Es99 somehow managed to be the first person in the house to test positive. Other than a night of poor sleep and some sluggishness the following day, she seemed unaffected. Since she's only 4 months, she has pretty much no contact with anyone besides me, the missus, and Cf98, and all of us repeatedly tested negative (and no one had any symptoms prior). She had a checkup six days before testing positive, so perhaps that's where she picked it up.
i did not appreciate that another variant and another round of coronavirus was going around until just now. a friend recently had, but i assume it was just bad luck at this point.
My wife was sick for 2 weeks with varying symptoms. A blinding headache and pretty bad cough were the main symptoms. She tested negative three times with at-home tests. We spoke to someone recently who had same experience, including multiple negative at-home test, got a PCR test and it came back positive.
one of my team who lives in South Carolina just got it, my mother in law caught it traveling back from Italy in July (funnily enough, her husband was sick for like 3 days and never tested positive, she was knocked on her ass for 6 weeks). I last got a booster in Sept '22 but I think I'll hold off for the newer booster formulation (or just catch it in Scotland next month lol rofl etc)
At the risk of sounding even more middle aged than usual I doubled up on flu and shingles on Friday - my doctor suggested that if I were to follow her advice & hold on for the updated COVID booster, I might as well get started on the shingles shots and get the COVID booster during the 6 month gap
XBB.1.16 gaining ground on XBB.1.5 variant. The two are quite similar; Pfizer and Moderna are working on a booster to battle XBB.1.5. Unfortunately, the last booster fought BA.4 and BA.5, which are nearly extinct and is not effective against preventing XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16. The good news is that the vaccine and its booster are still effective against catching the worst symptoms of Covid. A new symptom of XBB.1.5 is pink-eye.
Kind of feels like COVID-19 has settled in to a regular evolution pattern against which you are probably fine if you've had the virus or the vaccine before.
I was at a state park the other week and was reminded of that weird fact because they had a jousting area nearby with signage proudly proclaiming it as the state sport
The Athletics blew a huge late lead today to finish off getting swept, falling to the Washington Nationals by a final of 8-7 after Washington scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth. Owch, this one hurt.
I appreciated the A's fan behind home plate on Saturday with a bold green shirt that said "SELL THE TEAM." He also draped a "SELL THE TEAM" banner on the empty seats in front of him
I only watched sporadically, but even the Nats announcer made a comment about the vocal A's fans that were there. A's fandom may not be wide, but it has historically been deep.
A's are really not good. They still had a chance to hold on for the win until the SS booted a grounder. Saturday, they blew a simple ground ball that later lead to a run. Nats have been playing better lately but A's still should not have been swept.
you mean the play that gave the Rangers the tying run? There was a runner on 2nd and it was a ground ball deep in the 5.5 hole. Crawford went right, got it on his backhand, and had a throw deep in the hole. Don't think he had a shot at the runner so I suppose he could've eaten it. The competitor in him probably made him throw it.
Julio Urías struck out a career-high 12 and pitched his longest outing since returning from the injured list as the Dodgers finished off a four-game weekend sweep of the Rockies, 8-3 on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers finished off a perfect 7-0 week and ran their win streak to eight games.
Urías finished off his day by striking out eight of his final nine batters faced, including seven in a row from the fifth inning through the first out in the seventh, two shy of Aaron Harang’s franchise record.
CNN says hit has obtained leaked information that the Fulton County DA has text and email evidence that links Trump's legal team to stealing voting machines in Georgia, cracking the software, and manufacturing evidence in order to claim the election was stolen ahead of Jan 6th.
Nevada GOP going ahead with a state caucus designed to choose TFG as their nominee even though there is a state law that requires a primary to choose their candidate
ICYMI: Ramaswamy is beating now beating DeSantis in one poll. However, Politico has an interesting article about why polls are so different about his favorability
While not affiliated with the US Government, the White House Gift Shop is semi-official. It has a commemorative coin set for each of TFG's indictments. It has issued the first in presumably a set of many...
Foo Fighters replacement drummer is John Freese, who stepped in after Taylor Hawkins died. Freese has been a drummer for numerous bands, including Michael Bublé - which prompted Dave Grohl to have a running gag where he asks audience members if they know any Bublé lyrics when introducing Freese on stage. So then this happened at the SF concert...
"Wild" (HBO/Max, 14/19) - a beautifully shot movie about a damaged woman who goes on a 1,100 mile hike to escape and confront her demons. It's biographical, so it lacks clever manufactured story arcs to dramatize it but the characters does have deep pain, ways of coping, and redemption that resonated with me. Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern were great.
It was fantastic...an excellent book as well by Cheryl Strayed. Got me interested in the Pacific Crest Trail, which apparently runs real close to the Lair.
Even the impossibly miserable woman that is the former-Mrs. Jimmy C enjoyed it. One of the few movies we saw together that we both liked.
The PCT crosses highway 108 at Sonora Pass; about an hour out of Pinecrest, home of the Lair. Have done many great hikes out of that area, though this year there was still a lot of snow (first week of August) which cut the treks short.
Nice!! I’m spending more and more time up at the new Chitwood cabin in Long Barn…gonna have to check some hiking out! The Sonora Pass only opened in the end of June - snow was ridiculous.
Saw it over the weekend as well - thought it was good! Like every Hollywood movie of the past 20 years, it could have been improved by being edited to be 20 mins shorter, but otherwise I thought they did a very good job with what you must admit is a very challenging bit of source material. I can see how someone could think the discussion of feminism was too heavy handed, but I think it had to be given what they were working with. Best part of the movie IMO was the satirizing of bro culture, was very funny. I was hoping that post Covid there would be some sort of human connection angle in the resolution, but maybe they are saving that for the sequel. Anyway, my 7 and 9 year old daughters loved it, so I think that alone marks it a success
We were talking about it over dinner tonight and the girls were like it was fun but that was like “baby’s first intro to feminism content not subversive like some people claimed.”
Michael Oher sues the Tuouy familiy. He says they never adopted him, but did use it as a carrot to dangle in front of him and tricked him into signing a conservatorship by the Tuouy family. He said he was never adopted, but the Tuouys spun that conservatorship into a book, movie deal, and made millions off of it.
[Yahoo] Negotiations between Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA have broken down over the Coach's recruiting violations. NCAA wants Michigan to suspend Harbaugh or face a year long suspension.
I don't think I've ever seen or heard the word (if it is that) "mistruthful". Shouldn't that be "untruthful"?
And yet, there it is, in the article.
Crawford is correct. The case is not about a cheeseburger; it’s about Harbaugh allegedly being mistruthful with investigators. If he’s guilty, then NCAA rules — which Harbaugh has agreed to adhere to — say he should be punished at least six games."
I now dislike USC/UCLA more than Stanford, by a country mile.
Stanford to me is a fun rivalry that I look forward to every year.
USC and UCLA are like exes whose faces I just never ever want to see again. They can go eat shit and die. Though I guess it will be enjoyable on some level to see them regularly pounded by Ohio State and Michigan, and routinely turtle in cold weather games. I don’t think either program is remotely close to being as good as they view themselves to be.
SC is rarely as good as they would like to think at the athletic department, so perhaps. I assume that the away games will be stacked earlier in the season but who knows... plus November in College Park and Piscataway are pretty mild.
I had dinner last week with an old friend who went to UCLA; she and I were like this is some bullshit. She was in the UCLA band at some point & was like this sucks for them as well, there's no way they're getting to those away games, and then proceeded to be very rude about sociology and political science majors (she's a professor of applied math)
I think Chip Kelly’s proposal is about right - make regional conferences for everything but football.
We are also but at a stopping point here in realignment. It’s nominally a Power 4 world now but the reality is that it’s a Power 2 world, with Big Ten and SEC clearly higher than Big 12 and ACC in both level of football play and amount of revenue. Eventually the ACC and Big 12 will also fold. And by eventually, I mean like in the next 2 or 3 years…
Before the pac12 network, SC and UCLA had higher shares of conference tv revenue. They were told they needed to agree to an equal share for the new network because everyone would make more money that way.
Since at the time SC hadn’t a negotiating leg to stand on (Bush sanctions plus Pat Haden taking time out from his busy schedule of charity tax fraud to maintain his “we’re very sorry please like us” tours of college football institutions), they agreed to the equal share.
The conference did not deliver, but that’s not because they “didn’t value SC enough” as some of my more goofy fellow alumni claimed, it’s because the conference management couldn’t have organized a piss up in a brewery or - more pertinently - correctly estimated revenue based on what media markets the conference covered. SC and UCLA absolutely precipitated the collapse of the conference, and after they lit that fire, the conference chose to try and put it out with buckets of gasoline. Conference of champions indeed.
I recently realized I've never told my Jim Knowlton story here. This is it: Went to the Noon Axe rally the Monday after winning the '21 Big Game. It lasted about half an hour. After was heading off campus via the path that goes from Sproul Plaza to Haas. Knowlton and what looked like a student assistant were walking in the opposite direction. As I passed them I heard Knowlton say, "it looks like it might have already started." Umm, yeah Jim you could say that.
Fantastic dude - a friend of mine remains one of his best buddies from back in the New Trier HS days in Chicago. Still sort of bummed that they moved on from him, TBH, as he loved Berkeley and would likely still be coaching there...however, the Monty years were well worth it, and the program had stagnated a bit under Ben.
The program had flatlined. Great guy. Shorter than me somehow! Said realignment schedules will be particularly brutal for west coast bball programs. Not like we didn't already have a poor reputation out here on the west coast, but sounds like realignment might make it even worse.
I think regardless of where we end up--regulation or P5--there's going to be a lot of house cleaning in the athletic department. Wilcox can save himself with a bowl appearance, but a MWC invite barely covers his salary. And who knows if he'll even want to be here given the overall lack of leadership and support in the athletic department. You could hear that underlying frustration in his presser late last week.
A young man was at the gym wearing a tshirt with an old-school UCB crest that said Berkeley 1868. He looked about college age - maybe 19 - but these days I can't tell if kids are 14 or 24. I gave him a furtive "Go Bears". He said "huh?". I waggled my finger at my chest and then pointed at his and repeated "Go Bears". He then excitedly yukked "uhhurhurhur- yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!". I don't think he was a student, but it is the first time that I've seen a shirt supporting the academic side, not the athletics side in the wilds of the East Coast.
Pops and I were walking across LV Blvd from the Venetian to the Mirage to shop for odds when we were there last month placing our annual NFL Futures wagers. A guy who appeared to be in his 60's was walking up the street with his partner wearing a blue with yellow script-Cal shirt...I gave a hearty Go Bears! and received NO response. I turned to my pops and did my best Strother Martin from Cool Hand Luke and said "some men you just can't reach." Guess the guy heard me, or finally processed what I had said, and responded with a Go Cal!!
Success!!! Fully expect all these NFL Futures bets to hit now that we accomplished the Cal connection en route.
Today in Covid
There is no such thing as "summer flu". You have Covid.
Es99 somehow managed to be the first person in the house to test positive. Other than a night of poor sleep and some sluggishness the following day, she seemed unaffected. Since she's only 4 months, she has pretty much no contact with anyone besides me, the missus, and Cf98, and all of us repeatedly tested negative (and no one had any symptoms prior). She had a checkup six days before testing positive, so perhaps that's where she picked it up.
Sister in law has it. 103 degree fever. This is like the third time she's gotten it.
I've had it three times. WTF.
i did not appreciate that another variant and another round of coronavirus was going around until just now. a friend recently had, but i assume it was just bad luck at this point.
My wife just got Covid. Tested positive last Saturday. She got it from a coworker who tested positive last Wednesday.
My wife was sick for 2 weeks with varying symptoms. A blinding headache and pretty bad cough were the main symptoms. She tested negative three times with at-home tests. We spoke to someone recently who had same experience, including multiple negative at-home test, got a PCR test and it came back positive.
one of my team who lives in South Carolina just got it, my mother in law caught it traveling back from Italy in July (funnily enough, her husband was sick for like 3 days and never tested positive, she was knocked on her ass for 6 weeks). I last got a booster in Sept '22 but I think I'll hold off for the newer booster formulation (or just catch it in Scotland next month lol rofl etc)
I'm hoping the local clinic will conveniently package an updated Covid with influenza in mid fall.
At the risk of sounding even more middle aged than usual I doubled up on flu and shingles on Friday - my doctor suggested that if I were to follow her advice & hold on for the updated COVID booster, I might as well get started on the shingles shots and get the COVID booster during the 6 month gap
XBB.1.16 gaining ground on XBB.1.5 variant. The two are quite similar; Pfizer and Moderna are working on a booster to battle XBB.1.5. Unfortunately, the last booster fought BA.4 and BA.5, which are nearly extinct and is not effective against preventing XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16. The good news is that the vaccine and its booster are still effective against catching the worst symptoms of Covid. A new symptom of XBB.1.5 is pink-eye.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/08/11/1193229029/coronavirus-faq-is-it-wiser-to-get-a-booster-now-or-wait-for-the-new-fall-booste
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions
Kind of feels like COVID-19 has settled in to a regular evolution pattern against which you are probably fine if you've had the virus or the vaccine before.
I think we are not quite to where it's 'another flu' but headed in that direction.
SHE BLINDED ME WITH...
Someone call Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Michael Clarke Duncan, Billy Bob Thornton, Steve Buscemi -- and fire up a new Aerosmith soundtrack.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4148972-nasa-is-sending-humans-to-an-asteroid-spacex-will-get-them-there/
There is a giant question mark over what the Webb telescope found. Literally. The answer may be "two colliding galaxies"
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/world/question-mark-galaxy-space-james-webb-telescope-scn/index.html
Peep
Jousting
state sport of Maryland, oddly enough
I was at a state park the other week and was reminded of that weird fact because they had a jousting area nearby with signage proudly proclaiming it as the state sport
A good mystery
Where does Cal and Stanford end up? Who exactly killed the Pac12.
PRO
Yankees blow a four run lead going into the 9th
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/yankees-melt-down-vs-marlins-as-new-yorks-season-hits-new-low-with-ninth-inning-collapse/
Padres have officially given up.
Crying Kershaw was the downfall.
Bears again win a combined million in golf over the weekend. Any way we can make them tithe?
Athletics implode late, lose 8-7 to Nats
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2023/8/13/23830681/athletics-implode-late-lose-8-7-to-nats
The Athletics blew a huge late lead today to finish off getting swept, falling to the Washington Nationals by a final of 8-7 after Washington scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth. Owch, this one hurt.
Two brutal walk-off losses in a row.
I appreciated the A's fan behind home plate on Saturday with a bold green shirt that said "SELL THE TEAM." He also draped a "SELL THE TEAM" banner on the empty seats in front of him
I only watched sporadically, but even the Nats announcer made a comment about the vocal A's fans that were there. A's fandom may not be wide, but it has historically been deep.
A's are really not good. They still had a chance to hold on for the win until the SS booted a grounder. Saturday, they blew a simple ground ball that later lead to a run. Nats have been playing better lately but A's still should not have been swept.
A's lose two straight on walkoff hits by two ex-Dodgers.
Giants beat the Rangers 3-2 on a walkoff 2-run HR by Patrick Bailey after Doval gives up a run in the top of the 9th.
I wasn't watching, but Johnny Miller gave the impression it was a bad decision by Crawford.
you mean the play that gave the Rangers the tying run? There was a runner on 2nd and it was a ground ball deep in the 5.5 hole. Crawford went right, got it on his backhand, and had a throw deep in the hole. Don't think he had a shot at the runner so I suppose he could've eaten it. The competitor in him probably made him throw it.
Julio Urías strikes out 12 as Dodgers finish 4-game sweep of Rockies
https://www.truebluela.com/2023/8/13/23830631/julio-urias-strikeouts-dodgers-sweep-rockies-miguel-rojas
Julio Urías struck out a career-high 12 and pitched his longest outing since returning from the injured list as the Dodgers finished off a four-game weekend sweep of the Rockies, 8-3 on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers finished off a perfect 7-0 week and ran their win streak to eight games.
Urías finished off his day by striking out eight of his final nine batters faced, including seven in a row from the fifth inning through the first out in the seventh, two shy of Aaron Harang’s franchise record.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
CNN says hit has obtained leaked information that the Fulton County DA has text and email evidence that links Trump's legal team to stealing voting machines in Georgia, cracking the software, and manufacturing evidence in order to claim the election was stolen ahead of Jan 6th.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/politics/coffee-county-georgia-voting-system-breach-trump/index.html
That’s a spicy meatball!
That’s a family style plate of spicy meatballs
Fulton County court prematurely releases filing about Donald Trump. There are 39 charges along 13 different felonies, the big one being a RICO charge.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-state-georgia-appears-set-file-charges-against-donald-trump-court-document-2023-08-14/
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE (partly) TELEVISED
https://themessenger.com/politics/judge-georgia-indictment-will-be-televised-if-trump-gets-charged
Trump tampers with a potential witness ahead of his Georgia indictment
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110888087440060991
Wow. Clicking that link is the first time I've been on Truth Social. Felt dirty. Think it gave me Covid.
Trump says he would not have appointed the guy that he appointed
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110874170534362392
TFG's tax break has now become the rough on his golf course
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12400819/Ivana-Trumps-grave-completely-overgrown-Trumps-Bedminster-golf-course.html
Feeble attempt at making it harder to exhume Ivana when the time comes for a homicide investigation.
Completely on brand
Nevada GOP going ahead with a state caucus designed to choose TFG as their nominee even though there is a state law that requires a primary to choose their candidate
https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-nevada-republicans-primary-caucus-trump-ef887cd3587f8621b2486b65bda7e397
ICYMI: Ramaswamy is beating now beating DeSantis in one poll. However, Politico has an interesting article about why polls are so different about his favorability
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/12/vivek-ramaswamy-polls-rise-00110937
Mike Pence going with the Jeff Sessions "I don't recall, Senator" defense. His memory is scheduled to get a bit hazy over the next year
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4150876-pence-says-he-doesnt-recall-if-he-was-told-about-false-elector-scheme-leading-up-to-jan-6/
While not affiliated with the US Government, the White House Gift Shop is semi-official. It has a commemorative coin set for each of TFG's indictments. It has issued the first in presumably a set of many...
https://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/The-Indictment-of-President-Donald-J-Trump-Coin-p/trump-indictment.htm
When you click on 'larger photo' & read the coins, it looks a bit less official. More along the lines of buff trump NFTs.
DBD AV CLUB
Foo Fighters replacement drummer is John Freese, who stepped in after Taylor Hawkins died. Freese has been a drummer for numerous bands, including Michael Bublé - which prompted Dave Grohl to have a running gag where he asks audience members if they know any Bublé lyrics when introducing Freese on stage. So then this happened at the SF concert...
https://twitter.com/marisaonfilm/status/1690886253258960896
"Wild" (HBO/Max, 14/19) - a beautifully shot movie about a damaged woman who goes on a 1,100 mile hike to escape and confront her demons. It's biographical, so it lacks clever manufactured story arcs to dramatize it but the characters does have deep pain, ways of coping, and redemption that resonated with me. Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern were great.
It was fantastic...an excellent book as well by Cheryl Strayed. Got me interested in the Pacific Crest Trail, which apparently runs real close to the Lair.
Even the impossibly miserable woman that is the former-Mrs. Jimmy C enjoyed it. One of the few movies we saw together that we both liked.
The PCT crosses highway 108 at Sonora Pass; about an hour out of Pinecrest, home of the Lair. Have done many great hikes out of that area, though this year there was still a lot of snow (first week of August) which cut the treks short.
Nice!! I’m spending more and more time up at the new Chitwood cabin in Long Barn…gonna have to check some hiking out! The Sonora Pass only opened in the end of June - snow was ridiculous.
A friend of mine did the entire (2660mi) trail with a buddy. His friend quit ~50 miles from the Canadian border. I guess you know when you're done.
They shot a doc on the way: "Walking the West".
Ken Burns' next documentary promises to be very well done and also depressing
https://deadline.com/2023/08/ken-burns-interview-the-u-s-and-the-holocaust-emmys-1235457332/
This already came out maybe a year ago fyi.
We went to see Barbie last night. I quite enjoyed it.
Saw it over the weekend as well - thought it was good! Like every Hollywood movie of the past 20 years, it could have been improved by being edited to be 20 mins shorter, but otherwise I thought they did a very good job with what you must admit is a very challenging bit of source material. I can see how someone could think the discussion of feminism was too heavy handed, but I think it had to be given what they were working with. Best part of the movie IMO was the satirizing of bro culture, was very funny. I was hoping that post Covid there would be some sort of human connection angle in the resolution, but maybe they are saving that for the sequel. Anyway, my 7 and 9 year old daughters loved it, so I think that alone marks it a success
I had a good laugh at it, they could probably have trimmed it down. The set and costume design was fantastic.
Did I wince a bit at the scene where the Kens were expounding on Porsche 356 design, Steven Malkmus, and the Godfather? Maybe a little ;)
I saw it last week and while I was happy to sit through it, I thought it was... fine? It's visually cute, but not much more than that.
We were talking about it over dinner tonight and the girls were like it was fun but that was like “baby’s first intro to feminism content not subversive like some people claimed.”
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Michael Oher sues the Tuouy familiy. He says they never adopted him, but did use it as a carrot to dangle in front of him and tricked him into signing a conservatorship by the Tuouy family. He said he was never adopted, but the Tuouys spun that conservatorship into a book, movie deal, and made millions off of it.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds
If this is true it's some next level evil shit. Also, WTF Michael Lewis?
NCAA article puts Cal on the watch list to potentially be upset by Idaho https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2023-08-10/25-potential-fcs-over-fbs-upsets-2023?fbclid=IwAR27nF_iuUtPNXeNOxAKbcBoQx4rmE2D2t98k6E8jT_3wy-9DE1oafJxXK4
lol at Sacramento State at LSJU. That would be absolutely hilarious
If that happened, then each participant in the Causeway Classic could claim a victory over 'Furd.
I’m just hoping we don’t get stung by the Mean Green.
Hell yeah
That's PROFESSOR Manning to you
https://247sports.com/college/tennessee/Article/peyton-manning-tennessee-football-vols-legend-returning-to-ut-as-professor-214244741/
Ohio State's AD said that UW and Oregon got a full share
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/ohio-state-ad-reveals-the-one-key-factor-that-led-to-pac-12-demise/ar-AA1f9xDi
Rickey says, you get a full share, you get a full share. Full share for everyone!
But does Cal get a full share?
Cal needs to hire Rickey to do the negotiations.
[Yahoo] Negotiations between Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA have broken down over the Coach's recruiting violations. NCAA wants Michigan to suspend Harbaugh or face a year long suspension.
https://sports.yahoo.com/not-a-cheeseburger-comment-suggests-the-ncaa-is-hellbent-on-hitting-jim-harbaugh-hard-015020596.html
I don't think I've ever seen or heard the word (if it is that) "mistruthful". Shouldn't that be "untruthful"?
And yet, there it is, in the article.
Crawford is correct. The case is not about a cheeseburger; it’s about Harbaugh allegedly being mistruthful with investigators. If he’s guilty, then NCAA rules — which Harbaugh has agreed to adhere to — say he should be punished at least six games."
It's always the cover up that get you...
This is a homer article title if I've ever read one. University of Spoiled Children indeed.
https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/lists/pac-12-died-because-its-presidents-refused-to-help-usc-or-acknowledge-trojans-real-value/
I now dislike USC/UCLA more than Stanford, by a country mile.
Stanford to me is a fun rivalry that I look forward to every year.
USC and UCLA are like exes whose faces I just never ever want to see again. They can go eat shit and die. Though I guess it will be enjoyable on some level to see them regularly pounded by Ohio State and Michigan, and routinely turtle in cold weather games. I don’t think either program is remotely close to being as good as they view themselves to be.
What are your feelings gonna be when Stanford gets a B1G invite and Cal gets sent to the MWC?
Some knowledgeable B1G source reporting it’s very possible.
Oof, my feelings are I am moving to Australia and following footie!
Jim Knowlton should be brought up on charges and incarcerated.
And you can hate UCLA a bit more as they literally stole Cal's fight song.
SC is rarely as good as they would like to think at the athletic department, so perhaps. I assume that the away games will be stacked earlier in the season but who knows... plus November in College Park and Piscataway are pretty mild.
I had dinner last week with an old friend who went to UCLA; she and I were like this is some bullshit. She was in the UCLA band at some point & was like this sucks for them as well, there's no way they're getting to those away games, and then proceeded to be very rude about sociology and political science majors (she's a professor of applied math)
I think Chip Kelly’s proposal is about right - make regional conferences for everything but football.
We are also but at a stopping point here in realignment. It’s nominally a Power 4 world now but the reality is that it’s a Power 2 world, with Big Ten and SEC clearly higher than Big 12 and ACC in both level of football play and amount of revenue. Eventually the ACC and Big 12 will also fold. And by eventually, I mean like in the next 2 or 3 years…
The MPSF has worked well for water polo, I don’t see any reason why that or some other entity couldn’t be used to organize all the non revenue sports
Before the pac12 network, SC and UCLA had higher shares of conference tv revenue. They were told they needed to agree to an equal share for the new network because everyone would make more money that way.
Since at the time SC hadn’t a negotiating leg to stand on (Bush sanctions plus Pat Haden taking time out from his busy schedule of charity tax fraud to maintain his “we’re very sorry please like us” tours of college football institutions), they agreed to the equal share.
The conference did not deliver, but that’s not because they “didn’t value SC enough” as some of my more goofy fellow alumni claimed, it’s because the conference management couldn’t have organized a piss up in a brewery or - more pertinently - correctly estimated revenue based on what media markets the conference covered. SC and UCLA absolutely precipitated the collapse of the conference, and after they lit that fire, the conference chose to try and put it out with buckets of gasoline. Conference of champions indeed.
🤮
CAL
I recently realized I've never told my Jim Knowlton story here. This is it: Went to the Noon Axe rally the Monday after winning the '21 Big Game. It lasted about half an hour. After was heading off campus via the path that goes from Sproul Plaza to Haas. Knowlton and what looked like a student assistant were walking in the opposite direction. As I passed them I heard Knowlton say, "it looks like it might have already started." Umm, yeah Jim you could say that.
Bumped into coach Braun at Berkeley Whole Foods yesterday. Talked a little realignment. Great guy.
Fantastic dude - a friend of mine remains one of his best buddies from back in the New Trier HS days in Chicago. Still sort of bummed that they moved on from him, TBH, as he loved Berkeley and would likely still be coaching there...however, the Monty years were well worth it, and the program had stagnated a bit under Ben.
The program had flatlined. Great guy. Shorter than me somehow! Said realignment schedules will be particularly brutal for west coast bball programs. Not like we didn't already have a poor reputation out here on the west coast, but sounds like realignment might make it even worse.
It’s makes proper leadership essential at the Chancellor/AD positions, which filters down to coaching hires.
If we get a P5 invite, Wilcox will need to be replaced if he falters this year. Hopefully you can hold onto Madsen.
If we’re relegated, Madsen gone & Wilcox probably gets a lifetime contract and stays forever! ;-)
I think regardless of where we end up--regulation or P5--there's going to be a lot of house cleaning in the athletic department. Wilcox can save himself with a bowl appearance, but a MWC invite barely covers his salary. And who knows if he'll even want to be here given the overall lack of leadership and support in the athletic department. You could hear that underlying frustration in his presser late last week.
Go Bears!!!
A young man was at the gym wearing a tshirt with an old-school UCB crest that said Berkeley 1868. He looked about college age - maybe 19 - but these days I can't tell if kids are 14 or 24. I gave him a furtive "Go Bears". He said "huh?". I waggled my finger at my chest and then pointed at his and repeated "Go Bears". He then excitedly yukked "uhhurhurhur- yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!". I don't think he was a student, but it is the first time that I've seen a shirt supporting the academic side, not the athletics side in the wilds of the East Coast.
I meant to mention this from my Vegas trip.
Pops and I were walking across LV Blvd from the Venetian to the Mirage to shop for odds when we were there last month placing our annual NFL Futures wagers. A guy who appeared to be in his 60's was walking up the street with his partner wearing a blue with yellow script-Cal shirt...I gave a hearty Go Bears! and received NO response. I turned to my pops and did my best Strother Martin from Cool Hand Luke and said "some men you just can't reach." Guess the guy heard me, or finally processed what I had said, and responded with a Go Cal!!
Success!!! Fully expect all these NFL Futures bets to hit now that we accomplished the Cal connection en route.
Another Strother Martin line that I like (from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) -
"What the hell do you mean move?"
This and everyone else’s failed Go Bears stories posted here are why I no longer Go Bears anyone
That’s fair.
@Maybe you should've said Go Berkeley@
If we can't hook up with another conference for sports and the athletic department is decimated it may take care of our branding issue.
Barf.
;-)
or “you see…”
Go Cal, indeed…
MISC
I have a couple of bluesky codes if anyone is interested in trying it out, lemme know
I will take one please and thank tou
Check Twitter DMs
Threads use down by 80%, which is a pretty impressive plummet, not even Elon Musk has managed that https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/social-media-news/threads-first-month/