RE: the picture at the top of the page: a French friend used it as a punctuation to a rant about the French team not being a bunch of crybaby thug homophobes. I think she was mad about the loss (I also think that if she's going to stay in the US long term with her wife, she might need to get up to speed on coded political speech here, but that's a separate matter)
I think it would be better to do the shootout first, then do 30 minutes of sudden death and if no one scores, the shootout winner wins the game. That way the game would be ultimately decided by live action. In this case, I think it would also be better to end the shootout when one team is ahead after any pair of shots instead of having it always go at least 5 shots.
my daughter, who has no interest in sports at all, walked in to see what the ruckus was about when Mbappe scored those 2 quick goals, and was on the edge of her seat for the rest of the game.
Mine as well. I've never been able to get her to sit an watch any sports for more than 30 seconds before she leaves the room. She was rapt for the whole thing.
Amazing game! Best players playing their best on the biggest stage, a joy to watch.
It was basically Mbappe v Argentina tho. It felt like that one CFB title game in like 99 where it was Michael Vick versus Florida State and Vick kinda ran out of gas at the end
the casual fan doesnt realize that France had potentially 6 starters injured who missed the tournament, including the World Player of the Year in Benzema. Just a loaded loaded team
BYU beats SMU 24-23 in the New Mexico Bowl as SMU's 2-point conversion with 8 seconds left on the clock failed. Christopher Brooks finished the season with 817 yards. Brooks averaged 6.3 yards carrying and 9.8 yards receiving in 2022, which are both half again better than his averages at Cal.
Can anyone explain why SMU, with a chance to extend the game, and with an about even chance of winning, chose instead almost certain loss, which not surprisingly came to pass?
It's a low tier bowl game, no real stakes for the winner/loser. Why not go for 2 and end it right then? If you win, you have a great story. If you lose, you have an Ok story.
If you aren't trying to win, why even show up? And why are you being paid to make bad choices with other people's money? If you try a <25% chance to win play when you could have had a ~50% chance to win, you should be fired for incompetence.
If it works, you have a dumb-luck story, and a demonstration of reckless poor judgement. If it fails, you have a coach doesn't have a mastery of grade school math story.
Frank Gore Jr had 329 yards rushing and completed two passes for 19 yards and a TD in Southern Miss' 38-24 victory over Rice in the LendingTree Bowl. Rice was 5-7 before the loss because there were fewer than 82 teams with .500 records or better.
Martin possibly. Garbers only has a year left and if he transferred again, he’d have to sit a year. He, like Schlee, are in it for the degree and may just ride the bench.
A friend of mine has a theory that Die Hard is a Hanukkah movie. I've cut and pasted his theory below:
And so, in celebration of the first night of Hanukkah, I present to you my argument that Die Hard is actually a Hanukkah movie.
First, let's establish the general Jewishness of the film:
1. It's about LA and NYC, which automatically makes it at least a little Jewish.
2. The screenwriter was Jewish.
3. The movie is bookended by two songs - "Christmas in Hollis" at the beginning and "Let It Snow" at the end. While the two seem pretty obviously to not be about Jewishness, "Let It Snow" is written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne (both Jewish), and "Christmas in Hollis" is produced by Rick Rubin (Jewish) and is inspired by Bill Adler (also Jewish). Much of the Hanukkah story is about being forced to hide your true beliefs, so many things that look like they're not about Judaism, will prove themselves otherwise.
4. The movie begins as the sun is setting and ends as the sun is rising, as do all Jewish holidays.
5. The first thing McClane does upon getting to LA is light a cigarette, obviously a metaphor for the lighting of candles.
Now, let's look at the story itself:
1. The Book of the Maccabees begins with the conquest of Alexander the Great and his conquering of all the known world. One of Hans Gruber's first lines in the film is "And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer."
2. In the Book of the Maccabees, an invasion force comes in on "the five and twentieth day of the month" and immediately slaughters men, women and children (the biblical description is more gruesome than the movie) so a building takeover on Christmas fits nicely.
3. Those who resist are killed immediately, but some try to ingratiate themselves to the new masters. "In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded many saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us" (Maccabees 1:11). "And spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city and smote it very sore and destroyed much people of Israel (Maccabees 1:30). Sounds like Harry Ellis trying to get in with the occupiers and getting himself killed.
4. In McClane's first fight with one of the occupiers, McClane gets the drop on him and points a gun at him. When McClane says he's police, the man responds that McClane won't hurt him because there are rules for the police. In one of the first battles in the Maccabeean Uprising, a town of Jews refuses to fight on Shabbas and are all slaughtered. Afterward, the Maccabees agree that the general rules of Judaism will not apply during the uprising, and they will do anything they can to win (much as John McClane does).
5. Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, and lights play a major theme in the movie. The occupiers shoot out the lights, and it is the cutting of the lights by the FBI that leads Hans to say "You asked for miracles, Theo. I give you the FBI."
6. How do the tiny band of Jewish rebels defeat the occupiers of their country? They use guerrilla tactics to surprise and ambush their enemies then take their weapons and supplies. This is exactly how McClane takes out his enemies. Picking them off one by one and taking their guns and explosives.
BONUS ROUND:
1. Germans. Right? And all that broken glass? What do I have to spell it out for you?
2. John McClane = J. Mac. Judah Maccabee = J.Mac. Coincidence, I think not.
But what about all the Christmas references:
The story of Hannukah is all about Jews who were forced to give up their Judaism and adopt the ways of the occupier. The punishment for participating in Jewish rituals was death. So of course all the Judaism has to be hidden behind Christian iconography. But you can't fool me.
We had latkes and empanadas yesterday. My wife’s best friend is Jewish and Argentinian so it was a lot of fun to celebrate both Hanukkah with her family and the World Cup win.
very very likely though. There should be another wave of portal transfers, nationally, once the semester ends and Bowl season ends. I expect a number of Cal guys who have graduated to move on
Cal Women's Basketball -Romp over Florida Atlantic as 5 women score in double figures, including Mia Mastrov off the bench. Jadya Curry fills the stat sheet.
Small crowds for Friday and Sunday. Team deserves better support. May require an upset or two in conference play to convince people to come out. The schedule gets really tough now with Furd and Arizona looming.
Anyway, the weekend was nice. Curry and Martin are a joy to watch and the team as a whole is a fun group.
Cal vs Stanford at Maples at Noon on Friday. I plan to be there - we're probably going to get smashed by #2 Stanford, but let's see if we can give them a game like we did Notre Dame.
They play better but still lose. Devin Askew misses second half with ankle injury. All the little details - play great defense for 28 seconds, give up an open 3. Force SCU into a bad miss, let SCU collect the offensive rebound. The offense was slightly improved, but down the stretch, there were 3 offensive fouls where Cal had a possession to get within 2 or 3 points. Just all these tiny things add up to another loss
Cal (0-12, 258 Kenpom) plays a terrible UT-Arlington (275 Kenpom) on Wednesday. Cal lost to Texas State by 4 at home this season, while UTA lost by six on the road.
Eastern WA and UT-Arlington were the best chances to get wins…but not without Askew, the only indispensable player on the team. He missed EWU w/ COVID protocol…this one???
Working Mon-Fri this week, off all next week. I only need to take 2 days of vacation as Monday and Tuesday are holidays (Christmas and the Day After Christmas) and Dec. 30 (a Friday) is my scheduled day off. Because January 2 is a holiday (New Year's Day observance), I return to the office on January 3.
TL;DR - I get 10 days off for only 2 days of vacation.
Oh man, dinner last night was so good - Braised short ribs (at least 3 hours), with a 2014 Napa Cab - and a 1.5 Champaign for starter & the salad before the ribs over tasty mashed potato.
Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Mystery (Netflix, 13/19, WB). Will Arnett's improv class disguised as a murder mystery is delicious unpolished chaos. It isn't high art, but it's good comedy so long as you know how ridiculous it is. Yay for Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolf, but Pete Davidson didn't really seem to buy in to the concept.
Read a lot about Oppenheimer as he was a character in my second novel and am having a hard time picturing Cillian Murphy in the titular role. That said I'm down for any movie with Florence Pugh AND Berkeley in it.
Avatar: The Way of Water - it's getting really good reviews. I will not be going to see until Friday because my friend is "busy" with "work" and "family" and I'm like Big Jim is calling us!
saw it yesterday in IMAX 3D. Was really good. We enjoyed it a lot. Similar in that the story is very basic and uncomplicated but visually its stunning and overall a good watch 16/19
Terry Dunn couldn't fathom why Alabama's residents — among the poorest in the U.S. — pay some of the nation's most expensive electricity bills.
So in 2010, Dunn ran for a seat on the state commission that sets energy prices. He promised to hold a formal rate hearing at which Alabama Power executives would have to open their financial books and answer questions, under oath and in public. That hadn't happened for nearly three decades.
After winning, Dunn says, a top lobbyist for the utility took him aside and promised he could hold his roughly $100,000-a-year position on the commission for years — as long as he remained a team player. (Alabama Power declined to make the executive available to address the accusation; the utility and its corporate parent, Southern Company, declined all comment for this story.)
"They didn't take me serious," Dunn says now.
Dunn, a Republican and Tea Party conservative, plowed ahead. And soon enough, he found himself the target of a political pressure campaign, replete with character assassinations and online smears.
Attacks began in online news outlets in 2013. One headline in Yellowhammer News read: "Democrats Embrace Republican Public Service Commissioner Terry Dunn."
In a June 2014 column, Alabama Political Reporter's editor in chief, Bill Britt, cast Dunn as a pawn of his own aide, a Democrat.
"For some Dunn is a populist hero; for others, he's a radical environmentalist," Britt wrote. He saw Dunn as manipulated by those who "find companies like Alabama Power a convenient political target."
These were devastating portrayals for Dunn in a deeply red state.
"Mostly everything was all made up," he says. "You get to thinking, 'Why are they attacking me?' I'm just telling the truth and trying to do what's right for the people."
[Dunn ends up being an asshole - "they abandoned me so they should end up paying more for electricity]
Everyone (the media, the democratic opposition research folks, electors) seems to have dropped the ball because nothing on this man's resume seems to be confirmed at all. Would've been nice BEFORE the election NY Times
His campaign biography amplified his storybook journey: He is the son of Brazilian immigrants, and the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent. By his account, he catapulted himself from a New York City public college to become a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” with a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties and an animal rescue charity that saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats.
But a New York Times review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil, as well as various attempts to verify claims that Mr. Santos, 34, made on the campaign trail, calls into question key parts of the résumé that he sold to voters.
Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms on Mr. Santos’s campaign biography, told The Times they had no record of his ever working there. Officials at Baruch College, which Mr. Santos has said he graduated from in 2010, could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.
i almost didn't graduate because i never took a freshman-level engineering design class (entered Cal as engineering undeclared)
i tried to take it as a senior and the professor kicked me out so i had approval to substitute a different upper-div engineering class but my advisor never turned in the paperwork so one month into my new job i had to figure out how to use a fax machine to send in records
it eventually worked out and i have spent more than three of the last 13 years since graduation unemployed
Bucs up 17-0 and then Brady leads the team to the following series Downs, INT, FUM, FUM, INT, PUNT. Meanwhile, the Bengals go FG, FG, TD, TD, TD, Punt, TD.
If you taught a Master Class on how a football team could blow a 33-0 lead, this would be entirely it. Matt Ryan now has blown the largest lead in the history of the NFL in both the regular season AND Super Bowl. He looks absolutely horrible in the pocket…what a sad end to a solid career. Dude looked cooked last year in Atlanta, and now he’s just a mess.
Boys will be boys
Is used as an excuse for bad behavior by boys
“Male bonding leads to bail bonding” —the Onion
RE: the picture at the top of the page: a French friend used it as a punctuation to a rant about the French team not being a bunch of crybaby thug homophobes. I think she was mad about the loss (I also think that if she's going to stay in the US long term with her wife, she might need to get up to speed on coded political speech here, but that's a separate matter)
"crybaby thug homophobes"?
That has to be the most colorful characterization of a team dynamic I've read in a long time!
WORLD CUP
What a match. Perhaps the best final in history.
Even though I had been rooting for France throughout the World Cup, that was still the greatest match I have ever seen.
The Hispanic/Latino discourse on the twitters dot com yesterday about rooting for Argentina was something to behold.
Great game, though I still wish they had a better way than PKs to resolve these.
I think it would be better to do the shootout first, then do 30 minutes of sudden death and if no one scores, the shootout winner wins the game. That way the game would be ultimately decided by live action. In this case, I think it would also be better to end the shootout when one team is ahead after any pair of shots instead of having it always go at least 5 shots.
I forget why they got rid of the sudden death OT.
Not a soccer fan at all and I found that game to be super exciting.
my daughter, who has no interest in sports at all, walked in to see what the ruckus was about when Mbappe scored those 2 quick goals, and was on the edge of her seat for the rest of the game.
Mine as well. I've never been able to get her to sit an watch any sports for more than 30 seconds before she leaves the room. She was rapt for the whole thing.
Amazing game! Best players playing their best on the biggest stage, a joy to watch.
It was basically Mbappe v Argentina tho. It felt like that one CFB title game in like 99 where it was Michael Vick versus Florida State and Vick kinda ran out of gas at the end
the casual fan doesnt realize that France had potentially 6 starters injured who missed the tournament, including the World Player of the Year in Benzema. Just a loaded loaded team
If anything it felt like the 2005 CFB national championship.
Vince Young vs USC.
Mind you, Mbappe has already had a longer professional career than Vince Young.
Yeah, we felt that way; the family was very split on which team they were rooting for.
Elsewhere in college
Some guy gets AP Coach of the Year award. Maybe we can hire him.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35286308/tcu-sonny-dykes-named-associated-press-coach-year
We'd have to have more restaurants serve Chicken Spaghetti.
If only that was the biggest thing standing in the way for Cal football!
The Fighting Tedfords beat Wazzu 29-6 in the LA Bowl
https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/_/gameId/401442038
Tedford now has a 9-game winning streak over Wazzu
A little surprised Fresno State was favored over a Wazzu team with no opt outs…even more so they laid the wood.
That Cal loss looks even worse…
Cal gets to face ND QB Drew Pyne again as he transfers to ASU
https://twitter.com/dpyne10/status/1604965981893414928
UW gets ZTF and Bralen Trice back next season
https://twitter.com/ztupufet/status/1604633596081606656?s=46&t=E9hq9Q6UmePsLZUgPNu6lA
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmVCQJDLkCr/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
UConn vs. Marshall - Myrtle Beach Bowl
Hard to believe that UConn was 1-11 last year
That's one dreadful looking field.
AZ WR Dorian Singer to USC. Sigh
https://twitter.com/dorian_singer1/status/1604909178870341632
Texas RB Bijan Robinson declares for the draft
https://twitter.com/noah_gross27/status/1604866599953080321
BYU beats SMU 24-23 in the New Mexico Bowl as SMU's 2-point conversion with 8 seconds left on the clock failed. Christopher Brooks finished the season with 817 yards. Brooks averaged 6.3 yards carrying and 9.8 yards receiving in 2022, which are both half again better than his averages at Cal.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401441997
Can anyone explain why SMU, with a chance to extend the game, and with an about even chance of winning, chose instead almost certain loss, which not surprisingly came to pass?
It's a low tier bowl game, no real stakes for the winner/loser. Why not go for 2 and end it right then? If you win, you have a great story. If you lose, you have an Ok story.
If you aren't trying to win, why even show up? And why are you being paid to make bad choices with other people's money? If you try a <25% chance to win play when you could have had a ~50% chance to win, you should be fired for incompetence.
If it works, you have a dumb-luck story, and a demonstration of reckless poor judgement. If it fails, you have a coach doesn't have a mastery of grade school math story.
coaches are not smart
or they figured they'd lose in OT so they beat the rush?
Oregon State absolutely dominates Florida 30-3 in the Las Vegas Bowl.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/_/gameId/401441999
Jonathan Smith wins 10 in Corvallis with a backup QB.
Meanwhile, Justin Wilcox can’t get his backup QBs to even complete a pass. What TF is going on??
Kai Millner actually had a decent showing vs Oregon.
*vs Oregon’s 2s and 3s
Those were completed passes though!
Garbage time just seems different from when they’re actually given the game plan prior…
Troy beat UTSA in Cheez-Its bowl style, winning despite only having 153 yards in offense thanks to 5 TOs and two failed 4th down conversions by UTSA.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/_/gameId/401441994
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
Frank Gore Jr had 329 yards rushing and completed two passes for 19 yards and a TD in Southern Miss' 38-24 victory over Rice in the LendingTree Bowl. Rice was 5-7 before the loss because there were fewer than 82 teams with .500 records or better.
https://twitter.com/kyronsamuels/status/1604304326213640193
a surprisingly entertaining game, I suppose the teams were well matched in that regard
Louisville beats Cincy 24-7 in the third-annual inaugural Fenway Bowl in front of scores of people.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1604146703346839553
"third-annual inaugural"?
I know it's Monday, but really?
It's the third time it's been scheduled, first time played.
That's weird. But then again, the pandemic has brought us weird occurrences.
UCLA getting a lot of QBs. Something has to give.
DJ U visited, Schlee committed, Moore might flip from Oregon, plus Martin and Garbers the younger on the roster. That’s a nice problem to have
And Moore just flipped to fUcla
And forgot they have Luke Duncan as the HS commit this cycle. Crowded QB room
Certainly some will be transferring out.
Martin possibly. Garbers only has a year left and if he transferred again, he’d have to sit a year. He, like Schlee, are in it for the degree and may just ride the bench.
I hope so. Martin is my white whale. I fell irrationally in love with him.
Sigh
https://twitter.com/KelekiL/status/1604624907962224640
Orin Patu to Arizona
https://twitter.com/orin_patu/status/1604243622139817984
Oregon QB Bo Nix will return to Oregon
https://mobile.twitter.com/oregonfootball/status/1604625090141773825?t=6CQQK3sysTJ5JhAoEyK7ng&s=19
Happy Hanukkah for all of those that celebrated the first day of lights yesterday.
A friend of mine has a theory that Die Hard is a Hanukkah movie. I've cut and pasted his theory below:
And so, in celebration of the first night of Hanukkah, I present to you my argument that Die Hard is actually a Hanukkah movie.
First, let's establish the general Jewishness of the film:
1. It's about LA and NYC, which automatically makes it at least a little Jewish.
2. The screenwriter was Jewish.
3. The movie is bookended by two songs - "Christmas in Hollis" at the beginning and "Let It Snow" at the end. While the two seem pretty obviously to not be about Jewishness, "Let It Snow" is written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne (both Jewish), and "Christmas in Hollis" is produced by Rick Rubin (Jewish) and is inspired by Bill Adler (also Jewish). Much of the Hanukkah story is about being forced to hide your true beliefs, so many things that look like they're not about Judaism, will prove themselves otherwise.
4. The movie begins as the sun is setting and ends as the sun is rising, as do all Jewish holidays.
5. The first thing McClane does upon getting to LA is light a cigarette, obviously a metaphor for the lighting of candles.
Now, let's look at the story itself:
1. The Book of the Maccabees begins with the conquest of Alexander the Great and his conquering of all the known world. One of Hans Gruber's first lines in the film is "And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer."
2. In the Book of the Maccabees, an invasion force comes in on "the five and twentieth day of the month" and immediately slaughters men, women and children (the biblical description is more gruesome than the movie) so a building takeover on Christmas fits nicely.
3. Those who resist are killed immediately, but some try to ingratiate themselves to the new masters. "In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded many saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us" (Maccabees 1:11). "And spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city and smote it very sore and destroyed much people of Israel (Maccabees 1:30). Sounds like Harry Ellis trying to get in with the occupiers and getting himself killed.
4. In McClane's first fight with one of the occupiers, McClane gets the drop on him and points a gun at him. When McClane says he's police, the man responds that McClane won't hurt him because there are rules for the police. In one of the first battles in the Maccabeean Uprising, a town of Jews refuses to fight on Shabbas and are all slaughtered. Afterward, the Maccabees agree that the general rules of Judaism will not apply during the uprising, and they will do anything they can to win (much as John McClane does).
5. Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, and lights play a major theme in the movie. The occupiers shoot out the lights, and it is the cutting of the lights by the FBI that leads Hans to say "You asked for miracles, Theo. I give you the FBI."
6. How do the tiny band of Jewish rebels defeat the occupiers of their country? They use guerrilla tactics to surprise and ambush their enemies then take their weapons and supplies. This is exactly how McClane takes out his enemies. Picking them off one by one and taking their guns and explosives.
BONUS ROUND:
1. Germans. Right? And all that broken glass? What do I have to spell it out for you?
2. John McClane = J. Mac. Judah Maccabee = J.Mac. Coincidence, I think not.
But what about all the Christmas references:
The story of Hannukah is all about Jews who were forced to give up their Judaism and adopt the ways of the occupier. The punishment for participating in Jewish rituals was death. So of course all the Judaism has to be hidden behind Christian iconography. But you can't fool me.
Yippee-Chai-Oy, Motherfuckers!
That is a great theory.
ooh I need latkes
We had latkes and empanadas yesterday. My wife’s best friend is Jewish and Argentinian so it was a lot of fun to celebrate both Hanukkah with her family and the World Cup win.
https://twitter.com/joshmalina/status/1240374647041880064
I always tell my kids that the holidays are really about the 4 F’s.
Family
Friends
Food
Fun
Cal
Cal football gets the commitment of JUCO transfer DB Matthew Littlejohn. I guess we're going with an all DB recruiting class.
https://twitter.com/mlittlejohn25/status/1604235221041385472
YEEAAHHH!
Does this mean we are expecting transfers out via the portal?
Not necessarily.
very very likely though. There should be another wave of portal transfers, nationally, once the semester ends and Bowl season ends. I expect a number of Cal guys who have graduated to move on
Littlejohn is coming in at Safety. Which to me signals there isn’t a ton of faith in the depth we already have
Go Bears!!!
Cal Women's Basketball -Romp over Florida Atlantic as 5 women score in double figures, including Mia Mastrov off the bench. Jadya Curry fills the stat sheet.
Small crowds for Friday and Sunday. Team deserves better support. May require an upset or two in conference play to convince people to come out. The schedule gets really tough now with Furd and Arizona looming.
Anyway, the weekend was nice. Curry and Martin are a joy to watch and the team as a whole is a fun group.
Cal vs Stanford at Maples at Noon on Friday. I plan to be there - we're probably going to get smashed by #2 Stanford, but let's see if we can give them a game like we did Notre Dame.
Followed by 20th ranked U of A at Haas on New Year's Eve.
Cal Men's Basketball
They play better but still lose. Devin Askew misses second half with ankle injury. All the little details - play great defense for 28 seconds, give up an open 3. Force SCU into a bad miss, let SCU collect the offensive rebound. The offense was slightly improved, but down the stretch, there were 3 offensive fouls where Cal had a possession to get within 2 or 3 points. Just all these tiny things add up to another loss
Cal (0-12, 258 Kenpom) plays a terrible UT-Arlington (275 Kenpom) on Wednesday. Cal lost to Texas State by 4 at home this season, while UTA lost by six on the road.
So, in a pillow fight between two terrible teams, one of them will end up with a win, potentially breaking one team's winless streak.
UT Arlington (4-7), by the way, is playing USF (9-3) at War Memorial Gym tonight; tipoff is at 7:00 PM.
If Askew misses this one, it’s a toss up,
Eastern WA and UT-Arlington were the best chances to get wins…but not without Askew, the only indispensable player on the team. He missed EWU w/ COVID protocol…this one???
He was playing well, and turned his ankle 3/4 through the way in the first half.
What is your favorite holiday beverage?
Eggnog. And I mean the fake bullshit that comes in a carton. I love it and it only comes around this time of year.
The one nearest to my hand
Celebration ale
Hot cider, spiked or not.
If the glove does not fit
...you must acquit.
Christmas Week
Working Mon-Fri this week, off all next week. I only need to take 2 days of vacation as Monday and Tuesday are holidays (Christmas and the Day After Christmas) and Dec. 30 (a Friday) is my scheduled day off. Because January 2 is a holiday (New Year's Day observance), I return to the office on January 3.
TL;DR - I get 10 days off for only 2 days of vacation.
leaving on Thu. skiing in Steamboat from Dec 22-30
originally scheduled for Fri, but extended it an extra day to give ourselves a little more travel time because of impending snow.
not complaining about an extra day in the mountains w/ tons of snow.
Off Wed - Jan 3rd. Though I will join a workgroup call on Thurs morning for a couple of hours.
Im off today, Thursday is a half day and I’m off Friday and Monday for the holiday.
Got all my Christmas shopping done this last weekend.
I did all my Christmas shopping Saturday morning in just under 90 minutes.
DBD Test Kitchen
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/calavera-gentrification-17656349.php
What does gentrification taste like? This dreadful Oakland restaurant serves it on a tortilla
Oh man, dinner last night was so good - Braised short ribs (at least 3 hours), with a 2014 Napa Cab - and a 1.5 Champaign for starter & the salad before the ribs over tasty mashed potato.
What about Urbana?
...I don't get this comment.
Champaign IL versus champagne the fizzy beverage
Whoops!
DBD AV Club
Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Mystery (Netflix, 13/19, WB). Will Arnett's improv class disguised as a murder mystery is delicious unpolished chaos. It isn't high art, but it's good comedy so long as you know how ridiculous it is. Yay for Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolf, but Pete Davidson didn't really seem to buy in to the concept.
tom cruise will continue to make tom cruise movies until he dies making tom cruise movies
https://twitter.com/TomCruise/status/1604839778125430785
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer Trailer (featuring one local East Bay University)
https://youtu.be/qAWEb0h43lU
Read a lot about Oppenheimer as he was a character in my second novel and am having a hard time picturing Cillian Murphy in the titular role. That said I'm down for any movie with Florence Pugh AND Berkeley in it.
Tell us more about your novel(s)!
This is the one in which Oppenheimer appears. It also features two scenes at Cal football games (in 1941). The main character is a former Cal running back. https://www.amazon.com/Threat-Night-Uhka-Richard-Hourula/dp/B09246432V/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Wow, super dramatic!
Greta Gerwig's Barbie trailer
https://youtu.be/XWMAVkiz_gk
Avatar: The Way of Water - it's getting really good reviews. I will not be going to see until Friday because my friend is "busy" with "work" and "family" and I'm like Big Jim is calling us!
get a new friend smdh
A second one? How much work do you want me to do?!
you have to meet payakan
i really enjoyed it but was thrown off by the high frame rate stuff, didn't really think it added enough to make it worth it.
saw it yesterday in IMAX 3D. Was really good. We enjoyed it a lot. Similar in that the story is very basic and uncomplicated but visually its stunning and overall a good watch 16/19
New XMAS special of Detectorists airs on BBC 2 on Boxing Day 21:00 UK time. If you haven't seen this show I can't recommend it highly enough.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221216-detectorists-why-a-metal-detecting-show-became-a-global-hit
Scrooged
A Very Murray Christmas
Christmas Vacation
A Christmas Story
Die Hard
Scrooged is a favorite of mine.
What's your favorite Christmas related movie(s)? For me: It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas in Connecticut, Home Alone and the 1951 A Christmas Carol.
Die Hard
Lethal Weapon
Trading Places
Gremlins
I forgot about Gremlins.
Did you forget about Dre though?
Die Hard
Holiday Inn
Lethal Weapon
anna and the apocalypse, it's a zombie musical and it's fun
Iron Man 3
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
ok shane black
the true meaning of Christmas!
Life of Brian. Works for Easter too
Our Crumbling Democracy
First parts of the final J6C report to be issued today. It is expected that Trump and others will be referred to the DOJ for criminal insurrection.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/18/jan6-committee-deliver-judgment-trump-00074365
IT'S OFFICIAL. TRUMP, EASTMAN, CLARK, MEADOWS, CHESEBRO, AND GIULIANI REFERRED TO DOJ.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/what-is-in-jan-6-committee-report-summary/index.html
GOP plans a whataboutism panel to rebut the J6C report
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3779784-house-republicans-planning-response-to-jan-6-panel-report-gop-rep-says/
Oh, man. The report is juicy.
Straight up money for PR - this is very China
At least six local news websites took money to write stories attacking clean energy
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1143753129/power-companies-florida-alabama-media-investigation-consulting-firm
Terry Dunn couldn't fathom why Alabama's residents — among the poorest in the U.S. — pay some of the nation's most expensive electricity bills.
So in 2010, Dunn ran for a seat on the state commission that sets energy prices. He promised to hold a formal rate hearing at which Alabama Power executives would have to open their financial books and answer questions, under oath and in public. That hadn't happened for nearly three decades.
After winning, Dunn says, a top lobbyist for the utility took him aside and promised he could hold his roughly $100,000-a-year position on the commission for years — as long as he remained a team player. (Alabama Power declined to make the executive available to address the accusation; the utility and its corporate parent, Southern Company, declined all comment for this story.)
"They didn't take me serious," Dunn says now.
Dunn, a Republican and Tea Party conservative, plowed ahead. And soon enough, he found himself the target of a political pressure campaign, replete with character assassinations and online smears.
Attacks began in online news outlets in 2013. One headline in Yellowhammer News read: "Democrats Embrace Republican Public Service Commissioner Terry Dunn."
In a June 2014 column, Alabama Political Reporter's editor in chief, Bill Britt, cast Dunn as a pawn of his own aide, a Democrat.
"For some Dunn is a populist hero; for others, he's a radical environmentalist," Britt wrote. He saw Dunn as manipulated by those who "find companies like Alabama Power a convenient political target."
These were devastating portrayals for Dunn in a deeply red state.
"Mostly everything was all made up," he says. "You get to thinking, 'Why are they attacking me?' I'm just telling the truth and trying to do what's right for the people."
[Dunn ends up being an asshole - "they abandoned me so they should end up paying more for electricity]
i too would end up being an asshole but also i wouldn't be in alabama
Everyone (the media, the democratic opposition research folks, electors) seems to have dropped the ball because nothing on this man's resume seems to be confirmed at all. Would've been nice BEFORE the election NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/nyregion/george-santos-ny-republicans.html
His campaign biography amplified his storybook journey: He is the son of Brazilian immigrants, and the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent. By his account, he catapulted himself from a New York City public college to become a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” with a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties and an animal rescue charity that saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats.
But a New York Times review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil, as well as various attempts to verify claims that Mr. Santos, 34, made on the campaign trail, calls into question key parts of the résumé that he sold to voters.
Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms on Mr. Santos’s campaign biography, told The Times they had no record of his ever working there. Officials at Baruch College, which Mr. Santos has said he graduated from in 2010, could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.
I'm shocked to learn that a serial liar may be a member of congress. Surely this is a first.
truly the american dream
Has anyone asked if Yes We Cannon really attended Cal?
TST
i almost didn't graduate because i never took a freshman-level engineering design class (entered Cal as engineering undeclared)
i tried to take it as a senior and the professor kicked me out so i had approval to substitute a different upper-div engineering class but my advisor never turned in the paperwork so one month into my new job i had to figure out how to use a fax machine to send in records
it eventually worked out and i have spent more than three of the last 13 years since graduation unemployed
Pro
Bucs up 17-0 and then Brady leads the team to the following series Downs, INT, FUM, FUM, INT, PUNT. Meanwhile, the Bengals go FG, FG, TD, TD, TD, Punt, TD.
Amar'e Stoudemire in trouble for allegedly punching one of his daughters in the face
https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/ex-nba-star-amare-stoudemire-charged-with-punching-daughter
well that's a shitty thing to do.
Vikings down 33-0 to Colts at halftime. Vikings won 36-33 in OT.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap/_/gameId/401437904
The Matt Ryan special
If you taught a Master Class on how a football team could blow a 33-0 lead, this would be entirely it. Matt Ryan now has blown the largest lead in the history of the NFL in both the regular season AND Super Bowl. He looks absolutely horrible in the pocket…what a sad end to a solid career. Dude looked cooked last year in Atlanta, and now he’s just a mess.
Didn’t he author some crazy comeback win while at BC? I have a vague recollection
He was a real good QB at BC…and in the NFL. But he’s toast now, man…boy howdy.
Cool penalty shot, but it'd be way cooler if it went in
https://twitter.com/DMacInnisISS/status/1604149088169213952
a quarter of an inch this way and it would have gone in
THE AUTUMN WIND IS A RAIDER
Raiders win the game on the dumbest football play I have ever seen
Link for the lazy.
https://twitter.com/Raiders/status/1604634543549341697
Also, Mac Jones getting stiff armed and falling on his back like a submissive puppy. pqtm
F you, Belichick.
Still doesn't make up for the fumble.
And the Stanford band was not out on the field according to the announcers...
Glorious!