Got both flu and covid shots on Friday because 1) travel beginning mid-Oct through Feb (Egypt, Tanzania, MA x2 family w/young kids, Italy) and 2) local appointment suddenly available before EOM. Figured Sat's game would help me manage through the side effects though first half not so much.....
In the midst of my first bout of Covid, hopefully on the upswing. Traveled to Auburn game, spouse first sign of sickness a few days later, me a few days after that. Could have been the travel, the restaurant nights before the game, the game, Asian Alley after the game... It is definitely going around again much more than in spring/summer- we know at least 10 people who have had it the last 3-4 weeks.
According to family, Covid is ripping through colleges. My kid has it. Cousin's kid at Michigan and Michigan State have it. Niece at Rutgers got it. My assistant's son got it a NC State.
I need to get on that, my wife and I decided to give it a week or two in order for the genuine oldies to get in line. Still near term appointments available in neighborhoods where folks aren't quite as concerned as we are.
I wanted to get the new variant, but it's so close to the Pullman trip to risk side effects of a double with flu vaccine (more for my wife, I've not had sufficient issues with any Covid or flu shots to be concerned, but I know some people do), will probably get it in a week-10 days. I prefer generally to wait until October, and closer to NW damp weather, and also extend the effectiveness a little further in the spring.
Tentatively scheduled to go to Berkeley next month, and will strive to have it by then.
I did the middle aged flu - shingles double bill a month or two ago, so I'm reasonably clear for the covid booster. I'm hoping to get out to Oregon to see my mother and brother in November so that seems like a good planning aid, although when I was out there in February the two of them and my sister in law somehow all managed to get covid but not me.
Earlier this summer, we went through Yosemite and just did a loop in the valley in our car and out again. Worse traffic than manhattan and far less parking.
Probably the Vatican museum, but the British Museum this spring would have been a close second, just completely overwhelmed (I mean that's what we get for visiting during the spring break for UK, French, and Spanish schools I guess)
The future ex-Mrs. Jimmy C and I booked a Princess Cruise along the Inside Passage. We pull into Skagway and it’s 39 degrees, pouring rain and the sea is angry, my friends. ALL excursions canceled. 3-full cruise ships worth of people stuck shoulder to shoulder in the tiny town of Skagway…brutal.
Even at the best of times, the ex was simply a horrible traveler that made Veruca Salt look as gracious as Tiny Tim. We finally bagged it, grabbed some postcards, went back on the ship where I proceeded to sip Grey Goose martinis for the next 9 hours.
Times Square on a Saturday afternoon in August. The missus was morbidly curious to see how crowded it would be, since we happened to be a few blocks away. The answer: far, far, far too crowded
Yup, was there in early July. We just wanted theatre tixs, so went there at 2pm to get same-day cheap tickets. The crowds were insane. and everyone just stands still, no crowd motion. You have to fight through everyone.
Last time I was in Vegas (10+ years ago) I got food poisoning. There's nothing quite like being violently ill while it's 100+ degrees outside to give you a primordial realization that humans have no business living out there
I'm having my summer right now -- I'm on the Île-de-Ré, off the coast of Brittany, until Friday, and then I go to Lake Garda for a bit. I was SUPER ready for a little vacay.
The existence of Stanford vs Maine in field hockey tends to throw shade on the argument against travel and the membership of west coast schools in the ACC, muck less Big this and that.
Except it doesn't. Both Cal and stanford have released statements saying some of their respective sports would NOT be impacted by travel (because they already travel back east).
On this day in 1964 in Memorial Stadium the Golden Bears defeated Missouri, 21-14. It was Cal’s first game under new head coach Ray Willsey who would be head man for eight seasons. The Bears jumped out to a quick 14-0 then held off late rallies by the favored Tigers. Cal safety Jim Hunt’s two interceptions helped seal the win. The following season Hunt would be the Bears’ starting quarterback.
DBD celebrates 100 years of football in Strawberry Canyon with this daily feature appearing throughout the football season.
"I have now been to the theater four times to watch J. Robert Oppenheimer manufacture and then wallow in his own unhappiness, and at some point along the way, I came to realize that this film is, as they say, “for the girlies.” At first, this was simply a private joke I enjoyed making to myself, counting up all the parallels between this midcentury scientist and the types of young women who treat Instagram stories like a literary medium. He is nicknamed Oppie. He reads metaphysical poetry. He wears impeccably tailored pants with fancy belt buckles and flirts with the unshakable confidence of a city girl who has never known rejection. (Misquoting Marx, being corrected and then smirk-shrugging, “Sorry, I read it in the original German” is, I’m afraid, peak hot-girl behavior.) Played by a cadaverous Cillian Murphy — who supposedly girl-dinnered on something like one almond each night to achieve optimum hollow-cheekboned haggardness — Oppenheimer first appears as he’s being mildly disciplined by a physics professor at Cambridge, to which he retaliates by trying to poison his professor’s apple with cyanide. Movie-Oppenheimer’s great malaise, we’re shown — between shots of him lying listlessly in his dormitory bed — is the burden of his own brilliance, lessened only as he coasts through the halls of great universities to finally find, in quantum physics, the challenge that all-consuming brilliance so desperately craves. His hero’s journey will eventually lead him to the building of the atomic bomb in New Mexico and the cover of Time magazine, though he will also find time to cheat on his wife and conduct a rather calisthenic sex life."
The Bear (S2 E6 Hulu). This is the "Christmas" episode. JFC, what an effing masterpiece. It took me several sittings to get through it because it was an emotional sandwich that was way too big to choke down in one sitting. It's an achingly raw and realistic trainwreck episode of family dysfunction. Your situation might be different, but you'll recognize all the same characters. The over the top personalities. The love/hate. The so-called cousins who aren't related. The good guys who try to keep the peace and try not to get hit in the crossfire. A glimpse of the beautiful life that Richie had before it all somehow imploded. It was painful to watch and I loved it. 19/19 - one of the finest episodes put on TV this year.
I hated this episode with the fire of a thousand suns. I got what they were doing but it would have been much more impactful if they had condensed all the shouting and angst into 15-20 minutes. Instead it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. I was exhausted and angry that I had sat through that crap and had to take a month long break from the show after that. If it is even possible, Mrs FS hated the episode even more than I did.
Far Right House GOP tried to create a funding solution by cooperating with Right Wing House, only to have the packaged undermined by the Far-Far-Right. This is the House you built, Kevin McCarthy
Another assistant rolls over on Trump. Trump assistant Molly Michael told ABC news that Trump: 1) wrote to-do lists for her on the back of classified documents, 2) ordered her to help Nauta go store the boxes, 3) asked her to lie to the National Archives and FBI that no more boxes existed, and 4) heard Trump conspire with lawyers to hide the documents.
She's what I would call a good Republican. She's got her conservative beliefs but she's not going to do evil shit to get her way. Her testimony to the J6 committee was so compelling.
Law firm that represented Giuliani from Nov 2019 to July 2023 sues Drunk Uncle for $1.36 of back fees he hasn't paid. I hope his current lawyers are paying attention.
Today in Covid
Got both flu and covid shots on Friday because 1) travel beginning mid-Oct through Feb (Egypt, Tanzania, MA x2 family w/young kids, Italy) and 2) local appointment suddenly available before EOM. Figured Sat's game would help me manage through the side effects though first half not so much.....
In the midst of my first bout of Covid, hopefully on the upswing. Traveled to Auburn game, spouse first sign of sickness a few days later, me a few days after that. Could have been the travel, the restaurant nights before the game, the game, Asian Alley after the game... It is definitely going around again much more than in spring/summer- we know at least 10 people who have had it the last 3-4 weeks.
According to family, Covid is ripping through colleges. My kid has it. Cousin's kid at Michigan and Michigan State have it. Niece at Rutgers got it. My assistant's son got it a NC State.
I am booked for a Friday appointment to get the updated vaccine
I have an appointment for this afternoon! I thought I'd better vax up before all my upcoming travel:
-Seattle to see you all
-NYC, staying with friends who have a baby
-not travel, but my birthday
-not travel either, but my brother's wedding
-Disneyland
-Puerto Rico
-Taiwan
See you in Seattle!
I need to get on that, my wife and I decided to give it a week or two in order for the genuine oldies to get in line. Still near term appointments available in neighborhoods where folks aren't quite as concerned as we are.
I wanted to get the new variant, but it's so close to the Pullman trip to risk side effects of a double with flu vaccine (more for my wife, I've not had sufficient issues with any Covid or flu shots to be concerned, but I know some people do), will probably get it in a week-10 days. I prefer generally to wait until October, and closer to NW damp weather, and also extend the effectiveness a little further in the spring.
Tentatively scheduled to go to Berkeley next month, and will strive to have it by then.
I did the middle aged flu - shingles double bill a month or two ago, so I'm reasonably clear for the covid booster. I'm hoping to get out to Oregon to see my mother and brother in November so that seems like a good planning aid, although when I was out there in February the two of them and my sister in law somehow all managed to get covid but not me.
DBD Street Journal
Arrrrrr! Today be "Talk Like a Pirate Day". And ye receive an extra piece o' fish talkin' like a Pirate at LJS today
https://www.brandeating.com/2023/09/long-john-silvers-offers-free-fish-or-chicken-piece-for-talking-like-pirate-on-september-19-2023.html
LJS still exists?
Where was the most tourist-packed place that you've ever been?
Earlier this summer, we went through Yosemite and just did a loop in the valley in our car and out again. Worse traffic than manhattan and far less parking.
Probably the Vatican museum, but the British Museum this spring would have been a close second, just completely overwhelmed (I mean that's what we get for visiting during the spring break for UK, French, and Spanish schools I guess)
The Expo in Vancouver, BC, in 1986. Was worth it though.
i was at Expo 86.
also Expo 74 in Spokane .. one of my first memories as a 3 yr old
Barcelona this spring
Skagway, AK (June, 2014)
The future ex-Mrs. Jimmy C and I booked a Princess Cruise along the Inside Passage. We pull into Skagway and it’s 39 degrees, pouring rain and the sea is angry, my friends. ALL excursions canceled. 3-full cruise ships worth of people stuck shoulder to shoulder in the tiny town of Skagway…brutal.
A number of years I ran a relay race that started in Skagway. Indeed a small town and not much room for boatloads of people.
Even at the best of times, the ex was simply a horrible traveler that made Veruca Salt look as gracious as Tiny Tim. We finally bagged it, grabbed some postcards, went back on the ship where I proceeded to sip Grey Goose martinis for the next 9 hours.
Veruca Salt....underrated rock band from the early 90's.
Seether, baby
Angry....like an old man returning a bowl of soup at the deli?
Just like that.
NYE in Vegas
Hmmmm... I've been to various tourist-packed places - but we try to avoid them when they would truly packed.
Back to hotel room to watch sports on TV? I guess we are weak cheaters.
Pyramids of Giza in winter
Times Square on a Saturday afternoon in August. The missus was morbidly curious to see how crowded it would be, since we happened to be a few blocks away. The answer: far, far, far too crowded
Yup, was there in early July. We just wanted theatre tixs, so went there at 2pm to get same-day cheap tickets. The crowds were insane. and everyone just stands still, no crowd motion. You have to fight through everyone.
Disneyland on New Year's Eve.
I think Disneyland roughly anytime.
St Peter's Square on Easter.
Las Vegas. Gawd, I hate that city.
This one isn't so bad to me, at least people keep moving. You have definite "lanes" where you can actually make progress up and down the strip.
Last time I was in Vegas (10+ years ago) I got food poisoning. There's nothing quite like being violently ill while it's 100+ degrees outside to give you a primordial realization that humans have no business living out there
SUMMER
I'm having my summer right now -- I'm on the Île-de-Ré, off the coast of Brittany, until Friday, and then I go to Lake Garda for a bit. I was SUPER ready for a little vacay.
the maps implies that Île-de-Ré is just of the coast of La Rochelle, not Brittany.
interested both because i love Brittany and also we live in New Rochelle, NY which was originally populated by Huguenots from La Rochelle
Enjoy <3 <3 <3
Love that area, therefore am super envious.
you fancy
IFYKYK: https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/022/434/summer.jpg
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
UCSB Law Professor - or an ex-professor - forgets that it's 2023 and everyone has a phone to record you if you're being a racist turd
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-the-blatant-caucacity-jeanne-umana-ucsb-racist-video-controversy-explained-negative-rate-my-professor-reviews-go-viral
The 'apology' is also a full 'trying to justify being an awful person and failing' apology.
did i miss the part where ucsb got a law skool??
pqtm at "blatant caucacity"
Standford lost to Maine in field hockey 5-6 in double OT
https://twitter.com/FMAmerican/status/1704157456585068683
The existence of Stanford vs Maine in field hockey tends to throw shade on the argument against travel and the membership of west coast schools in the ACC, muck less Big this and that.
Except it doesn't. Both Cal and stanford have released statements saying some of their respective sports would NOT be impacted by travel (because they already travel back east).
I know, right. My son and were at a home game and ran into some Gamecock fans there for a non-revenue sport.
This throw by FCS-level starting QB Chris Howell for Long Island University.
https://twitter.com/Dubsco/status/1703875379017257193
Let me know when he hits the Portal. Set up Jackson and him in the Wildcat.
CAL
Go Bears!!!
https://twitter.com/AP_Oddities/status/1704121950996476392
Go Bears.
[WVB] Big Spike vs. #4 Stanfurd
Pac-12 Networks @ 7pm Pacific/10 Eastern
[MGolf] Cal has an excellent Day 2, roars up the field into second place - trailing on homecourse hosts Washington
https://calbears.com/news/2023/9/18/mens-golf-bears-make-second-round-climb-at-husky-invitational.aspx
On this day in 1964 in Memorial Stadium the Golden Bears defeated Missouri, 21-14. It was Cal’s first game under new head coach Ray Willsey who would be head man for eight seasons. The Bears jumped out to a quick 14-0 then held off late rallies by the favored Tigers. Cal safety Jim Hunt’s two interceptions helped seal the win. The following season Hunt would be the Bears’ starting quarterback.
DBD celebrates 100 years of football in Strawberry Canyon with this daily feature appearing throughout the football season.
first full season with the cannon
PRO
Steelers beat the Browns 26-22 on TJ Watt's 4th quarter scoop and score
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1703973262710177946
2 TDs scored by the Steelers defense. First and last scores of the game. A very Steeler thing to do to the poor Browns.
So... this happened.
https://twitter.com/MrMatthew_CFB/status/1703937410533335167
Saints beat the Panthers 20-17 on defense and the legs of a RB newly promoted from the practice squad
https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap/_/gameId/401547425
RB Nick Chubb's knee blew up so badly that ESPN refused to replay it. Having blown out my knee twice, I am not going to watch.
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/browns-nick-chubb-done-for-season-with-knee-injury-so-bad-espn-refused-to-show-replay-in-loss-to-steelers-011419037.html
That clip doesn't really show anything significant.
Phil Mickelson says he's done with gambling. I wonder what the over/under is on the number of days he'll stick to that.
https://twitter.com/PhilMickelson/status/1689758380141756416
DBD AV CLUB
The Girlies Know: ‘Oppenheimer’ Was Actually About Us
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/magazine/oppenheimer-movie-girls.html
"I have now been to the theater four times to watch J. Robert Oppenheimer manufacture and then wallow in his own unhappiness, and at some point along the way, I came to realize that this film is, as they say, “for the girlies.” At first, this was simply a private joke I enjoyed making to myself, counting up all the parallels between this midcentury scientist and the types of young women who treat Instagram stories like a literary medium. He is nicknamed Oppie. He reads metaphysical poetry. He wears impeccably tailored pants with fancy belt buckles and flirts with the unshakable confidence of a city girl who has never known rejection. (Misquoting Marx, being corrected and then smirk-shrugging, “Sorry, I read it in the original German” is, I’m afraid, peak hot-girl behavior.) Played by a cadaverous Cillian Murphy — who supposedly girl-dinnered on something like one almond each night to achieve optimum hollow-cheekboned haggardness — Oppenheimer first appears as he’s being mildly disciplined by a physics professor at Cambridge, to which he retaliates by trying to poison his professor’s apple with cyanide. Movie-Oppenheimer’s great malaise, we’re shown — between shots of him lying listlessly in his dormitory bed — is the burden of his own brilliance, lessened only as he coasts through the halls of great universities to finally find, in quantum physics, the challenge that all-consuming brilliance so desperately craves. His hero’s journey will eventually lead him to the building of the atomic bomb in New Mexico and the cover of Time magazine, though he will also find time to cheat on his wife and conduct a rather calisthenic sex life."
yes
"calisthenic sex life"
That's a combination of words I never would have imagined.
The Bear (S2 E6 Hulu). This is the "Christmas" episode. JFC, what an effing masterpiece. It took me several sittings to get through it because it was an emotional sandwich that was way too big to choke down in one sitting. It's an achingly raw and realistic trainwreck episode of family dysfunction. Your situation might be different, but you'll recognize all the same characters. The over the top personalities. The love/hate. The so-called cousins who aren't related. The good guys who try to keep the peace and try not to get hit in the crossfire. A glimpse of the beautiful life that Richie had before it all somehow imploded. It was painful to watch and I loved it. 19/19 - one of the finest episodes put on TV this year.
Yeah, that was brutal (in a good way). JLC should get an award for her performance in this episode. Even Odenkirk, in his smaller role, shines.
I hated this episode with the fire of a thousand suns. I got what they were doing but it would have been much more impactful if they had condensed all the shouting and angst into 15-20 minutes. Instead it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. I was exhausted and angry that I had sat through that crap and had to take a month long break from the show after that. If it is even possible, Mrs FS hated the episode even more than I did.
Agree it was a tad too much / too self indulgent, I liked the rest of the season better
I really, really, REALLY liked this show quite a bit, more than season #1 - BUT this was my least favorite episode by quite a margin.
Very heavy but yes very good. Overall S2 an upgrade over an already very good S1. My fave ep was when Richie learns to be a front of the house guy
yes, that one was great. All the side stories of the employees were really good actually.
Yeah I also liked the one in Copenhagen. Particularly good scene when the guy crashes his bike
I agree on all counts. Amazing to see such an array of popular personalities (Odenirk, Curtis, Mulaney etc.) shine together as an ensemble.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
This stuff about India assassinating a Canadian citizen in Vancouver is just nuts. Modi is such an idiot
Far Right House GOP tried to create a funding solution by cooperating with Right Wing House, only to have the packaged undermined by the Far-Far-Right. This is the House you built, Kevin McCarthy
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-republicans-government-funding-bill-risk-collapse-rcna105706
Truly a game of chicken, and the Dems can do little but watch.
Another assistant rolls over on Trump. Trump assistant Molly Michael told ABC news that Trump: 1) wrote to-do lists for her on the back of classified documents, 2) ordered her to help Nauta go store the boxes, 3) asked her to lie to the National Archives and FBI that no more boxes existed, and 4) heard Trump conspire with lawyers to hide the documents.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-wrote-lists-assistant-white-house-documents-marked/story?id=103226113
She's what I would call a good Republican. She's got her conservative beliefs but she's not going to do evil shit to get her way. Her testimony to the J6 committee was so compelling.
it is interesting that we call a Republican who does not appear to be a crook, a 'good republican'. And that there are so few one can point to.
Law firm that represented Giuliani from Nov 2019 to July 2023 sues Drunk Uncle for $1.36 of back fees he hasn't paid. I hope his current lawyers are paying attention.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/giuliani-sued-former-lawyers-claiming-14-million-unpaid-legal-fees-rcna105731