103 Comments
User's avatar
TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

East Bay friends, I have access to the Columbia Employee Store again 7/29–8/21. Let me know if you want to go together.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Ohh...maybe. I'll let you know.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

What is the second greatest rivalry trophy behind the Axe?

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Minnesota seems to have its fair share of good rivalry trophies.

A pig (Floyd of Rosedale, vs. Iowa)

A booze jug (Little Brown Jug, vs. Michigan)

A giant FAKE axe (Paul Bunyan Axe, vs. Wisconsin)

A broken chair ($5 Bits of Broken Chair, vs. Nebraska)

A bell (Governor's Bell, vs Penn State)

I say that Write For California needs to create a rivalry trophy for Cal various opponents.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

The first three trophies listed are in series with longtime Big Ten opponents (Iowa, Michigan, and Wiscy). The establishment date of those various trophies -

(Iowa) Floyd of Rosedale - 1935 (The Pig and the Politician https://stories.uiowa.edu/pig-and-politician)

(Michigan) Little Brown Jug - 1909, although the origins apparently date to 1903 (The Origins of the LittelBrown Jug https://bentley.umich.edu/features/the-origins-of-the-little-brown-jug/)

(Wisconsin) Paul Bunyan Axe - 1948. Preceded by a different trophy in this same rivalry - the Slab of Bacon (1930 to 1943). (History of Paul Bunyan's Axe https://mndaily.com/205518/uncategorized/history-paul-bunyan-s-axe-1/)

Expand full comment
TheScientist019's avatar

The saga of the Civil ConFLiCT trophy is amazing.

Unironically, I love the Platypus Trophy.

Expand full comment
Oski Disciple's avatar

Hard to choose between Michigan-Ohio State, Alabama-Auburn, Harvard-Yale, Texas-Oklahoma, and Notre Dame-U$C. So I'll go with Columbia-Cornell.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

I guess Harvard-Yale, simply "The Game".

Expand full comment
space_lab's avatar

It’s certainly the OG. There’s no iconic trophy, though.

The forward pass was invented because Harvard Stadium is made of concrete. After several fatalities, there was a proposal to drastically widen the football field. But it wouldn’t fit in Harvard Stadium, so we got the forward pass instead.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

You are hosting a 4-star recruit during their visit to Stanfurd. What do you schedule to ensure that that the recruit does NOT commit?

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

A day with as many students and alumni as possible.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

Remind them that the colonnade, so often photographed, was in fact inspired by Taco Bell.

Expand full comment
Oski Disciple's avatar

A football game.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Jeffrey Clark, the GQPer who tried and almost succeeded in getting himself to replace Rosen as Attorney General so that he could support Trump's Big Lie just was written up by the DC Bar for ethics violations. They have yet to rule, but this is the first step in him potentially getting disbarred from DC.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/22/jeffrey-clark-dc-bar-charges/?%20va._2

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

*** GUILTY ***

BANNON GUILTY OF BOTH CONTEMPT CHARGES.

SENTENCING OCT 21.

WILL APPEAL, BUT LOOKING AT 2-24 MONTHS IN JAIL

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Perp walk just in time for election day.

#Shame #Shame #Shame #Shame #Shame

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Polls show that anywhere from 69% to 79% of Republicans do not believe Joe Biden is the legitimate President of the United States. Big Lie isn't politics, it's fascism.

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/70-percent-republicans-falsely-believe-stolen-election-trump/

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

J6 showed clips of McConnell, McCarthy, and Fox News unequivocally condemning the Insurgency and Trump - which was a nice background both at how they knew it was wrong and how they've returned to being toadies again in an attempt to hang on to power rather than defend Democracy

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Video shown of Trump refusing to concede and piling on the Big Lie

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1550304896750129152

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Cipollone confirms timeline that shows that Trump had 2 hours of allowing the Insurgency to happen and doing nothing

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/january-6-hearings-july-21/h_569f91d29daedc0a3d58560c61eee526

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

Patsy Baloney has been an interesting witness to me. Not willing to lie, trying to not say as much as possible, but also not going to end his career in support of DJT.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

"Patsy Baloney". Great nickname for a lawyer.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Trump lawyer Pat Cipollone awkwardly tries not to throw Trump under the bus, but eventually does. This applies intent as they try to apply Dereliction of Duty on Trump

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1550294645891944449

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Love how he keeps looking at his lawyer, like help me out here...

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

J6 Committee announces more public hearings in September.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO, Stanford BA History '02) riles up crowd with his fist pump and then bravely runs away.

https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1550298674843897857

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

How Pythonesque.

"Run away! Run away!"

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

Someone on SBNation calculated his 40 time to be 7.2 seconds in the J6 combine. I legit laughed out loud.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

Bitch move.

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

Beat me to it. I was going to share this story.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

DBD AV CLUB

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

Watched the first episode of High Fidelity (changed the gender of the main character) - oh man, did I enjoy that, made me think about all the women I slept with.

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

How long or short was that thought? ;)

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

The movie is an all-time classic.

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

It really is. I haven’t watched the series but I was intrigued until I heard it was cancelled.

Expand full comment
Oski Disciple's avatar

Watched Lost Highway for the first time yesterday. Terrific film and a great performance by Ray Liotta in his first major role.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

CROWDED

Expand full comment
GB III's avatar

I’ll Palio horse race in Siena - in the square. So crowded that people were passing out from the combination of daytime heat and body heat of the human mass. When they passed out they were lifted above the heads of the people in the crowd and passed to the side of the human mass. (We used to do something like that at home football games when someone wore a red shirt).

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I was scheduled to go in 2020 but nope….plane tickets bought, AirBnB booked…dagger

Expand full comment
GB III's avatar

Hope you try to go again. It’s unlike any horse race you will every see. The days leading up to the race and the night just after the race are a lot of fun too.

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

Easter mass at the Vatican in 1986. Just jam packed into the square outside St Peters.

Expand full comment
Oski Disciple's avatar

The concourse at halftime of a premier league match.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

The Hong Kong handover in 1997, which spanned two days. I spent the British's handover day in Lan Kwai Fong in a bar on the second floor, which was perfect so that I didn't get trampled. But the next day, the PRC's handover celebration day, was nuts. It's hard to say how many people were lining Hong Kong Harbor... perhaps two million? Shoulder to shoulder no matter where you went and was so crowded that everyone feared trampling. Anyone who has been on any train/bus/ferry in Hong Kong (or the N-Judah or L-Taraval trains in SF) know how Hong Kongers feel about queueing/pushing, but everyone was very cooperative that day. I will never go into a crowd like that again. Far too dangerous.

Expand full comment
CruzinBears's avatar

Outside Lands in 2019. They way over sold the event so when you wanted to cross the park between two major bands playing there were these huge bottlenecks that made you feel like being trampled was a real possibility. We've since decided to never go back to that festival because it was the first time it felt really dangerous.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Funny Cide's 2003 Kentucky Derby - 148,530...that was a real fecal fiesta...

Went to a few Penn State white-out game's that were sold-out and held about 100,000.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Were you in the infield? That always seems like it's just college students partying. Some of the things they do to get alcohol into the infield is devious.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

No we had seats.

I was in the infield for Curlin's 2007 Preakness win...THAT was a schitt show...

Charles Darwin would have had a field day with The Running of the Urinals, a yearly infield tradition at Baltimore's Pimlico Park on Preakness Day.

https://youtu.be/nJERE619BGY

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

Obama's first inauguration, man was that cold & crowded

Expand full comment
DC Trojan's avatar

I flew home from NOLA a day or two before the inauguration and I have not seen Dulles that busy before or since

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

Forgot about that. A friend and I decided to walk over and the closest we got was near the Lincoln Memorial.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

We were at the Washington monument! - We were way, WAY closer during Clinton's first inauguration, and it wasn't that cold at all.

Expand full comment
Tangtpt's avatar

Disneyland on New Year's Eve

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

SD Comic Con.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

The "walk" across the Golden Gate Bridge for the 50th anniversary in 1987.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

Notable event if for only one thing: the weight of people on the bridge flattened out the bridge deck. Normally, the bridge deck is arched north to south (or south to north, if you prefer). The weight of people on the Golden Gate Bridge flattened the arch.

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

Did this put the bridge in any sort of danger of failing or collapsing? Sounds scary.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

As I recall from the SF Chron article later, engineers interviewed for the article said that there was no likelihood that there was any danger to the crowd, even in an earthquake.

Being 35 years later, different engineers might have a different take on it.

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

That's why we didn't get to do it again for the 75th anniversary.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

Right. Once was enough.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Were you on the GGB when the crowded decided to try to rock the bridge and then scared themselves out of doing it anymore after they succeeded?

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

I don't remember. Maybe not because I don't remember being scared shitless.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment removed
Jul 22, 2022
Comment removed
Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

After like 5 or 6 my friend and I just "started" and ran down Mission instead of Howard.

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

Most crowded was probably the Women's March in DC after Trump's inauguration.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

PRO

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Deshaun Watson is going to get an 8-game suspension, which is a joke, considering he initially sat out last season on his own accord before the cascade of accusations and assaults began.

Meanwhile, Trevor Bauer is suspended for over half a season while the legal proceedings play out...he is found innocent of wrong doing, and is then handed an additional 2-year suspension. Goodell and the NFL are a joke.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Garoppolo continues to have zero trade value.

Expand full comment
O.Overall's avatar

Not sure Bauer was “found innocent,” just not enough to charge. He is taking a page from Johnny Depp and suing for defamation, but I also saw other accusers against him surface.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Well, innocent may be the wrong word considering there was no trial, but there was also no criminal wrongdoing. The guy is definitely a freak that likes rough sex, and it's probably fair to say he's maybe a bad dude - stories I heard from D'backs sources when he got called up didn't paint a very nice picture...point being, if Deshaun gets 8 games as rumored, that's incredibly light, under the circumstances.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

SF falls way behind, regain lead late in the game, and then Mookie Betts decides he wants to break the Giants' hearts. Dodgers win 9-6.

https://twitter.com/BRWalkoff/status/1550353802485645312

https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1550355955631755265

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

I said yesterday, man the Giant's outfield players are bad. Gave up 3 runs early in the game.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

The D will probably likely end up costing the Gigantes a playoff spot...they're so light on star power that can bail them out, so making plays is essential. They fail to make so many plays, even ones that are not technically ruled errors but needed to be made...really stresses a pitching staff.

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

Their fucking defense is going to give me a stroke this season. I feel like they need a little league coach to come in and do nothing but run basic defensive drills nonstop for a week until everyone gets it into their heads.

Luis Gonzalez has an exciting bat but his defense is consistently appalling.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

There was a game, even an inning, specifically, that was Farhan and Kapler's 2022 San Francisco Giants in an absolute nutshell...Monday May 23 at home v. the Mets.

Offseason acquisition Alex Cobb, yet another Farhan reclamation project based on analytics that say he's a much better starter than his record would indicate, got the nod. In accordance with other franchise trends that pre-date Zaidi, the 34 year-old Cobb already had one DL stint...his second would follow a week later. Brandon Crawford hits a 2-run bomb in B2 to give the Giants a 2-0 lead, before the fateful 3rd inning where the Mets would take control of the game, tallying 5 runs en route to a 13-3 win.

That 3rd inning was the microcosm, though...after Cobb struck out Eduardo Escobar looking to lead off the inning, J.D. Davis would bloop a 2-2 pitch to center for a broken bat single. Light hitting Patrick Mazeika would then hit a pop out to Crawford to leave 2 outs with man on first. Leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo would hit a slow roller to third that Longoria would unsuccessfully try and barehand because he was playing the 5.5 hole due to the idiotic shift...infield hit. Starling Marte would then load the bases with a swinging bunt that came to rest between third and home...2-outs, 3-hits, ALL on soft contact.

Francisco Lindor would then hit a high fly ball down the left field line that somehow falls fair for a 2-run double...one of the reasons it fell is that Kapler sat his all-star LF and best hitter, Joe Pedersen v. the Met's lefty starter David Peterson, choosing instead to play Darin Ruf, an awful 1B and even worse OF, in left. The ball was ruled a double, but a competent major league outfielder makes the play easily. Ruf is a career DH...he didn't. The next batter, multiple home run derby champion Pete Alonso, then crushes the first pitch 400 feet to left for a 3-run homer...no errors, 5 runs, 1 ball hit hard...ballgame...

Hence why we should be monitored for stroke all year long....

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

the 2 run missed ball was 100% an error, the 1 run one wasn't.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Late-inning comeback falls short, Billie pleased

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/7/22/23274009/san-francisco-giants-los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-recap-darin-ruf-mookie-betts-billie-eilish

For six innings, Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers was shaping up to be a dud, a real 2022 special: sleepy offense, questionable defense, decent pitching asked to carry too much of the load.

Giants starter Carlos Rodón gave up 5 runs and striking out 7 over five innings. For the most part, the All Star starter looked sharp, generating 17 swings and misses over his outing, but he had trouble closing out innings which would be the theme all night for San Francisco’s pitching.

After two quick outs in the first, Freddie Freeman forced Rodón to pump the brakes by depositing an 0-2 fastball into the bleachers. In the second, Trayce Thompson doubled on a two-out, two-strike slider. Thompson ended up at third after a throwing error by Estrada, which proved inconsequential in terms of the final score, but foreshadowed late-inning developments and illustrated fine literary techniques when constructing a narrative.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Dodgers make it interesting, then finish the job against the Giants

https://www.truebluela.com/2022/7/21/23273785/mookie-betts-home-run-dodgers-bullpen-giants-recap

This Dodgers-Giants game was worthy of the national spotlight, on ESPN. From a surprising start, to a crazy back and forth towards the end, and all the drama you could possibly ask for in a baseball game, ending with a 9-6 victory for the home team.

It’s not often you see a pitching matchup heading into a game with such a disadvantage for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team with the best rotation in baseball in 2022 will almost always enter a game at least somewhat leveled with its opponents in terms of the starting pitch.

Nevertheless, to start things off after the All-Star break, the Dodgers sent out the young right-hander Mitch White, who is having a fine campaign in his own right, but in a completely different tier than Giants ace and strikeout artist Carlos Ródon.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

NFL is launching its own streaming service.

https://mashable.com/article/nfl-plus-streaming-service-explained

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

maybe this will deal with the problem of blacked out games. In the Bay Area we always get the Niners and Raiders, no matter if there is a better game on somewhere else.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Interesting. MLB has their own streaming service but still has local blackouts. They also need to fix this.

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

One of my sister's neighbors in northeast Iowa thought about subscribing to the mlb network. Until he found out about all the blackouts. From where they are they couldn't get Minnesota, Milwaukee, the two Chicago teams, St. Louis, and Kansas City. He decided to pass.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

Gee, I wonder why.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I had to get a VPN service to watch Dodger games in Santa Barbara, and even then it's often a challenge finding the right location. Fock the Doyers...

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

I want to hear Joe Davis rather than the Giants announcers.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

My VPN service doesn't work with the MLB At Bat app. I just resort to an illegal stream when it's a Giants/Dodgers game.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

That's probably the issue...it's really spotty.

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

I was watching and he blew the field away. Coming off the turn the race was over.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

CAL

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

I was reading this story about another DC cyclist killed. Turns out she went to Cal. Seems like she had a full, if cut short, life.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/21/cyclist-dies-crash-northwest-dc.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

The description of this accident bears a resemblance to two bike accidents in San Francisco in fall of 2019, I think. Similar thing - cyclists traveling on the right side of a truck get clobbered when the truck turns right.

Ugh.

Expand full comment
DC Trojan's avatar

I was talking about this issue more generally with a friend who used to at cycle to the metro and we've both concluded it's simply not worth the risk of cycling around here. There are better lanes etc for bikes around Arlington, but in MoCo & DC, forget it.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

Go Bears!!!

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

For those who are going to the ND game and might be interested in hanging out with some fossils

https://berkeley.360alumni.com/events/view/9428

Expand full comment
Justbear's avatar

I know a fossil on this blog.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Hey, don't talk about the Old Blues going to the game that way...

Expand full comment