“Hibachi” (‘fire bowl’, 火鉢 – ひばち) is a traditional Japanese brazier. It comes in different forms, but it’s conceptually no different than a European brazier - a fireproof container to contain fire charcoal. At its simplest, it’s a ceramic pot. Later versions had an open top to warm tea or cook food like this:
Meanwhile, there were shichirin (“seven rin”, 七輪 – しちりん). At their simplest form, they are ceramic chimneys with a grill on top. Later versions are box-shaped and now start to look like the familiar for yakiniku (literally “grilled meats”). “Rin” means “loop” or “ring”, but in this case has to do with low denomination coins. Shichirin means that the grill was efficient enough that it only used seven rin coins worth of charcoal to use.
Arianna Grande created the song “Seven Rings” and she tattooed seven rings onto her palm. Actually, she tattooed “shichirin” onto her palm. She later changed the tattoo. I would have kept it because I love yakiniku.
Later, veterans from WW2 returned from the Pacific and wanted to recreate the outdoors. They imported shichirin back to the US west coast and they were quite popular. They were marketed as “Hibachi”. These were later overtaken by “Weber” and their famous dome-shaped grills.
Meanwhile, Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki came to the US to study restaurant management. He eventually created Benihana (“safflower”), which introduced the concept of teppanyaki (table grilling) to the US. Benihana became a hit and spread across the US. While Benihana has faded as a brand, tepanyaki cooking has not. On the East Coast of the United States, hibachi means griddle fried “Japanese” food - either the giant tables meant for live entertainment or in-the-back griddle cooking. Hibachi is supposed to be Japanese food, but it’s essentially Chinese chop suey made with Japanese style ingredients. Some people love it and who am I to tell them what they should like. I think it’s gross.
Still giving away a box of great Sci-Fi paperback books soon, most bought used, some great art covers, lots of Hugo winners - most old, some newish (1990-2000?)
Anyway, or I'll take 'em to a Sci-Fi store on Claremont.
Dark Carnival? Used to buy sci-fi books there when it was on Shattuck. In my teen years I read every book I could get my hands on, particularly Hugo and Nebula winners.
Seemed to be really popular in the 1960's up into the 1980's. I used to read a lot of the 1960's stuff even though it was before my time. In the 70's you still had Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Dick, Delany, Wolfe, Zelazny, Pohl, Silverberg, LeGuin, etc. a lot of which was quite literate. Seems like now there are repetitive franchises (Trek, Star Wars) and less new good stuff. Part of the problem is that space travel has not advanced much since the 60's, though computers, phones, AI etc have been moving along nicely.
If you drive from Houston to Dallas - especially at night, there is a GIANT statue of Sam Houston on the way that frightened the shit out of me the first time I saw it - because you're in a dark forest and all of a sudden there he is like 67t tall and lit up.
Old Dominion and UTEP, both offered my nephew as a transfer from ARC, he chose UTEP. Interestingly, the week he committed to UTEP, my wife and I were watching Narcos and the episode included an overhead shot of El Paso, with the Sun Bowl: She had no idea of where he was playing so I was thrilled that this episode allowed me to literally show her where he'd be playing home games. :)
My Chinese golf coach played there. She moved to Orlando at age 12 to play and study in a golf high school and then played at App State. She misses the US and really wants to come back, but she moved back to China for family issues.
Oh wow! I was born and raised in that miserable town but never realized that UNLV campus is not within the citiy limits of Las Vegas. It does have a Las Vegas mailing address, though.
Suburban sprawl and growth in the Las Vegas metro area and neighboring towns have made it seem like UNLV is in Vegas.
I bet most people think ASU is in Phoenix because the Phoenix metro area and all the surrounding towns including Tempe just all look like one continuous city now.
Rutgers is the only state school I know of that does not have the name of the state in its name.
The Pail and Shovel Party at Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison claimed that they would rename UWM as the University of New Jersey at Madison if they won their student body election (this was a declaration made at the first National Student Congress at UPenn in 1979). I was there to witness this declaration as I was part of the RU delegation.
New Jersey is the only state for which no university carries its name. There is no University of New Jersey or New Jersey State University or New Jersey University.
I've been there. Stopped there for lunch there once. Town is kind of falling down. I also remembered where it is because it shares the same name as the next town over from me.
I remember them from their March Madness run a few years ago. The head coach had a cast on his foot/leg and had to have one of those little scooters I think.
I remember years ago on one of those Playboy rankings of top party schools in America (I was DEFINITELY just reading for the articles)...I forget who was #1 that year but they had an asterixis on the whole list that said something like:
*consideration was not given to University of Wyoming because, being professionals at partying, they do not qualify.
When you think about it's a nice name. You've got mill and who doesn't like mills? Pete which is a nice name and us with suggests togetherness. Now as for my thoughts on the word manure.....
Soak the rich, pay teachers a living wage so that they can afford to live in the Bay Area or the school district should build housing specifically for teachers or give them a reasonable housing allowance.
We are where we are on this issue and many others because of the Reagan Revolution - cut taxes, then cut 'em again, and cut 'em again.
The people who made off the absolute best in this deal over the last 40+ years are those people who can most afford to have their taxes raised - multimillionaires.
Not quite on this subtopic, but the local P5 University's Flagship station's morning personality today proclaimed that community issues with crime, homelessness, and health issues are caused by having too many public health, affordable housing, mental health, drug/substance, transit, and shelter programs, because these attract all the people needing services to the community. Premise was that if there were very few and very limited services, the people needing them would all just go elsewhere.
I would just dismiss the local babbling idiot as the clueless doufous that he is, except that when people like that are empowered and have a platform, an alarming and increasing number of people actually give credence to this kind of thinking, and worse, act accordingly.
Ah yes, because people in need of those services have the means to uproot their lives and move hundreds of miles away to other places with these services. And of course they'll immediately receive those services rather than being on a waitlist for years, as is common for many affordable housing units.
Alaska has a Democrat representative in their at-large district for the first time since Nick Begich Sr in 1972, who disappeared while in office and is presumed dead in a plane crash. She defeated GOP opponents Sarah Palin and Begich's son Nick Jr.
Tom Cotton is a disingenuous hack. Alaska voters adopted ranked choice voting in 2020.
This brings to mind the effort by the California GOP in 2008 to establish a redistricting commission and take it out of the hands of the legislature. The redistricting commission ended up drawing the boundaries for State Assembly districts, State Senate districts, and US Representative districts. More seats at each level were won by Democrats because the redistricting commission used common sense criteria in drawing the new boundaries.
Oklahoma teacher fired and now the OK DoE is going after her teaching license because she gave out a QR code that linked to the Brooklyn Public Library that has books that are banned in her school district.
Even by their own low standards, it really is amazing that every attempt by the Trump coterie to minimize this business with the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is essentially just further confession / basis for indictment.
This is the gift that keeps on giving for the Dems. As long as this stays in the news, it makes the GOP look less and less reasonable and the Dems more and more responsible.
If not Trump personally, his staff would certainly have digitized copies of all of them, and a backup. Its a sideshow comprised of equal parts clueless people and people trying to capitalize on some people's cluelessness.
I have a couple of short jaunts coming up but I wouldn't qualify them as vacations: going to Oregon in a couple of weeks to see my mother and my brother and his family, and then we're going to the wedding of one my wife's cousins in Brooklyn in early October.
Nobody in the house enjoyed Thanksgiving at my mother in law's place last year, so I suggested we evade the challenge of the same guests by taking that week to go to the UK ostensibly so my younger daughter could look at universities there. My wife has this crazy idea that maybe it might be cheaper and easier if we were to offer to host Thanksgiving instead. Crazy!
We're taking some delight in the possibility of NOT hosting Thanksgiving this year.
Mrs Slug is actually entertaining the thought of attending Thanksgiving at her sister's just for the schadenfreude factor associated with the Trumpist side of the family being close to despondent over election results. Of course that depends on the Senate and House remaining in Democratic hands.
Going to Chicago for a quick weekend getaway in a few weeks. Might catch a game while I’m there. After that, will be in Belize for thanksgiving weekend.
The lady friend's mom has a house in San Pedro, BZ (Ambergris Caye) so I'm not too overly concerned with the length of stay as this will most likely not be my only trip to BZ in the coming years.
I don't know. After our trip to LA and Germany, we've decided to take a break from traveling with a 2yo. The missus is going to Hawaii for work in November, however, and that's practically a vacation.
I'm counting my business trip to Lisbon in 2 weeks as a vacation. Sure 9-6 will not be super fun, but walking around a European city at night and trying to find good restaurants that has outdoor dining will be fun. Looking forward to having good food. Plus I get there Fri late morning and the event doesn't start until Monday so I'll have almost 3 full days of trying not to get Covid while exploring the city.
4-day weekend over what used to be Columbus Day. My son gets the Friday and Monday off. Not sure what we're going to do, but it'll almost certainly be out of town.
I still have 10 days left of this one! I'm doing a long weekend in LA in November, would love to squeeze in a quick Hawaii trip sometime after that but suspect the world may have other plans for me.
I don't know. My wife wants to do something over Xmas break, but as a finance/accounting guy, I work over year-end. We usually travel someplace exotic so that I can hang out in a hotel staring at my computer. I don't think we have anything planned, but I suspect that Portugal is next.
I've said this before, so forgive me for being repetitive, but I loved Portugal. We drove from Porto to Lisbon, including a stop in Fatima, and loved every minute of it.
I don't know that I'd want to burn time off in a hotel somewhere lovely looking at my laptop. Funnily enough my incentive for taking a vacation is to go overseas just because I am prohibited from taking the customer laptop so there's absolutely no way I could work.
After attending Roadburn fest this past April in Tilburg, NL, I started to look into similar fests in terms of style of music and capacity, and Amplifest in Porto came across my radar. A very cool collective of post-, and metal adjacent acts that I would certainly love to attend.
Not all my cup of tea but some bands that would be interesting to see live, and it's really cool that the Hard Club is just casually in the midst of the older part of Porto
we have been there the last few years for Xmas and seemed to have lucked out w/ decent snow.
while it is certainly not cheap, it is a good compromise of decent food and lodging near the mountain at less than absurd prices. also, the relative hard-to-get-to factor keeps it a little less crowded on the slopes.
the year we are actually transporting Santa and Xmas to CO since we are there Dec 23-30. the 6 and 9 yr old are still believers.
My brother and I have this notion that we should gave a "middle aged man cliches" trip to Spain so we can take in games at the smaller La Liga team stadia in Madrid (Getafe and Rayo Vallecano) and then go and look at Roman ruins (Merida is a long way from Madrid, but it looks like it would be worth it)
If I were being more negative than usual, I'd say that getting pickpocketed on a bus in Rome was one of the highlights of the visit (at least until we went to Ostia Antica, that was great)
I just got back from Portland where I (along with 11 other people) ran and drove from Mt Hood to the Oregon coast of the span of 31 hours in two mini-vans.
My wife joined a charity team relay race from Gettysburg to DC a couple of times, she plainly got something out of it, but it was also clearly a bit of a grind. Have to assume Hood to the coast would be harder work too
I haven't done Hood to Coast, but when in Alaska I did the Klondike Trail of 98 relay a few times. It's a 110-mile race from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, following the route over White Pass of the 1898 gold rush. We also did the two van thing. For a while we owned the coed team record but no idea if it still stands.
The winning teams for HTC tend to finish between 18 and 24 hours (a friend who I recruited to my team who then ditched me for another, much faster team - her team was #4 co-ed and they ran it in 24 compared to our 31)
Hood to Coast is fun and epic - I think it was the first mass relay of its kind and it sells out of its 1000 teams on opening day every year.
Got to Florence this morning and am pleased to report that it really hasn't changed much since 1986 when I lived here. I guess the benefit of having a 1000 year old city is that it can absorb pretty much anything without much drama.
Also, Italians still use a lot of cash! As do the French. British hardly use it at all.
My cousin got her 8 year old a pre-paid debit card so she could practice doing things like going to the local shops and buying the odd chocolate bar, never even considered trying to get her started with cash (although in fairness the 8 year old would lose the coins on the way, we have a solid family tradition of absent-mindedness)
Oakland dropped the middle game off the series to the Nationals, losing 5-1 to Washington on Wednesday evening.
The starting pitching was strong early but came apart in the fifth, and the bats never got going except for a solo homer in the second.
Oakland struck first tonight, and it was one of the rookies who came through. After hitting his first career MLB home run yesterday, first baseman Dermis Garcia swatted his second, a solo shot in the top of the second to give the A’s an early lead:
Too little too late again for the San Francisco Giants in the getaway game against the San Diego Padres.
All three match-ups in the series were determined by one run and yet none of them felt particularly close. The Friars were up 5-0 in the 6th before the Giants scored their first run.
San Diego starter Joe Musgrove didn’t flinch his first two times through the San Francisco batting order. The righty struck out 5 consecutive Giants after LaMonte Wade Jr. popped out to start their half of their 1st inning. He had K’ed 7 through 4 complete and finished his night with a total of 11 punch outs.
Sometimes exactly what you expected ends up being precisely what you get. Jacob deGrom took the mound Wednesday and did what he normally does, leading the Mets to a closely contested 2-1 win over the Dodgers to tie up this series in New York.
The Dodgers have had more than their fair share of games against the cream of the crop when it comes to starting pitching, a couple each against reigning NL Cy Young Corbin Burnes, and this year’s favorite in Sandy Alcantara, all within the last month. And in two of those four occasions, the offense had its way, putting up a crooked number at home against those two elite hurlers.
With all due respect that both Burnes and Alcantara deserve, the challenge in tonight’s game was simply on another level. The best offense in the major leagues went up against deGrom, who may not be the reigning Cy Young, may not be in the running this year, but is undeniably peerless in the current game.
Any guesses how many times we rush the field after football games this season? I say three for sure: after the Big Game win, of course, after the regular-season ending victory over UC, Los Angeles and after the upset of Oregon. Four if we beat UW in the closing seconds or OT.
Well past - Sydcasy - was wrong about the mask instruction in the very beginning - I know it looks bad, but there was a rational reason. Doesn't excuse the stupid actions of the Trump administration - but still.
Early mask instructions in the pandemic were based on fear of insufficient supply, not based on the theory that masking didn't work. Masking worked then, it does now. Regardless, people are fatigued with mask wearing and are not following common sense as a consequence.
This is not the only thing for which common sense is not being followed in the fight against COVID. Because of those lapses, this pandemic will drag on far longer than it should.
That’s the Ken Montgomery pseudo-science sticking point he ride all the way down the MAGA trail. Does no one here actually know how the fuck science works?
There seemed to be a big gap between how a scientific organization like CDC receives and updates its beliefs based on new information and how the general populace does. Scientists are accustomed to incremental discoveries and updating their beliefs accordingly, even if it involves reversing course. The public tends to view that as a confusing series of mixed messages (masks bad! masks good! masks bad vs. delta/omicron!). They definitely needed a different PR strategy for communicating with the public.
I think this issue most reared its head with vaccines: when they first came out there was a reasonable expectation that they could help control transmission, but then new variants changed that expectation. Some segments of the public interpreted that as flip-flopping, but it's really just new circumstances.
But with masking I think it was a different problem: early in the pandemic, the government simply lied about them. Fauci told people not to use masks because they weren't effective, when the real reason was that they didn't want people eating up the supply needed for doctors and front-line workers. IMO they should have just been straight with us. I understood what was going on, but a lot of people didn't.
I agree. I feel this way at work when management tries to come up with sone convoluted win-win rationale for something they want us to do. Just treat me like an adult and tell me the real reason for this, or else I will stop believing what you are telling me across the board
Us Japanese prefer to do BBQ with shichirin grills even in US. If the group is huge, obviously we use gas grills too, but if the group is around 5~8 people, small shichirin grills are sufficient.
https://twitter.com/WillMuldoon/status/1565183329607237633 According to the official AK voter rolls, there are actually *nine* official genders in Alaska
I'm not sure if this is going to happen.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1565318587736285184
https://twitter.com/itspeterj/status/1565046071050510339?s=20&t=kkRLXi4gX6kQtyZnQQXqBA
Any other celebrity pairs you'd put in this Tweet?
The Margot Robbie look-a-like hexad: Jamie King, Margot Robbie, Faith Ford, Samra Weaving, Emma Mackey, Jaime Pressly
Samra Weaving is Great Value brand Margot Robbie
Still giving away a box of great Sci-Fi paperback books soon, most bought used, some great art covers, lots of Hugo winners - most old, some newish (1990-2000?)
Anyway, or I'll take 'em to a Sci-Fi store on Claremont.
where are you moving to
A house in Oakland.
oh wow. Congrats!
being a slum lord wont be the same
He's moving in with you!
The Fire Starkey Pleasure Palace has room for all
Dark Carnival? Used to buy sci-fi books there when it was on Shattuck. In my teen years I read every book I could get my hands on, particularly Hugo and Nebula winners.
I wonder if any of the CGB teachers would want to receive your books for their classrooms.
Sci-Fi?
Why not?
Uh, I really have no idea honestly, but 14 & up I would guess.
They could use them for free reading periods. Though these days I bet scifi isn't as popular since the moon and space aren't unknown.
Seemed to be really popular in the 1960's up into the 1980's. I used to read a lot of the 1960's stuff even though it was before my time. In the 70's you still had Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Dick, Delany, Wolfe, Zelazny, Pohl, Silverberg, LeGuin, etc. a lot of which was quite literate. Seems like now there are repetitive franchises (Trek, Star Wars) and less new good stuff. Part of the problem is that space travel has not advanced much since the 60's, though computers, phones, AI etc have been moving along nicely.
Yeah, 100% the lack of cell phones in the "future" would be weird to kids now - really weird.
Name a Division 1 school that you think that fewer than 1% of our readers will know which town it is in off the top of their head.
Stephen F Austin and Sam Houston.
If you drive from Houston to Dallas - especially at night, there is a GIANT statue of Sam Houston on the way that frightened the shit out of me the first time I saw it - because you're in a dark forest and all of a sudden there he is like 67t tall and lit up.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-p/0f/05/c8/9a/67-ft-statue-of-sam-houston.jpg
Old Dominion and UTEP, both offered my nephew as a transfer from ARC, he chose UTEP. Interestingly, the week he committed to UTEP, my wife and I were watching Narcos and the episode included an overhead shot of El Paso, with the Sun Bowl: She had no idea of where he was playing so I was thrilled that this episode allowed me to literally show her where he'd be playing home games. :)
I live in Virginia and don't know what town ODU is in.
University of Notre Dame
Lamar
App State
Centinary
The only person that I've ever heard of going to Centenary was Robert Parish.
One of the best school mascots (the Gentlemen)
Boston College
I know from my time living in Boston that BC is in Chestnut Hill. I lived not far from Boston University which is in Boston.
Appalachian State
I did not know until I went to Boone on my Blue Ridge Parkway road trip.
My Chinese golf coach played there. She moved to Orlando at age 12 to play and study in a golf high school and then played at App State. She misses the US and really wants to come back, but she moved back to China for family issues.
UNLV
That one is easy because the acronym has the name of the town in it: "U Never Leave Vegas aka University of No Lasting Value."
But UNLV is not in Slots Vegas (Las Vegas).
Oh wow! I was born and raised in that miserable town but never realized that UNLV campus is not within the citiy limits of Las Vegas. It does have a Las Vegas mailing address, though.
I was also surprised to find out that UNLV is actually in Paradise. For those who don't know, Paradise abuts Las Vegas to the south.
Suburban sprawl and growth in the Las Vegas metro area and neighboring towns have made it seem like UNLV is in Vegas.
I bet most people think ASU is in Phoenix because the Phoenix metro area and all the surrounding towns including Tempe just all look like one continuous city now.
Most of the Strip is technically in Paradise, not Las Vegas.
Appalachian State
I should have read the whole thread
I know this one because I've heard from people who have visited that it's a surprisingly pleasant, cosmopolitan area given the larger surroundings.
Eastern Michigan
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Eastern Michigan is in Ypsilanti, which I know only because that's the next town over from Ann Arbor where the missus grew up.
Wake Forest. Hint: it's no longer in Wake Forest.
Kind of the reverse of 'Furd, then.
As a UNC BB fan, I know where Wake Forest is. Didn't know it used to be in Wake Forest.
The obvious choice is UAB, but I'll go with the University of Louisiana.
UAB has the city name in their school name.
I thought it was maybe a trick question, like they're called that but are actually in a suburb or something.
oh is it? It looks like UNLV and Notre Dame are trick questions too.
Yup, I knew that.
I usually think of that one as ULM rather than the University of Louisiana. Have they rebranded?
ULM is still ULM. It's the other one that rebranded.
pqtm I had no idea the other one was no longer ULL
I know where this is, but only because I grew up in the town in California that has the same name.
I knew, but only because they used to actually use the city name for the school and later transitioned to just being "Louisiana."
New Hampshire (I had to look it up--I couldn't name a single city in NH)
When I first read the thread I was thinking the other way around. A state with a college that no one knows is there. I was going to say Dartmouth.
I also like the, "Which colleges are state schools?"
Ex: Rutgers
Rutgers is the only state school I know of that does not have the name of the state in its name.
The Pail and Shovel Party at Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison claimed that they would rename UWM as the University of New Jersey at Madison if they won their student body election (this was a declaration made at the first National Student Congress at UPenn in 1979). I was there to witness this declaration as I was part of the RU delegation.
Okay, let me rephrase -
New Jersey is the only state for which no university carries its name. There is no University of New Jersey or New Jersey State University or New Jersey University.
Auburn
There's no University of New Jersey but there's a university of every other state that I can think of.
Precisely my point.
Some of the ones that are just city names can be hard to tell. For example:
Buffalo - part of the State University of New York system
San Francisco - private and Catholic.
Same with San Diego
Cornell
Athens State
Adams State
Valdosta State
Lewis & Clark
Ball State
Grambling
Southern
Alcorn State
I've been there. Stopped there for lunch there once. Town is kind of falling down. I also remembered where it is because it shares the same name as the next town over from me.
Georgia Southern.
Good one. I had no idea where this was. I looked it up. I have never heard of that town.
Yeah, but who cares about that one?
This question is derivative of whataboutism.
I remember them from their March Madness run a few years ago. The head coach had a cast on his foot/leg and had to have one of those little scooters I think.
So does Atoms
We're only to mention schools that a majority of WFC readers care about? How will we know? And where was that in the prompt?
Wyoming
Not Cheyenne?
I don't recall the name but I know the elevation is over 6,000 feet.
Laramie
I remember years ago on one of those Playboy rankings of top party schools in America (I was DEFINITELY just reading for the articles)...I forget who was #1 that year but they had an asterixis on the whole list that said something like:
*consideration was not given to University of Wyoming because, being professionals at partying, they do not qualify.
Chico State and UCSB often placed high
A neat little town. Have stayed there a couple of times while driving across the country.
Been there several times, some longer stays than others. It's a nice little place, especially if you haven't pre-assigned unfounded expectations.
Ship stuck in the Suez again. This theme seems to be evergreen.
https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1565104292708712451
Hunt for Red October NSA gif: You've grounded another ship?
Milpitas
When you think about it's a nice name. You've got mill and who doesn't like mills? Pete which is a nice name and us with suggests togetherness. Now as for my thoughts on the word manure.....
I get that they're trying to do something about it, but oof.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/bay-area-school-district-asking-parents-to-let-teachers-move-in
Fuck it.
Soak the rich, pay teachers a living wage so that they can afford to live in the Bay Area or the school district should build housing specifically for teachers or give them a reasonable housing allowance.
We are where we are on this issue and many others because of the Reagan Revolution - cut taxes, then cut 'em again, and cut 'em again.
The people who made off the absolute best in this deal over the last 40+ years are those people who can most afford to have their taxes raised - multimillionaires.
This 100%
This is a terrible solution.
I always assumed that the town was Spanish for millipedes. It's not. It means little "milpa". Milpa is a Mahuatl word that means cultivated field.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milpa
if it were Mil Pitos with an O, it would be 1000 dicks
Russia / Ukraine
Lukoil Chairman accidentally falls out of sixth floor window after criticizing Putin's war.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11168169/Russian-oil-tycoon-decorated-Putin-dies-plunging-sixth-floor-hospital-window.html
So, defenestration is now a thing in Russia?
"...died on the spot..."
A gruesome phrase if ever I saw one.
It is so open and brazen. These despotic states neither fear domestic blowback nor international blowback anymore.
Those window openings in Russia sure are slippery.
It's the words - and thoughts - that are slippery, like a banana peel.
Not just windows but probably also roof ledges.
OUR CRUMBLING REPUBLIC
Not quite on this subtopic, but the local P5 University's Flagship station's morning personality today proclaimed that community issues with crime, homelessness, and health issues are caused by having too many public health, affordable housing, mental health, drug/substance, transit, and shelter programs, because these attract all the people needing services to the community. Premise was that if there were very few and very limited services, the people needing them would all just go elsewhere.
I would just dismiss the local babbling idiot as the clueless doufous that he is, except that when people like that are empowered and have a platform, an alarming and increasing number of people actually give credence to this kind of thinking, and worse, act accordingly.
Ah yes, because people in need of those services have the means to uproot their lives and move hundreds of miles away to other places with these services. And of course they'll immediately receive those services rather than being on a waitlist for years, as is common for many affordable housing units.
JFC
:(
Hell has frozen over.
Alaska has a Democrat representative in their at-large district for the first time since Nick Begich Sr in 1972, who disappeared while in office and is presumed dead in a plane crash. She defeated GOP opponents Sarah Palin and Begich's son Nick Jr.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/31/democrat-peltola-beats-palin-in-alaska-special-election-upset-00054428
Another own-goal caused by the GOP base supporting a terrible candidate (Palin).
Alaska's GOP controlled governor, state legislature, and voting base adopted this law to do ranked-choice voting, but Tom Cotton says...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/sarah-palins-election-loss-sen-tom-cotton-calls-ranked-choice-voting-s-rcna45834
Tom Cotton is a disingenuous hack. Alaska voters adopted ranked choice voting in 2020.
This brings to mind the effort by the California GOP in 2008 to establish a redistricting commission and take it out of the hands of the legislature. The redistricting commission ended up drawing the boundaries for State Assembly districts, State Senate districts, and US Representative districts. More seats at each level were won by Democrats because the redistricting commission used common sense criteria in drawing the new boundaries.
He's dumb (and evil) but I hated the results of ranked-choice voting here in Oakland.
Jean Quan will do that to ya.
Well, yeah, and even worse, I knew her well.
My sympathies.
Quan turned out to be a bad choice, but RCV seemed to work fine the next time(s) after that.
Meanwhile, in a 6th grade class in Florida
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1565151484370722817
Oklahoma teacher fired and now the OK DoE is going after her teaching license because she gave out a QR code that linked to the Brooklyn Public Library that has books that are banned in her school district.
https://twitter.com/HannahAllam/status/1564999043817816065
First Amendment violation, pure and simple.
Even by their own low standards, it really is amazing that every attempt by the Trump coterie to minimize this business with the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is essentially just further confession / basis for indictment.
This is the gift that keeps on giving for the Dems. As long as this stays in the news, it makes the GOP look less and less reasonable and the Dems more and more responsible.
I mean why keep it in the news at all? It is quite odd
I may have stolen classified documents, but I DID NOT THROW THEM ON THE FLOOR
pqtm
If not Trump personally, his staff would certainly have digitized copies of all of them, and a backup. Its a sideshow comprised of equal parts clueless people and people trying to capitalize on some people's cluelessness.
NEXT VACAY
I have a couple of short jaunts coming up but I wouldn't qualify them as vacations: going to Oregon in a couple of weeks to see my mother and my brother and his family, and then we're going to the wedding of one my wife's cousins in Brooklyn in early October.
Nobody in the house enjoyed Thanksgiving at my mother in law's place last year, so I suggested we evade the challenge of the same guests by taking that week to go to the UK ostensibly so my younger daughter could look at universities there. My wife has this crazy idea that maybe it might be cheaper and easier if we were to offer to host Thanksgiving instead. Crazy!
We're taking some delight in the possibility of NOT hosting Thanksgiving this year.
Mrs Slug is actually entertaining the thought of attending Thanksgiving at her sister's just for the schadenfreude factor associated with the Trumpist side of the family being close to despondent over election results. Of course that depends on the Senate and House remaining in Democratic hands.
Just tell her therapy after hosting Thanksgiving is WAY more expensive than going to the UK.
You can send therapy bills in for reimbursement from insurance though, which is not a choice for plane tickets. I still like my idea more.
short: El Lay/Vegas? Longer: Ciudad de México
Can you go on vacation when you're unemployed?
you can definitely go on vacation while unemployed. i am in the same boat but taking the 3 other people in the family is a big accomplishment.
but i would say, even alone, vacation is the break you take from whatever it is you do day-to-day
You can take a break from looking for a job
I continued looking for a job - just in a different location.
Going to Chicago for a quick weekend getaway in a few weeks. Might catch a game while I’m there. After that, will be in Belize for thanksgiving weekend.
Only a weekend in Belize, that seems awfully short. Where in Belize will you be?
The lady friend's mom has a house in San Pedro, BZ (Ambergris Caye) so I'm not too overly concerned with the length of stay as this will most likely not be my only trip to BZ in the coming years.
Does a football road game trip to Fresno count? Or is that just a slightly extended weekend?
Nah, not counting going to Chicago for ND game as a vacation.
I'm reasonably sure Coach Wilcox won't view that weekend as a vacation, but it should be an interesting experience for a number of the old Blues.
I don't know. After our trip to LA and Germany, we've decided to take a break from traveling with a 2yo. The missus is going to Hawaii for work in November, however, and that's practically a vacation.
You’re not going with her? If my wife was going to Hawaii for work, I would be going with her to enjoy.
Is South Bend a vacation or a business trip? If not, Maui at the end of October for a week.
I'm counting my business trip to Lisbon in 2 weeks as a vacation. Sure 9-6 will not be super fun, but walking around a European city at night and trying to find good restaurants that has outdoor dining will be fun. Looking forward to having good food. Plus I get there Fri late morning and the event doesn't start until Monday so I'll have almost 3 full days of trying not to get Covid while exploring the city.
Hoping to meet up with Flag Guy and Yes We Cannon end of Sept–beginning of Oct
Two weeks in Paris and a few days in London next April.
No idea - it has been so long.
4-day weekend over what used to be Columbus Day. My son gets the Friday and Monday off. Not sure what we're going to do, but it'll almost certainly be out of town.
I still have 10 days left of this one! I'm doing a long weekend in LA in November, would love to squeeze in a quick Hawaii trip sometime after that but suspect the world may have other plans for me.
I don't know. My wife wants to do something over Xmas break, but as a finance/accounting guy, I work over year-end. We usually travel someplace exotic so that I can hang out in a hotel staring at my computer. I don't think we have anything planned, but I suspect that Portugal is next.
Portugal sounds increasingly enticing lately. Mostly so I can drown myself in port wine.
I've said this before, so forgive me for being repetitive, but I loved Portugal. We drove from Porto to Lisbon, including a stop in Fatima, and loved every minute of it.
We thoroughly enjoyed our 3 day stay in Porto in 2010. Beautiful city, very walkable, delicious food and wonderful history/museums/art.
NorCalNickKranz and his wife also gave it high recommnedations
I just got an email about a young alumni trip to Portugal with Ohio State next year!
Tomorrow or Monday I'll ask for dining suggestions in Lisbon.
I don't know that I'd want to burn time off in a hotel somewhere lovely looking at my laptop. Funnily enough my incentive for taking a vacation is to go overseas just because I am prohibited from taking the customer laptop so there's absolutely no way I could work.
Portugal sounds delightful though.
After attending Roadburn fest this past April in Tilburg, NL, I started to look into similar fests in terms of style of music and capacity, and Amplifest in Porto came across my radar. A very cool collective of post-, and metal adjacent acts that I would certainly love to attend.
Not all my cup of tea but some bands that would be interesting to see live, and it's really cool that the Hard Club is just casually in the midst of the older part of Porto
I've been listening to Killers Like Us by Buñuel - it's not exactly relaxing but I am enjoying it
As I found out trying to book my flight to Lisbon for work next week, flights to Lisbon seem very full.
Xmas skiing in Steamboat ..
we have been there the last few years for Xmas and seemed to have lucked out w/ decent snow.
while it is certainly not cheap, it is a good compromise of decent food and lodging near the mountain at less than absurd prices. also, the relative hard-to-get-to factor keeps it a little less crowded on the slopes.
the year we are actually transporting Santa and Xmas to CO since we are there Dec 23-30. the 6 and 9 yr old are still believers.
I know some of us are currently on baller vacations (👀 Scootie) but if you're not, what's next? Or what would be an idealized trip?
My brother and I have this notion that we should gave a "middle aged man cliches" trip to Spain so we can take in games at the smaller La Liga team stadia in Madrid (Getafe and Rayo Vallecano) and then go and look at Roman ruins (Merida is a long way from Madrid, but it looks like it would be worth it)
I truly enjoyed Spain, even getting pickpocketed in Barcelona didn't put a damper on my trip
If I were being more negative than usual, I'd say that getting pickpocketed on a bus in Rome was one of the highlights of the visit (at least until we went to Ostia Antica, that was great)
I truly love looking at Roman ruins, ever since my childhood in England (not that many, but some!)
They were pretty fresh ruins at that time!
I just got back from Portland where I (along with 11 other people) ran and drove from Mt Hood to the Oregon coast of the span of 31 hours in two mini-vans.
My wife joined a charity team relay race from Gettysburg to DC a couple of times, she plainly got something out of it, but it was also clearly a bit of a grind. Have to assume Hood to the coast would be harder work too
Maybe, but aren't they going downhill?
true in both cases
Rolling hills (up and down) SUCKKKKKKK
I haven't done Hood to Coast, but when in Alaska I did the Klondike Trail of 98 relay a few times. It's a 110-mile race from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, following the route over White Pass of the 1898 gold rush. We also did the two van thing. For a while we owned the coed team record but no idea if it still stands.
The winning teams for HTC tend to finish between 18 and 24 hours (a friend who I recruited to my team who then ditched me for another, much faster team - her team was #4 co-ed and they ran it in 24 compared to our 31)
Hood to Coast is fun and epic - I think it was the first mass relay of its kind and it sells out of its 1000 teams on opening day every year.
Got to Florence this morning and am pleased to report that it really hasn't changed much since 1986 when I lived here. I guess the benefit of having a 1000 year old city is that it can absorb pretty much anything without much drama.
Also, Italians still use a lot of cash! As do the French. British hardly use it at all.
My cousin got her 8 year old a pre-paid debit card so she could practice doing things like going to the local shops and buying the odd chocolate bar, never even considered trying to get her started with cash (although in fairness the 8 year old would lose the coins on the way, we have a solid family tradition of absent-mindedness)
The Netherlands this past April was/is 99% cashless.
China is like 99.9% cashless, Hong Kong is about 60%
I liked Florence a lot, maybe a little better than Rome.
Also, I was in Italy all of two hours before having my first gelato. My goal for the next 10 days is 2xday.
You've got your priorities straight
YESSSSSSSSS
I don't usually use the word "hero" lightly, but...
A/V CLUB
She-Hulk Attorney at Law continues to be light, sitcomy entertainment. It isn't memorable, nor should it be. Great cameo this week.
On the third episode of Welcome to Wrexham - really enjoying it.
I enjoyed the first two episodes, looking forward to the rest of the season
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
Ducks go with Green Goblin look this week vs. Georgia
https://twitter.com/GoDucks/status/1565127298138771457
well we definitely won't confuse the two now
I somehow didn't internalize until just now that the Backyard Brawl is tonight, that should be good for a laugh.
Apropos: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34477004/why-pitt-west-virginia-backyard-brawl-college-football-rivalry-unlike-other
PRO
Chase Garbers signed to the Raiders practice squad. Cleared waivers so no one else wanted him.
https://twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL/status/1565028370387189761
It would have been ironic if the Lions had picked him up. They are on the market for another backup.
Are we surprised no one else wanted him?
eh, compared to other back-up QB's in the NFL, he looks OK.
But seeing Rugbear rage quit a thread on Rivals bc he got called out on his overvaluation on Garbers was pure 🤌🏼👨🏼🍳
I like that he gets fired up though - he cares! So few do
He's an OL vet, what does he know about QBs?
Game #131: A’s drop middle game to Nationals 5-1
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2022/8/31/23331555/game-131-as-drop-middle-game-nationals
Oakland dropped the middle game off the series to the Nationals, losing 5-1 to Washington on Wednesday evening.
The starting pitching was strong early but came apart in the fifth, and the bats never got going except for a solo homer in the second.
Oakland struck first tonight, and it was one of the rookies who came through. After hitting his first career MLB home run yesterday, first baseman Dermis Garcia swatted his second, a solo shot in the top of the second to give the A’s an early lead:
Fourth longest home run ever hit in nationals park
Freefallin’
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/8/31/23331997/mlb-scores-giants-padres-joc-pederson-brandon-crawford-manny-machado-joe-musgrave
Too little too late again for the San Francisco Giants in the getaway game against the San Diego Padres.
All three match-ups in the series were determined by one run and yet none of them felt particularly close. The Friars were up 5-0 in the 6th before the Giants scored their first run.
San Diego starter Joe Musgrove didn’t flinch his first two times through the San Francisco batting order. The righty struck out 5 consecutive Giants after LaMonte Wade Jr. popped out to start their half of their 1st inning. He had K’ed 7 through 4 complete and finished his night with a total of 11 punch outs.
Dodgers & Tyler Anderson lose a duel to Jacob deGrom, Mets
https://www.truebluela.com/2022/8/31/23331988/jacob-degrom-tyler-anderson-dodgers-mets-duel
Sometimes exactly what you expected ends up being precisely what you get. Jacob deGrom took the mound Wednesday and did what he normally does, leading the Mets to a closely contested 2-1 win over the Dodgers to tie up this series in New York.
The Dodgers have had more than their fair share of games against the cream of the crop when it comes to starting pitching, a couple each against reigning NL Cy Young Corbin Burnes, and this year’s favorite in Sandy Alcantara, all within the last month. And in two of those four occasions, the offense had its way, putting up a crooked number at home against those two elite hurlers.
With all due respect that both Burnes and Alcantara deserve, the challenge in tonight’s game was simply on another level. The best offense in the major leagues went up against deGrom, who may not be the reigning Cy Young, may not be in the running this year, but is undeniably peerless in the current game.
Tony LaRussa out indefinitely. Andrew Vaughn said that it maybe had to do with his heart.
https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1565054491723935744
Watching the mlb channel while eating lunch and speculation is he won't be back, at least this year.
Another unwritten rule of baseball: actually hit it out of the park if you do a mini-batflip
https://twitter.com/BallySportsCLE/status/1564755885989167104
The Met's Nimmo robbed Justin Turner yesterday. Unfortunately, it was a game changing great catch. Dodgers lost 2-1.
https://twitter.com/Mets/status/1565342210370834432
Serena surprises herself and #2 Kontaveit at the US Open by winning. I guess the tribute video by Oprah Winfrey played there was a little premature.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/31/tennis/serena-williams-anett-kontaveit-us-open-spt-intl/index.html
Nick Kyrgios is a red-ass and - apparently - a narc
https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/62746434
And also a domestic abuser.
Mets arrange for Edwin Diaz's walk-up music to be played live
https://twitter.com/SNYtv/status/1565149137267564544
Baseball needs more moments like this, and games like that.
Dodgers feed showed some of that before going to a commercial break. That was cool.
I just turned on the mlb channel as this happened. Pretty cool.
CAL
Any guesses how many times we rush the field after football games this season? I say three for sure: after the Big Game win, of course, after the regular-season ending victory over UC, Los Angeles and after the upset of Oregon. Four if we beat UW in the closing seconds or OT.
I would assume after beating UC Davis, if the plan is to get to 4 such events.
Tisk tisk
Big Game. Maybe Oregon if they're highly ranked (iffy prospect). Otherwise, beating UW and UCLA would be pleasant but unremarkable
But the UCLA victory will clinch the Pac 12 north title, unless we manage to do by winning the Big Game.
The way people are talking we should rush the field after beating Davis.
Amen.
I think we'd just accept a win over UDub, but Big game, yeah sure. UC L. A. last game - of course; O it's been a while, but we've owned UDub recently.
Go Bears!!!
TODAY IN COVID
Well past - Sydcasy - was wrong about the mask instruction in the very beginning - I know it looks bad, but there was a rational reason. Doesn't excuse the stupid actions of the Trump administration - but still.
Early mask instructions in the pandemic were based on fear of insufficient supply, not based on the theory that masking didn't work. Masking worked then, it does now. Regardless, people are fatigued with mask wearing and are not following common sense as a consequence.
This is not the only thing for which common sense is not being followed in the fight against COVID. Because of those lapses, this pandemic will drag on far longer than it should.
I know the reasons, but they should have just been honest about it. The CDC literally told people in the early days of COVID that masks didn't work.
That’s the Ken Montgomery pseudo-science sticking point he ride all the way down the MAGA trail. Does no one here actually know how the fuck science works?
Ha! You know the people in this country?
Oh yeah, they're all good.
There seemed to be a big gap between how a scientific organization like CDC receives and updates its beliefs based on new information and how the general populace does. Scientists are accustomed to incremental discoveries and updating their beliefs accordingly, even if it involves reversing course. The public tends to view that as a confusing series of mixed messages (masks bad! masks good! masks bad vs. delta/omicron!). They definitely needed a different PR strategy for communicating with the public.
I think this issue most reared its head with vaccines: when they first came out there was a reasonable expectation that they could help control transmission, but then new variants changed that expectation. Some segments of the public interpreted that as flip-flopping, but it's really just new circumstances.
But with masking I think it was a different problem: early in the pandemic, the government simply lied about them. Fauci told people not to use masks because they weren't effective, when the real reason was that they didn't want people eating up the supply needed for doctors and front-line workers. IMO they should have just been straight with us. I understood what was going on, but a lot of people didn't.
https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.html
I agree. I feel this way at work when management tries to come up with sone convoluted win-win rationale for something they want us to do. Just treat me like an adult and tell me the real reason for this, or else I will stop believing what you are telling me across the board
HIBACHI
Remember when Gilbert Arenas hit a bunch of game winning shots and self-nicknamed himself Hibachi?
I have to admit that I do not
Us Japanese prefer to do BBQ with shichirin grills even in US. If the group is huge, obviously we use gas grills too, but if the group is around 5~8 people, small shichirin grills are sufficient.
I liked reading the information at the top today!
I remember bringing one of those to tailgate at Candlestick before a Giants Dodgers game during HS.
pretty sure that my first grilling experiences growing up was with one of those small hibachi grills.
I had one of these on the balcony of my Berkeley apartment senior year.