Karen Bischer

My cramps & tension headaches beg to differ. Also: when I had a wisdom tooth pulled in 2013, the doc sent me home with oxy and Rx-strength ibuprofen. When the novocaine wore off, I was in AGONY but too chicken to take the oxy, so I took the ibuprofen. It worked. Well. Like, I would fight him on this

AFIAK, she grew up in the same neighborhood I did, where my dad still lives. While it's definitely in the more modest part of what many would consider a fairly well-off town, seeing it described as "working class" is WILD.

He's taken the train too 😺

Clarence, an orange striped cat, is curled up while staring sleepily at the camera. He does not know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours, but he did ride the ferry once.

"So I knew this song my whole life and assumed it was about a ship that sank in the early 1900s...and then in my 30s I found out it sank in 1975 via Casey Kasem in a 1976 episode of AT40 on iHeart. No, really."

- today in Explaining The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot to My Cat

🎶 Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge 🎶 is a staple of my region circa the 80s/early 90s but this resort also had a banger of jingle:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=KYvd...

Clarence, an orange striped cat, is curled up on the back of a couch in front of a window and looks very superior in the knowledge that both he and Dionne share roots in the Garden State while less fortunate people from other states do not.

"You and the great Dionne Warwick are both from New Jersey and you have absolutely every right to look smug about that right now."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*Heartbreaker, Dionne Warwick, #38 this week in 1982

#caturday

FYI: Many AI mediums were trained on (pirated) books. Authors use em dashes. A lot. It's been a running joke among authors for as long as I've been authoring. PLEASE stop saying an em dash is indicative of AI use or I swear to god I will fill every sentence of my WIP with them (RIP next copy editor)

Post you from a different era (aka the era when I was trying to convince my parents to get a dog. This was my cousins' sweet dog, Dusty.)

It turns out being super racist and cynically bringing up 9/11 at every turn wasn’t the best way to win the hearts of New York City voters

I'm pretty sure the headline was something Yankees related, so I didn't mind 😆 But this was when I worked at 2 Penn Plaza, which housed the WABC radio studio, where he worked. WPLJ was also there, and MSG's offices, so I had A LOT of local celeb sightings back then (Jeff Van Gundy was the first).

Now that more of the country knows who he is, when someone prompts "name a celebrity encounter you've had," I can say I rode in a elevator with Curtis Sliwa circa 1999. I was carrying the Post or the News (whichever had the Jumble - I did that at lunchtime) and he read the backpage over my shoulder.

A yellow sign with big black lettering that reads "Are you from New Jersey? Cuz baby, you were born to run" with a small drawing of the state of New Jersey and a cut out of Bruce Springsteen.

Not me liking every post I can about yesterday's best marathon signs. Truly one of my favorite race byproducts, along with all the other assorted good feelings that come with the day. (This was mine from 2017, some of my best creative work involving giant markers.)

Also: I have 26 yrs of experience, spent many years at each full-time job I've had. I'd say I don't have any red flags, but I AM approaching 50, and even tho I cut my graduation year from my rez, I love wondering if it's a "she's working for decades/is probably old/won't be able to adapt" thing.

A list of 14 copy editor and copywriter jobs I've applied to (company names blacked out). Three are striked out in red indicating I got an actual "thanks for applying, we're not considering you" emails from them. One is highlighted in orange idicating a recruiter called (but haven't heard from since). The rest indicate no response.

Let's see how that job hunt is going 🫤

(TBH, I'd actually been looking for about a year before I got laid off because I sensed cuts were coming. I applied to more than 20 jobs in that time and only heard back from one, but it didn't go beyond a recruiter call. So...not surprised by any of this.)

Clarence, an orange striped cat, stares smolderingly at the camera while contemplating the wisdom of Boy George.

"Well, war is never good and hoomans are STILL stupid, so not much has changed in the last four decades, I'm afraid."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*The War Song, Culture Club, #24 this week in 1984

#caturday

A shot from the video for Laura Branigan's Self Control. A creepy masked man watches her from car. Unnerving for a 7-year-old in 1984, still the same in 2025.

And just in time for Halloween, this just came on MTV Classic. Gonna go be terrified for a bit.

Update: Just got 6-7'd, so I 6-7'd back with the hand gestures because Tik Tok has enabled me to be able to communicate with the youths.

Brandy, a tan, floppy earred mutt with a black snout, sits at attention in the dining room, where trick-or-treaters can see her from the front door and extend their well-wishes. (She's kept in there in case there are kids who are afraid of dogs. We're mindful of such things!)

Brandy, as ever, is extremely popular:

"I like your puppy!"

Brandy: Woooooo

"She likes you too!"

It is windy AF today but the trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood are persisting. Much respect.

Brandy, a tan floppy earred mutt with a black snout, and Clarence, an orange striped cat stare exasperatedly (Brandy) and accusatorily (Clarence) at the camera while standing on green-and-white checkered kitchen floor.

"It's about butts."

- today in Explaining Classic Rock* to My Pets

*Tush, ZZ Top, playing tonight while I made dinner. They are only interested in the bacon I was making, however.

Also, this is the best use of a song from 1989 and I will not be hearing any slander against said song as a result:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ef...

Maybe one day I'll rank them for Clarence's benefit! (I don't know that I can fairly rank the last few years of the decade because I wasn't listening to top 40 radio as much in college/after college - was firmly in classic rock/oldies/70s & 80s R&B stations at that point).

While '89 isn't my fave music year* of the decade, I've dramatically acted out most of these songs for my pets while making dinner or cleaning so 🤷‍♀️.

(*Official Ranking That No One Asked For:
1. 1985
2. 1984
3. 1986
4. 1983
5. 1987
6. 1988
7. 1989
8. 1980
9. 1981
10. 1982)

A Facebook status reading: Hey, work peeps, Channel 2 is reporting that our building has 3 feet of water inside, 6 feet outside. I hope the caf and the tooth are okay!

A Facebook status reading: ) And in the poker game of Who Has Power, I fold. All dark in downtown JC. Saving phone battery so only call/text if it's an emergency.

A Facebook status reading: Listening to Channel 7 on the radio. Who are these lucky bastards with power and/or cable?

A chalkboard sign outside a local gym reading "We're all still here, bitch" and "charge your phone here"

13 years ago tonight was a wild ride, aka Superstorm Sandy. My office building did indeed have 6 feet of water outside/3 feet inside...which destroyed the newly renovated basement cafeteria. We didn't get back in the bldg till March. The sign outside my local DTJC gym a few days later was top tier.

Not necessarily the most joy (because the Yankees had been chasing them for the division lead a lot of that summer), but Carter's walkoff for the Blue Jays in 1993 WS was the first real "holy s***, did that just really happen?" moment of awe I experienced as a baseball fan.

Clarence, an orange striped cat, shows no feelings of guilt after what has passive-aggressively been implied about his late-night grooming habits

"No, they're not referring to a kitty cat grooming himself and shaking the bed while his owner is trying to sleep. But I can see why your brain went there."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*You Shook Me All Night Long, AC/DC, #39 this week in 1980

#caturday

A cat is seen riding a bus. They are standing up and have their front paws on the back of the front seat.

this is what will happen if mamdani makes bus rides free

I hope knowingly stealing all that copyrighted material to train said AI was worth it!

It's also funny because a lot of them are like "point to metrics and percentages, a**hole" and I'm like "but I'm a copy editor?" (Fun fact: This has always been a stress at review time because proofreading/editing are not really measurable things.)

a close up of a black and white cat 's face with its tongue out . ALT: a close up of a black and white cat 's face with its tongue out .

Corporate Recruiter Influencer "this is what your dumb ass is doing wrong with your resume, and I'm going to drag this out because this post with a lot of unnecessary filler words is monetized" Tik Tok is definitely a stress I did NOT need in my unemployed life.