108 Comments

Apparently there's been some kind of shooting situation at the University of DC - when I saw the twitter updates I thought maybe it was something around the Israeli or Chinese embassies based on the neighborhood, but MPD gave the address of UDC.

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I was sitting out reading and have a beer at the Kennedy Center wine bar and saw a bunch of DC Metro Police and U.S. Park Police cars go screaming north along the parkway. I'm presuming they were headed that direction.

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Octordle

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WTF?

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oh I get it.

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That's too much

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yeah that's just ridiculous

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25% off preorders at Barnes & Noble today: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/_/N-26Z29Z8q8

Code: PREORDER25

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I love Barnes & Nobles and try to support them when ever possible so they stay open

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There are two in the East Bay - El Cerriyo Plaza and Bay Street in Emeryville. Another in Concord.

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I'm surprised they are still in business and they have huge stores in prime locations.

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I still prefer to read books on paper and go to the one about a mile from my home regularly.

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I would rather read books as well. The couple a year that I read I get from the library.

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There was a big one right down the street from the hotel I stayed at in Bellevue. Was shocked when I saw it.

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DBD test kitchen

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Wife made Vignole, an Italian spring veggie stew, last night for the first time, very tasty (it had a tiny bit of prosciutto, so not a 100% veggie).

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Apr 22, 2022·edited Apr 22, 2022

The West African dish jollof was an answer on our weekly ZOOM trivia last night, and it sounds delicious. Gonna try to make it tomorrow....has anyone made before? We missed the question - had never heard of it, but man, it sounds good.

On a related note, Newellbany completely failed to bring a different answer that he absolutely should have gotten...his response: "It's been 15 years." Yes, yes it has - that's nearly 5500 days of letting those close to him down....

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Apr 22, 2022·edited Apr 22, 2022Author

This reminds me that I have a few bags of fonio, teff, bene, sorghum, and red island peas sitting in my pantry. I got into a West African food exploration after buying a couple Sean Brock books. So much Southern food has its roots in West Africa. But so far, my exploration of West African food has been pretty contained to reading those books and going to the store once... I should probably do something with them...

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FYI, my wife agreed with you that Fleabag is a dramedy.

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Marshawn

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Marshawn's birthdate is 3 days after Mrs Slug and I were married. We would have been in Yosemite Valley the day Marshawn was born. April 22, 1986 was a Tuesday. Dinner would have been at the Mountain Broiler Room.

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“Marshawn Lynch: A History” is a media criticism-type documentary that explores the microscope he’s been under since HS. Available on Kanopy, worth a watch.

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I went to school with Marshawn

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You went to Tech? My son ran track with him.

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No, at Cal. lol

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#nationaltreasure

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Ha! Marshawn and my wife share a birthday!

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I nominated the new paramour Cal Falcon to be named Marshawn. Ended up as Alden, after an eminent UCB ornithologist.

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Ukraine/Russia

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Gazprom's CEO resigns. Also, Gazprombank's VP and most of his immediate family are found dead in Spain. Another Russian energy official and his wife found dead at their Spanish villa. @Totally not suspicious@.

https://www.newsweek.com/oligarchs-murder-suicide-1699766

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Expect more folks to mysteriously fall out of windows...

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Exactly.

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Russian MoD publishes a new set of objectives - control Donbas, merge it with Crimea, control south Ukraine to create landbridge to Transnistria. Not noted, but very obvious is that Russia lacks warm water ports, so Southern Ukraine would be a major asset

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-russia-news-live-mariupol-donbas-putin-zelenskyy-latest-12541713

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Internet sleuths say Putin has Parkinsons as he tries to hide/brace his hand, has an unsteady walk, and has atrophied at an accelerated rate as he ages

https://twitter.com/DamianReilly/status/1503430639286116362

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Maybe he's setting himself up to be the scapegoat. Try to take Ukraine but if things go badly, just say he had Parkinsons/is sick and blame him.

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people keep promising me that Trump is falling apart from dementia, but there he still is, so I'll apply the same grains of salt here for the time being.

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I'm sick to death of those motherfuckers promising that Trump (or Putin) will drop dead of some malady that they've diagnosed from photographic or video evidence.

Fuck these quacks.

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Yeah exactly

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Yep, same. The solutions to these problems, both in Russia and the US aren’t simply “wait until Putin and Trump die”.

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it's an emotionally satisfying outcome, but it's not predictable and it doesn't reinforce / change any institutions.

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Two major fires break out at two strategic Russian industrial sites. Perhaps Russia will blame it on rough seas again.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10740579/Huge-blaze-sweeps-Russias-biggest-chemical-plant-hours-7-killed-weapon-centre-fire.html

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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DeSantis dissolves Disney self-rule via "Reedy Creek" in culture war vs. Disney. Disney will likely appeal, but if they don't - county taxpayers are stuck with liabilities that exceed their ability to raise taxes.

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As if the GQP and it’s voters care about tax revenue when it comes to “winning” the culture wars.

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Disney is kind of stuck there though. They can’t just up and leave

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When I saw the bill that was proposed, I thought about what it would take Disney to move. I guess first of all they need to find a place that has a lot of space and good weather. But it would be hilarious if Disney, just said, fuck it, we're moving all of our Florida operations out of Florida. Would take 2-3 years to build it up, but man that would be a great middle finger to the state of Florida.

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[New York Times reporters]: House Minority Leader McCarthy said that he "had it" with Trump from what he did on 1/6 and thought his behavior of "inciting" rioters was "atrocious and totally wrong" and that he thought he'd get impeached and should resign as a result.

[McCarthy] I didn't make those comments. That's "totally false and wrong"

[New York Times] : Here's a recording of him saying it.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/leaked-audio-shows-kevin-mccarthy-really-did-want-donald-trump-out-after-jan-6-capitol-riot

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Apropos: Have you ever seen a woman think so hard about a question she's been coached to answer, you can nearly hear the hamster wheel rev upwards with labored squeekiness and then suddenly need to stop and then immediately reverse after screwing it up. Behold, exhibit 5, please.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1517541451516755969

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I love the sideeye she gives the attorney to bail her out.

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Here's the conversation. It's with Liz Cheney.

https://twitter.com/travisakers/status/1517498555442909190

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Liz had him up on that wire.

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So can we agree that over the past year there's essentially been a prisoner swap - Cheney/Kinzinger for Manchin/Sinema?

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No.

Manchin and Sinema are driven by power and money. Cheney/Kinzinger are driven by principle: they understand thst an assault on democracy is in progress.

Manchin and Sinema *do not* care. As far as I'm concerned it's black and white. Manchin and Sinema are venal cowards and, quite possibly, traitors.

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Unfortunately we're trading Senators for Representatives

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PRO

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Have you ever seen a bloop triple?

https://twitter.com/mlberrors/status/1517528740363972611

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Cedric Mullins had one last year bc of the shift

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Apr 22, 2022·edited Apr 22, 2022Author

A's close out the O's series with a win

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2022/4/21/23036500/game-14-oakland-as-baltimore-orioles-score-result

Power, timely hitting, defense, starting pitching, and just enough relief work. The Oakland A’s did it all on Thursday, and it added up to a victory.

The A’s beat the Orioles by a 6-4 margin in their series finale at the Coliseum, holding on amid multiple comeback attempts by Baltimore.

Oakland took an early lead on the strength of a couple homers, then strung together a rally later on for some valuable insurance. On the mound, their starter shut down the opponent’s lineup for five quiet innings, while the bullpen added some drama but never quite blew the save.

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Dubs take a 3-0 series lead after a tough contest on the road

https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2022/4/21/23036709/golden-state-warriors-news-nuggets-game-3-recap-stephen-curry-jordan-poole

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Denver Nuggets 118-113 on Thursday. Now with a commanding 3-0 series lead, the Dubs are just one win away from eliminating the Nuggets and advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals.

As in the previous two games, neither team built a significant lead in the first quarter and a half, oscillating between single-digit leads. However, the Warriors had another fantastic stretch to end the first half, closing the second quarter on a 24-14 run, to put Golden State ahead 69-59 at halftime.

While the third quarter is where things have tended to fall apart for the Nuggets in this series, they performed far better in their first home game of the postseason. The Nuggets got off to a 10-2 start to the second half, and for the first time in the series, punished the Warriors for letting Stephen Curry come off the bench.

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This conversation between Stephen A Smith and Kendrick Perkins is hilarious. The faces Perkins makes throughout the whole argument is what every SAS hater makes.

https://youtu.be/Qt_yfcngkRg?t=501

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Apr 22, 2022·edited Apr 22, 2022

As he's prone to do, Andrew Wiggins plays passive, largely disinterested basketball for much of the first 44 minutes of the game before a crucial stretch where he made three key plays that helped earn the W...a corner 3, a nice defensive stand on Jokic, and then a big offensive rebound that led to an acrobatic lay-in by Jordan Poole.

Wiggins has never really been a winner until joining Golden State, with his Kansas University (#2 seed) team getting bounced by Stanford (#10) in the first weekend of the '14 Tournament before a largely forgettable stint in Minnesota. He really struggles to make big plays for a Warriors team contending for a championship, and goes very quiet for large stretches. For a guy that's set to make $33.6M next season in the final year of his deal, you'd like to see more consistent effort and results....hopefully last nights 2 minute stretch late flips a switch for him....

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To me it seems like he just defers to Klay/JP/Steph on offense. With those 3 healthy, I don't think he ever is out there without one of them so he just defers.

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Ya, that's the passive part...and sure, those 3 are definitely the keys offensively to a long postseason run. But it's no coincidence that this W's team looks and feels different with JP as the 3rd option, rather than Wiggins. He had a weak, missed 3Q take to the tin last night that got altered because he did not go up strong...just maddening. I can hear Jack Burns in the swim pool yelling "ya gotta SPIKE those Focker."

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I would think he gets traded along with some other contributors for another center, unless Wiseman makes some miraculous recovery in the offseason

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Is there a market for him? He's a role player in the final year of a MAX contract...not a lot of teams ready to absorb a $33M hit for a secondary piece.

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Safe. And I will die on this fucking hill.

The rule says the runner is safe if he returns immediately to first base. Show me where the runner didn't return immediately to first base.

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Out. People who agree include the 1B coach who was pointing at the bag, Sean Murphy who hustled to get there first, and the umpire who never called safe and was watching closely to see if the tag beat the runner. They all thought it was enough of a flinch.

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The umpire erred though in not making ANY call initially, as the ball got past the 1B and Mancini clearly did not miss the bag. So it was also a mistake by the ump - as an initial call needs to be made.

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Hmm...interesting. Well he did touch the bag so technically he's safe. But when he made the turn he's a baserunner.

Initially I was thinking it's similar to when the runner doesn't touch home and isn't tagged so the HP umpire just stares at him. But in this case, the runner touched first (I assume) so he should be safe. But that's a good question. Should the umpire signal safe then just stand there waiting for a tag or the runner to touch first again?

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Even as an A's fan - he's safe.

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I was always taught not to turn that way, so just on a practical level I agree with the call

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Exactly….tho it is legal to turn that way, so long as the runner does not make an effort to advance. Mancini did not appear to demonstrate the intent to advance, however he did flinch. The ump certainly read that twitch, though it was a pretty quick decision by the blue.

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I have seen runners being called out if they twitch going to 2nd. The ump didn't make the safe call, which the runner and the coach didn't see.

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Looking at the coach again he was pointing at first but didn't seem to be urging the runner to really get back. So he probably didn't notice it.

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That's a close one. He twitches but when the umpire doesn't make a safe call he needs to hustle back.

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As the first base coach was apparently telling Mancini, who wasn't paying attention to him.

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Safe. Bad call.

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You'd have to really squint to see a move to second. Safe.

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Safe. It didn't look like a definitive move towards second. And his leisurely stroll back to first suggests there was no real intent to take second.

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TODAY IN COVID

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Mrs Slug tested positive for COVID this afternoon.

I got a rapid antigen test at West Berkeley Senior Center. It came back negative. I get to go back to work on Monday.

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my 17 y.o. relayed that her AP Environmental Science teacher had been grumbling yesterday - Mr APES teacher is currently stuck in Italy, because he was chaperoning a spring break trip full of kids who refused to mask at any point, so a subset of them got the 'rona and gave it to him as well.... so until they test negative, apparently in Italy they stay. There are worse places to be stuck.

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but stuck is stuck. I'm here in Waikiki for an extra week, but being sick and stuck inside sucks.

altho, yeah. at least I'm not in Des Moines...I can get more interesting food delivered.

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who pays for the extra hotel days?

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I assume the kids do

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My mother in law and her husband are going to visit Italy in the neat future - her husband is getting treatment for early Alzheimers which - weirdly - has improved his reading retention, so he's not buying what my mother in law is selling about there being no risk in traveling to stay at some organic farm and b&b. Perhaps the only time my wife has agreed with him about anything.

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That just sounds like a Covid commune.

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She seems to be convinced that if they stay outside of any place filled with people they don't know (it's pretty rural), they'll be fine. I think she wants that to be true, it might even be true, I just don't know.

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Day after second booster, feeling fine...

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second booster I didn't even hardly get a sore arm.

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@then it was mostly saline in the syringe@

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ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

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CAL

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Go Bears!!!

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[MTEN] Bears lose to USC in the Pac-12 championship quarterfinals

https://calbears.com/news/2022/4/21/mens-tennis-no-50-cal-falls-to-no-13-usc-in-ojai.aspx

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[WTEN] Bears beat Utah in the Pac-12 championship quarterfinals

https://calbears.com/news/2022/4/21/womens-tennis-cal-blanks-utah-in-pac-12-quarterfinal.aspx

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Go Bears!!!

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