150 Comments

Elon "Salt of the Earth" Musk, allegedly requiring everyone to come back in to the office.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Elon-Musk-makes-Tesla-ultimatum-17212758.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-Editors-Picks

Expand full comment

It will be interesting to see how employees respond and whether there is a difference between CA and TX employees.

If there ever was a guy who was convinced that his shit didn’t stink, Elon would be that guy.

Expand full comment
author

Degas

Expand full comment

Anyone actually drink Absinthe?

Expand full comment

I like it, both as a cocktail ingredient and with an ice water drip through sugar so it louches. Pricey, but I suspect my current bottle will last me another decade.

Expand full comment

So Abisinthe is not worth the time/money for the taste or the hallucinogenic effect. Too bad. I was looking to diversify. Sounds like I am better off sticking to Tequila.

Expand full comment

Yes, in Prague. The cheap stuff is generally a lighter/brighter green and resembles green Listerine.

The better stuff and more expensive stuff is usually a darker green.

I don’t really care for the flavor of anise so I’m not a huge fan of it.

Expand full comment

I had it once just to see if it had any effect, nothing really noticeable in terms of hallucinations.

Expand full comment

Same here, but I don’t think absinthe today is the same as it was in 19th Century. I don’t think it is made with wormwood anymore

Expand full comment
author

I had some absinthe in the US - where wormwood is prohibited - and also some in the Czech Republic, where wormwood is still allowed. I just had one drink in Prague, so it didn't really haven't any effect. And it wasn't delicious enough to want another.

Expand full comment

It is fairly gross. Honestly I think the hallucination stuff is just the placebo effect plus the fact that it is like 150 proof.

Expand full comment

Any good?

Expand full comment

It's fine, it's not a million miles off ouzo or Turkish raki. I have some in the house, but only to rinse the glass for sazeracs. Which I haven't made in ages.

Expand full comment

same

Expand full comment

eh, not much to my taste, and I'm generally not a cocktail guy.

Expand full comment

You are more of a master of the fermented grape.

Expand full comment

I believe we saw this one in person back in 2019. Musee dOrsay was definitely a highlight of our trip

Expand full comment

Happy birthday to Cal alum Jerry Mathers, better known to the world as Beaver Cleaver. I understand that in his school daze he hung out at Kip's.

Expand full comment

TIL...

Always thought he went to Oregon State.

Expand full comment

Really hoping I'd get a PQTM from this ;-)

Expand full comment

Do'h!

Expand full comment

I'll take that!

Expand full comment

i have seen the first 20 min of most Leave It to Beaver episodes but dont know how any of them end.

in HS (Moraga), we had an open campus and would go home for lunch and watch LITB almost everyday at the 1200p time slot. but since class started at 1225p, we all had to leave by 1220p and miss the ending.

Expand full comment

btw, what happened after 20 minutes each time to cause you to stop watching? something like the show was 1000 to 1030, and you had to leave for swim class at 1022?

Expand full comment
author

"Oh stewardess, I speak jive."

Expand full comment

That was Florence Henderson (Brady), not Barbara Billingsley (Cleaver), iirc

Expand full comment

It was Barbara Billingsley

https://youtu.be/g0j2dVuhr6s?t=71

Expand full comment

egg meet face! can't believe I got that wrong!

Expand full comment

I wonder when the open campus at Campo ended. My sister started in 97 and I in 2000 and it was closed with two campus security guards for all seven of our years there. They weren't very good though and if you knew their routes could pretty easily sneak off campus during lunch and have an adrenaline filled meal in Rheem hoping the cops didn't come into the same fast food restaurant you were in.

Expand full comment

I remember during schoolwide assemblies we would scream our class. So mine would yell 88. We always joked that the class of 2000 would have to yell ZERO-ZERO.

Expand full comment

actually it ended during our time there. so i would say 1987 or so.

fresh-soph we had open campus, jr-sr we did not.

Expand full comment

they also got rid of the block scheduling we used to have around then because they passed some law saying you had to have 6 class periods/day.

with block scheduling we had 7 periods on MF, and only 5 periods on TWT but much longer blocks. i sort of liked it ...

Expand full comment

I remember JM had rotating blocks, so I think periods 1, 6, 7, 8 (I think 6-8 were after lunch) would rotate each day so we'd peek into the office to see what day it was if we forgot. Usually on Mondays. Whichever day it was was the first period and the others were after lunch. So 7 day went 7-2-3-4-5-lunch-8-1-6.

Expand full comment

That last five minutes is when all the sex, drugs and violence --- and gratuitous nudity -- took place.

Expand full comment
Jun 2, 2022Liked by SGBear

you mean "ward being a little hard on the beaver"?

[sorry...a "clever" joke from when i was in like 5th grade]

Expand full comment

I remember it in Revenge of the Nerds.

Expand full comment

prob that also...my generation was very clever that way

Expand full comment

pqtm - gee I don't remember that!

Expand full comment

Worldle

everyone should get this one on the first guess

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

Expand full comment

Very weird. I don't play very often and when I clicked on the link it was not obvious. I played and didn't get it. It was Uganda. After reading the comments below I went back and clicked on the link and sure enough it was obvious.

Expand full comment

Uganda was a few days ago???

Expand full comment

It must get messed up if you don't play regularly. What was also strange was that since I guessed the U.S. as my last guess for Uganda (after going back to look at the comments first), when I clicked the link to start over it showed the U.S. map but also showed my earlier guesses and showed the U.S. as wrong.

Expand full comment

Even Cugel!

Expand full comment

After playing Worldle for a few months and now seeing this silhouette, this may be the first where the lands are not continuous and it's not an island.

Expand full comment
author

Croatia. Follow the country down the panhandle. Zoom in. There is a tiny stretch of Bosnian land all the way to the sea. Then it's Croatia again.

Expand full comment

Okay that one is something I had in mind.

Expand full comment
author

Turkey

Expand full comment

"Island" was a poor word choice. I meant to say non-continuous land "not separated by water"

Now if I were Bob, that previous comment would now be "deleted"

Expand full comment

Old West Germany. But yeah you don’t see that often

Expand full comment
author

Oh, if we're doing recent history - then old Pakistan when East Bengal (current day Bangladesh) was a Pakistani province.

Expand full comment
Jun 2, 2022Liked by SGBear

Malaysia

Expand full comment

Malaysia appears to be separated by water.

Expand full comment

I thikn one of the Yugoslavia splinter countries has a bit that's non-contiguous.

Could also include Spain (Ceuta on tip of Africa). which doesn't include Gibraltar (which is on the tip of Spain). And I just learned is not an island?!?

Expand full comment

I was genuinely surprised to learn that when I did, which was not all that long ago

Expand full comment

I guess I used the wrong word by saying "island" What I tried to say was pieces of land that's split apart, but not separated by water.

Expand full comment

Depending on how you view Palestine, they would qualify. Also, many Native American nations also would qualify.

Expand full comment

that's what I figured. I thought that India also had that...but maybe it's just a narrow strip of land that connects them?

Expand full comment

There is a narrow strip.

Expand full comment

Russia has a non contiguous piece of land on the Baltic Sea, tucked between Poland and Lithuania.

Expand full comment

As a result of stealing land from Germany & Poland at the end of WWII.

Expand full comment

hot take: but is it "stealing" if you won?

I think of the controversy over the Kuril Islands between Japan and Russia. Russia one, so they get to take some stuff.

Sinai peninsula.

It's how lot of the US is here.

Expand full comment

100% with Poland, remember that happened in 1939 when USSR & Germany split Poland - it's hard to be sympathetic to the Germans because of the whole Nazi thing, but millions of Germans were forced off lands they had inhabited for centuries in 1945. Britain, France & US didn't "take" anything.

Expand full comment

Okay, now Russia qualifies as a country I was trying to explain.

Expand full comment

Yeah, I figured you meant non contiguous country separated by another country and not divided by water.

Expand full comment
Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022

Russia's definitely been an answer at one point too.

Argentina very nearly qualifies- Tierra del Fuego is an island but you wouldn't know it by looking at Argentina's borders.

Expand full comment

What is MAGAmerica

Expand full comment

I'm stumped. Is it the country variously known as South Canada or North Mexico?

Expand full comment

If you guess "America", you will make 100s of millions of people mad

Expand full comment
author

Under Armour

Expand full comment
author

They are dead to me. I am boycotting them and look forward to buying a pile of new merch once a new apparel partner is signed.

Expand full comment

I suspect Cal is going to force UA to either buy us out or continue to the end of the contract

Expand full comment

recently i ordered a gift card as a present but they insisted on send it in the mail. no electronic version was available

Expand full comment
author

Elsewhere in college

Expand full comment
author

ICYMI: USC's Bru McCoy transferred to TENN in May to play for the Vols. USC->UT->USC->UT. He graduated high school in 2019, sat in 2019 due to the transfer rules, played in 6 games of the 2020 Covid season, sat in 2021 due to domestic violence charges. He's effectively a 21 year old redshirt sophomore.

Expand full comment

Considering he already sat a year due to transfer rules, wonder if the NCAA will grant (or already has granted) a waiver to allow him to play immediately.

Devin Askew's waiver to play at Cal this season after his 2nd transfer in 2 years figures to be denied.

Expand full comment
author

Cafe

Expand full comment

and bikes .. are a good combo

one of my favorites is the Rapha Clubhouse in NYC. they have great food and coffee and encourage you to linger for a while by showing live bike races. during the Grand Tours i end up there at least a couple times to watch pivotal stages w/ other people who are also into it.

https://www.rapha.cc/us/en_US/clubhouses/cafes

Expand full comment
author

DBD AV Club

Expand full comment

Saw Tears for Fears and Garbage in Concord last night. TfF was almost shockingly good -- voices in incredible shape for a couple of old dudes. They put on a really good show. Garbage was fine, whatever.

Expand full comment

That's awesome! My coworker was volunteering at the show, and she FaceTimed me during the TfF sound check so I could listen a bit. Very cool!

Expand full comment

TFF goes back to high school days. One of my girlfriends later on said Roland Orzabal gave her a backstage pass, not sure where it led...

Expand full comment

They look really old now, I agree.

Expand full comment
author

Top Gun: Maverick. I took Terence's advice and went to the loudest IMAX I could find. It is an instant classic summer flick. All action. No disappointment. Tom Cruise at his Cruisiest. Riding on a motorcycle with no helmet? Sprinting oddly upright with your hands chopping by your side? Tons of practical effects so Tom Cruise can get his adrenaline fix? Check, check, and check. (19/19 for what it is. WB)

Expand full comment

was this deep exploration of Tom Cruise's running form posted here? https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/33966556/tom-cruise-running-top-gun-maverick

Expand full comment

I've got tickets for the AMC Metreon in SF at 11:30 AM. Heard it's one of the best IMAX theaters so going to take BART in. I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Expand full comment

Saw penultimate S1 ep of Shining Girls last night...really good show. finale is tonight, but not sure if I'll have time to watch after Dubs game. Espec if they win, and I end up watching post-game, reading stuff, etc. If they lose, will prob have time to watch E8. Needless to say, I hope that I don't!

Expand full comment

Apparently Kate Bush is trending because her song was in Stranger Things 4

Expand full comment
author

Kate Bush's album "The Whole Story" had such an impact on me when it came out in '86. It made this midwestern teenager want to go the the English coast and belt out "Let me have it, let me grab your soul away."

Expand full comment

I finished We Own This City, while I really liked it the series, it is so depressing and I have so many thoughts about that series and society.

Expand full comment

Went to see Jack White at the YouTube Theater on Tuesday night. He was as expected amazing. 19/19 WB. Fantastic on the guitar, knows how to play to the crowd and had a fantastic backing band with one of the most captivating drummers I've ever seen. All his shows are Yonder bag shows, so there isn't much social media content about the tour.

The venue is in the sparkling Sofi complex, it definitely has a corporate vibe but is very efficient for the crowd and has great food options inside and out (food trucks in the plaza), but my god is it expensive, e.g. $9 slice of pizza and $25 chicken tenders. The theater itself has great acoustics and there doesn't appear to be a bad seat in the house, though we were on the floor and didn't go upstairs to the expansive balcony.

Expand full comment
author
Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022Author

Tenet (9/19 HBO WNB). This is Christopher Nolan's "Attack of the Clones" where one person decides to write, direct, and produce a movie - and nobody can tell him "eh, that's not a good idea." So Christopher Nolan dials the Nolanity to 11, which means it involves time, physics, and alternate universes. Lots and lots of lots of it. The movie literally goes forwards and backwards. So it's super jumpy in its editing. He spends a ton of time trying to explain what will happen, what is happening, what happened, and why things didn't happen. Lots of action, lots of dialogue, but not a lot of story - an arc that you can follow, have a conflict that you're not sure can be resolved, and be relieved when it is. I also never thought I'd see the day that Robert Pattinson out acted Kenneth Branagh.

Expand full comment

this was a horrible movie

Expand full comment
Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022

Well, I'm glad I missed this one then - really liked Memento and Insomnia.

Expand full comment

Basically all the nagging issues I'd had with Christopher Nolan movies over the years (while still liking them, generally) came to a head in this one. Gave in to all his worst tendencies.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

What are your top 5 All Vibes, Feel It, Don’t Try to Understand It movies?

Expand full comment
author

Spirited Away

2001: A Space Odyssey

Brazil - but pretty much any movie made by Terry Gilliam

The Killer (John Woo)

Amelie

Expand full comment

Some good choices there, but Brazil? I would say that one is too on point.

Expand full comment

2001 is also pretty easily understandable if you've read the book.

Expand full comment

Tron: Legacy

The Fountain

Speed racer

Expand full comment

I can think of a couple: Days of Heaven, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Very much so.

Expand full comment
Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022

Stumbled upon Jason Bateman's directorial debut on HBO while channel surfing - Bad Words (2013). Had never even heard of it....picked it up about 15 minutes in, and found it surprisingly funny and enjoyable, if not a little dark and certainly raunchy. Bateman, Philip Baker Hall (Library Officer Bookman from Seinfeld), Katherine Hahn, Ed Helms' fiancee Melissa from Hangover, and I think one of the ladies from Europe's Final Countdown GEICO ad...Bateman plays a surly but brilliant Guy Trilby that finds a loophole and enters a prestigious National Spelling Bee and goes head to head with the kids...definitely R-rated, but had plenty of laughs and some redeeming qualities.

Expand full comment

i enjoyed that much more than I expected to

Expand full comment

it's super funny!...and you forgot CJ from the West Wing.

Expand full comment

Oh ya, Allison Janney - she was good too. And Rohan Chand was great!

Expand full comment

Rohan Chand, the kid, is absolutely excellent in it opposite Bateman. His biggest role since has unfortunately only been Netflix's 2018 Jungle Book movie.

Expand full comment
author

Rick & Morty (S5, 19/19 WB HBO). It is one of the finest animated series ever made, but I can see how that opinion will vary wildly. It's a nerd's cartoon. It's the opposite of a sitcom. It's the anti-Simpsons. Standard cartoons are about creating characters who are narrowly defined, putting them into situations, and then having them react to character with quick developing puns.

Rick & Morty is about a family - whose characters shift and evolve over time based on the adventures of the past episodes. You can't watch the show out of order. And the humor is much more subtle high-concept humor. It's the absurdity of a situation even existing, not witty word play. It's the weirdo combination of brutality/vulgarity/cynicism + science-fiction in pop culture. That's my wheelhouse.

Expand full comment

I should like this. watched the first one or two eps and quit

Expand full comment
author

OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

Expand full comment
author

How's Lin Wood doing these days? Things are not going well, thanks for asking.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/pro-trump-lawyer-lin-wood-loses-appeal-seeking-to-block-georgia-bars-mental-health-probe/

Expand full comment

Pa. GOP gubernatorial nominee shares documents with Jan. 6 panel, agrees to interview

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/02/mastriano-jan-6-panel-subpoena-00036468

Expand full comment
author

PRO

Expand full comment

https://www.si.com/nba/2022/06/02/jeff-van-gundy-adrian-wojnarowski-out-game-1-nba-finals-celtics-warriors

My son called this out during the last game he called, Van Gundy sounded hella sick.

Expand full comment

two-man crew tonight? or a replacement? I can do without JVG...I'm good with SVG, tho

Expand full comment

I would guess a two-man crew. Though what is Mark Jackson going to do without JVG? They're great when they banter back and forth about something that isn't the game.

I'd love for a team to hire them a co-head coaches and mic them up.

Expand full comment

your definition of Great is one with which I am not familiar.

I'd guess/hope that MJ would talk about the game, and not the sandwich JVG ate in 1985.

Expand full comment

Well I guess I'd also say Walton is a great color guy so...

Expand full comment

he meanders, but he's unique. JVG's meandering is generally inane

Expand full comment

Mike Breen, the play by play guy with JVG and Mark Jackson, missed game 7 so I'm assuming it went from Breen to JVG.

Expand full comment

Game 1 of The Finals tonight in SF. Predictions seem to swing all over the place. Most pundits in the media believe the Warriors in 6 or 7, even a handful of Boston ones, while stat based predictions from ESPN to Five Thirty Eight all have Boston as anywhere from a 60-80% favorite. OPJ is the most likely to return first and may be available tonight, GPII and Andre are now listed as questionable and participating in practice with limited contact.

Expand full comment

rooting for Warriors, but it seems that it would be a smart bet to take the Celtics if markets are discounting them compared to 538-style analytics.

Expand full comment

As a Lakers fan, I will be rooting for the Dubs to win and Jaylen to get a triple double.

Expand full comment

538 models always seem to be anti-Warriors, based on scheme and turnovers...Celtics definitely could win this series, tho they have a puzzling penchant for completely disappearing at times...consistently. Can't do that with the Warriors...that Miami team could hardly shoot straight, yet they took them to Game 7.

Should be a good series, and with Tatum, the Celts are definitely capable of pulling a Toronto Raptors on the GSW's...still, a rested Warriors with 1. anything from Wiggins; and, 2. a somewhat sane Draymond Green, should win....

Expand full comment

The betting seems to favorite the Celtics, so I don't know if you'd get good odds. I'll be working during games 2-4 and if necessary 6-7, so I'm excited to watch tonight

Expand full comment

Dodgers swept by scrappy Pirates team that seemed way overmatched on paper.

Expand full comment

horrible series. Pirates can hit the fastball. All but 1 HR was on a fastball. Karros pointed out that when the Pirates pitchers missed location it was out of the zone but when the Dodgers pitchers missed location, it was middle/middle. Just throw them a breaking pitch, and don't hang it. That was the other HR.

Expand full comment
author
Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022Author

Here's a stat that sounds to weird. The Reds won their first game at Fenway Park since 1975

https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=401354969

Expand full comment
author

Donaldson confused and hurt why people don't support him and his racist comments

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34021377/josh-donaldson-upset-new-york-yankees-publicly-support-spat-tim-anderson

Expand full comment
author

[SF Giants] It was bound to happen eventually. LH reliever Jarlin Garcia had appeared in 17 games this season with an ERA of zero. This game, he faced five Philly batters, allowing 2 singles, 2 HR, 1 passed ball that advanced a runner, and blew a five-run Giants rally in the top of the inning. The Giants went quietly thereafter and lost 6-5

https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=401354993

Expand full comment
author

CAL

Expand full comment

Yesterday I here posed the question: who is the most mediocre QB in your Cal viewing experience. Today I ask: who is the Cal head football who would be dead center if you ranked them all (starting in 1915 when Cal permanently switched to football). I didn't include the four coaches who spent three or less years on the job (Schaeffer, Shaw, Wickhorst, Elliot and Mariucci). That left sixteen. In the upper tier were Smith, Price, Allison, Waldorf, White, Snyder and Tedford. In the lower tier, Levy, Willsey, Theder, Kapp, Gilbertson, Holmoe and Dykes. Seven in each tier. That left two, Bill Ingrham and Justin Wilcox. Ingram coached four seasons, the first three with winning records. Wilcox has coached four full seasons and has exactly as many wins as losses. Even if one counts the Covid year of 2020 I think Wilcox is currently dead center in the rankings of Cal football coaches. Of course as he still on the job he can still rise to the upper tier or sink to the lower one. (The methodology I used to determining who's in what tier is available upon request).

Expand full comment
author

I'm not going back into history that far as I wasn't there, so I don't know them apart from what I've read. I'll just do the ones I was there for. There's been 10 and #5 is Mooch. Mooch knew his stuff backward and forward and could easily have been top tier HC for Cal if he had stayed, but he didn't.

Tedford

Snyder

White

Dykes

Mariucci

Wilcox

Gilbertson

Theder

Holmoe

Kapp

Expand full comment

I think your top two should be reversed, Snyder had the better arc and was hired away; Tedford started out great, but then lost his way, and also I think he deserves the majority of the blame for the 2013 season.

Expand full comment

I would move Dykes down below Mooch and Wilcox, mostly because I do hold that disastrous 1-11 season against him.

Expand full comment

That 1-11 season was baked in before Dykes was hired and would have happened under Tedford or any other coach.

Expand full comment

Holmoe ahead of Kapp is a head-scratcher. Kapp had a winning record in Big Games and unlike Holmoe managed a winning season and one at .500. I didn't include Mooch because with just one season he earned an incomplete. For the record I only go as far back as Levy and relied on the historical record.

Expand full comment
author

I attended five years of Cal football camps over seven years, so had many summers of working under Kapp and Snyder. Kapp is a top notch Golden Bear backer, a legendary player/alumnus, a good man, and a coach who won some great Big Games. But Kapp had never coached at any level before being hired as HC at Cal and it showed. His coaching was long on speeches and leaving everything to his assistants. Kapp won more frequently with good talent and great assistants. Holmoe lost more with mediocre assistants and worse talent pool. If I were to take two teams of clones, one with a team of Kapp-clones as coaches and one with Holmoe-clones as coaches, I'm going with Holmoe.

Expand full comment

I beg to differ about the talent. After Holmoe left Tedford was able to win immediately with the players he left behind. Contrarily Snyder needed three years to rebuild with what Kapp left.

Expand full comment

Go Bears!!!

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Yes

Expand full comment