Picnic comes from the 17th century French terms “pique” (to pick or peck at) and “nique” (a trifle)… basically snacking on small things. The French Revolution scattered aristocrats overseas, who brought their picnic concept with them. In the early to late 18th century, picnic was still a high-brow outdoor affair, but spread to the middle classes. Picnicing reached its highest art form by the residents of Lake Meritt, Oakland. Fact, y’all. You can try to picnic in a Eucalyptus grove, but it’s basically hanging out in a menthol-scented parking lot.
Crocodiles need better press agents. Most everyone is afraid of sharks but they typically kill less than a dozen people a year. Meanwhile crocs kill about 1,000 people per annum. That's not even close, crocodiles are far more dangerous to humans than sharks and they're a helluva lot uglier too.
“The human mortality rate from hippopotamus attacks is unknown but it is estimated to range from 500 to 3000 per year,” the study says. “This estimate comes from a few non-medical published papers; we did not find data in the medical literature regarding fatality rates.”
They did reference an older study that found hippo attacks resulted in fatalities of 87% of victims, a rate that’s significantly higher than that of lions or leopards.
“The probability of being killed by a hippopotamus attack (case fatality rate) is thought to be in the range of 29 to 87%,” the authors of the Burundi study wrote. “This compares to a death rate following a grizzly bear attack of 4.8%, shark attack at 22.7% and crocodile attack at 25%”
I think the shirts and shoes are a way their rivals have trying to soften their image which should be a vicious killers who -- unlike sharks -- actually hunt humans.
There is a Lithuanian krupnikas distillery here @ Durham. They have one of the those shirts signed by the team up on the wall. You can see the t-shirt in the background...
Kinda like how there's a lot of random Japanese players in MLB not named Ohtani or Ichiro that would make this list, but they are actually all superstars in Japan.
Was a young star in Australia with Andrew Vlahov (*cough*), and played on their Olympic team and in one of the Aussie leagues when 18-20. He went to college at New Mexico, and then to the NBA. He was a star in Australia mainly due to being associated with the Bulls/Jordan during their prime.
Gaze was just a bit older. He first played in the '84 Olympics, Longley in the '88 Olympics. Gaze's NCAA run was in 89, Longley in '91. They probably overlapped on some Aussie stuff in the early to mid 90's.
Fun fact: From 1868 through 1970 Memorial Day was observed on May 30th regardless of what day of the week it fell on. Since '70 it's been on the last Monday of May which this year happens to be the 30th.
Another fun fact: Before Memorial Day was Memorial Day, it was known as Decoration Day. The name derives from decorating the graves of Civil War soldiers killed in the war and veterans.
Interestingly enough, though, the leaflet/flyer/whatever pictured at the top of the linked webpage notes Memorial Day and the date of May 30, 1917, which was right in the thick of the Great War, World War I.
EDIT: May 30, 1917 would have been a Wednesday by my calculations.
Sunday A's game (with tailgate). Early celebration for the lady friends bday and going away party for good friend and RF drummer Bryanne (our tailgate's Capt Malort). If you're in the Bay, come through.
overpriced plane tix to Nashville for long weekend. my wife shares a bday w/ her cousin who lives there and we have not yet seen a few new babies during coronavirus times ...
Apropos: The three Cal players that are currently on CFL rosters: Marloshawn Franklin, Kenny Lawler, and Traveon Beck. Lawler lead the league in receiving yards last season.
So y'all got all them except the newly named Edmonton Elks. Tiger-Cats, Alouettes, Redblacks (fka Rough Riders), Argonauts, Lions, Stampeders, Elks, Roughriders, Blue Bombers.
The Ottawa Rough Riders and the Redblacks actually both existed at once, but the Rough Riders went away as the expansion Redblacks got rolling. (Interesting to think there was a distinction between Rough Riders and Roughriders. But then Eskimos had to be morphed into Elks.
... ham. It's the lower front shoulder of the pig. It is the cut above the front legs (hocks) and below the top half (butt). Pig walk on their legs, so the meat is tougher than the more prized butt and has a higher percentage of bone - so it's a cheap cut. But it comes with a lot of fat/flavor, so it's great when cooked low and slow.
Apropos: pork cuts have misleading labels. The "loin" is the top-middle-third. The "butt" is the top shoulder. The "leg" or "ham" is the whole back third and usually doesn't include most of the back legs/"hocks". Also, ham isn't necessarily made of "ham".
Watching The Flight Attendant on HBOMax. The first season was silly fun and had enough of the suspense angle to make it interesting. The second season is over-the-top ridiculous, and it's self aware of how ridiculous it is. Still, highly enjoying it once I let go that the suspense/crime angle was definitely not a priority of the scriptwriters.
Jordan Addison to USC, as expected...rumored to be getting an NIL deal north of $2 million per season and a house in LA. Good for Addison, bad for pretty much EVERYONE else on the planet.
I'm pro-NIL, but it's pretty much just helping the same teams that were paying kids to begin with.
Oakland had no answer for the Minnesota Twins today, losing by a final of 14-4 in the final regular-season game against these guys.
The pitching couldn’t hold down the Twins lineup this afternoon, walking 10 batters and giving up 14 total hits. Most of the damage was done against just two pitchers, but it was so out of hand that Oakland turned to a position player to save the bullpen, allowing Minnesota to add on in the ninth and making the final score look even worse.
The lineup showed more signs of coming out of their slump, collecting 12 hits of their own, but no where near enough to keep up with Minnesota today. At least there’s an off day for the team tomorrow.
The Dodgers finished off the first leg of their schedule gauntlet on a high note, finishing off a sweep of the Diamondbacks with a 5-3 win on Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
One out away from getting swept in a four-game series at home to the Phillies for the first time in 37 years, the Dodgers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on Sunday, then turned the tables on Arizona, delivering their second four-game home sweep of the Diamondbacks in 25 seasons. The other Los Angeles home sweep of Arizona over four games came last season, also in May.
The Dodgers head into their off day having gone 9-5 over the previous twelve days, including two doubleheader sweeps.
Ketel Marte gets jammed on an rbi single, misses 2 games.
Major League Baseball players should not be missing multiple games after getting jammed on rbi singles. D'backs gave him big money...no wonder D'backs are bad.
Rockies first-base dugout reporter Kelsey Wingert got beaned by a foul ball on Monday. She got a nasty cut from hairline to center forehead requiring. She also got a broken eyesocket four years ago by a different foul ball when she covered the Braves. She updated fans yesterday. She's okay, but that's going to leave a scar.
Crazy that a ball got her again. I know it's part of her job to not look at the field and try to find interesting things happening in the dugout, but then the TV team needs to hire someone to catch/shield balls while she's doing her job.
Three runs is never enough in Denver. The San Francisco Giants’s 12 game win streak over the Colorado Rockies was snapped in Wednesday’s 5 - 3 loss.
The Rockies hung 2 quick runs on starter Logan Webb in the first with Charlie Blackmon homering and Ryan McMahon scoring on a two-out Brendan Rogers double. But Giants bats quickly responded in the top of the 2nd with a hit by pitch and a double that put Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada at 2nd and 3rd.
After Joey Bart lined out, Mike Yastrzemski dropped the needle on a sinker middle-in from Kyle Freeland, singling to bring in Crawford, before Austin Slater hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Estrada.
GREAT strategy against Luca. Now the chess match begins, because you know Luca will figure out a way to go off...hopefully it won't be in SF. Have to win home games against this team, I think, and hope to get one in Dallas.
It was pretty amusing to see the popular media narrative that the Warriors had no hope of guarding Luka instantly obliterated. I'm sure he'll have better games, but clearly they do have ways of doing it.
good satisfying game to watch as a Warriors fan. let's hope they can keep it up thru all the adjustments ...
it seems unlikely that all the W's shooters will be hitting at once, but probably not necessary if they just play the right people at the right times like they did last night.
Missed a lot of wide open shots in the first half. I don't know how long they played the starters in game 7, but I would've thought they didn't play much in the 2nd half.
Yeah I have to imagine they will start hitting 3s, especially at home. Also Steph and Klay had an off night from 3 and they still were able to win big.
That's what they tend to do. I wouldn't pick UW over Cal either academically or athletically their program has kind of fallen on hard times in recent years plus who wants to work out in the rain all the time.
how does it work when your kid starts going to a Pac12 rival school? do you secondarily root for them? go to games during homecoming? wear some gear or make sure it is "UW Dad" so you are not fully implicated?
[MSOC] Cal adds Ricardo Gutierrez to the staff. Looks like a net new addition (along with Javier Ayala-Hil) as new HC Griffin expands coaching staff to six from four. Previous HC Grimes retired.
Gutierrez worked under Griffin at Griffin's last two jobs...I think/hope that Foulk who has been a Cal goalkeeper coach for the past 20 years and produced over a dozen pros will not be going anywhere.
If I had to guess, I would have thought Picnic was English somehow.
Crocodiles need better press agents. Most everyone is afraid of sharks but they typically kill less than a dozen people a year. Meanwhile crocs kill about 1,000 people per annum. That's not even close, crocodiles are far more dangerous to humans than sharks and they're a helluva lot uglier too.
Now do hippos
“The human mortality rate from hippopotamus attacks is unknown but it is estimated to range from 500 to 3000 per year,” the study says. “This estimate comes from a few non-medical published papers; we did not find data in the medical literature regarding fatality rates.”
They did reference an older study that found hippo attacks resulted in fatalities of 87% of victims, a rate that’s significantly higher than that of lions or leopards.
“The probability of being killed by a hippopotamus attack (case fatality rate) is thought to be in the range of 29 to 87%,” the authors of the Burundi study wrote. “This compares to a death rate following a grizzly bear attack of 4.8%, shark attack at 22.7% and crocodile attack at 25%”
More proof that the threat from sharks is vastly over-rated. They must have full time public relations team working for them.
They're already on shirts. What else can press agents do?
They also have shoes named after them.
I think the shirts and shoes are a way their rivals have trying to soften their image which should be a vicious killers who -- unlike sharks -- actually hunt humans.
Can they really be called "shoes" though? I do hate them.
How does this compare with alligators?
Only found stats for the U.S. where gators kill an average of one person a year. They're not nearly as deadly as their croc brethren.
The final answer to the least percentage obese states was MA.
Fattest: MS, WV, AL
Least: CO, MA, HI
I'm having a hard time squaring that with the number of Dunkin Donuts locations per square mile in MA
Agh, I was so close to getting that last one! Guessed Connecticut (which is fourth least obese).
Deablo fan account
@DeferredWalkOn
Men will literally sit around and name random sports players for two hours instead of going to therapy.
https://twitter.com/DeferredWalkOn/status/1522666203470340103
So true, give the DBD a random pro player. The goal is famous enough to be remembered but not famous enough to be a star
Arvydas Sabonis
Too famous for this list, in my opinion. He's all-world in Europe, and should've been an NBA all-star at least twice.
Rik Smits
I liked the late 90s Blazers team
Sarunas Marciulionis. Backup guard in the Warriors last TMC season + 3 more years, then got traded around to three more teams.
He connected the Grateful Dead to the Lithuanian national team. I had the Grateful Dead shirt the Lithuanian team wore at the '92 Olympics.
There is a Lithuanian krupnikas distillery here @ Durham. They have one of the those shirts signed by the team up on the wall. You can see the t-shirt in the background...
http://brothersvilgalys.com/dsc_0358/
Gawd, we've done this before with random Cal players...always too much fun.
For Pro.....Tom Rathman. He was also a state champion high jumper in high school.
Luc Longley. Center for the Bulls second three peat team.
The Aussie TV bio/documentary on him was great, came out right after the MJ series. Jordan had a small part and talked very highly of Longley.
Was he a superstar in Australia?
Kinda like how there's a lot of random Japanese players in MLB not named Ohtani or Ichiro that would make this list, but they are actually all superstars in Japan.
Was a young star in Australia with Andrew Vlahov (*cough*), and played on their Olympic team and in one of the Aussie leagues when 18-20. He went to college at New Mexico, and then to the NBA. He was a star in Australia mainly due to being associated with the Bulls/Jordan during their prime.
Were they around the same time as Andrew Gaze? I remember him from the run in March Madness he made with Seton Hall.
Gaze was just a bit older. He first played in the '84 Olympics, Longley in the '88 Olympics. Gaze's NCAA run was in 89, Longley in '91. They probably overlapped on some Aussie stuff in the early to mid 90's.
I need to find this and watch it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7VFL9cXTk
It's one hour long. Well worth the time.
Mickey Hatcher. Fastest World Series HR trot.
Memorial Day plans?
It is a day off for me, of course. But it also precedes four other days off.
Looking forward to NOT being at work from 4:00 PM on Friday, May 27 through 6:30 AM on Monday, June 6.
That is all.
Fun fact: From 1868 through 1970 Memorial Day was observed on May 30th regardless of what day of the week it fell on. Since '70 it's been on the last Monday of May which this year happens to be the 30th.
I remember those days. Some of them.
Another fun fact: Before Memorial Day was Memorial Day, it was known as Decoration Day. The name derives from decorating the graves of Civil War soldiers killed in the war and veterans.
Must have changed after WWI
This linked website - https://www.military.com/holidays/memorial-day/how-decoration-day-became-memorial-day.html - agrees with you. It specifically states that the name change happened with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was signed by LBJ in 1968. The bill did not go into effect until 1971.
Interestingly enough, though, the leaflet/flyer/whatever pictured at the top of the linked webpage notes Memorial Day and the date of May 30, 1917, which was right in the thick of the Great War, World War I.
EDIT: May 30, 1917 would have been a Wednesday by my calculations.
the just call it "Bank Holiday" in UK.
Specifically, "second May bank holiday"
Say what?
I SAID, WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIAL DAY PLANS?!
C'mon dude, use your indoor voice.
Sunday A's game (with tailgate). Early celebration for the lady friends bday and going away party for good friend and RF drummer Bryanne (our tailgate's Capt Malort). If you're in the Bay, come through.
overpriced plane tix to Nashville for long weekend. my wife shares a bday w/ her cousin who lives there and we have not yet seen a few new babies during coronavirus times ...
I need nothing more than the soothing realization on Sunday that my jimmies can remain unrustled for another 24 hours
Try to name as many of the CFL's nine current mascots as possible. Hint: one of them changed names within the last year.
Apropos: The three Cal players that are currently on CFL rosters: Marloshawn Franklin, Kenny Lawler, and Traveon Beck. Lawler lead the league in receiving yards last season.
Redblacks is one of them (and one that has not been mentioned yet)...I couldn't pull their name playing online trivia at one point in this past year
🟩
thats what Ottawa's new name is... the Redblacks
Lions, Alouettes, Rough Riders (x2), Stampeders, Eskimos, Argonauts, Tiger Cats
Go Alouettes! My Nephew is on their active roster this year!
🟩🟩🟩🟨🟩🟨🟩🟩. The two yellows changed their names.
Oh no, not the Eskimos!
I looked it up. Yeah, huh...
I assume this is similar to the Cleveland Indians name change, not wanting to have the displaced native peoples serving as a mascot.
🟩
So y'all got all them except the newly named Edmonton Elks. Tiger-Cats, Alouettes, Redblacks (fka Rough Riders), Argonauts, Lions, Stampeders, Elks, Roughriders, Blue Bombers.
The Ottawa Rough Riders and the Redblacks actually both existed at once, but the Rough Riders went away as the expansion Redblacks got rolling. (Interesting to think there was a distinction between Rough Riders and Roughriders. But then Eskimos had to be morphed into Elks.
Totally forgot about Winnipeg. But then most people do.
Stampeders, Eskimos, didnt Ottawa change to the Warhawks or something?
🟩🟨🟨
Redhawks maybe
🟨
Tigersharks
⬜
roughriders, tigercats, lions, alouettes
🟩🟩🟩🟩
Blue Bombers?
🟩
PICNIC
, Lightning. Poetry book by Billy Collins, an easy, accessible read. Title is a Lolita reference.
I have a tenant named Lolita. Maybe her parents didn't know?
... ham. It's the lower front shoulder of the pig. It is the cut above the front legs (hocks) and below the top half (butt). Pig walk on their legs, so the meat is tougher than the more prized butt and has a higher percentage of bone - so it's a cheap cut. But it comes with a lot of fat/flavor, so it's great when cooked low and slow.
Apropos: pork cuts have misleading labels. The "loin" is the top-middle-third. The "butt" is the top shoulder. The "leg" or "ham" is the whole back third and usually doesn't include most of the back legs/"hocks". Also, ham isn't necessarily made of "ham".
baskets and Yogi Bear, who is smarter than the average bear!
DBD AV CLUB
Barry (HBO) renewed for season 4
https://www.thewrap.com/barry-season-4-renewed-hbo-bill-hader/
Watching The Flight Attendant on HBOMax. The first season was silly fun and had enough of the suspense angle to make it interesting. The second season is over-the-top ridiculous, and it's self aware of how ridiculous it is. Still, highly enjoying it once I let go that the suspense/crime angle was definitely not a priority of the scriptwriters.
The Staircase....that's a weird dude.
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
UC Davis students vote to change mascot from Gunrock the Mustang to Aggie the Cow, embrace agricultural school identity
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Davis-mustang-mascot-replaced-17179946.php
Jordan Addison to USC, as expected...rumored to be getting an NIL deal north of $2 million per season and a house in LA. Good for Addison, bad for pretty much EVERYONE else on the planet.
I'm pro-NIL, but it's pretty much just helping the same teams that were paying kids to begin with.
Nick Saban sets off a tempest in a tea-cup.
https://twitter.com/RCorySmith/status/1527120957793619968
half of what he said is kinda true but Alabama didn't pay anyone? Hahahahahaha
tOSU's Ryan Day gets $9.5m/year two-year extension through 2028
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33939130/ohio-state-extend-ryan-day-contract-two-years-2028-95-million-annually
PRO
Game #40: A’s throttled by Twins in series finale 14-4
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2022/5/18/23125715/game-40-as-lose-twins-finale
Oakland had no answer for the Minnesota Twins today, losing by a final of 14-4 in the final regular-season game against these guys.
The pitching couldn’t hold down the Twins lineup this afternoon, walking 10 batters and giving up 14 total hits. Most of the damage was done against just two pitchers, but it was so out of hand that Oakland turned to a position player to save the bullpen, allowing Minnesota to add on in the ninth and making the final score look even worse.
The lineup showed more signs of coming out of their slump, collecting 12 hits of their own, but no where near enough to keep up with Minnesota today. At least there’s an off day for the team tomorrow.
Justin Turner home run keys Dodgers 4-game sweep of Diamondbacks
https://www.truebluela.com/2022/5/18/23125855/justin-turner-home-run-dodgers-sweep-diamondbacks
The Dodgers finished off the first leg of their schedule gauntlet on a high note, finishing off a sweep of the Diamondbacks with a 5-3 win on Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
One out away from getting swept in a four-game series at home to the Phillies for the first time in 37 years, the Dodgers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on Sunday, then turned the tables on Arizona, delivering their second four-game home sweep of the Diamondbacks in 25 seasons. The other Los Angeles home sweep of Arizona over four games came last season, also in May.
The Dodgers head into their off day having gone 9-5 over the previous twelve days, including two doubleheader sweeps.
Ketel Marte gets jammed on an rbi single, misses 2 games.
Major League Baseball players should not be missing multiple games after getting jammed on rbi singles. D'backs gave him big money...no wonder D'backs are bad.
Mets continue to Mets. Scherzer pulls himself out of a game, apparently injured
https://twitter.com/SNYtv/status/1527099748431368193
The good news is that it isn't his arm. I think it's something on the left side.
6-8 weeks with an oblique....
ouch. Mets gonna Mets.
Rockies first-base dugout reporter Kelsey Wingert got beaned by a foul ball on Monday. She got a nasty cut from hairline to center forehead requiring. She also got a broken eyesocket four years ago by a different foul ball when she covered the Braves. She updated fans yesterday. She's okay, but that's going to leave a scar.
https://twitter.com/KelsWingert/status/1527034396938604544
She should switch to Nuggets games.
Crazy that a ball got her again. I know it's part of her job to not look at the field and try to find interesting things happening in the dugout, but then the TV team needs to hire someone to catch/shield balls while she's doing her job.
Bad Idea
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1526688213913505792
Bad Idea Jeans. great SNL commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGfBEnBw01A&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
When's the next time I'm gonna be in Haiti....
That's exactly the line I always think of when I think of this commercial.
Giants' streak vs. Rockies ends as relievers surrender Logan Webb's lead in the bottom of the 8th.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354804
BREAKING NEWS: late-game 1 run lead in Colorado means nothing
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/5/18/23126130/mlb-recap-san-francisco-giants-colorado-rockies
Three runs is never enough in Denver. The San Francisco Giants’s 12 game win streak over the Colorado Rockies was snapped in Wednesday’s 5 - 3 loss.
The Rockies hung 2 quick runs on starter Logan Webb in the first with Charlie Blackmon homering and Ryan McMahon scoring on a two-out Brendan Rogers double. But Giants bats quickly responded in the top of the 2nd with a hit by pitch and a double that put Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada at 2nd and 3rd.
After Joey Bart lined out, Mike Yastrzemski dropped the needle on a sinker middle-in from Kyle Freeland, singling to bring in Crawford, before Austin Slater hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Estrada.
Coors Field is Coors Field.
Warriors blow out Mavs 112-87 in game 1.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33942189/the-revolutionary-golden-state-warriors-defeated-luka-doncic-dallas-mavericks-embracing-old-school-ball
We def looked great but let’s not let our heads get too big. If they get a split going back to Dallas we’ll be in trouble
It's a good matchup for the W's...getting past their kryptonite Memphis Grizzlies was huge. W's in 6....
GREAT strategy against Luca. Now the chess match begins, because you know Luca will figure out a way to go off...hopefully it won't be in SF. Have to win home games against this team, I think, and hope to get one in Dallas.
I do worry that the Ws haven't been playing their bench guys as much in the last couple games.
It was pretty amusing to see the popular media narrative that the Warriors had no hope of guarding Luka instantly obliterated. I'm sure he'll have better games, but clearly they do have ways of doing it.
good satisfying game to watch as a Warriors fan. let's hope they can keep it up thru all the adjustments ...
it seems unlikely that all the W's shooters will be hitting at once, but probably not necessary if they just play the right people at the right times like they did last night.
The Mavs also had a horrible shooting night, and not all of their shot selection was bad. You have to figure they'll make more than that next time.
Missed a lot of wide open shots in the first half. I don't know how long they played the starters in game 7, but I would've thought they didn't play much in the 2nd half.
Yeah I have to imagine they will start hitting 3s, especially at home. Also Steph and Klay had an off night from 3 and they still were able to win big.
Nah they did, at least into mid-4th IIRC
Pretty much obliterated the Mavs.
CAL
getting their lunch money took. Rashid Williams commits to UW
Uggh...he was predicted to come our way. Stupid 17-year olds toying with my heart again.
That's what they tend to do. I wouldn't pick UW over Cal either academically or athletically their program has kind of fallen on hard times in recent years plus who wants to work out in the rain all the time.
how does it work when your kid starts going to a Pac12 rival school? do you secondarily root for them? go to games during homecoming? wear some gear or make sure it is "UW Dad" so you are not fully implicated?
you disown them
maybe that way she can pay in-state tuition as well
If you disown her maybe she can get some need based financial aid since she'll be on her own.
Go Bears!!!
[MSOC] Cal adds Ricardo Gutierrez to the staff. Looks like a net new addition (along with Javier Ayala-Hil) as new HC Griffin expands coaching staff to six from four. Previous HC Grimes retired.
https://calbears.com/news/2022/5/18/mens-soccer-ricardo-gutierrez-joins-mens-soccer-staff.aspx
Gutierrez worked under Griffin at Griffin's last two jobs...I think/hope that Foulk who has been a Cal goalkeeper coach for the past 20 years and produced over a dozen pros will not be going anywhere.