100 Comments

It is December 23rd. You know what that means, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX55AzGku5Y

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Border regulation shift causes food shortages, requiring a badly needed airlift from an ally. Unlike 1949, this time it's coming from Germany.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55424448

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Rod Gilmore

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the worst announcer in sports today

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Gary Danielson & Brock Huard are at least as bad

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Eh, I think he's boring but not the worst. Sometimes he does some good analysis of DB technique.

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it's no wonder you liked the Last Jedi with comments like that

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You mean attentive and able to see past pre-conceived biases? Yup.

I get it, Cal fans hate Gilmore because he's a Furdie. I don't think he's all that good of an announcer, but in college football broadcasting "worst" is a very low bar.

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Well, maybe he's not the actual "worst" but his anti-Cal bias shows through in the Big Game broadcast, and that's hella annoying.

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Oh yeah, he's clearly still salty about The Play. I actually find it hilarious.

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pltm

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ummmm, Joe Starkey disagrees with you

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worst national announcer*

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acceptable

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Don't be ridiculous. We have the likes of Sean McDonough, Boogers McFarlin, and Bill the Clown Walton out there. And whomever did the analysis on the BYU game last night. And you haven't even dipped into team & league specifics (Joe Starkey, Ann Schatz, etc.).

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Walton? Walton?!?!?!? WALTON!!!!!! He is a national treasure, we are not worthy!

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Only Worthy is Worthy.

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Love Bill Walton!!

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This. Maybe it's because he absolutely adores Berkeley and goes on and on about us during our broadcasts, but I always enjoy listening to him.

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It does provide diversion from what's actually going on in the game, and of late, in Berkeley, that's a good thing. Given 2 good teams in a close game, it can be interesting to check in on the game at least every 5 minutes or so.

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Hey we're 5-4 now, we're not good, but we don't completely stink. And if we had just kept those good players who transferred out at the end of Wyking, I think we'd be #2-3 in the Pac-12.

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Yes, without a doubt.

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Last minute shopping?

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Never started so I guess I finished early

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wait... I need a card for my dog walker

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Given up, honestly. Whatever I have now is just going to have to be enough.

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Done...

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All done with Christmas shopping, but I had to do a supply run at Costco. It was like a typical Saturday and nearly everything was in stock (first time I've crossed everything off the list in a long time), so not too bad.

The liquor store was a zoo when I went a few minutes ago.

In a few minutes Mrs. Bk97 is doing a heavy grocery run for our Feast of the Seven Fishes tomorrow. I don't envy her.

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Salmon, trout, halibut, perch, rockfish, bass, walleye?

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To make it a little easier, we expand it to include all sea creatures. So we're planning calamari, octopus, scallops, Chilean sea bass, TBD [whatever looks good at the grocery store], sardines (in caesar salad dressing), and fish-shaped gingerbread (we always have one cheeky fish-like dessert).

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Scallops are a good start! Pro tip, you can get perfectly good sea bass from a lot closer than South America, and probably a lot cheaper.

Going seafood, scallops, lobster, crab, bay shrimp, lingcod, clams, halibut.

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The Chilean variety is her favorite, so we'll indulge this time.

That's a good list. We considered many of those and had several of them last time we did this.

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aka Patagonian Toothfish

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Looks like I might have to make a run for some smoked cheese, pumpkin spice flavored additives, and more breakfast stuff if we are to make it through a 4 1/2 day holiday weekend!

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Elsewhere in college

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Due to Covid, Carver College has signed up to be college basketball's punching bag

https://apnews.com/article/basketball-coronavirus-pandemic-georgia-basketball-atlanta-a58eaf05af33982a8a9eaa582b16c0c5

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Auburn hires Boise St Coach Bryan Harsin to be their next FB coach. Can he break the established tradition on the plains of firing winning coaches because they can't beat 'Bama?

Also of regional importance, who will Boise St hire, and can the Broncos continue their run? Didn't miss a beat the last 3 times they had to replace a coach that moved on for more money.

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Maybe they'll hire Justin Wilcox

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BOOOOOOO this Man!!!!

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Boise has people who are seriously talking about Wilcox. $s and escaping the problems inherent in Berzerkley are not to be disregarded.

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BOOOOOOOO THIS man as well!!!!!!

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Just reporting the facts. Don't shoot (or boo) the messenger.

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Arizona hires Jedd Fisch, the New England Patriots's QB coach, as their new head FB coach.

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3rd string QB Rhett Rodgriguez enters the transfer portal. Firing his dad was fine, but hiring Fisch may be a bridge too far.

https://twitter.com/247Sports/status/1341776838608236544

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If he wants a special teams coordinator familiar with Arizona, I can recommend someone...

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Wait, what? AD Heeke said they were going after SJSU's HC Brent Brennan, who used to coach as an assistant at Arizona. Joe Salave'a would have also been a more logical choice than Fisch. This is not going to be good for the Wildcats.

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Florida's Keyontae Johnson, the SEC pre-season MBB player of the year, collapsed while in a game and sent to the hospital. Diagnosis: acute myocarditis, likely from previous Covid infection. He is done for the season at a minimum.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/sec/2020/12/22/floridas-keyontae-johnson-heart-acute-myocarditis-covid-19/4019276001/

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Per Coach Holgorsen, about 15-20 Univ. of Houston players went full Cardale Jones and will be ineligible for their bowl due to grades

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QB Kevin Thomson* forgoes his final year of eligibility and declares for the NFL draft.

https://twitter.com/kevinthomsonx/status/1341521480002072576?s=21

* - UW's 2020 4th-string QB who was a seventh-year senior that averaged 135 yards passing per game with a 58% completion rate when he played at Sac State

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soooo. 2nd round draft pick? Maybe 3rd?

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December 23, 2020
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Garbers was officially second string the entire season, but defacto third because Sirmon played garbage time and Garbers didn't play a down. Going into next season, I expect Garbers to transfer if Huard (#1 QB recruit in US) leaps over him on the depth chart in spring. Sirmon appears like he's headed to Memphis.

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Today in the 'rona

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Kirk Cameron organizes another Christmas caroling event to Praise the Prince of Peace. Or is the Prince of Pestilence?

https://abc7.com/kirk-cameron-caroling-thousands-oaks-covid-19-coronavirus/8989700/

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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Trump vetoes annual Defense Policy Bill. Excuses included a) punitive act vs. social media companies because he got butthurt over "Diaper Don" trending on Twitter, b) opposed renaming military forts after Confederate leaders, and c) China (without any explanation what he means by that). Bill passed with a veto-proof majority, so likely will get passed again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-vetoes-annual-defense-policy-bill-potentially-setting-up-first-override-vote-of-his-presidency/2020/12/23/abd4758a-455c-11eb-ac2a-3ac0f2b8ceeb_story.html

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And I thought he couldn't get any worse. The last couple days are proving me wrong. Can't wait to see what he may do to Pence.

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Trump screws over Moscow Mitch by threatening to veto the Rona Stimulus package unless it comes with a $2k stimulus check to folks because he wants to go out with a wildly favorable action he can take credit for. No honor amongst thieves, McTurtle.

https://www.axios.com/trump-wont-sign-covid-relief-spending-package-bill-887279bf-17db-4ae6-aa23-1a8ccb9477ad.html

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What is puzzling is all the garbage that is included in the 5000 page bill.....stimulus payments to citizens is about $200 billion, so where’s the remaining requested $700 billion going?

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Some of the money will be shoveled to private equity firms to offset "losses" little to no transparency though. Mainly a boondoggle.

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unemployment, small business payroll loans, etc

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and $500M to Israel

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There’s stuff about the pirating of streaming content & memes...is Jimmy Chitwood gonna be launching 3’s on the blacktop at Lompoc federal prison for the next 10 yrs. simply for using his sister’s Hulu account? Jimmy C. would not do well in stir...

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Is that part of the Covid Stimulus or the government funding?

They decided to combine the stimulus and government funding into one bill.

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Jared Kushner's shell companies.

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the comedy is nonstop. Republicans reaping what they sow

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Trump pardons a bunch of people. The through-line for this group is either convicted of performing bad things for Trump, big-time financial crooks, war criminals, or people who the Kardashians kept up with.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/22/politics/trump-pardons/index.html

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Pros

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The Dubs pick up where they left off last season: getting blown out

https://twitter.com/warriors/status/1341569574664364033

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Once I saw Draymond Green was out for this game, this result was predictable.

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Cal

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GO BEARS!

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My professor at Cal was Kevin Padian. Dr Padian was at the forefront of promoting the hypothesis that birds were direct descendants of dinosaurs. At the time, this was not a popular theory and there were jokes abound how dumb that chicken were dino jr. His thesis was based upon that archeopteryx fossils were found with feather impressions. But archeopteryx didn't suddenly have feathers, so logic would dictate that there were other predecessors and contemporaries that had evolved feathers or feather precursors. After I left Cal, it is interesting to note that in 1998, there was a fossil found in China of a Sinosauropteryx, which had eggs in its stomach that had skin-structures that resembled those belonging to animals with feathers.

Well, today I learned that this was found four years ago. It is a coelurosaur with feathers. Not a fossil. An actual tail. Bone. Muscles. Skin. Feathers.

https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/news/2016/12/feathered-dinosaur-tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous

It makes me happy to know that one of my professors spent essentially a huge part of his career being mocked for a bold thesis and then being proven unequivocally correct.

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That is very cool

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Safeway - decades of BOGO offers

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I hate how now some of their offers are must buy three or must buy four. Today's ad has a whole bunch of products that are 77 cents each, when you buy ten.

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I haven't shopped at Safeway in a long time (not because I'm opposed, just because Berkeley Bowl is so close), but I thought you could mix and match. Like, ANYTHING that's labeled "Buy 10" gets the deal (once you amass 10 items).

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Correct.

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I first heard it in the 90s when Payless Shoes kept running commercials about BOGO sales.

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Buy one pair of shitty shoes that will fall apart well before it stops putting blisters on your feet, get another (or inferior) pair for free!

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and the only place you could buy Wino shoes.

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just learnt of it now. i have been living on east coast for 20 yrs now. i guess i now realize it was 20 yrs under a rock.

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Feeding a fed horse

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Other than maybe an apple or carrot, a dangerous idea. Some horses will eat themselves into foundering if allowed to.

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