just getting around to watching. picks up where i leaves off w/ war and dragons. i find that the characters were a little less compelling than GOT, so i had lost track of the naunces of the minor players
From Reddit: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was about a spy from 1969 who was defrosted in a time of need to fight Doctor Evil. The high-level joke was that he was wildly out of touch due to the passage of time. Well, dear readers, it is now a longer period of time since that movie than the period of time that he was canonically frozen.
Is it political to say that I'm sick and tired of restaurateurs expressing their anxiety in opposition to the death of junk fees?
Just roll it into the cost of your menu items. While you're at it, absorb the cost of paying your staff a living wage into your menu items and kill tipping. I understand that tipping waitstaff at restaurants is not a thing in Europe.
You could even extrapolate that concept to sales tax. When a consumer picks something off the shelf, the price paid at the register is the price of the good on the shelf. It would be up to the merchant to pay sales tax to the taxing authority (local government, state, feds, whomever) from the sale of the item.
Thank you! YES! It's like loan papers have to disclose all costs.
The way it is, now, it's a shell game.
Another thing that ticks me off is automatically asking us for tips for counter service. Counter service is not a tipped wage position. Maybe you like your barista, maybe they do something special that you like, great, stuff the tip jar, if that's to your liking. Don't expect me to do the same, though.
I really try to tip people whose jobs don't pay very well on its own and are busting their hump to serve customers. There's plenty of folks like that.
But I resent the position it puts the consumer of helping the worker to make ends meet by tipping. Restaurant owners should just pay their staff a living wage and the law should reflect that as well. It's why I voted against Prop 22. It's why I support the $20 minimum wage in California. People should be paid as if they are human beings deserving of support for their labor and contributions.
I tip heavy freight delivery, especially if they go above and beyond. But, as for California, tipped servers are taxed an extra 8% on presumed tips, so, in the 1970s, I was told a 5% is for bad service, 10% for okay to good, and 15% for exceptional service. Now, the tipping practices from other states, such as a default 15%, where the food servers are paid far below minimum wage, has permeated into not only our California tipped service, but, as well, counter service, which is paid full wage.
BTW- I was just at a Burger King and asked the server if the $20 wage was for real. She said, "Yes, but they cut back our hours." Hmmm.
i am somewhat the opposite, but speaking from a bit of privilege. i was lucky to get a great education and have an great paying job that does not require me to be on my feet.
given the lack of all the above mentioned things, living wage, health care, child care, etc ... my take is that tips for Starbucks people. waitstaff, really anyone is something of a tax that i am perfectly happy and willing to pay. even tipping $2 for a $5 latte is in no way going to change my financial future. on the other hand i bet it is a lot more meaningful to the recipient.
i dont even care if it is crappy service. i still usually tip excessively these days.
i think the same of resort fees at hotels. you dont have a choice so roll it into the price of the room. on the other hand i get that they are competing w/ other hotels on the room rate so they might as well trick you the best they can.
also, i am sure there are some rules about these resort fees which are to the benefit of some and not others.
i think in the end it comes down to the ultra-capitalist version we have in the US. the consumer pays what they are willing to pay, the provider charges the most they can charge and these opaque things like sales tax, resort fees, tips, etc are just adding to the confusion.
clearly some places have gotten the message. airline tickets and gas and even airbnb offer an all-in price.
It seemed like in Key West they had mandatory resort fees, even if you didn't want to use the "resort". They weren't listed in the searches so you find a reasonably priced hotel, and then BOOM, $100 resort fee.
WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a British prison and on his way to a remote Pacific island on Tuesday where he will plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, according to court documents.
I really don’t understand this whole thing. The first two years I worked in DC I had temporary assignments on Guam. While there I had a couple day assignments to Saipan in the Northern Marianas. How the hell the CNMI have any relation to this case is beyond me. Maybe one of the attorneys here can explain why they’re doing it this way.
I volunteered at Raleigh Pride Day with Human Rights Campaign, which is America's largest LGBTQ advocacy group. I was giving out free dad hugs and selling t-shirts. My pitch included that actually, we weren't selling t-shirts, you donate for your own advocacy and get a free t-shirt and that everyone needed to vote. The amount of young LGBTQ adults who said they weren't going to vote for Biden because of Gaza was, frankly, unbelievably common.
It occurs to me that for Hamas, this is all playing out perfectly. Because of the reaction to 10/7 and ensuing spotlight on Israel, the entire world except for parts of America and France now views Israel as an evil ethno-state on par with apartheid South Africa. Hamas has zero incentive for this war to end. They are winning! And none of their allies are putting pressure on them to come to the table in the way that we pressure Israel to come to the table. Meanwhile in Israel it would be a political death sentence to unilaterally withdraw and not get the hostages back at least. So, it seems unlikely the war will end anytime soon, just based on the political realities on each side.
Being young and stupid takes many forms. I bet most of those folks come from privileged backgrounds, too. College aged and 20-somethings are most prone to this nonsense.
Good thing the election is not all about turnout….. oh wait!
Man, like 5-10 years ago, when Greta Thunberg was stumping on the environment and the Parkland kids were stumping on gun control, I thought Gen Z really had things figured out really well. But man, falling into the dichotomous thinking trap on the Gaza War and especially becoming single issue voters (or non voters I guess) over it is a real head slapper. A true boner for the ages if it ends up affecting the result. I guess the kids are just as dumb as kids always have been. Oh well!
Shades of 2000. Any butterfly ballots to further inflame the likely circumstances and are there Brooks Brothers clad GOP lawyers waiting to stampede a county registrar's office?
They don’t dress up as much anymore, but yeah I’m sure the GOP voter intimidation bros will be out in force come election time. Strange bedfellows of the Gaza protestors who will surely clog the streets of Chicago during the Dem Convention
i was trying to use ChatGPT in a fun way for a talk when i realized that it is GARBAGE!!
me: which university has parking spot for nobel laureates
ChatGPT: Stanford University is known for having designated parking spots for Nobel laureates. This unique tradition honors the achievements of Nobel Prize-winning faculty members by providing them with their own reserved parking spots on campus.
me: isnt it Berkeley?
ChatGPT: Yes, you are correct. The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) has designated parking spots for Nobel laureates. This tradition honors the numerous Nobel Prize-winning faculty members associated with the university by providing them with reserved parking spaces on campus.
EUGENE, Ore. – California women's track and field volunteer assistant coach Elena Bruckner advanced to the finals of the women's discus with her performance in the event's first round at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Monday at Hayward Field. Bruckner's qualifying throw of 61.35 meters came on her first of two attempts before she passed on her third throw.
Running back Jaydn Ott's third-team All-American selection highlighted eight Cal football players who were honored Monday when Athlon announced its 2024 preseason All-American and All-ACC teams. Ott was also a first-team All-ACC choice.
Linebacker Cade Uluave and defensive back Craig Woodson were on Athlon's second-team preseason All-ACC squad, while tight end Corey Dyches was a third-team selection. Four Golden Bears – wide receiver Trond Grizzell, outside linebacker David Reese, offensive lineman T.J. Session and defensive back Nohl Williams – were fourth-team All-ACC picks.
BERKELEY – The California women's basketball program has announced its nonconference schedule for the 2024-25 season, including matchups against five teams that played in the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
The 13-game 2024-25 nonconference slate – featuring games against 2024 NCAA Tournament teams Alabama, Auburn, Gonzaga, Michigan State and Arizona or Vanderbilt – can be viewed on CalBears.com. Exact times and broadcast designations will be announced at a later date.
Coming off a week of .500 ball, the Oakland Athletics hoped to build on the ounce of momentum they mustered and get back being a kinda-sorta competitive club. Today, that ounce evaporated into a gram — apologies for the metric/imperial system crossover — as they lost quietly to a similarly beaten down franchise.
It would’ve been cool to see Heliot Ramos, the centerfielder on the day San Francisco honored The Centerfielder, bounce one off the Willie Mays wall in right, stretching out his back swing as Mays did, showing off his number 24 to the first base dugout and the screaming crowd behind it as he measured the ball’s flight over his right shoulder before chasing it out of the box.
Stat of the day: the second highest batting average of yesterday's starters was SS Nick Ahmed (0.250). Besides Heliot Ramos, the other 7 batters all batting @ 0.235 or below.
The San Francisco Giants are in the middle of an incredibly rough stretch of baseball, and it makes a ton of sense that they’d be in a hurry to retain the services of injury-plagued pitcher Blake Snell, their top free agent signing.
But after Snell made a rehab start with Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday night as he recovers from a groin injury, Snell hinted that the Giants are trying to rush him back to the big leagues too fast in comments to reporters from the Athletic and the San Francisco Chronicle. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
“I’ve just been fighting to rush back,” Snell said. “That’s my take. I’m more frustrated with that. And then you don’t get the product of what I should be. It’s just frustrating. I want to go out there and dominate and pitch how I know I can pitch. But it’s more important that I’m out there. So, yeah.
“I haven’t felt like me yet. It’s ‘All right, c’mon, we need you, we need you, we need you.’ It’s not like, ‘Let’s get him right.’ And then I have to deal with it.”
The Dodgers played visitor to the Chicago White Sox for the first of a three game series on Monday, where the Dodgers rallied in the latter half of the game to win by a 3-0 final score.
Coming off arguably his best start as a Dodger against the Colorado Rockies, James Paxton began the series against the White Sox needing just six pitches to record his first two outs.
I shoulda waited for the Book Club category today!
I posted yesterday about Tales of the Otori and Shipwrecks. A couple of books that take place during fiefdom times in Japan (or a Japanesque place, in the case of TotO).
Recommend both.
Almost thru Erasure (the book that American Fiction is based on). I wasn't sure that the read would be worth it so soon after watching the movie, but enjoying it. It includes a mini-novel within (F*CK, nee My Pafology, for those that have seen the movie), which was funny/cringey/etc.
when I went online to learn more, seems that there's a (future) duology and a prequel (which is maybe Book 0?)
I'd start with Nightingale Floor and go from there. Like with Star Wars...can't start with prequels!
As I noted yesterday, she doesn't really stick the landing in Book 3. It's like in a recent Jack Reacher book where he only survives because two gangs (at that exact moment he would have been spotted) starting shooting at each other. Otherwise, he'd have been killed. A contrived plot point.
I read Shipwrecks between Books 2 and 3 of Otori, which was interesting because it's the peasants of the same "era", so got more details about their lives, which are only glimpsed in Otori.
(Glad I reposted...intersted to hear your thoughts on the books, whenever you get to them.)
Ellison began work on his second novel around 1954, following the 1952 publication of Invisible Man and its success.
Part of the original manuscript of Juneteenth was destroyed by a fire in 1967, and Ellison claimed to be devastated by the loss. But biographer Arnold Rampersad later speculated that the loss of the crucial, irrecoverable sections of his manuscript appears to have been something Ellison concocted after the fact to justify his lack of progress.
Every California kid goes to Tijuana at least once to come to the realization that it's a lot of trouble to go through in order to get drunk when it's much easier to pinch some of your parents' booze.
I think Key West is the southern most point in the contiguous US. I assume Hawaii is more south.
Not so hot take, Key West is expensive and disappointing. I think most people not from the West Coast like it because you get to see a sunset over water (as does most of western Florida). But it was expensive to stay 1 night there (all the hotels have resort fees they don't publish), and the sunset was just fine. I'd rather buy Oscars and sit on Pacific Beach in SD.
Key West is, indeed, the southernmost point of the continental United States, as per Wikipedia.
Coordinates - 24°32′47.42″N 81°47′50.92″W
BTW, according to the US Naval Observatory, Key West's daylight hours range from approx. 10 hours 40 minutes in winter to 13 hours 30 minutes in summer. That's a difference of about 2 hours 50 minutes between the two extremes.
Honolulu it's about 11 hours 5 minutes in winter and 13 hours 25 minutes in summer; a difference of about 2 hours 20 minutes between the two extremes.
Honolulu is about 21.31 deg. North latitude.
It's crazy to me that folks in Florida want to have year-round DST. They aren't very different from Honolulu which is on year-round Standard Time.
For the Bay Area it's about 9 hours 30 minutes in winter and 14 hours 40 minutes in summer; a difference of 5 hours 10 minutes between the two extremes. Berkeley is about 37.87 deg. North latitude.
Trader Joes products
Trail mix that’s mainly a chocolate chip delivery medium.
I always get the seafood mix.
Also often get XLB pork, paella, and penne arabiata.
I have yet to find a kimbap at my TJ in Irvine.
a couple favorites (mostly seasonal)
- Halloween Jo-jo's
- German Xmas cookies
- Watermelon Lime cooler
DBD Talking Pictures Club
House of the Dragon - HBO - S2 E1 - 13/19
just getting around to watching. picks up where i leaves off w/ war and dragons. i find that the characters were a little less compelling than GOT, so i had lost track of the naunces of the minor players
it was cool to see the North and the Wall and Night Watch people
From Reddit: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was about a spy from 1969 who was defrosted in a time of need to fight Doctor Evil. The high-level joke was that he was wildly out of touch due to the passage of time. Well, dear readers, it is now a longer period of time since that movie than the period of time that he was canonically frozen.
POLITICAL STUFF HERE
Is it political to say that I'm sick and tired of restaurateurs expressing their anxiety in opposition to the death of junk fees?
Just roll it into the cost of your menu items. While you're at it, absorb the cost of paying your staff a living wage into your menu items and kill tipping. I understand that tipping waitstaff at restaurants is not a thing in Europe.
You could even extrapolate that concept to sales tax. When a consumer picks something off the shelf, the price paid at the register is the price of the good on the shelf. It would be up to the merchant to pay sales tax to the taxing authority (local government, state, feds, whomever) from the sale of the item.
Thank you! YES! It's like loan papers have to disclose all costs.
The way it is, now, it's a shell game.
Another thing that ticks me off is automatically asking us for tips for counter service. Counter service is not a tipped wage position. Maybe you like your barista, maybe they do something special that you like, great, stuff the tip jar, if that's to your liking. Don't expect me to do the same, though.
I really try to tip people whose jobs don't pay very well on its own and are busting their hump to serve customers. There's plenty of folks like that.
But I resent the position it puts the consumer of helping the worker to make ends meet by tipping. Restaurant owners should just pay their staff a living wage and the law should reflect that as well. It's why I voted against Prop 22. It's why I support the $20 minimum wage in California. People should be paid as if they are human beings deserving of support for their labor and contributions.
I tip heavy freight delivery, especially if they go above and beyond. But, as for California, tipped servers are taxed an extra 8% on presumed tips, so, in the 1970s, I was told a 5% is for bad service, 10% for okay to good, and 15% for exceptional service. Now, the tipping practices from other states, such as a default 15%, where the food servers are paid far below minimum wage, has permeated into not only our California tipped service, but, as well, counter service, which is paid full wage.
BTW- I was just at a Burger King and asked the server if the $20 wage was for real. She said, "Yes, but they cut back our hours." Hmmm.
i am somewhat the opposite, but speaking from a bit of privilege. i was lucky to get a great education and have an great paying job that does not require me to be on my feet.
given the lack of all the above mentioned things, living wage, health care, child care, etc ... my take is that tips for Starbucks people. waitstaff, really anyone is something of a tax that i am perfectly happy and willing to pay. even tipping $2 for a $5 latte is in no way going to change my financial future. on the other hand i bet it is a lot more meaningful to the recipient.
i dont even care if it is crappy service. i still usually tip excessively these days.
Well, you're generous, but, as you say, you can afford it. I am a retired teacher, so we just do not go out as much.
Of course, with inflation what it is, I am sure we are not alone.
i think the same of resort fees at hotels. you dont have a choice so roll it into the price of the room. on the other hand i get that they are competing w/ other hotels on the room rate so they might as well trick you the best they can.
also, i am sure there are some rules about these resort fees which are to the benefit of some and not others.
i think in the end it comes down to the ultra-capitalist version we have in the US. the consumer pays what they are willing to pay, the provider charges the most they can charge and these opaque things like sales tax, resort fees, tips, etc are just adding to the confusion.
clearly some places have gotten the message. airline tickets and gas and even airbnb offer an all-in price.
This,too. ^^^
We learned the hard way that $35/night at Excalibur = $100/night.
It seemed like in Key West they had mandatory resort fees, even if you didn't want to use the "resort". They weren't listed in the searches so you find a reasonably priced hotel, and then BOOM, $100 resort fee.
the resort fee in Key West is so you can comfortably walk around the grounds w/o any clothes on.
Political adjacent
Julian Assange leaves jail on his way to enter plea deal with the U.S.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/julian-assange-reached-plea-deal-us-allowing-go-free-rcna158695
WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a British prison and on his way to a remote Pacific island on Tuesday where he will plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, according to court documents.
I really don’t understand this whole thing. The first two years I worked in DC I had temporary assignments on Guam. While there I had a couple day assignments to Saipan in the Northern Marianas. How the hell the CNMI have any relation to this case is beyond me. Maybe one of the attorneys here can explain why they’re doing it this way.
I volunteered at Raleigh Pride Day with Human Rights Campaign, which is America's largest LGBTQ advocacy group. I was giving out free dad hugs and selling t-shirts. My pitch included that actually, we weren't selling t-shirts, you donate for your own advocacy and get a free t-shirt and that everyone needed to vote. The amount of young LGBTQ adults who said they weren't going to vote for Biden because of Gaza was, frankly, unbelievably common.
It occurs to me that for Hamas, this is all playing out perfectly. Because of the reaction to 10/7 and ensuing spotlight on Israel, the entire world except for parts of America and France now views Israel as an evil ethno-state on par with apartheid South Africa. Hamas has zero incentive for this war to end. They are winning! And none of their allies are putting pressure on them to come to the table in the way that we pressure Israel to come to the table. Meanwhile in Israel it would be a political death sentence to unilaterally withdraw and not get the hostages back at least. So, it seems unlikely the war will end anytime soon, just based on the political realities on each side.
Being young and stupid takes many forms. I bet most of those folks come from privileged backgrounds, too. College aged and 20-somethings are most prone to this nonsense.
Because Trump won't appoint the ghost of Henry Kissinger as Sect. of State and revive Operation Rolling Thunder in Gaza.
I hope that does not backfire on us all.
So were the young adults voting for Trump, or a 3rd party person? Or not at all?
Not at all
Good thing the election is not all about turnout….. oh wait!
Man, like 5-10 years ago, when Greta Thunberg was stumping on the environment and the Parkland kids were stumping on gun control, I thought Gen Z really had things figured out really well. But man, falling into the dichotomous thinking trap on the Gaza War and especially becoming single issue voters (or non voters I guess) over it is a real head slapper. A true boner for the ages if it ends up affecting the result. I guess the kids are just as dumb as kids always have been. Oh well!
Shades of 2000. Any butterfly ballots to further inflame the likely circumstances and are there Brooks Brothers clad GOP lawyers waiting to stampede a county registrar's office?
They don’t dress up as much anymore, but yeah I’m sure the GOP voter intimidation bros will be out in force come election time. Strange bedfellows of the Gaza protestors who will surely clog the streets of Chicago during the Dem Convention
Trader or not.
#MakeOrwellFictionAgain
Sleepy Joe just likes the frozen kimbop at Trader Joe’s. I mean who can blame him, amirite?
LOL.
We can't mean, though, he's too old and frail to be held accountable for his Corvette's actions.
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Tennessee beat aTm to win the Mens College World Series.
aTm hasn't had a natty in baseball, football, or basketball since 1939
LOL!
https://x.com/JomboyMedia/status/1805731639755940321
followed closely by Cal? 1959, right.
Cal
i was trying to use ChatGPT in a fun way for a talk when i realized that it is GARBAGE!!
me: which university has parking spot for nobel laureates
ChatGPT: Stanford University is known for having designated parking spots for Nobel laureates. This unique tradition honors the achievements of Nobel Prize-winning faculty members by providing them with their own reserved parking spots on campus.
me: isnt it Berkeley?
ChatGPT: Yes, you are correct. The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) has designated parking spots for Nobel laureates. This tradition honors the numerous Nobel Prize-winning faculty members associated with the university by providing them with reserved parking spaces on campus.
[T&F] Elena Bruckner Advances To Women’s Discus Finals At Trials
https://calbears.com/news/2024/6/24/track-field-elena-bruckner-advances-to-womens-discus-finals-at-trials.aspx
EUGENE, Ore. – California women's track and field volunteer assistant coach Elena Bruckner advanced to the finals of the women's discus with her performance in the event's first round at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Monday at Hayward Field. Bruckner's qualifying throw of 61.35 meters came on her first of two attempts before she passed on her third throw.
[FB] Preseason All-American Jaydn Ott Leads Cal’s Athlon Picks
https://calbears.com/news/2024/6/24/football-preseason-all-american-jaydn-ott-leads-cals-athlon-picks.aspx
Running back Jaydn Ott's third-team All-American selection highlighted eight Cal football players who were honored Monday when Athlon announced its 2024 preseason All-American and All-ACC teams. Ott was also a first-team All-ACC choice.
Linebacker Cade Uluave and defensive back Craig Woodson were on Athlon's second-team preseason All-ACC squad, while tight end Corey Dyches was a third-team selection. Four Golden Bears – wide receiver Trond Grizzell, outside linebacker David Reese, offensive lineman T.J. Session and defensive back Nohl Williams – were fourth-team All-ACC picks.
[WBB] Cal’s 2024-25 Nonconference Slate Announced
https://calbears.com/news/2024/6/24/womens-basketball-cals-2024-25-nonconference-slate-announced.aspx
BERKELEY – The California women's basketball program has announced its nonconference schedule for the 2024-25 season, including matchups against five teams that played in the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
The 13-game 2024-25 nonconference slate – featuring games against 2024 NCAA Tournament teams Alabama, Auburn, Gonzaga, Michigan State and Arizona or Vanderbilt – can be viewed on CalBears.com. Exact times and broadcast designations will be announced at a later date.
Cal gets the commitment of a local offensive lineman
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8n_HG0t7mH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&img_index=1
PRO
2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will host softball in the adjacent neighborhood of [checks notes]... Oklahoma City
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/2028-los-angeles-olympics-oklahoma-city-venues-softball-canoe-slalom/3442896/
Broncos want to learn the art of the surrender punt from your opponent's 40 yard line
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40393282/source-ex-stanford-hc-david-shaw-joining-broncos-front-office
Sex Panther: Florida wins Stanley Cup by winning 57% of the games in the finals vs. the Oilers
https://www.espn.com/nhl/recap/_/gameId/401675111
Phillies get a triple play, partly helped by bad base running
https://twitter.com/Phillies/status/1805384147180851452
A’s drop series opener to Angels
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2024/6/24/24185397/oakland-athletics-los-angeles-luis-medina-aaron-brooks-tyler-nevin
Coming off a week of .500 ball, the Oakland Athletics hoped to build on the ounce of momentum they mustered and get back being a kinda-sorta competitive club. Today, that ounce evaporated into a gram — apologies for the metric/imperial system crossover — as they lost quietly to a similarly beaten down franchise.
Wilmer walks off for Willie
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2024/6/25/24185547/mlb-giants-cubs-6-24-2024-final-recap-wilmer-flores-willie-mays-walk-off
No it wasn’t the most glamorous of walk-offs.
It would’ve been cool to see Heliot Ramos, the centerfielder on the day San Francisco honored The Centerfielder, bounce one off the Willie Mays wall in right, stretching out his back swing as Mays did, showing off his number 24 to the first base dugout and the screaming crowd behind it as he measured the ball’s flight over his right shoulder before chasing it out of the box.
Stat of the day: the second highest batting average of yesterday's starters was SS Nick Ahmed (0.250). Besides Heliot Ramos, the other 7 batters all batting @ 0.235 or below.
Perversely, the Giants have an above-average batting average as a team
Which suggest they aren't hitting with RISP. Very frustrating.
Giants ERA is 25 (out of 30). Perhaps the sole good news is that they aren't the White Sox who are last and second to last in batting/pitching.
How can the White Sox be worse than the A's?
It’s amazing how bad they are! They also have an ownership issue though, are sort of a midwestern version of the A’s
Injury-plagued Blake Snell takes dig at SF Giants
https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/blake-snell-takes-dig-sf-giants-rehab-process-19532735.php
The San Francisco Giants are in the middle of an incredibly rough stretch of baseball, and it makes a ton of sense that they’d be in a hurry to retain the services of injury-plagued pitcher Blake Snell, their top free agent signing.
But after Snell made a rehab start with Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday night as he recovers from a groin injury, Snell hinted that the Giants are trying to rush him back to the big leagues too fast in comments to reporters from the Athletic and the San Francisco Chronicle. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
“I’ve just been fighting to rush back,” Snell said. “That’s my take. I’m more frustrated with that. And then you don’t get the product of what I should be. It’s just frustrating. I want to go out there and dominate and pitch how I know I can pitch. But it’s more important that I’m out there. So, yeah.
“I haven’t felt like me yet. It’s ‘All right, c’mon, we need you, we need you, we need you.’ It’s not like, ‘Let’s get him right.’ And then I have to deal with it.”
Dodgers weather the storm to take the opener against White Sox
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/6/24/24185263/dodgers-white-sox-game-recap
The Dodgers played visitor to the Chicago White Sox for the first of a three game series on Monday, where the Dodgers rallied in the latter half of the game to win by a 3-0 final score.
Coming off arguably his best start as a Dodger against the Colorado Rockies, James Paxton began the series against the White Sox needing just six pitches to record his first two outs.
DBD Book Club
I’m reading Narconomics (about the drug trade). Interesting so far but I’m a little bit allergic to “economics explains everything” books.
I shoulda waited for the Book Club category today!
I posted yesterday about Tales of the Otori and Shipwrecks. A couple of books that take place during fiefdom times in Japan (or a Japanesque place, in the case of TotO).
Recommend both.
Almost thru Erasure (the book that American Fiction is based on). I wasn't sure that the read would be worth it so soon after watching the movie, but enjoying it. It includes a mini-novel within (F*CK, nee My Pafology, for those that have seen the movie), which was funny/cringey/etc.
putting the Japanese books on the reading list. thanks
was there somewhere i should start Book 0? Book 1?
I read 1, 2, and 3.
when I went online to learn more, seems that there's a (future) duology and a prequel (which is maybe Book 0?)
I'd start with Nightingale Floor and go from there. Like with Star Wars...can't start with prequels!
As I noted yesterday, she doesn't really stick the landing in Book 3. It's like in a recent Jack Reacher book where he only survives because two gangs (at that exact moment he would have been spotted) starting shooting at each other. Otherwise, he'd have been killed. A contrived plot point.
I read Shipwrecks between Books 2 and 3 of Otori, which was interesting because it's the peasants of the same "era", so got more details about their lives, which are only glimpsed in Otori.
(Glad I reposted...intersted to hear your thoughts on the books, whenever you get to them.)
just finished - A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest by Charlie J Stephens
devastating/tragic ending of mixed race native American family in Oregon
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/185127125-a-wounded-deer-leaps-highest
currently reading - Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
Ellison's 2nd novel (after Invisible Man) published posthumously
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth_(novel)
Ellison began work on his second novel around 1954, following the 1952 publication of Invisible Man and its success.
Part of the original manuscript of Juneteenth was destroyed by a fire in 1967, and Ellison claimed to be devastated by the loss. But biographer Arnold Rampersad later speculated that the loss of the crucial, irrecoverable sections of his manuscript appears to have been something Ellison concocted after the fact to justify his lack of progress.
TJ
Miller - he was a part of perhaps the nerdiest and most elaborate dick joke ever told
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-hUV9yhqgY
End of S1 of Silicon Valley was so awesome!
Every California kid goes to Tijuana at least once to come to the realization that it's a lot of trouble to go through in order to get drunk when it's much easier to pinch some of your parents' booze.
in a strange travel quirk i have never been to Tijuana. SD was as far south as i have been when we visited HAG's sister at UCSD.
geographically i supposed Houston and Key West are farther south while still staying in US .. where i have also been
I think Key West is the southern most point in the contiguous US. I assume Hawaii is more south.
Not so hot take, Key West is expensive and disappointing. I think most people not from the West Coast like it because you get to see a sunset over water (as does most of western Florida). But it was expensive to stay 1 night there (all the hotels have resort fees they don't publish), and the sunset was just fine. I'd rather buy Oscars and sit on Pacific Beach in SD.
Key West is, indeed, the southernmost point of the continental United States, as per Wikipedia.
Coordinates - 24°32′47.42″N 81°47′50.92″W
BTW, according to the US Naval Observatory, Key West's daylight hours range from approx. 10 hours 40 minutes in winter to 13 hours 30 minutes in summer. That's a difference of about 2 hours 50 minutes between the two extremes.
Honolulu it's about 11 hours 5 minutes in winter and 13 hours 25 minutes in summer; a difference of about 2 hours 20 minutes between the two extremes.
Honolulu is about 21.31 deg. North latitude.
It's crazy to me that folks in Florida want to have year-round DST. They aren't very different from Honolulu which is on year-round Standard Time.
For the Bay Area it's about 9 hours 30 minutes in winter and 14 hours 40 minutes in summer; a difference of 5 hours 10 minutes between the two extremes. Berkeley is about 37.87 deg. North latitude.
Hooker. Another William Shatner show I didn’t watch.
Neither did I, but it had a young Heather Locklear didn't it?
Of the Heathers in that time. I much preferred Heather Thomas.
She definitely had the more iconic swimsuit poster.
I had to google what you were talking about. For science, naturally.
It's always for science.
and....imo, Locklear was "too cute".
my college roommate had a Heather Locklear pin up poster in our freshman dorm room.
Tommy John - Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) surgery named after the pitcher it was first performed on. Typically 15-18 months of recovery.