81 Comments

Tornado warning in DC area this afternoon/evening

U of Maryland is officially closing early, so i guess i'll head home.

Expand full comment

The first line of rain just arrived in Arlington. The more severe line still to the west.

Expand full comment

PRO

Expand full comment

Baseball And The Atom Bomb

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/01/02/baseball-and-the-atom-bomb/

Werner Heisenberg delivered his research seminar in Zurich in December 1944, unaware that there was an American spy in the audience under orders to assassinate him if he offered hints of progress toward an atomic bomb. Luckily, Heisenberg’s talk was an innocuous look at scattering matrices in quantum mechanics.

Strangely enough, the spy who watched Heisenberg speak and was prepared to shoot him if he talked about a bomb was former major league baseball catcher and coach Morris “Moe” Berg

Expand full comment

A's sweep the Giants. Beat them 2-1.

Expand full comment

...and something higher yesterday, even after getting screwed by the ref in the first inning as he gave the Giants a free run.

Expand full comment

Runs! Just not enough of them...

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2023/8/7/23822688/mlb-final-giants-athletics-8-6-2023-recap-alex-cobb-nick-allen-bay-bridge-series

“Explosive” is a stretch, but compared to the barren desert landscape that has been the San Francisco Giants offensive offerings as of late, Sunday’s 6 runs against the Oakland A’s felt nuclear.

LaMonte Wade Jr. after his second RBI single of the day in the 5th: “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.”

Expand full comment

Dodgers rock Rich Hill, Lance Lynn cruises to beat Padres

https://www.truebluela.com/2023/8/6/23822444/dodgers-home-runs-rich-hill-lance-lynn-padres

After a couple of thrilling affairs to open up this rivalry series, the Dodgers and Padres put forth a more lukewarm matchup on Sunday Night Baseball, with the visiting team beating the Friars 8-2.

In a battle of recently acquired veteran starters, the right-hander Lance Lynn followed up on his positive debut with another strong outing, this time against a much better offense.

On the other hand, Rich Hill struggled heavily to put away the Dodgers hitters and ended up allowing the maximum damage he could’ve, with a collection of inopportune hit by pitches, and home runs.

Expand full comment

There was some oddball programming on one of the ESPNs all day yesterday: pillow fights, tetris competitions, and even competitions to see who can hold a beer stein for the longest time.

Expand full comment

Growing up, we had some really old feather pillows that had lost all the fluff to them. All the fillings got matted and dense and only filled the far end of the pillow-cover. The long pillow case and dense feather ball was a wicked medieval flail. It could hit you around any blocking arm, smash away any pillow in its way, and would fly at After a discovery period where lessons were learned, my siblings and I created house rules banning those pillows.

Expand full comment

Hammy's call of the Joes Ramirez-Tim Anderson fight should be bronzed and then put into the Smithsonian

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1688005649651707905

Expand full comment

I still don't really understand why there was a fight in the first place. The slide and tag didn't seem too out-of-bounds. Was there history between those two?

Expand full comment

History.

And Tim Anderson had been talking schitt to CLE IF Gabe Arias earlier in the game.

Expand full comment

I like how the ump nopes out of there as soon as he realizes they're about to throw down

Expand full comment

Like a Secret Service Agent side-stepping that bullet.

Expand full comment

As a kid I would have loved this, but I now find these brawls really moronic. It’s assault and battery, basically, should not be tolerated by commissioner’s office

Expand full comment

Plus it's gonna cost Cleveland their best hitter for a week when they're still within striking distance of the division.

Expand full comment

that White Sox player was LARPing as Glass Joe (that's one for the kids)

Expand full comment

A better angle of the right to Anderson's jaw

https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1687992039793725440

Expand full comment

Old and busted: Guy retires from the NFL, trades Pokemon cards as his new job, made $11m last year.

New hotness: He gets banned from the Pokemon trading platform

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10085267-former-nfl-lb-blake-martinez-banned-from-selling-pokemon-cards-on-whatnot-after-probe

Expand full comment

NY Liberty (22-6) smash league-leading LV Aces (24-3) 99-61, lead by Ionescu. Makes me want to punch Twist in the face for scaring Ionescu away from Cal.

https://www.espn.com/wnba/boxscore/_/gameId/401507292

Expand full comment

Miami advances to the semis as this up-and-comer named Messi scores his 7th goal in four games. I have no doubt that South Florida has lost its collective mind for him.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/report/_/gameId/685175

Expand full comment

[USWNT] US crashes out of the World Cup, losing in PKs to Sweden

https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/622598

Expand full comment

That was a brutal ending on that final PK

Expand full comment

Trump sends his condolences to the USWNT on their loss. Just kidding, he made fun of them, blaming Rapinoe, wokeness, and Biden.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-blames-joe-biden-for-us-womens-world-cup-loss

Expand full comment

It certainly was a decision on the part of Fox Sports to have two analysts (Alexi Lalas, Karli Lloyd) with political and personal axes to grind while talking about the US team. Lots of mystical nonsense about grit and team first and wokeness detracting from some fair points about team composition, playing time, and bad tactics.

Expand full comment

Even with the team composition and tactics the US was incredibly unlucky to lose to Sweden. They put 11 shots on target to Sweden's 1, but the Swedish goalie played out of her mind. And then the US was on track to win the shootout until a player who had hit 17 of 18 previous penalties missed one. If they had even won the shootout most of the talk probably would have been about how they were back on track now.

Expand full comment

I wish I could find it but I saw a really good chart somewhere yesterday showing just how statistically unlikely it is for the US to have had that many shots *not* go in. Sometimes it’s just like that

Expand full comment

I think Bill Connelly posted it on Twitter. IIRC the US' expected goals based on the shots on goal was 1.82, but they ended up with zero because the goalie went ham.

Expand full comment

ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

Expand full comment

[slow clapping] All right, which one of you wise-guys

https://pac-4.com/

Expand full comment

What are you excited about in the near future?

Expand full comment

My son's high-school adventure, which starts on Friday.

Expand full comment

so soon!

A#2 gets picked up from camp on Sum another 4 wks of summer before starting after Labor Day.

i know we are on the late end of the spectrum in NY w/ school start/end dates.

Expand full comment

What’s keeping you busy these days?

Expand full comment

Teaching a morning class and trying to finish novel number three. Also simultaneously looking forward to the upcoming Cal football season and dreading the end of the Pac.

Expand full comment

Looking for Big 10 invite news

Expand full comment

Having a four-month-old

Expand full comment

that will keep you bisy for a while!

Expand full comment

Work, and up until about midnight last night, trying to keep the older daughter from having a breakdown over a bathroom paint job that has gone completely sideways and burned up over a week in trying corrective actions that themselves uncover more problems.

Expand full comment

"trying to keep the older daughter from having a breakdown over a bathroom paint job that has gone completely sideways and burned up over a week in trying corrective actions that themselves uncover more problems."

What?!?!?!? Is she a contractor?

Expand full comment

all she wanted to do was cover up some mold stains, replace the caulk for the tub, and put on a fresh coat of paint. Unfortunately, what neither of us realized was that this bathroom is the only room in the house that had oil paint, so the primer and top coat were just peeling off the edges of the walls... the advice we got was to just peel off the latex paint, but then the oil based paint started coming with it in uneven sections, which meant it all had to be removed, which meant that we found both plaster and spackle patching on top of drywall in some walls, and one wall that somehow is the original plaster from 1958 at the top and drywall with 1/4" of different plaster on the bottom half... it's a fucking shambles. So last night we decided that at this point, best case is get a fresh coat of paint on the uneven walls and then my wife and I will hire someone to make better fixes when the girls are off at school.

Expand full comment

Oh man, that's ROUGH! I know too well.

Sorry.

Expand full comment

BUSY

Expand full comment

Have to see a City inspector today, hopefully I can.

Expand full comment

bisy -- i purposely misspell busy in my most of my writing except official stuff because of this little part from the Tao of Pooh.

In A House at Pooh Corner, Rabbit goes to visit Christopher Robin, but he isn’t home. Christopher has left a note that says,

GON OUT

BACKSON

BISY

BACKSON

here is what ChatGPT has to say about it which is good enough ...

"Bisy Backson" is a phrase from the book "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff, published in 1982. In the book, Hoff uses characters from A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories to introduce the principles of Taoism. The term "Bisy Backson" is a play on words and represents the concept of a busy, frantic person who is always on the go and obsessed with productivity and accomplishments, often at the expense of enjoying life's simple pleasures.

Expand full comment

OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

Expand full comment

[Judge, on Thursday] "No witness tampering. I mean it. Understand?"

[Trump] "Yes Judge"

[Trump, later] IF YOU COME AFTER ME, I'LL COME AFTER YOU

[Judge, on Saturday] "The Court orders you to explain yourself before Monday at 5pm"

[Trump, Sunday]: https://www.showbiz411.com/2023/08/06/donald-trump-has-sunday-morning-meltdown-on-social-media-attacking-judge-in-dc-case-nancy-pelosi-jack-smith-contempt-coming

Expand full comment

DBD AV CLUB

Expand full comment

Only TV shows & an old movie: T2, which my daughter liked quite a bit - we hadn't seen it for decades. It's fun.

Expand full comment

Barbie (17/19 WB)

A delicious piece of fluff that was a lot of ridiculous fun. Definitely smiled and guffawed throughout this movie and credits.

Expand full comment

i liked it and found it very funny and gorgeous, much better than i expected the movie to be given Mattel's involvement in the production

Expand full comment

I thought the last 1/4 of it was quite good with some good laughs and social commentary that was both spot on and amusing. The first 3/4s... I slept through most of it and legitimately hated it. The fam didnt hate it as much as me but no one emerged overly enthused. Genuinely baffled by the over the top love this movie is getting.

Expand full comment

we are going to try to see it this week

Expand full comment

my Oppenheimer movie experience ... 17/19

- did not see the Barbie movie (yet) which started 5 min after

- went to Holocaust Museum in DC during the day - this was a good pairing

- overall, thought it was great

- especially liked all the scenes in and around Berkeley campus as i myself have walking in/out of those back stairs to the physics building (formerly LeConte Hall) 100s of times.

Expand full comment

I wanted more Berkeley, but thought the movie was great and very tense for being a movie with a bunch of people talking in rooms throughout.

I watched the movie in SLC at a theater showing it on 35mm, I'm not sure the last time I'd seen a movie on film

Expand full comment

Still miffed they couldn't include a scene with Oppenheimer taking in a Bear game at Memorial Stadium. Nonetheless a great film.

Expand full comment

CAL

Expand full comment

Alums Byeong Hun An and Michael Kim won almost $1 million this weekend. They should be able to help out the athletic department. An, Max Homa, and Colin Morikawa all in the top fifty going into the FedEx Cup playoffs so more money coming in.

Expand full comment

Go Bears!!!

Expand full comment

I just heard this on news radio while eating dinner. Not big on all the travel that would be required but there are at least some good academic fits with a number of the schools.

Expand full comment

My best guess is that this is a leverage play to try to get the B1G to offer a larger share. But if Cal landed in the ACC it would not be the worst thing, aside from travel.

Expand full comment

On a walk Saturday I saw a young woman who looked like she could be a gymnast wearing a Cal Gymnastics t-shirt. I thought about saying something but she was with a group of friends and they were all laughing and chatting so I left her alone. Not even a Go Bears. Sad times.

Expand full comment

In SF this past weekend, someone noticed my shirt and said "Cal will be in the Pac-4 soon". I just chuckled and said Go Bears!

Expand full comment

You have proper decorum.

If it was me - doesn't matter if they're in a group, on a hike, or at their grannie's funeral - I'm giving them a loud "Go Bears"

Expand full comment

Or is it now: Go, Bears

Expand full comment

UC Regents to call an emergency meeting about the barn door that was left open last year

https://twitter.com/collegead/status/1688534078499233792

Expand full comment

Now that we know that 100+ year old conferences can dissolve in the space of a day, we have to really jump on the pace here vis a vis finding a new conference

Expand full comment

Hmmm... litigation?

Expand full comment

I suspect that it's procedural. If it's like other schools, you need permission to discuss with other conferences. Most other schools are went through this step - some earlier than others.

Expand full comment

Enough! Enough! I've had it with these MFer bears on this MFer plane! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/bear-escapes-from-crate-in-planes-cargo-hold-at-dubai-airport

Expand full comment

Wilcox shows emotion. And since it's Wilcox, you know that any show of emotion means that he's super upset. And rightfully so.

https://twitter.com/espnrittenberg/status/1688386795791110144

Expand full comment

I’m with Wilcox. So basically, all conferences will just realign now every time the TV contracts are up? What a bunch of bullshit. I think the conference commissioners, the networks, and the ADs are all missing why people (used to) like college sports.

Expand full comment

Some years ago there was a kerfuffle about English soccer ticket prices spiking for Premiere League teams with a lot of ill feeling about being charged high prices when the suspicion was that fans in person were just adding color / sound for the broadcast. College football has just about completed the transition to the crowd being there to be "more realistic atmosphere than recorded noise"

Expand full comment

It's been trending that way for 20 years or more. College football has been moving towards becoming NFL Lite since the mid-to-late 1990s, at least.

This is what the networks want, and the networks will get because of the money involved. The networks will kill the goose that lays the golden egg because they have no earthly concept of what makes college football relevant to people or what builds affinity.

The networks are all about the eyeballs as the most recent realignment shows. But by cutting loose the Pac-4 from FBS (and let's not pretend that isn't happening), they have begun to undermine the very structure that is college football: regionalism.

Expand full comment