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CAL

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Doing the WaPo Mini Meta puzzle (for the first time in a few weeks, h/t to TBB for the introduction to it!).

The first clue of the 10 Feb one is:

The NCAA's Golden Bears, informally

I could use some help...Phone a Friend? It's three letters ;-)

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And the 20 Feb one had Santa _____ Broncos.

Reminds me of the few times I saw Kidd and Nash play each other. I think once at Oakland Arena and twice at SCU.

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Go Bears!!!

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Glancing at the schedule, I see Cal @ Stanford coming up tomorrow evening.

If not an ax, does the winner of at least the season series in basketball at least get a camp hatchet?

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[WBB] Cal Earns Gritty Win At Virginia

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/cal-earns-gritty-win-at-virginia.aspx

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Ioanna Krimili nailed six 3-pointers for an NCAA-leading 27th time in her career and passed 2,500 career points but it was Lulu Twidale's triple with 15 seconds left in the game that proved to be the biggest bucket of the night as the California women's basketball team came away with a 76-70 win at Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville on Thursday night. The Golden Bears (22-6, 10-5 ACC) were up three points when Twidale hit the late triple to seal the win against the Cavaliers (13-14, 5-10 ACC).

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That the team has clinched a winning conference record with three games to go in a very tough ACC is a terrific accomplishment. Charmin Smith has resurrected the program.

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[BASE] 13 Bears Start 2025 In MLB Camps

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/baseball-13-bears-start-2025-in-mlb-camps.aspx

The California baseball program had 13 former players in Major League Baseball spring training camps when the first game of spring training was played between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs on Thursday in Glendale, Arizona. Former Cal players begin their action Friday when another five spring training games are played before all 32 MLB teams are scheduled to play Sunday.

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[SB] Bears Drop A Pair On First Day Of Mary Nutter Classic

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/softball-bears-drop-a-pair-on-first-day-of-mary-nutter-classic.aspx

CATHEDRAL CITY – The California softball team dropped a pair of games to open the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic after dropping contests to No. 19 Oregon (5-4) and Cal State Fullerton (7-4) on Thursday at the Big League Dreams Complex in Cathedral City, Calif.

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[WSWIM] No. 6 Bears Well-Represented In A-Finals At ACC Championship

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/womens-swimming-diving-no-6-bears-well-represented-in-a-finals-at-acc-championship.aspx

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The No. 6 California women's swimming & diving team had an A-finalist in every event Thursday and stands in fourth place after the third day of the 2025 ACC Championship at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

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[MSWIM] No. 3 Bears Extend Team Lead At ACC Championship

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/mens-swimming-diving-no-3-bears-extend-team-lead-at-acc-championship.aspx

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The No. 3 California men's swimming & diving team dominated the 200-yard freestyle event Thursday to help extend its overall team lead at the 2025 ACC Championship at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

Six different Golden Bears scored points in the event, led by a third-place finish by graduate student Lucas Henveaux, who registered the eighth-fastest time in the event ever at Cal (1:32.04). Senior Trent Frandson joined Henveaux in the A-final and placed sixth with a mark of 1:32.80.

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[MBB] Cal Primed For Rematch At Stanford

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/mens-basketball-cal-primed-for-rematch-at-stanford.aspx

BERKELEY – The California men's basketball team will make the short trip to the peninsula to face rival Stanford on Saturday night inside Maples Pavilion. The rivalry rematch – the ACC's two Bay Area counterparts first battled Dec. 7 in Berkeley – will tip off at 7 p.m. PT and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 as well as 810 AM.

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[WPOLO] No. 4 Bears Travel To Barbara Kalbus Invitational

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/womens-water-polo-no-4-bears-travel-to-barbara-kalbus-invitational.aspx

The No. 4 California women's water polo team hits the road this weekend for the annual Barbara Kalbus Invitational. The Golden Bears have earned a top-four finish in seven of their last nine trips to the annual UC Irvine-hosted tournament. Cal is coming off its eighth straight victory to start the year over a top-20 ranked team, having beaten No. 9 UC Davis 18-11 at home last Saturday. Freshman Eszter Varró was named the MPSF Newcomer of the Week after leading all players with five goals in the win.

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[BASE] Cal Back At The Stu For 3 Against Houston

https://calbears.com/news/2025/2/20/baseball-cal-back-at-the-stu-for-3-against-houston.aspx

The California baseball team (3-1) continues its season-opening 10-game homestand by hosting Houston (2-1) for a three-game homestand this Friday-Sunday, Feb. 21-23.

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PRO

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto strikes out 2 in Dodgers spring opener

https://www.truebluela.com/2025/2/20/24369470/yoshinobu-yamamoto-strikeouts-dodgers-spring-training

Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out two batters and pitched into the second inning in his 2025 spring training debut, part of the Dodgers’ 12-4 loss to the Cubs on Thursday at Camelback Ranch.

Yamamoto worked around two singles in the first inning thanks to two strikeouts, finishing off Vidal Bruján on a splitter and getting Nicky Lopez on a cutter.

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BASEBALL!!!

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What's for lunch?

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I did my Red Cross re-cert for CPR which put me in Santa Monica just three blocks from Bay Cities Deli, so there was only one lunch decision to be made.

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I think I remember reading an article about this deli. I think it was an article about the Godmother sandwich. It looked amazing. One I would want to try one time I'm down there.

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Had half a Godmother with hot peppers and half of a turkey with herbed mozzarella. They're bread is really what makes it stand out imho

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That sounds so good. Now I want a good Italian deli sandwich. Might need to go to Molinari and Sons at some point.

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I've been informed of being proactively punished by having a salad administered - no burrito or even a toasted peanut butter sandwich!

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Leftover vegan burrito filling without the tortillas. Kinda lame, but it's good for me.

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I'm really pushing the low-sugar low-cholesterol diet for another few months. Gotta get the numbers down, especially LDL!

Tried for about four months late last year, and number were flat (or a bit higher!). Giving it another go before biting the statins bullet :-/

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Maybe leftover Goat Biryani. Or refried beans and rice with some chips.

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It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s Question of the Day.

What do you suppose parent-teacher conferences were like for Jesus when he was in school? For that matter, what were they like for teachers?

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Dress code, sex education

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I think that device may have come along a little later in the history of education systems.

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POLITICS

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Trump threatens Maine's governor to her face. He claims "I AM THE LAW" a la Judge Dredd.

https://x.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1893023038326657374

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Saw a bumper sticker on a Tesla while out exercising this morning - make this car not embarrassing again.

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Let's just say I'm glad I have tinted windows on my old Model 3

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3dEdited

Update all your vaccines, y'all. New administraiton will likely rollback vaccine requirements. Vaccination rates are already near/below the point of herd immunity. We are about to see a re-emergence of a bunch of disease that are pretty awful. Vaccine boosters are essentially painless and free under most corporate insurance packages.

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Measles has a mortality rate of around 1-2%, whereas Covid had about 1% mortality rate. However, parents afraid of vaccines are going to learn the hard way that measles tends to kill children.

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I just got my Hep A and flu for Singapore and Beijing. Guess when I get back I'll get a bunch of the others.

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H5N1 has jumped from birds to cows and humans. D1.1 in cows. In humans, it has infected 68 people, killed two of them - which is a mortality rate three times higher than Covid.

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The only booster that was a bummer was Shingles. It made me feel like crap for two days, but I'd rather not get shingles/chickenpox for the fourth time.

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I've been told that shingles is painful and an outbreak can last for days. Do not want. Vaccination seems like an eminently good idea, even if it means two days of not feeling well.

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I had the shingles vaccine last year, felt fine the next day so I imagine it's one of those things that effects some people but not others.

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I got my shingles shots right after covid ones (in mid-2021). First one was easy-peasy. Way better than either covid shot, neither of which were particularly bad.

Second one knocked me on my arse for a couple of days. fever, headache. but I knew why I had the symptoms, that they would soon go away, and that (hopefully) it'd mean No Shingles!

co-worker had it a couple of weeks ago and it sounds as bad as advertised!

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3dEdited

Huntington Beach town council approved a privately owned pro-MAGA plaque at a city-run public library. Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe appropriately spoke up at a town council meeting. He was arrested in his protest through civil disobedience.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/chris-kluwe-arrested-maga-trump-huntington-beach-rcna193025

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Despite Trump saying he wouldn't touch Medicaid, the administration is pushing to slash Medicaid and food stamps. This will be devastating to the elderly and poor.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-republicans-medicaid-snap-budget-test-rcna192954

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This is just one small part of what it means to burn it all down. This is also a contributing act to a larger charge of treason, in my view.

Wittingly or not, the Orange Idiot is making America lesser for decades. It also makes us weaker and more vulnerable to attack from our enemies.

But then, we knew this, right?

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Welp. It's happened. Trump administration has officially declared that there are two genders - which formally declares war on the trans community. This essentially expands his beachhead from preventing its usage on 19 and under to everyone in the trans community. I honestly think that may push my kid to graduate college now and for me and my wife to leave the country again. JFC, the American government jailed my mother and her family. Now they're prosecuting its citizens again. I fucking hate this regime with the fire of a thousand suns.

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2025/02/19/hhs-takes-action-president-trumps-executive-orders-defending-women-children.html

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There were fears that Trump II would be a clusterfuck or a dumpster fire but it's actually turning into a national tragedy that will adversely affect millions. Much of the damage will be permanent and much will take many years to undo.

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You've hit the nail on the head in your last sentence. His actions are treason in my view.

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3dEdited

After his meeting with the Russians, Trump flips his stance on Ukraine to pro-Russian. He demands that the US stop selling arms to Ukraine because Ukraine refuses to hand over half of its mineral wealth and all its ports to the US. Trump is essentially ensuring that Europe will stop buying arms from the US and double-down on its own domestic industry. Trillions of dollars will probably now flow to Rhinemetal, BAE, and other European vendors. Making America Great Again by alienating all our customers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36wn949jxno

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Well that’s one way to reduce the military industrial complex.

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More treason.

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Trump wants to privatize US Postal Service, which will essentially kill it

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/21/business/trump-postal-service-privatization/index.html

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This will certainly hurt rural and red voters more because I imagine the first post offices that will be cut and closed will be in small rural towns and counties.

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The GOP has been trying to do this forever, which in and of itself is insane.

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Which is interesting. Didn't they have more vote by mail this election? Or maybe I just imagined seeing a headline about it.

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If more GOP voters voted by mail, that's all gravy to Trump and his band of Orcs. The objective all along has been to disenfranchise as many opposing voters as possible in as many ways as possible.

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Trump once again asks for Canada's annexation. Based on what's happening, it can't be ruled out that he's serious. And he is absolutely alienating Canadians. American goods are going unbought on Canadian shelves.

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/24/trump-buy-greenland-claim-panama-canal

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Steve Bannon does an overt Hitler salute at CPAC

https://x.com/julianfeeld/status/1892729677782860052

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Anyone surprised?

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Only that he doesn't do it more often.

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ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

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GREAT

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Balls o' Fire

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Lakes

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Gatsby

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DBD AV CLUB

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S2 of Severance is kicking ass!!!

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It sure is. That was one tense and creepy dinner party.

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