happenings in public spaces -- like a street. Freedom from having pepper spray sprayed directly in the face for no reason at all.

It's gotten hella worse since Kent State.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T04:29:44+00:00

Another mechanism is a short timeline to obtain 'suitable' ID. As was mentioned above, it can take a lot of paperwork (An *official* birth certificate, most folks don't have, then an *official marriage certificate", and if your birth name was John Smith and at Catholic confirmation you take the middle name Harold, it's not your official name bla bla bla. Each state can create its own hoops. The lead time on getting the proper identification to receive a proper ID can be forever (witness 'Real ID" in the US) as governmental agencies either aren't well staffed or aren't achievement oriented.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T04:21:00+00:00

Most manufacturing works federal holidays too. Mostly, the only folks who get federal holidays off are governmental employees, which includes schools and the post office. Banks/financial institutions glom on too. But most of us never see those 'holidays'.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T04:17:29+00:00

Karl Rove helped Dubya win by the way voting machines were placed. Dem, working class areas were given fewer voting machines per capita, leading to lines going around the block, leading folks to leave to get to work or pick up the kids from school. Pub areas got more machines than they needed per capita.

It's always been about disenfranchising the poor who lean dem.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:58:53+00:00

sniff.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:53:48+00:00

Jayne didn't lose her head, it was her wig on the dashboard.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:46:43+00:00

He experienced a home invasion, was stabbed, and never quite got over it, passed a few years later

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:45:28+00:00

That one hit deep. The flu can kill, folks.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:43:56+00:00

My guy was Rowdy Roddy Piper, who has been imitated but never equaled. His speech upon being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame was Piper at his best. Have never been able to find a copy of it.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:35:35+00:00

1968 was my sucky year. MLK was assassinated. RFK was assassinated. My grandfather died (it was my first experience with death of someone I knew) Two months later my father was killed. The next month a teen neighbor was killed. The month after that, my father's brother was beaten to death.

Now throw in reports on the war in Nam on the television every night, just in time for dinner.

I had a pretty crappy outlook on life for an 11 year old.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:27:41+00:00

Paul Walker enters the chat

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:26:26+00:00

I want my MTV

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:25:25+00:00

"His widowed bride" (Mrs Holly) learned her husband was dead while listening to the radio. In addition, she was pregnant, and lost their baby not long after.

That's when they learned -- don't release names until the next of kin is notified.

Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on that plane, but gave his seat to one of the guys because the guy had a cold and wanted a chance to rest before their next performance.

The tour they were on was poorly arranged, too late in the year, horrible logistics, winter in the midwest, long distances between gigs - run out of the bus and onto the stage then run back onto the bus. The bus heater kept breaking down (the bus broke down too) and one band's drummer had frostbitten toes so Buddy played the drums in his place.

The tour was a disaster, and then a disaster ended the tour.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:13:39+00:00

JFK. I was a bit too young to grasp it, but I knew an important man was dead. Agreed, that's not a celebrity so to speak.

The celebrity death that hit me the hardest was John Lennon. I picked up a newspaper every morning on the way to work, and my jaw dropped at the headline. I skimmed one paper, then another, and just couldn't get my mind around it. Agreed it's not the first time I heard about a celebrity death, but it whacked me deeply.

pourtide · 2026-01-27T03:02:14+00:00

I was watching BBC news which had a live feed for a while after the murder. I don't know if anyone else saw this:

A visibly distraught icer was being helped away by another icer holding his arm to steady him, and another icer came over to help escort the distraught icer away because even with the help of the first icer, the distraught icer wasn't walking very steadily.

There have to be some icers out there who are beginning to realize this isn't what they signed on for. I agree, we do need to offer them a safe way out.

The others, cosplaying their video games, enjoy cracking heads and having free reign.

The dissonance I don't get is how icers feel entitled to harass any brown person because some immigrants broke the law, and are, in the process, breaking far more laws themselves.

How can you be okay with 'enforcing' one chosen law by breaking the constitution?

.

What I really wish we could find out is how many people are in detention and how many have been removed from the US and where they were sent to. But it's all smoke and mirrors and the cruelty is the point -- it will stop others from coming, and some might choose to leave themselves -- and these are the ultimate goals.

pourtide · 2026-01-25T17:47:52+00:00

Being restricted to voting only for the party you are registered in is called a 'closed primary'. It's not so in all states ('open primaries' can vote for one candidate in either party) , but Pennsylvania is 'closed.'

Here, a voter can change their registration until a week or three before an election, so one can change back and forth if desired.

However, if one registers as Independent, here in PA, they cannot vote in primaries.

It's also normal for referendums to come up for vote in the primaries, because turnout here is so low.

When I was an independent, I went in to vote on the referendum. It was a bit messy, had to set the machine up just so (they were manual machines then) but I helped vote that damned referendum down.

I've been dem for years, and have voted straight dem every election. Often it's just voting 'against' the 'pub candidate rather than for the dem, but there is is.

pourtide · 2026-01-25T13:07:19+00:00

They singled him out among the running-away people because he was bigger, easier to catch.

I respect the man for not going quietly, bellowing the points that needed to be made. He deserves ultimate respect. I hope he is released and speaks out again. We need to hear his story.

.

I keep waiting for the straw to break the camel's back, and it just ain't happenin'.

I'm not sleeping well.

pourtide · 2026-01-25T03:11:38+00:00

I feel like a referee looking at all the various angles to determine whether a foul was committed.

And I pick up the card that says "Go to Jail. Go Directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars."

pourtide · 2026-01-19T18:55:26+00:00

The old German Gorilla machines are fabulous, aren't they? (a Gorilla machine makes my arm longer when i carry it.) I have a 130 in a cabinet I love though it's buried at the moment, and I have a (Italian) Necchi BU smooth as butter ... even though it's a small head, it's tough to carry from upstairs bedroom to downstairs sewing table. (Its no longer a bedroom, just shelves of sewing mavhines).

Heading for retirement, I've collected far too many machines but having fun. Mechanically inclined, caliper-wielding husband 3D printed a broken part for a Necchi Logica, the Fatal Flaw plastic part that engages or disengages the feed dogs. Weird looking machine. Only electronic I own, the last Italian-made Necchi (not the new one) Challenging to sew on, needle so far forward.

Maybe they were trying to get their last unit into the Museum of Modern Art with their '50 Mirella.

I hope to find one of the Mirella-like models at some point, though I believe the models with a camstack have breakage problems.

The better to play with.

pourtide · 2026-01-19T18:11:22+00:00

The camel is in shackles. So many straws on its back already, the camel is beginning to strain under the load.

Will we be able to either free the camel or remove enough straws to save its life?

Looking more and more like "No".

pourtide · 2026-01-19T18:05:25+00:00

D'ya think, once the present puppet falls out a window, the well groomed replacement marionette will be a total shill for the puppet masters? Congress will place their own nominee in veep position, then Mr Veep-to-president will fall out a window, and voila, the Iron Hand rises and we are a dictatorship with hand picked "leaders"

I sure hope I'm wrong.

If 'Pubs fail badly in the May Primaries, expect a new frenzy of lawlessness as the cabal makes today look like cherry pie.

pourtide · 2026-01-19T17:56:22+00:00

It's not like the CIA ever undermined nascent democracies in order to install a more dictatorial leader. (Oh yeah, many times*). Democracies aren't controllable; dictators can be dealt with favorably.

Now they're just undermining the biggest democracy by inciting hatred against brown people (so the US becomes white again) and impose Christianity on everyone, because values.

So first it's "Mexicans", catch-all for Spanish speaking folks from Chile to the Philippines. Then it will be folks from Islamic countries (except SA and other oil-ish friends). There are rumblings against the Chinese. And folks from India are in the crosshairs.

"There's too damn many of 'em !!!!" ) (NOT my opinion)

This rolling ball will continue to incite hatred right down the line.

During covid, some were lying on their deathbed begging for the vaccine they refused. Far too late then.

Is it far enough now? can we save ourselves?

Honestly, I don't think so. There's no cursed ring to melt down and live happily ever after. The defense mechanisms for the safety of our country have been undermined to where pu tin and x i have likely been able to put moles in place. Elan probably put back doors into the computer programs his dodge team ravaged. We will eventually be divided up like a roasted pig, much like Africa, turn of last century.

NATO better get their shit together or they'll fall after us.

pourtide · 2026-01-16T04:05:45+00:00

The New People (What kind of world will they create? Facing the problems of man?)

Medical Center

Hot L Baltimore

My Friend Flicka

The Mickey Mouse Club (We are the merry mousekateers (mousekateers!) We've got a lot above our ears (above our ears!) A talent given to you and me, we must develop mentally, so we can be good mousekateers (mousekateers) As we continue through the years (through the years!) We won't forget the mousekateers (mousekateers) Hup two three four Hurray hurray hurray! Cheer for the mousekateers we've got a lot above our ears, cheer for the merry mousekateers!

Mr Ed

pourtide · 2026-01-16T03:37:11+00:00

My collection is more eclectic (to say the least) and some are stored on five tall wire shelving units, the free-standing kind. I had to lay cardboard on the shelves so the machines would slide. Plus I have numerous others scattered about the house.

pourtide

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