BatMN

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.”

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[Vincent Charles: Roi De Tout, (Ret.) @YesThatVCharles]

The older you get, the more you realize "having your shit together" is just quietly doing the boring things nobody sees and not telling anyone about them.

No announcement.

No story.

Just... handled.

That's the actual flex.

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

Terrible poster.

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

First poster for the 50th anniversary re-release of ‘STAR WARS’.

It will officially be a restoration of the original 1977 theatrical version of the film.

(🎨: @Cakes_Comics)

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

Two months ago, Javier Bardem told his followers to boycott Adidas because it partnered with a disabled Israeli man.

Now, he's starring in a film by an Israeli filmmaker.

According to Bardem, the Adidas campaign was unacceptable because it featured Shalev Biton, an Israeli who lost his leg when he was wounded on the Gaza border in 2021. He shared posts calling Biton a war criminal and a "genocidal demon."

Except Biton was injured while guarding inside Israel's borders, hardly a "war crime." He spent the years since becoming a powerful advocate for disability rights. The Adidas campaign advertised a service that lets amputees buy a single shoe. Adidas ended up apologizing for the ad.

This week, Lionsgate announced that Bardem will star in Wet, a new film written and directed by Alma Har'el, an Israeli filmmaker who was born and raised in Tel Aviv.

It might seem strange for Bardem to lead a global shaming campaign against an Israeli who advertised inclusion, and then happily accept a job opportunity from an Israeli making a star-studded film.

But it makes sense when you remember that all of his decisions are based on one thing. Opportunism.

[William Strunk, Jr. @cdrusnret]

@MilesTaylorUSA I dunno, will Indiana University refund your tuition since you graduated as an ignoramus maximus?

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

@SaintRPh Tonight, we celebrate! Somebody get this man a poke chop!

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

You already voted against a ban you sniveling shit bag.

[Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer]

I’m actually referring to your 30,000 stock trades (more than all Members of Congress combined), your Qatari-gifted luxury jet, your crypto scams, your Truth Social pay to play scheme, your billionaire-funded ballroom, your insurrectionist slush fund, and your pardons for big donors—just to name a few. 

Senate Democrats will ban stock trading for all Members of Congress and White House officials, and hold you and your administration accountable for all the ways your rampant corruption has made life more expensive for families.

[IanMalcolm84 @IanMalcolm84]

You cant make this up:

This week Microsoft offered 60,000 employees buyouts to retire from the company, roughly a quarter of their global workforce. citing AI was going to streamline everything

Today, their Outlook servers are crashing globally 😂

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

@vbspurs Our first house was a Sears model called The Marsden. Extremely well built, still in great shape. Not very energy efficient by today's standards, though.

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

@MushKat I'm not sure the hamster running on the wheel in his noggin runs fast enough for him to know much.

[Hard Pass @HardPass4]

We should just execute people like this on the spot.

[Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry @pegobry_en]

A silly but revealing example of what I call Peasant Mindset.

I follow a lot of car content on Instagram. There was a clip of a mechanic showing how to change the oil on a Lamborghini. It’s a complicated process involving eight different oil drain plugs. This is because, unlike most cars, but like ~every high performance sports car, Lambos have a dry-sump lubrication system, which is necessary given the intense G forces that a sports car experiences.

Literally all the top comments, all with hundreds or thousands of likes, were some version of "They do this on purpose so that it’s more expensive to change the oil."

Like, how retarded do you have to be to think that Lamborghini engineers sit around and try to come up with ways to make it *more complicated* to *change the oil.*

"Angelo, I have-a found a way to make the car 50 more-a horsapower!"

"Ai, Antonio, but how you change-a da oil?"

"You change-a da oil with one button."

"Dai! Throw-a your design in da garbage!"

No notion that design and engineering involves tradeoffs and that if you’re designing your car around a massive V12 and high performance you’re going to have to sacrifice conveniences.

No knowledge of the world, no curiosity or ability to think about how the world works.

Instead everything beyond their immediate experience is the product of shadowy, malevolent, agentic forces who are always looking for ways to specifically swindle them. It’s a combination of Djinnbrain and Victim Mindset.

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

This morning, there was no school for the big kids, and all my kids were up early. I poured a cup of coffee. We have a reno project going on so the house is discombobulated and everyone’s routine is a little off. I was talking with the big girls at the bottom of the stairs when the littles emerged from their room.

I looked up to see their little heads silhouetted at the top of the stairs by the hallway light. “Mom, can you check my lip?” Our 5-yr-old had busted it yesterday by running smack into a railing, being currently in the unfortunate stage of life and height where standard installment measurements of counters and such are hazardous to the face.

I walked up and sat at the top of the stairs with my coffee, still in sweatpants. The big girls joined on the steps in front of me. Her lip looked a little rough. I told her to chew on the opposite side of her mouth today to avoid chomping it. “If I chomp it, it will get bigger and grow way, way high to the sky??” “Yes, and it will hurt.”

She nodded and went back to pretending to be a cheetah, as is her wont. My little boy curled up on my lap. We had a discussion about ticks, as we had seen one on him yesterday (super late in the season!). “But Dad got it?” “Yep, we got it.” It wasn’t there long enough to be dangerous but we talked about the problems they can cause, including the meat allergy one. They were all four aghast. “A tick that makes you vegan?!” We joked about how Dad is probably immune to ticks at this point bc of all his time as a dog handler.

We chatted about the logistics of the big girls’ Invisaligns. I remarked, as I do at least once a week, how responsible they are about them and how much we appreciate it. Not one tray lost in this family in two years of treatment combined. I’m amazed. It couldn’t be me!

This conversation was punctuated by the littles exclaiming, “I’m so ‘cited for Halloween,” as they had found some recently stored-away Halloween decorations and aren’t clear on calendars yet.

We talked about trying to see a community theater production of Elf their friend is part of, and how both girls would like to do more plays if possible.

My oldest walked downstairs to let the dog in from his morning constitutional. My second walked downstairs, as she announced she wanted to make breakfast for her siblings. The littles roared theatrically and went to play Cheetah and Lion in their room.

I sat at the top of the stairs thinking of all the times I’ve seen all of their little silhouettes here, all the times I’ve carried them up, spotted them as they crawled, or seen them waiting for us at the bottom when we get up in the mornings.

It’s nothing at all. Just a cup of coffee, a conversation about braces and bugs and busted lips. But it is everything. A mundane miracle. Just thought I’d write it down to remember it.

[Samurai Shiba @SamuraiShibaJP]

My nephew's teacher played a game with her class of thirty 10-year-olds.

Describe America. One rule. You can't say "big," "hamburger," or "cowboy."

Thirty Japanese children. Completely stuck.

"...Large?"

Disqualified.

"A country where milk comes in a bucket." (It's a gallon jug. He saw it on YouTube. He is still upset.)

"A place where your dog can go shopping with you."

"Where strangers say 'Good morning' and they're not selling anything."

"Where people walked on the moon, came home, and mowed the lawn like it was nothing."

"Where there's a holiday that is only eating."

"Where people wave at a car even if they don't know the car."

"...Not small?"

Disqualified. Same boy.

"...Medium-large?"

The teacher put her head down on the desk.

Then Mitsuki put her hand up. Halfway. She's the shyest kid in the room. When she was eight, she lived for a year in a town of 9,000 in Ohio. Her dad's company sent him.

"A place where 24 kids practice your name before they meet you."

The class didn't understand.

On her first morning at school in Ohio, she was so scared she couldn't eat breakfast. She knew about ten English words. At the classroom door, she wouldn't let go of her mother's hand.

She walked in. Twenty-four third graders stood up.

"Good morning, Mitsuki!"

Perfect. Every syllable. In unison.

Their teacher, Mrs. Dombrowski, had found a video of a Japanese woman saying the name, and drilled the class for a week. One boy practiced so much his mother emailed the school. He was saying it in his sleep.

Mitsuki found out why on her last day.

In 1949, Mrs. Dombrowski's grandmother came to Ohio from Poland at nine years old. For her whole first year of school, nobody learned her name. They just called her "the new girl."

So every year, before a new kid arrives, Mrs. Dombrowski's class practices.

"Every family in America was the new kid once," she told Mitsuki. "Some of us remember."

On Mitsuki's last day, they said goodbye in Japanese. Mrs. Dombrowski cried harder than anyone.

"In Japan, everybody already knows how to say my name," Mitsuki told our class. "Nobody has to practice."

Thirty 10-year-olds went very quiet.

The boy who kept saying "large" put his hand up.

"Is anyone new coming? We could practice."

Nobody was new. So the teacher told them about the six women who cook lunch for 600 kids every day, in a kitchen the kids never see. Mrs. Kurihara has worked there for 26 years. Not one child has ever said her name.

The next morning, thirty kids lined up at the kitchen door.

"Good morning, Mrs. Kurihara!"

Perfect. Every syllable.

She covered her face with her apron. So did the other five.

America, thirty Japanese kids tried to describe you and weren't allowed to call you big.

So they called you kind.

Then they went and did it.

[Zach Hicks @ZachHicks2]

Okay I’ll bite. The Colts are in this situation because of Jim Irsay and Chris Ballard. They’ve been a mess since 2021, this is just the first time the owner has actually seen it that way.

She’s been in charge for 1.5 years and she’s trying to fix what her dad and Ballard broke

[The Sting @TheStingisBack]

Song of the South (80 Today) should be seen because hiding it erases crucial black film history.
Condemning it only punishes the memory of black cinematic pioneers like James Baskett, first black man to win an Oscar, rendering their historic contributions invisible.

[Jay 🕋☪️✈️ @jay_kobbe]

Exactly how the climate craze played out

Ppl with no good intentions handing win after win to China

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

@SaintRPh You're the one, Matt! Good luck and congratulations!

[BatMN @_BatMN_]

Cousins could have at least given him a little Kohl's cash.

[Ben Goessling @BenGoessling]

Jakobe Thomas said he got a text from Kirk Cousins about No. 8 yesterday, and gave Cousins the number back with no negotiations. “No money needed,” Thomas said. “I just need him to come here and win games. A lot of fans have his jersey anyway, so they could pull him out of the closet and put him back on. So that's all it is. Kirko's got a lot more memories and history in that number than I do, and it's rightfully his. So I just gave it back to his rightful owner.”