Not so bad today. Mid-80s and humidity around 50%. Both were higher yesterday and air quality nudged up into red because the Canadian wildfire smoke. AQ at yellow when I just checked.
Hot (mid-80s), humid but not swampy (dew point in the mid-60s), and the AQI is down to 60-something after being 125 yesterday (you could smell the smoke from the Canadian wildfires). This weekend looks great: not too warm with low humidity.
Angelo Mozilo has gone to the big subprime mortgage in the afterworld. It wasn't enough that he was a central engineer in nearly bringing down the global economy, it's that he was in indignant all the way down.
Wow first financials since 21! That is wild. Sometimes a really small company in distress might get behind a year, but a big operation like that in distress getting two years behind is incredible
I went to Viks Chaat in Berkeley for lunch last weekend. Ended up with two dishes that included large sides of garbanzo beans. I heard about it (literally) that evening.
I worked in Hilgard when I was an undergrad. It was a small, quiet, largely unpopulated building with about 50 "no dogs" and "no smoking" stickers on each entrance door. The whole basement would stink whenever anyone fired up the autoclave.
Probably the guys on the 1966 football team, which included Barry Bronk and Jerry Bradley. 1966 was the season in which I saw my first Cal football game at Cal Memorial.
I really don't track the ages of players when they are players; I doubt that more than a handful of people do.
There's outdated and then there's just out-of-touch with current mores.
I haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds for at least 30 years – and it was an amazingly funny movie to my 18-yo self (or however old I was) – but every memorable scene is pretty much racist, sexist, homophobic, statutory-rapey, actual rapey, fat shaming, etc.
true...that cohort is the protagonists, but they still do call out Lamar's limp-wristed style of javelin throwing. which is done in the service of nerds beating jocks, but today it would not be set up that way, I presume.
but, for Omega Mu: I agree. the jocks make fun of them, but I don't think the movie does. Like there aren't any scenes where they overeat or sit on people to win a contest. I think?
My dad was in the service and became a travel writer after he retired, so I got to travel all over the world at a young age. My own daughter has yet to leave the country, which I feel guilty about.
learn native language. in our case if would have been Bengali (me) or Gujarati (wife).
at 16 and 19 the kids have voiced some disappointment about not being bilingual and not being raise w/ more Indian cultural values and traditions.
also we never have been to India w/ them despite having travelled all over the world. more grief from kids about that too.
we are going to India for the first time this Xmas and the first time in 25 yrs since my wife and got married. she made me promise never to go back to India w/ her after a not-so-great first experience. so we'll see how that goes ..
as you can tell. a lot of marital baggage rolled up into this one! thanks for listening.
My parents spoke both Finnish and English to me but I've only spoken English to my children. One of my biggest regrets. (Older daughter learned the language on her own.)
Similarly, Chinese and English for me. I never did because my ex didn't speak Chinese and I didn't think I spoke it well enough nor with a good accent.
My HS graduation was on my high school's football field. This was in New Jersey in June 1978. My HS graduating class was the 2nd graduating class for our high school (opened in September 1975) and the first to graduate on the football field. The 1st graduating class was forced into the gym when a cloudburst interrupted the processional.
My graduation from UCSC was by college. Stevenson College graduations were held on the knoll overlooking East Field and Monterey Bay. Smallish and intimate affair. Beautiful weather and spot.
The view from East Field is amazing. No 3 is at Cowell College and his dorm room window had an unobscured view over East Field and the Ocean. Pretty amazing view.
Don't I know it! Pretty amazing views for anyone, it's the kind of thing that stays with you. I can still conjure it up in my head. The view of Monterey Bay is spectacular all the way down to Pacific Grove and Monterey.
I have been to three graduations at the Greek Theater, all of them Berkeley HS graduations. The first was for my oldest friend who graduated in June 1979.
The other two were for my sons, CeeJay (graduated June 2011) and Double D (graduated June 2014). The weather for both graduations was hot (90+ deg. F).
Both sons also graduated from Cal Poly SLO in Mustang Stadium in June 2015 and June 2018, respectively. The weather was hotter still in SLO. Or so it seemed.
Mine was at the Greek. I don't recall it being that bad.
My wife's was also at the Greek, and it was super hot! And the speaker was a woman from the south – not an astronaut or typical graduation speaker – who had done something good environmentally? Post-Katrina, maybe? But besides the speech being long and boring, she also got onto a "follow the bible" harangue at the end.
Wait a second, did your wife graduate CNR in 2009? Because that was my experience...they called her the "Erin Brokovich of Louisiana." She yelled her entire 20-minute speech into the mic, called Africa a country, and said to the faculty onstage, "You can't make me believe in evolution."
that'd be funny! I just looked in Photos and don't see any from her graduation. maybe we were more analog at that time? altho I did have an iPhone in 2009...I'll have to send you a photo of what she looked like that day and you can comb your library ;-)
at IU even the Phd hooding ceremony was out on the football field where all advisors hooded their advisees all at once. was terribly impersonal.
at Cal. the Classics dept graduated w/ all the western Languages like Spanish and French. that was in Zellerbach and quite large. still the dept did a nice job of saying a little blurb about each of us.
Physics and Astronomy graduated together and that was smallish and nice. the guy who won the outstanding thesis did work on lasers. then our graduation speaker was Charles Townes who taught at Cal and won Nobel Prize for inventing laser.
also, in another fun graduation memory, i think it was the English or some other humanities major (probably related to anthropology) was in the Greek theater.
the student graduation speaker is someone who i remember knowing from a middle school summer camp, but had somewhat lost touch with. so that was nice ...
One was in the Greek Theater during a May heatwave that pushed temperatures to about 90 degrees. The other was in the thankfully air conditioned Zellerbach Hall
Mine was at Greek Theater, too. Steve Westley gave the commencement which was basically an uninspired pitch for his campaign for Governor. It was a great day other than having such an uninspiring commencement speaker.
One of the most uncomfortably hot experiences I've ever had is sitting through a daughter's high school graduation at the Greek during a heat wave. Brutal.
Speaker my year (2001) was Janet Reno. Had an awesome meal after at this place called Mazzini, which I remember well. I don’t really remember the general convocation at all or the one for anthropology
When I walked, one of my co-workers husband was on stage getting his EECS PhD. He was the only one that stayed on stage for the entire ceremony. I saw her walking up to the stage and waved to him as I walked by. I asked her at work Mon why he stuck around and I think she said he felt it was right.
Spencer Steer, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Christina Encarnacion-Strand, Andy Abbott. I don't ever recall a team pulling up so many impact prospects in one season. Pretty wild.
Georgia Supreme Court - 8 of 9 appointed by GOP governors - unanimously rejected Trump's bid to shut down the Fulton County inquiry into him, paving the way for an imminent indictment
Donald Trump says that Jack Smith sent him a letter on Sunday informing him that he was under investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Good.
Weather
Mid 70s after almost 100 this weekend. Back up to mid 80s by the weekend I think.
Not so bad today. Mid-80s and humidity around 50%. Both were higher yesterday and air quality nudged up into red because the Canadian wildfire smoke. AQ at yellow when I just checked.
Hot (mid-80s), humid but not swampy (dew point in the mid-60s), and the AQI is down to 60-something after being 125 yesterday (you could smell the smoke from the Canadian wildfires). This weekend looks great: not too warm with low humidity.
JFC, it's hot. 92 degrees and humid.
DBD Street Journal
Angelo Mozilo has gone to the big subprime mortgage in the afterworld. It wasn't enough that he was a central engineer in nearly bringing down the global economy, it's that he was in indignant all the way down.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/17/business/angelo-mozilo-death-countrywide-mortgage/index.html
Watch the Big Short folks for the snapshot of how mortgage lenders were packaging securitizing and selling subprime loans until the balloon popped.
Evergrande Group just reported loss of about [checks notes] 2% of China's GDP.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/investing/china-evergrande-losses-intl-hnk/index.html
Wow first financials since 21! That is wild. Sometimes a really small company in distress might get behind a year, but a big operation like that in distress getting two years behind is incredible
Pasadena
Where you at?
Yeah, Inglewood, Inglewood always up to no good
From Diego to the Bay
California or Texas?
Don't forget about Pasadena, MD
Chickpeas
garbanzo beans? love ‘em.
last week a restaurant gave me a salad with air fried or dehydrated ones and they were good like good enough to snack on.
probs healthier than chips?
I enjoy them.
...can be tasty
i never liked them as a kid because of the spicy curry my mom used to make. but i very much appreciate them now in many forms
I went to Viks Chaat in Berkeley for lunch last weekend. Ended up with two dishes that included large sides of garbanzo beans. I heard about it (literally) that evening.
I miss Vik's! The Dahi Papdi Chaat and Fish Koliwada are so good!
Hilgard Hall
I worked in Hilgard when I was an undergrad. It was a small, quiet, largely unpopulated building with about 50 "no dogs" and "no smoking" stickers on each entrance door. The whole basement would stink whenever anyone fired up the autoclave.
The oldest Cal player you saw play live
Probably the guys on the 1966 football team, which included Barry Bronk and Jerry Bradley. 1966 was the season in which I saw my first Cal football game at Cal Memorial.
I really don't track the ages of players when they are players; I doubt that more than a handful of people do.
The oldest when they played, or the oldest living person who you saw play for Cal back in the day?
I'd say DeJuan Clayton, who must have been 25 or 26 last year, but I totally dodged Haas last year.
A movie that now seems outdated
Lawnmower Man
Outdated, how?
Isn't there a certain subjectivity to what's outdated depending on who's evaluating?
How do we feel about Pretty Woman?
Remains a family favorite of Ma (former Camp Blue Staffer at the Lair) and Sis Chitwood...
Dumb premise. Richard Gere is underwhelming in his role, too.
OMG - there are 100's of those.
There's outdated and then there's just out-of-touch with current mores.
I haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds for at least 30 years – and it was an amazingly funny movie to my 18-yo self (or however old I was) – but every memorable scene is pretty much racist, sexist, homophobic, statutory-rapey, actual rapey, fat shaming, etc.
Not sure I fully agree with that . . . much of Revenge of the Nerds has a message of accepting people even if they are fat or ugly or gay or whatever.
But then at the end the main guys basically rape a woman and it's played as funny because she's one of the rich/popular kids. Yikes!
true...that cohort is the protagonists, but they still do call out Lamar's limp-wristed style of javelin throwing. which is done in the service of nerds beating jocks, but today it would not be set up that way, I presume.
but, for Omega Mu: I agree. the jocks make fun of them, but I don't think the movie does. Like there aren't any scenes where they overeat or sit on people to win a contest. I think?
Yep, this one hasn’t aged well.
Basically any movie that involves teenagers/college students and sex.
Sort of, I think that setting in the past (1963 - but filmed in 1978) Animal House cheats very effectively.
The number of borderline-coerced sexual situations in teenager/college student movies in the 80s is eye-opening in retrospect
Even the 90s weren’t that much better.
American Pie with the webcam scene is terrible.
Mr. Mom. The idea that a wife ends up being the breadwinner and the husband stays home. I mean, when would that ever happen?
Still rewatchable though. Peak Michael Keaton and Terri Garr. Gung Ho is even more outdated.
220, 221...whatever it takes
Something positive your parents did for you that you never did for your kid(s)
My dad was in the service and became a travel writer after he retired, so I got to travel all over the world at a young age. My own daughter has yet to leave the country, which I feel guilty about.
Have them.
learn native language. in our case if would have been Bengali (me) or Gujarati (wife).
at 16 and 19 the kids have voiced some disappointment about not being bilingual and not being raise w/ more Indian cultural values and traditions.
also we never have been to India w/ them despite having travelled all over the world. more grief from kids about that too.
we are going to India for the first time this Xmas and the first time in 25 yrs since my wife and got married. she made me promise never to go back to India w/ her after a not-so-great first experience. so we'll see how that goes ..
as you can tell. a lot of marital baggage rolled up into this one! thanks for listening.
Mine militantly limited my TV & video game time, so I read a bunch. My kids have their iPads surgically grafted to them.
My oldest is on the autism spectrum and letting him play with a device almost all the time is the only way to keep our household sane.
Video game time? What is that?
My parents spoke both Finnish and English to me but I've only spoken English to my children. One of my biggest regrets. (Older daughter learned the language on her own.)
Similarly, Chinese and English for me. I never did because my ex didn't speak Chinese and I didn't think I spoke it well enough nor with a good accent.
You can magically wish for Cal to score if you sing a kids' tv song. Give the DBD a line or two....
Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol, be there on the double
if you think your life's in danger
and you're threatened by a stranger
and you think that you might take a lickin'
.
.
.
call for super chicken
(going from memory, so missing some)
Dashing and daring, courageous and caring,
Faithful and friendly with stories to share;
All through the forest they sing out in chorus
Marching along as their song fills the air!
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Slipknot's lead singer Corey Taylor:
https://twitter.com/groovyscoobyyy/status/1678967669834252289
Graduation
greek theatre. can’t recall who spoke but kevin johnson walked with us as he had earned his degree that year, 1998.
My HS graduation was on my high school's football field. This was in New Jersey in June 1978. My HS graduating class was the 2nd graduating class for our high school (opened in September 1975) and the first to graduate on the football field. The 1st graduating class was forced into the gym when a cloudburst interrupted the processional.
My graduation from UCSC was by college. Stevenson College graduations were held on the knoll overlooking East Field and Monterey Bay. Smallish and intimate affair. Beautiful weather and spot.
The view from East Field is amazing. No 3 is at Cowell College and his dorm room window had an unobscured view over East Field and the Ocean. Pretty amazing view.
Don't I know it! Pretty amazing views for anyone, it's the kind of thing that stays with you. I can still conjure it up in my head. The view of Monterey Bay is spectacular all the way down to Pacific Grove and Monterey.
I have been to three graduations at the Greek Theater, all of them Berkeley HS graduations. The first was for my oldest friend who graduated in June 1979.
The other two were for my sons, CeeJay (graduated June 2011) and Double D (graduated June 2014). The weather for both graduations was hot (90+ deg. F).
Both sons also graduated from Cal Poly SLO in Mustang Stadium in June 2015 and June 2018, respectively. The weather was hotter still in SLO. Or so it seemed.
HS was Concord (nee) Pavilion.
Mine was at the Greek. I don't recall it being that bad.
My wife's was also at the Greek, and it was super hot! And the speaker was a woman from the south – not an astronaut or typical graduation speaker – who had done something good environmentally? Post-Katrina, maybe? But besides the speech being long and boring, she also got onto a "follow the bible" harangue at the end.
Wait a second, did your wife graduate CNR in 2009? Because that was my experience...they called her the "Erin Brokovich of Louisiana." She yelled her entire 20-minute speech into the mic, called Africa a country, and said to the faculty onstage, "You can't make me believe in evolution."
yup...ESPM. the second graduating class. were you a grad then? or there for a friend?
I don't recall Africa being a country or the evolution comment. I just remember her going on and on about "read the book".
I graduated then, too. Microbial Biology! Maybe she and I are in the backgrounds of each other's photos!
that'd be funny! I just looked in Photos and don't see any from her graduation. maybe we were more analog at that time? altho I did have an iPhone in 2009...I'll have to send you a photo of what she looked like that day and you can comb your library ;-)
I was a double major so I did 3 commencement ceremonies:
1. The Greek Theater for the campus wide ceremony. Ted Koppel was the keynote speaker, he was great.
2. The Greek Theater for my Poly Sci graduation.
3. Zellerbach for Hall for my US History graduation.
Neither of mine, but I attended both of my kids graduations.
Cal, yes. IU, no.
at IU even the Phd hooding ceremony was out on the football field where all advisors hooded their advisees all at once. was terribly impersonal.
at Cal. the Classics dept graduated w/ all the western Languages like Spanish and French. that was in Zellerbach and quite large. still the dept did a nice job of saying a little blurb about each of us.
Physics and Astronomy graduated together and that was smallish and nice. the guy who won the outstanding thesis did work on lasers. then our graduation speaker was Charles Townes who taught at Cal and won Nobel Prize for inventing laser.
also, in another fun graduation memory, i think it was the English or some other humanities major (probably related to anthropology) was in the Greek theater.
the student graduation speaker is someone who i remember knowing from a middle school summer camp, but had somewhat lost touch with. so that was nice ...
i went to HAG's College of Engineering ceremony also.
Since I graduated in Dec after all of you guys, I walked in June of 93. Just about all our friends came back for mine. I feel bad for missing yours.
hmm .. i forgot you graduated later. perhaps i didnt go and just went to the one in '92 w/ everyone else who we all knew.
I think it was the 92 one with everyone else. I think you were at IU when mine happened.
One was in the Greek Theater during a May heatwave that pushed temperatures to about 90 degrees. The other was in the thankfully air conditioned Zellerbach Hall
Mine was at Greek Theater, too. Steve Westley gave the commencement which was basically an uninspired pitch for his campaign for Governor. It was a great day other than having such an uninspiring commencement speaker.
Smart guy, but not a "good" politician.
Mine was at the Greek Theater too, but I don't remember it being hot at all. So must have been a good day.
One of the most uncomfortably hot experiences I've ever had is sitting through a daughter's high school graduation at the Greek during a heat wave. Brutal.
Just for the Econ department. Only a handful wore cap and gown.
Speaker my year (2001) was Janet Reno. Had an awesome meal after at this place called Mazzini, which I remember well. I don’t really remember the general convocation at all or the one for anthropology
Bill Cosby for mine. And it was just weeks after his son passed, so there was extra love for him at the time. That one has not aged well.
My now-spouse nearly broke up with me because I wouldn’t leave the interminable Cal convocation early.
When I walked, one of my co-workers husband was on stage getting his EECS PhD. He was the only one that stayed on stage for the entire ceremony. I saw her walking up to the stage and waved to him as I walked by. I asked her at work Mon why he stuck around and I think she said he felt it was right.
PRO
Munich scores 3 TDs and 2 FGs against a non-league local team
https://twitter.com/FCBayernEN/status/1681399531345199106
I never thought I'd say this, but God bless Charles Barkley
https://www.mediaite.com/news/charles-barkley-destroys-critics-of-bud-light-theyre-rednecks-and-aholes/
He's the best.
He is not a role model.
Take off, eh. Nike drops Hockey Canada because of how the latter handled sexual assaults.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/nike-permanently-ends-sponsorship-of-hockey-canada-1.6482829
Giants-Red tied 2-2 in the top of the 8th, game suspended due to weather.
This rookie also made his MLB debut
https://uni-watch.com/2023/07/17/reds-prospect-poised-to-make-nob-history-tonight-maybe/
Spencer Steer, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Christina Encarnacion-Strand, Andy Abbott. I don't ever recall a team pulling up so many impact prospects in one season. Pretty wild.
Look how deep De La Cruz is. He double-clutches and still lasers it to first.
https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1681095557656240128
Cleveland Cavaliers take home the championship without any help from Lebron
https://apnews.com/article/nba-summer-league-cavaliers-rockets-05331edf2526c04b067f4d4eab470eaa
And without a Draymond kick in the groin.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Georgia Supreme Court - 8 of 9 appointed by GOP governors - unanimously rejected Trump's bid to shut down the Fulton County inquiry into him, paving the way for an imminent indictment
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/17/georgia-supreme-court-trump-indictment-00106710
Donald Trump says that Jack Smith sent him a letter on Sunday informing him that he was under investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Good.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/4103103-trump-notified-he-is-target-in-dojs-jan-6-investigation/
DBD AV CLUB
Finished season 2 of The Bear. Fantastic.
Started latest season of Black Mirror.
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Northwestern better get the lube ready because 8 NW football players have retained a lawyer for a presumed class action lawsuit.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/8-former-northwestern-football-players-make-major-legal-move-amid-hazing-scandal/ar-AA1dZsJm
CAL
Go Bears!!!