So my wife continues to try new meatless meals, last night a hearty Mediterranean salad; roasted heirloom carrots, red onions and chickpeas over a bed arugula with feta cheese, bread & EVOO as a side.
In the spirit of Old Guy Stuff, I will say that this reminds of the time I was trying to get a Wii for me and the kids. No online buying back then. Had to stand in line in the early morning at Toys R Us.
No 1 got an invite to buy one from Sony. He doesn't want one right now so I decided I'll go ahead and get it. I really only play MLB The Show and maybe Madden so it'll mostly be the boys when they're back. And at some point I'm sure one of them will take it.
I wasn't going to spend time trying to get one when retailers had a drop, but if Sony offered one and I could just login and buy it, I'll get it. Otherwise, wasn't worth the work to get it.
I think scalper's bots got most of them. Only supposed to login right at 11. No 1 logged in at 11 and was already in a huge queue. They estimated 1 hour. Ended up getting in after 40 min and all sold out.
Keep trying, stock will likely refresh during your window.
I used the same process to get a PS5 back in October. I signed up with Sony in the summer, received an email in October, and ended up waiting in their queue for a couple hours before I finally secured one (including sitting through a couple "sold out" periods).
I followed a "guide" to get an Xbox Series X back in December. The advice that seemed to work was I had browsers open on two different computers and spammed refresh on the link one minute before the go live time. One browser got in and the other was placed in the queue and eventually notified that stock was gone.
Yeah, I really do not understand Americans who want to blame America for the Ukraine conflict. It actually feels pretty provincial to me, main character syndrome in the extreme.
I agree, it is just sad. Putin invades a country in Europe without any actual tangible provocation and you, as an American, could think it is our fault??? There is little room for relativism here. If you actually think that, you are both an idiot and an asshole, full stop.
People in China is different - they don’t have access to open info, shouldn’t really even be graphed
Tons of people on the far right (Biden is to blame for everything) and far left (US Imperialism/NATO encroachment forced Putin's hand!) add up to a significant portion of the population. I think here, the fringe right wing has a big influence on the right wing + Trump's defense of his buddy Putin gives more weight to the right portion of that graph./
The extreme left feels that the US can never be on the side of positive - due to our history (they're probably not wrong) but there's a bunch of pro-putin/pro xi just in order to be positioned contra-US.
I agree completely. My father was a career civil servant in the DoD. We moved all around the world, him working his ass off to advance US interests. He was a real stand up hardworking guy and honestly almost every single one of his colleagues were too. The far left notion that the US is inherently evil, made in the safety of their bedroom in an open society they contribute jack shit to maintain, drives me nuts. It is cartoonish nonsense and an insult to civil servants everywhere.
They have principles. "The world should be ruled by a few white rich people, and POC should be repressed, everywhere." That is a principle that drives what they say.
The blame game. No one ever seems to want to play it. You always hear: "let's not play the blame game." Never: "Let's have some fun and play the blame game!" Why is that?
I asked Antawn about playing against Tony G - he said, he was very very strong and a lot better than he thought he'd be. I asked if he had a chance at the NBA - he said "no, but that's no insult. Tony was a very very good basketball player, but the NBA is top top top of the mountain"
I was at the Pete Newell Classic game when Cal beat UNC. Dean Smith was honored at halftime. I think that UNC team was Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse. So it must have been one or two years later.
That Cal team should’ve Danced...bad timing having to play a year at the Arena whilst Harmon became Haas...lost the home court advantage in a quarter full stadium. One more win probably gets it done - I remember close losses to Stanford and Oregon...get either one and they probably get in.
I remember Anwar McQueen being from DC. I had heard there was a documentary being made of him similar to Hoops Dreams. Never heard anything about it being completed. I did like watching him play.
I kind of recall that doc rumor too now that you mention it. A few years after he graduated he was playing in an adult rec league in Walnut Creek that I was in. He didn't play the time we played his team that year. This was a D league with a bunch of old dudes. He kinda had an old man's game though, hah.
Tim Duncan, 1993, his second college year at Wake Forest. Cal won 73-72, in North Carolina. That game had 5 future NBA players (Kidd/Murray/Yogi for Cal, Duncan and Childress from WF).
It was Bozeman's first full year as coach....they had a #5 seed but lost to #12 seed Wisc-Green Bay in the Big Dance. Wisc-GreenBay was coached by Dick Bennett, who went on to Wisconsin and WSU, and of course is Tony Bennett's dad. No relation to the current SMC coach.
I was more taken with Childress on that team. I always had a thing for Wake and Georgia Tech point guards. My memory was that Duncan was really quiet that game (even though he's as talented as they come). I also recall Kidd intentionally fouling Wake in the final minute and putting them at the line to tie or to take a lead, just so he/we could have the ball for the last shot. That's how big his stones were. And it worked.
Why is that? I do recall seeing that at the Shattuck or UA at that time. I don't remember the movie at all, but I do recall the audience was on fire that night. Berkeley movie audiences were pretty wild at that time, especially on a Friday or Saturday night. Lots of banter. I brought my nephew, who was in town from Alabama. He was way out of his element.
You made me go down the rabbit hole of Ga Tech point guards. I've always been a Marbury fan, even had the shoes for a time. Didn't realize they had so many good/fun ones over the years.
I was gonna add Marcus Allen. IMO he is the best RB we have faced since I've been paying attention, hands down. Just in a different league than everyone else on the field, especially at Memorial.
I wasn't alive and/or watching games then, but Russell, Kareem and Walton in basketball. Newell's strategy for Russell was so extreme (hold the ball for a half) that it ushered in the shot clock era.
Yeah, I thought he was a no-brainer #1. I've seen him all over the board in these mocks. It's weird, but the knock on him is kind of that he's like too interesting? ie. he has too many interests outside of football.
I think there's another line of "he doesn't play hard all the time" which might be true - I can't say I've seen his play outside of the Cal game (scary) and highlights (also scary)
Well he missed half the year, and he played pretty big in the Rose Bowl & other big games. Meanwhile Hutchinson was quiet as a church mouse whilst getting dominated by UGA in the Orange Bowl. Hutchinson would be the most overrated #1 overall pick in the last 20 years.
Hutchinson's calling card seems to be that he has high floor. Wasn't Trevor Lawrence also a high floor guy? A little early to rate him, but I'm not getting Trevor Lawrence is special vibes now that he's in the league. He may just be Jimmy G. If I'm the Jags I go high ceiling.
Maybe DK Metcalf in modern times. I remember the receiving game he put up against the Bears a few years back at Memorial. We still won the game though. He obviously has lots of natural talent.
AJ Brown, Van Jefferson, DK Metcalfe...that WR corps was incredible. And Wilcox/GA/DeRuyter used a bunch of Sonny Dykes recruits to hold them to 2 TDs.
Chernobyl Ep 2 (HBOMax). 19/19. JFC. What a (no pun intended) slow burning drama - a riveting drama. What happens when Soviet bureaucratic thinking meets industrial disaster. I have no idea how they recreated that era and those film sets - but it is so far - one of the best miniseries that I've ever seen.
In Hawai'i. For the flight back, there likely will be no mask requirements. Not sure when I'll be heading back. Tested positive today (first time). achy, slight chills, slight cough, slight fever...nothing worse than I've had before, but it's called Covid this time.
wife and daughter checked into a diff hotel for the next three days :-/
Metro lifted its mask mandate after the court case. I didn't wear a mask initially but when I got to the platform only one other person was unmasked. Not wanting others to be uncomfortable, I put one on. Pretty much everyone on the train when it came were also still wearing a mask. I was surprised.
In MD our positivity rate is up to the mid-4s, a discouraging increase from the low-1s a couple months ago. It's not a substantial enough caseload for serious concern, but it is clearly not going away any time soon.
I think we're settling into a perennial pattern of moderate spikes around Easter/spring break and back-to-school, an extreme spike from Thanksgiving through Christmas, and a bonus spike at a random point in the year just for fun.
As soon as victory seems imminent, we celebrate and induce another wave.
You’re probably right. The more infectious the different variants become, it’s likely just a question of when not if everyone gets it, especially given the limited enthusiasm for ongoing mask mandates etc.
I think this indicates that Samuel wants to be more of a wide receiver and less of a running back. Or, possibly, that the 49ers do not value Samuel in a way that Samuel thinks he should be valued.
I think it means he wants to get paid before inevitably gets carted off the way they are using him and his style of play--which is to play to contact. They probably have the same worries, which is why they are probably reticent to extend him. He's a brilliant player, but not likely to age well.
This seems like how baseball pitchers are. Most of them will suffer wear-and-tear if you leave them in a game too long and it will shorten their careers. But occasionally you'll have genetic freaks who can consistently rack up high pitch counts and it doesn't seem to affect them at all: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Livan Hernandez.
Frank Gore seems like the running back version of that.
Went to the OKC/Rivercats game last night. Was fun but once the sun went down it was fairly chilly. 3rd row on the 1B side right at the outfield grass. Great seats and able to see everything going on.
Max Fried had his way with a Dodgers offense that leads the majors in runs scored per game, pitching seven scoreless innings in the Braves’ 3-1 win on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
Big innings have been the calling card for the Dodgers offense to start 2022, but it’s all relative. On Tuesday, a big inning against Fried meant all of one single.
The first hit was credited to Hanser Alberto, getting a rare start at third base, who singled to lead off the sixth, breaking up Fried’s perfect game. But Alberto was quickly erased on a double-play ground ball.
Trea Turner reached on an infield single with two outs in the seventh, but Fried quickly recovered to struck out Justin Turner, Fried’s eighth strikeout of the night. The left-hander from Harvard-Westlake High School pitched seven innings, didn’t walk anyone, and faced just one batter over the minimum.
Normally, I would agree with you. But these are not normal times. Nor is Russia's invasion of Ukraine in any way, shape, or form, normal. Nor does Russia's invasion and unmitigated assault on Ukraine hold the world's approbation. When it comes to one country trying to annihilate another, normal considerations go out the window. Again, this is punitive against Russian athletes and it should be.
Whether they want to be or not, Russian athletes are representative of their country. Sports have been politicized for decades, if not centuries. The entire Olympic movement has been stained by nationalism from the beginning. Consciously or not, sports is not much more than a substitute for tribalism. We extol the achievements of individual athletes, but there is always a tinge of tribalism associated with the best exemplars of athletic effort, sportsmanship, and achievement. Try as they might, athletes cannot escape that burden.
Turning it around, organizers of sporting events have a responsibility for understanding the optics of their events. The most abject failure of that dictum is the International Olympic Committee, hands down. If anything, in theory, the IOC should fully understand their role and the power they hold; consequently, they should use it to further the movement and refrain from promoting the political agenda of host countries. And yet, the IOC has failed *repeatedly* in that simple, yet problematically elusive goal. The IOC seeks first to fulfill self-aggrandizement; therefore, they are willing to sell the Games for the cold, hard cash offered by dictators and mad men (not to be confused with Mad Men). See Berlin in 1936; Sochi in 2018. There are other examples, but I think those are enough.
That Wimbledon has chosen to bar Russians is perfectly understandable within the moment as it indicates at least a *wish* to show solidarity with Ukraine. But at the moment, it is nothing more than that nor could it be anymore than that. That's because this is sports and whatever we think about Wimbledon's actions, it will be always viewed as imperfect, tainted by its appearances and suspected motives.
Sports is not above the conditions of the world. It is forever striving to be something more, but because it is run by humans, for humans, it can never truly leave the ground.
Here’s a good thing that happened to the San Francisco Giants in their 3-1 loss to the New York Mets in the second game of their doubleheader on Tuesday: they didn’t get no-hit.
Huzzah! Celebrate the little things, y’all.
They almost got no-hit. They were getting no-hit in the sixth inning. They eventually got two-hit.
But they did not get no-hit! And we’re here to celebrate all the wins we can find.
It was a great back and forth game, I doubt the Pels can pull off the series upset, but exposing weak spots on the Suns will be crucial to the rest of the west having any chance against them. Hoping Booker is ok, but wouldn't be opposed to them benching him for the playoffs just to be safe.
This is their best opportunity for a ring, especially since they mysteriously didn't extend Ayton (?). No chance they are sitting him for the duration of the playoffs, even though there's a good change he'll pull it again if he comes back too soon. He has an offseason to get it straight, even it tugs again. Assuming he has a better off-season regimen than Harden, he'll be fine next year.
I thought the Nats attendance was bad yesterday with 9,000 and 11,000 at the two DH games. Then I heard the A's attendance last night against the O's. That harkens back to some games I remember in the early days.
It was like 500 at first pitch! It is almost like fans may be upset that they traded their best players away at the same time as they fancy foot around about moving to Vegas.
Kaval is such a POS. This is all his doing. “Rooted in Oakland”! Just another dipshit Stanford grad, alongside Hawley and the legions of others.
The mid-week night game immediately after opening day is always quietest. That was always a sweet spot to get generally hard to find Cubs tickets when I lived there.
The ownership has jerked the fanbase around so much over the past decade that many folks have voted with their feet. Also it's easier to sit in the living room and watch the game on NBCSCA than parking and enduring cold night games, quaffing an $18 beer and spending $200 + on tickets, food, and parking per game attended.
Even my wife and sons are headed towards giving up on the A's. I'm the only die-hard Giants fan in this marriage and my kids are (were) die-hard A's fans. But what Kaval and Fisher have done to the franchise is flat-out ownership malpractice (malfeasance?).
How does one kill off fandom in a team that is trying to get a new stadium in a town your team has been in for 54 years?
[SB] Cal scores 7 runs in the 1st inning against a mediocre UC Davis team, but give up the lead over seven innings. Cal was lucky to not lose after throwing out two other runners at home in the 7th. However, the Bears get the walk-off in the bottom of the inning to win 9-8. A gritty, well-fought win.
A solid pickup. A four-year starter for the Buffs with a 0.487 career shooting average, 0.261 from beyond the arc. She also graduated from Pleasant Valley High School, the same as Q.Ron Rodgers.
Another addition: Claudia Langarita a 6'4 Freshman Forward from Spain who played for USF last season. She earned WCC Freshman of the Week honors three times. Another good add.
DBD test kitchen
Cooked a recipe from former BA Test Kitchen chef Molly Baz. Harissa grilled chicken on flatbreads with lime pistachio-yoghurt - photos are on the IG
So my wife continues to try new meatless meals, last night a hearty Mediterranean salad; roasted heirloom carrots, red onions and chickpeas over a bed arugula with feta cheese, bread & EVOO as a side.
PS5
In the spirit of Old Guy Stuff, I will say that this reminds of the time I was trying to get a Wii for me and the kids. No online buying back then. Had to stand in line in the early morning at Toys R Us.
Rec for Old Guy Stuff as I remember my uncle paying me to stand in line for playoff tickets.
No 1 got an invite to buy one from Sony. He doesn't want one right now so I decided I'll go ahead and get it. I really only play MLB The Show and maybe Madden so it'll mostly be the boys when they're back. And at some point I'm sure one of them will take it.
I wasn't going to spend time trying to get one when retailers had a drop, but if Sony offered one and I could just login and buy it, I'll get it. Otherwise, wasn't worth the work to get it.
I think scalper's bots got most of them. Only supposed to login right at 11. No 1 logged in at 11 and was already in a huge queue. They estimated 1 hour. Ended up getting in after 40 min and all sold out.
Keep trying, stock will likely refresh during your window.
I used the same process to get a PS5 back in October. I signed up with Sony in the summer, received an email in October, and ended up waiting in their queue for a couple hours before I finally secured one (including sitting through a couple "sold out" periods).
I followed a "guide" to get an Xbox Series X back in December. The advice that seemed to work was I had browsers open on two different computers and spammed refresh on the link one minute before the go live time. One browser got in and the other was placed in the queue and eventually notified that stock was gone.
Interesting. He is logged into his playstation account. I wonder if this would work.
really? interesting. I'll have No 1 check.
They have a splash screen that says they're done for today. oh well. no big deal.
octordle
Ended up using the last 7 guesses for the last 7 words. Wasted a couple of guesses word hunting.
Daily Octordle #86
7️⃣🕐
🕛🕚
🔟8️⃣
9️⃣4️⃣
octordle.com
Yesterday was my first time ever getting all eight in under 10. Today's did not meet that mark.
Daily Octordle #86
🕐7️⃣
6️⃣🕚
🔟2️⃣
9️⃣8️⃣
octordle.com
Particularly weird is the high number of folks in the U.S., Turkey, India, and China who blame the U.S. Then they can justify their energy imports.
Yeah, I really do not understand Americans who want to blame America for the Ukraine conflict. It actually feels pretty provincial to me, main character syndrome in the extreme.
I find it remarkable that you feel the Ukraine conflict is provincial. Or did I misread that?
I think he means it is provincial to be an American that blames America, as if the Russia/Ukraine conflict were primarily about America
This is correct.
Ah, I see.
Never mind.
I agree, it is just sad. Putin invades a country in Europe without any actual tangible provocation and you, as an American, could think it is our fault??? There is little room for relativism here. If you actually think that, you are both an idiot and an asshole, full stop.
People in China is different - they don’t have access to open info, shouldn’t really even be graphed
Tons of people on the far right (Biden is to blame for everything) and far left (US Imperialism/NATO encroachment forced Putin's hand!) add up to a significant portion of the population. I think here, the fringe right wing has a big influence on the right wing + Trump's defense of his buddy Putin gives more weight to the right portion of that graph./
The fringe left is where I'm most disappointed. Apparently imperialism is fine as long as it's not the USA doing it.
The extreme left feels that the US can never be on the side of positive - due to our history (they're probably not wrong) but there's a bunch of pro-putin/pro xi just in order to be positioned contra-US.
Yes, that is wrong. The US has done plenty of bad, but it is not ALWAYS a negative presence.
No, they are wrong. That is a super simplistic and false world view.
Chile, Argentina, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Haiti, Guam, the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Chad, El Salvador, I can keep going.
I agree completely. My father was a career civil servant in the DoD. We moved all around the world, him working his ass off to advance US interests. He was a real stand up hardworking guy and honestly almost every single one of his colleagues were too. The far left notion that the US is inherently evil, made in the safety of their bedroom in an open society they contribute jack shit to maintain, drives me nuts. It is cartoonish nonsense and an insult to civil servants everywhere.
Fringe left and right are a flat circle.
Really? More than FOX news supporting Putin?
I never expected they had any principles.
They have principles. "The world should be ruled by a few white rich people, and POC should be repressed, everywhere." That is a principle that drives what they say.
People are dumb everywhere.
mostly quite good. some really weird stuff also.
Russia tests ICBM capable of carrying a ten ton warhead that Putin says "has no peer"
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-tests-new-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-2022-04-20/
Does it have "no peer" because it will be the first ICBM stolen by a bunch of Ukranian farmers?
Worrying, though at this point all Russian claims about their military superiority have to be looked at very skeptically.
Is there a breakdown of the political affiliations/registration of that 41%?
Blame
Canada
Always.
I blame Knowlton for everything.
He's proven to be pretty good at fundraising.
Then he should use those funds to correct the mistake he made in Fox.
The blame game. No one ever seems to want to play it. You always hear: "let's not play the blame game." Never: "Let's have some fun and play the blame game!" Why is that?
I blame Rupert Murdoch for creating/cultivating one of the most damaging things in modern history
^^this^^
...in spades...
[Football or basketball] Who are some of the best players Cal has ever faced? (talent-wise, not best performance)
Ronnie Lott.
I remember seeing Lott play against Cal at Memorial Stadium in 1979. Very obviously the best defender on the field.
I somewhat thought this about Taylor Mays (U$C). Hadnt seen a safety manhandle people like that before, thought he might've had a better NFL career.
I was at the Sweet 16 game v Carolina in Syracuse in '97...Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter were pretty tough...Jamison took over after the under 8.
A better shooting night from Anwar Mcqueen and the Bears win that game...
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1997-03-21-california.html
I asked Antawn about playing against Tony G - he said, he was very very strong and a lot better than he thought he'd be. I asked if he had a chance at the NBA - he said "no, but that's no insult. Tony was a very very good basketball player, but the NBA is top top top of the mountain"
I was at the Pete Newell Classic game when Cal beat UNC. Dean Smith was honored at halftime. I think that UNC team was Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse. So it must have been one or two years later.
That Cal team should’ve Danced...bad timing having to play a year at the Arena whilst Harmon became Haas...lost the home court advantage in a quarter full stadium. One more win probably gets it done - I remember close losses to Stanford and Oregon...get either one and they probably get in.
I remember Anwar McQueen being from DC. I had heard there was a documentary being made of him similar to Hoops Dreams. Never heard anything about it being completed. I did like watching him play.
I kind of recall that doc rumor too now that you mention it. A few years after he graduated he was playing in an adult rec league in Walnut Creek that I was in. He didn't play the time we played his team that year. This was a D league with a bunch of old dudes. He kinda had an old man's game though, hah.
Tim Duncan, 1993, his second college year at Wake Forest. Cal won 73-72, in North Carolina. That game had 5 future NBA players (Kidd/Murray/Yogi for Cal, Duncan and Childress from WF).
It was Bozeman's first full year as coach....they had a #5 seed but lost to #12 seed Wisc-Green Bay in the Big Dance. Wisc-GreenBay was coached by Dick Bennett, who went on to Wisconsin and WSU, and of course is Tony Bennett's dad. No relation to the current SMC coach.
I was more taken with Childress on that team. I always had a thing for Wake and Georgia Tech point guards. My memory was that Duncan was really quiet that game (even though he's as talented as they come). I also recall Kidd intentionally fouling Wake in the final minute and putting them at the line to tie or to take a lead, just so he/we could have the ball for the last shot. That's how big his stones were. And it worked.
I bet PawlOski is a huge Lethal Weapon 3 fan.
Why is that? I do recall seeing that at the Shattuck or UA at that time. I don't remember the movie at all, but I do recall the audience was on fire that night. Berkeley movie audiences were pretty wild at that time, especially on a Friday or Saturday night. Lots of banter. I brought my nephew, who was in town from Alabama. He was way out of his element.
Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson, Brian Oliver - Lethal Weapon 3
Wow. I have no recollection of that nickname. I kind of hated D3.
You made me go down the rabbit hole of Ga Tech point guards. I've always been a Marbury fan, even had the shoes for a time. Didn't realize they had so many good/fun ones over the years.
I also really liked Jon Barry even though he went to DLS.
I had a huge Kenny Anderson basketball crush. Maybe the great wasted talent of that generation, of which there were more than many.
Starbury!
And Virginia plays as boring a game as UW-GB. The apple didn't fall far from the tree.
I think Duncan was in the 1997 draft class. Didn't realize he played in college for that long.
Duncan also played against Cal the year before, a Cal victory at the Oakland Coliseum.
Not mentioned as much:
Marshall Faulk - SDSU
Westbrook and Love - UCLA
CMC
Reggie Bush was a significant talent
I was gonna add Marcus Allen. IMO he is the best RB we have faced since I've been paying attention, hands down. Just in a different league than everyone else on the field, especially at Memorial.
Cheryl Miller
I wasn't alive and/or watching games then, but Russell, Kareem and Walton in basketball. Newell's strategy for Russell was so extreme (hold the ball for a half) that it ushered in the shot clock era.
Thibedoux last year. Freak.
It’s laughable that many of the idiot talking scribes have BOTH Aidan Hutchinson & Trayvon Walker ranked ahead of Kayvon.
KT will be dominant.
Yeah, I thought he was a no-brainer #1. I've seen him all over the board in these mocks. It's weird, but the knock on him is kind of that he's like too interesting? ie. he has too many interests outside of football.
I think there's another line of "he doesn't play hard all the time" which might be true - I can't say I've seen his play outside of the Cal game (scary) and highlights (also scary)
Well he missed half the year, and he played pretty big in the Rose Bowl & other big games. Meanwhile Hutchinson was quiet as a church mouse whilst getting dominated by UGA in the Orange Bowl. Hutchinson would be the most overrated #1 overall pick in the last 20 years.
Hutchinson's calling card seems to be that he has high floor. Wasn't Trevor Lawrence also a high floor guy? A little early to rate him, but I'm not getting Trevor Lawrence is special vibes now that he's in the league. He may just be Jimmy G. If I'm the Jags I go high ceiling.
Maybe DK Metcalf in modern times. I remember the receiving game he put up against the Bears a few years back at Memorial. We still won the game though. He obviously has lots of natural talent.
AJ Brown, Van Jefferson, DK Metcalfe...that WR corps was incredible. And Wilcox/GA/DeRuyter used a bunch of Sonny Dykes recruits to hold them to 2 TDs.
DBD AV CLUB
Blasted through Severance in about two nights. What a show- like if Westworld was actually as smart as it thought it was.
Moon Knight - WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?
Chernobyl Ep 2 (HBOMax). 19/19. JFC. What a (no pun intended) slow burning drama - a riveting drama. What happens when Soviet bureaucratic thinking meets industrial disaster. I have no idea how they recreated that era and those film sets - but it is so far - one of the best miniseries that I've ever seen.
That was a fantastically well executed series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The book "Midnight in Chernobyl" is even better.
This is a great show.
It is 100% fucking awesome.
Elated to have Better Call Saul back. Next week Barry returns, more joy.
On the DVR, watched s5e5 last night.
Extra kudos to the Better Call Saul creators for dropping two episodes this week after the 2+ year wait since last season.
whoa, I did not know this about Barry. sweet.
oh it hasn't even begun to get intriguing yet!
The work is mysterious and important.
I am into Severance as well! So good, really picks up momentum as it goes. So beautiful and strange, just a delight
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Surprised more pitchers don’t do this after giving up a long ball….
Texas Juco…Weatherford v N Central TX…boom….
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/33774895/junior-college-pitcher-tackles-opponent-hit-homer-game-weatherford-college-north-central-texas-college
Oscar Tshiebwe (Naismith Player of the Year) returning to Kentucky. Kentucky is going to have a really nice squad next year
They'll be loaded, and then still disappoint their fans in MM.
TODAY IN COVID
In Hawai'i. For the flight back, there likely will be no mask requirements. Not sure when I'll be heading back. Tested positive today (first time). achy, slight chills, slight cough, slight fever...nothing worse than I've had before, but it's called Covid this time.
wife and daughter checked into a diff hotel for the next three days :-/
Metro lifted its mask mandate after the court case. I didn't wear a mask initially but when I got to the platform only one other person was unmasked. Not wanting others to be uncomfortable, I put one on. Pretty much everyone on the train when it came were also still wearing a mask. I was surprised.
There is news reporting that cases are rising for 'new variants', but our local case load is staying quite low.
In MD our positivity rate is up to the mid-4s, a discouraging increase from the low-1s a couple months ago. It's not a substantial enough caseload for serious concern, but it is clearly not going away any time soon.
It’s almost as if airborne diseases spread when people are indoors with no masks 🤷🏼♂️
I think we're settling into a perennial pattern of moderate spikes around Easter/spring break and back-to-school, an extreme spike from Thanksgiving through Christmas, and a bonus spike at a random point in the year just for fun.
As soon as victory seems imminent, we celebrate and induce another wave.
You’re probably right. The more infectious the different variants become, it’s likely just a question of when not if everyone gets it, especially given the limited enthusiasm for ongoing mask mandates etc.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
US Rep. Debbie Lesko (R: AZ-21) and her alternative facts
https://twitter.com/RepDLesko/status/1516563037544665097
seems to be deleted?
The internet is forever.
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1516622384266199040
jfc.
PRO
Deebo Samuel asked the Niners to trade him
https://twitter.com/JeffDarlington/status/1516819376225333259
I think this indicates that Samuel wants to be more of a wide receiver and less of a running back. Or, possibly, that the 49ers do not value Samuel in a way that Samuel thinks he should be valued.
I think it means he wants to get paid before inevitably gets carted off the way they are using him and his style of play--which is to play to contact. They probably have the same worries, which is why they are probably reticent to extend him. He's a brilliant player, but not likely to age well.
I think we are largely in agreement. That's the basis for my comment that Samuel wants to be more of a WR and less of a RB.
I also assumed Gore wouldn't age well and that guy has played forever.
This seems like how baseball pitchers are. Most of them will suffer wear-and-tear if you leave them in a game too long and it will shorten their careers. But occasionally you'll have genetic freaks who can consistently rack up high pitch counts and it doesn't seem to affect them at all: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Livan Hernandez.
Frank Gore seems like the running back version of that.
to the Packers!
Wow, shocking but he would be so much better on a team with an actual good QB.
Not sure he would be as good outside of the Shanahan system though.
Ah, another star WR making inexplicable demands. A constant story in the NFL.
Went to the OKC/Rivercats game last night. Was fun but once the sun went down it was fairly chilly. 3rd row on the 1B side right at the outfield grass. Great seats and able to see everything going on.
Going again on Sunday. Going to be 80+ for the 1 PM start.
No big inning for Dodgers against Max Fried
https://www.truebluela.com/2022/4/19/23032989/dodgers-max-fried-braves-recap
Max Fried had his way with a Dodgers offense that leads the majors in runs scored per game, pitching seven scoreless innings in the Braves’ 3-1 win on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
Big innings have been the calling card for the Dodgers offense to start 2022, but it’s all relative. On Tuesday, a big inning against Fried meant all of one single.
The first hit was credited to Hanser Alberto, getting a rare start at third base, who singled to lead off the sixth, breaking up Fried’s perfect game. But Alberto was quickly erased on a double-play ground ball.
Trea Turner reached on an infield single with two outs in the seventh, but Fried quickly recovered to struck out Justin Turner, Fried’s eighth strikeout of the night. The left-hander from Harvard-Westlake High School pitched seven innings, didn’t walk anyone, and faced just one batter over the minimum.
Wimbledon bans Russians
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/33771570/wimbledon-bar-russian-players-war-ukraine-per-reports
Russia says this exclusion is unacceptable. You know what else is unacceptable?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/tennis/kremlin-wimbledon-russian-players-ban-spt-intl/index.html
I think this is really weird and punitive.
Disagree.
Is it punitive? You bet. It should be.
Is it weird? Not at all. Perfectly understandable. Makes all the sense in the world to me.
Individuals are not responsible for their country's actions.
Normally, I would agree with you. But these are not normal times. Nor is Russia's invasion of Ukraine in any way, shape, or form, normal. Nor does Russia's invasion and unmitigated assault on Ukraine hold the world's approbation. When it comes to one country trying to annihilate another, normal considerations go out the window. Again, this is punitive against Russian athletes and it should be.
Whether they want to be or not, Russian athletes are representative of their country. Sports have been politicized for decades, if not centuries. The entire Olympic movement has been stained by nationalism from the beginning. Consciously or not, sports is not much more than a substitute for tribalism. We extol the achievements of individual athletes, but there is always a tinge of tribalism associated with the best exemplars of athletic effort, sportsmanship, and achievement. Try as they might, athletes cannot escape that burden.
Turning it around, organizers of sporting events have a responsibility for understanding the optics of their events. The most abject failure of that dictum is the International Olympic Committee, hands down. If anything, in theory, the IOC should fully understand their role and the power they hold; consequently, they should use it to further the movement and refrain from promoting the political agenda of host countries. And yet, the IOC has failed *repeatedly* in that simple, yet problematically elusive goal. The IOC seeks first to fulfill self-aggrandizement; therefore, they are willing to sell the Games for the cold, hard cash offered by dictators and mad men (not to be confused with Mad Men). See Berlin in 1936; Sochi in 2018. There are other examples, but I think those are enough.
That Wimbledon has chosen to bar Russians is perfectly understandable within the moment as it indicates at least a *wish* to show solidarity with Ukraine. But at the moment, it is nothing more than that nor could it be anymore than that. That's because this is sports and whatever we think about Wimbledon's actions, it will be always viewed as imperfect, tainted by its appearances and suspected motives.
Sports is not above the conditions of the world. It is forever striving to be something more, but because it is run by humans, for humans, it can never truly leave the ground.
The one group of Russian athletes who haven’t been doping and otherwise up to no good
Gerrit Cole's day yesterday: 68 pitches, 1 2/3 innings, 5 BB, 1H.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354408
It's early but there are six players with as many or more home runs than the Orioles
Giants double their loss total for the year as they drop both games in their double header vs. the Mets 4-5 (10/F) and 1-3.
Giants double their loss total in one day
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/4/19/23032970/giants-mets-doubleheader-logan-webb-max-scherzer
Here’s a good thing that happened to the San Francisco Giants in their 3-1 loss to the New York Mets in the second game of their doubleheader on Tuesday: they didn’t get no-hit.
Huzzah! Celebrate the little things, y’all.
They almost got no-hit. They were getting no-hit in the sixth inning. They eventually got two-hit.
But they did not get no-hit! And we’re here to celebrate all the wins we can find.
Devin Booker nailed a fade away, then dapped a toddler
https://twitter.com/protectedpick/status/1516608027444449280
It was a great back and forth game, I doubt the Pels can pull off the series upset, but exposing weak spots on the Suns will be crucial to the rest of the west having any chance against them. Hoping Booker is ok, but wouldn't be opposed to them benching him for the playoffs just to be safe.
This is their best opportunity for a ring, especially since they mysteriously didn't extend Ayton (?). No chance they are sitting him for the duration of the playoffs, even though there's a good change he'll pull it again if he comes back too soon. He has an offseason to get it straight, even it tugs again. Assuming he has a better off-season regimen than Harden, he'll be fine next year.
hahahaha
Looks like he will be out for at least the next two games
I thought the Nats attendance was bad yesterday with 9,000 and 11,000 at the two DH games. Then I heard the A's attendance last night against the O's. That harkens back to some games I remember in the early days.
It was like 500 at first pitch! It is almost like fans may be upset that they traded their best players away at the same time as they fancy foot around about moving to Vegas.
Kaval is such a POS. This is all his doing. “Rooted in Oakland”! Just another dipshit Stanford grad, alongside Hawley and the legions of others.
The mid-week night game immediately after opening day is always quietest. That was always a sweet spot to get generally hard to find Cubs tickets when I lived there.
The ownership has jerked the fanbase around so much over the past decade that many folks have voted with their feet. Also it's easier to sit in the living room and watch the game on NBCSCA than parking and enduring cold night games, quaffing an $18 beer and spending $200 + on tickets, food, and parking per game attended.
Even my wife and sons are headed towards giving up on the A's. I'm the only die-hard Giants fan in this marriage and my kids are (were) die-hard A's fans. But what Kaval and Fisher have done to the franchise is flat-out ownership malpractice (malfeasance?).
How does one kill off fandom in a team that is trying to get a new stadium in a town your team has been in for 54 years?
CAL
Go Bears!
Go Bears!!!
[BASE] Cal's used nine relievers against USF. Results: 9 hits, 7 BB, 3 HBP plus 5 wild pitches totaling 14 runs, all earned. Cal loses 14-11.
https://calbears.com/news/2022/4/19/baseball-bears-upended-by-san-francisco-14-11.aspx
fire everyone
[SB] Cal scores 7 runs in the 1st inning against a mediocre UC Davis team, but give up the lead over seven innings. Cal was lucky to not lose after throwing out two other runners at home in the 7th. However, the Bears get the walk-off in the bottom of the inning to win 9-8. A gritty, well-fought win.
https://calbears.com/news/2022/4/19/softball-midweek-win.aspx
Women's BB: Sirena "Peanut" Tuitele (6-1 SR forward, Chico, CA) has grad transferred to Cal from Colorado. Looks like a good pick up. https://twitter.com/SirenaTuitele/status/1516595353616748546/photo/1
A solid pickup. A four-year starter for the Buffs with a 0.487 career shooting average, 0.261 from beyond the arc. She also graduated from Pleasant Valley High School, the same as Q.Ron Rodgers.
Another addition: Claudia Langarita a 6'4 Freshman Forward from Spain who played for USF last season. She earned WCC Freshman of the Week honors three times. Another good add.