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I don't know if any of you read Louise Penny books (mysteries; I enjoyed them for awhile, but the last few I read got a bit too dramatic/blockbuster movie-esque), but she just announced that she's writing a book with Hillary Rodham Clinton: https://www.facebook.com/louisepennyauthor/posts/274433350717899

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/opinion/britney-spears-mara-wilson-hollywood.html?fbclid=IwAR2xMRmCnKFeEnyhWMA2pp9l_H6Rh5dTRWp2hmi1ST-niQT18SfeGhTG7RQ

(open in incognito mode if you don't have a NYT subscription)

The Lies Hollywood Tells About Little Girls by Mara Wilson

The next morning I got up, groggy from jet lag, and put on my best Forever 21 attire. Two press coordinators checked in before I started my interview: Did I want the air off, or a soda? I said I was fine — I didn’t want to get a reputation as a complainer. But when the journalist asked how I was feeling, I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I told her the truth.

I don’t know why I opened up to her. But I had never been good at hiding my feelings. (Acting, to me, is very different from lying.) And she seemed like she really cared.

The next day, Canada’s newspaper of record put me on the front page of its entertainment section. The article began, “The interview hasn’t even begun with Mara Wilson, Child Star, and she’s complaining to her staff.”

...

A big part of The Narrative is the assumption that famous kids deserve it. They asked for this by becoming famous and entitled, so it’s fine to attack them. In fact, The Narrative often has far less to do with the child than with the people around them. MGM was giving Judy Garland pills to stay awake and lose weight when she was in her early teens. The former child actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by an obsessed stalker. Drew Barrymore, who went to rehab as a young teenager, had an alcoholic father and a mother who took her to Studio 54 instead of school. And this doesn’t even begin to take into account the amount of abuse nonwhite actors, particularly Black actors, get from the public. Amandla Stenberg was harassed after being cast in “The Hunger Games” as a character that had been written as Black, but whom some readers of the book series had imagined as white.

The saddest thing about Ms. Spears’s “breakdown” is that it never needed to happen. When she split with her husband, shaved her head and furiously attacked a paparazzi car with an umbrella, the Narrative was forced upon her, but the reality was she was a new mother dealing with major life changes. People need space, time and care to deal with those things. She had none of that.

Many moments of Ms. Spears’s life were familiar to me. We both had dolls made of us, had close friends and boyfriends sharing our secrets and had grown men commenting on our bodies. But my life was easier not only because I was never tabloid-level famous, but because unlike Ms. Spears, I always had my family’s support. I knew that I had money put away for me, and it was mine. If I needed to escape the public eye, I vanished — safe at home or school.

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I'm getting ready to go out for a walk. While getting ready I turned on the Weather Channel to check conditions and they just showed a satellite photo of that.

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Seattle woman takes up crocheting animal hats. She reportedly feels fantastic and finished 132 of them in 55 minutes.

https://twitter.com/SeattlePD/status/1363968600181121027

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TBB suggested a Pi Day event

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Thanks for doing the needful. Also, my brother asked me the other day, "Is 'needful' a word?" hahahahaha

Let's have a Pi Day Zoom!!!

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I'm now suddenly shocked that March is so close.

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I guess we'll need to do a Pi Day Zoom call this year since we can't really meet-up. Cugel should be happy we aren't invading his place.

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No! That was fun!

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But everyone was just drinking up your bourbons and ryes. Now you can save it all for yourself!

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Red wine is being served at an event in Berkeley with no bottles shown. They offer: Malbec, Montepulciano, CA Cab Sauv, Barossa Valley, or water. Which do you choose?

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Water please. With bubbles if it's a fancy event.

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it's pretty hard to screw up a Malbec in my experience, so I'd go with that. But I also love Italian wine, so maybe the Montepulciano for curiosity's sake.

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You take a healthy pour of all of them, make your own Chitwood Meritage and relive in your head Cal blowing out Tim Thomas' Villanova squad to reach the Sweet 16 in '97 ;-)...that, or the Malbec.

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Don't think I've ever had a Montepulciano, so I'll give that one a try.

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normally Montepulciano because i have a thing for Italian wines .. but i would probably just go w/ the local stuff from CA

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The Montepulciano or the Malbec would be delightful.

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Probably the Malbec.

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Depends on what food they're serving.

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It's an event, so mini quiches that look like they're from Trader Joe's, mini spanakopita, smoked salmon on slightly stale french baguette slices, crudites, grapes, and yellow cheddar cubes with red foiled toothpicks.

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The detail here is exquisite.

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I don't think the food matters. (Personally, I think it's a somewhat dated concept.) I'll pick Montepulciano

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What? Wine pairings DON'T MATTER?!?!?! ARE YOU INSANE?

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for the food he mentioned? Not one bit. Do i give two shits which is the best wine to pair with pre-prepared and frozen food? Fuck no. I'll admit that certain wines can enhance the food experience but overall when I sit down in a restaurant and order wine, I do not let that dictate the food I order and vice versa

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Well, I agree about the hors d'oeuvres above, except, I'd lean toward a red, but it's not all that important. But when I'm at a restaurant I never order the wine until I figure out what we're having to eat; it's a pretty big deal to me.

Also, I always end up with too much Cab, which I like, but the wife doesn't make all that many Cab-friendly meals.

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I can offer guidance on which drinks pair with yelling at which boys.

The guidance: all of them. Drink all the drinks and yell at all the boys.

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YES I AM HERE FOR THIS SLAP FIGHT

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Then the Malbec

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Excellent choice, sir.

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Elsewhere in college

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Tyler Shough Transfers to Texas Tech. Coaches seem to have lost faith in him after the 2nd half of the Cal game, when he struggled.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/former-oregon-starting-quarterback-tyler-shough-announces-transfer-to-texas-tech/

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How much do P5 teams spending on recruiting? [Scrolls... keeps scrolling...]. Well, the good news is that we're not dead last.

https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/an-analysis-of-football-recruiting-costs/

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A good airport in the US

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PDX has good food, is small but has international connections and is pleasant. I actually enjoyed arriving at ORL but that may have been the seamless interlink with Disney properties.

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ORL or MCO?

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MCO! (I don't fly private. Well, I have twice, but I don't normally)

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I used to like Honolulu. Not sure how it is lately though.

...

...What does SGBear do with all the answers to all these questions? Maybe it's a clandestine psyops job.

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Kona is nice.

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Denver is well planned out that dropoff is at one location and you take a tram to all the terminals from there. They can build new terminals without interfering with ground traffic.

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I also like DEN. Easy to navigate, good amenities. People always bitch about it being far from town, but I think they were just spoiled by Stapleton. It's relatively closer than a lot of other airports.

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Also, good for satanists!

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eh, it is so fucking huge, the car rental places are far away from the airport, and gas stations are few and far between; not my fave. I liked that some of the car rental places are still in the airport at SLC.

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I guess I had never had to rent a vehicle there. I agree it sucks when the rental car is off site and you have to take a tram or bus. I think LAX is planning something similar. Big rental car center, dropoff concourse, and connect them to terminal via tram. Small airports are always better. Parking, rental car, everything is walkable from terminal. But among huge airports, I think Denver is comparably better.

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tbh I have little problem with OAK and SJC, even at peak times. They're a pretty good balance of accessibility (i.e. destinations) and convenience. My other frequented airport is Burbank, and while it's super commuter friendly, it is lacking in destinations. I had a particularly fantastic time flying international from SJC. It took me less time to go from security to my gate than it did to get to the airport, and I lived across the freeway from it!

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Santa Barbara...Albany (NY)

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oh God, trying to get an inexpensive flight into Albany is impossible. But yes, the airport is small and the lines are short.

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Ya, Southwest was a real game changer but you had limited non-stop options. MID, BWI, LAS, ORL...Southwest is coming to SB tho in April!

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John Wayne/Santa Ana/Orange County. Small, efficient, not crowded (except the business rush at 8am and 6pm). I lived about 15 min away for several years and it was wonderfully convenient.

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That's my home airport and I love how fast you can get in and out. Wish it had Centurion Lounge or Priority Pass lounges though.

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I have only used John Wayne twice (in/out as once) and it was shockingly super crowded one time on a random weekday afternoon that I almost missed my flight (they ended up waiting a bit because so many passengers were stuck at the security line that took a full hour plus).

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That take off though

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Palm Springs is my favorite terror inducing takeoff.

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anywhere that is near where I am and has a direct flight to where I'm going

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Perhaps I have a small sample size of experience, but I have found Houston and Austin to be easy and fast transport with really good food.

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IAH is painful if you have to connect in different terminals, which you often have to do on United flights. On the other hand, there's a Wendy's that served breakfast before Wendy's everywhere started serving breakfast!

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would that be Houston Hobby or Bush Intercontinental?

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BIA. Love me some Hugo's.

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Bush is IAH, Hobby is HOU. I like IAH too, but it's like an hour from town.

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Hobby isn't bad; being smaller has its advantages.

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The first time that I have been to the Austin airport, I was impressed by there been 3 different live music performances during the 90min layover that I had there. I also flew there for the Cal-Texas game, but didn't have any strong feeling about the airport (which is probably a good thing).

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Long Beach, CA. All other answers are incorrect

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A bunch of us flew into LBC from the Bay Area the day before my wedding. It's a cool, small airport.

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i can't actually remember how i got there. but sounds about right ..

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Weren't you in Indiana by then? Oh it was the week after New Years so you may have already been back.

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ah yes. but it could have been a Xmas break thing too.

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Wow, I have not flown on jetBlue in over a decade, but did fly to Long Beach a couple of times from the East Coast. It's never as convenient for me as LAX because I was visiting family/friends in West LA, but I also really randomly ran into an East Coast graduate school friend at Long Beach airport once which is a testament to the intimate size of that airport.

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I have yet to find a really good one, although I haven't flown into that many. The best are the small ones that have short security lines like Burbank. The many times I've flown through there the most people in front of me in line was maybe 3. And the first gate is like 30 feet after security. I could probably get dropped off at the beginning of boarding and get on the plane (assume carry-on) before doors close.

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Monday mornings at Burbank can be nuts though. I've seen it where the security line went all the way back to the ticketing counters. Still better than LAX or SFO tho.

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I also prefer the Burbank airport when I am visiting that part of LA. John Wayne (Orange County) is pretty good as well.

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Burbank is super convenient for my sister that lives in Pasadena. I've been flying United for work so I prefer that, but SWA Oak->Bur is so convenient that I do that when I visit her.

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JAC (Jackson WY)

small and efficient airport with a stunning view of the Tetons from the waiting area.

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LGA .. while i would not call it good, the recently renovations and multiyear construction project have made a big improvement.

we flew in/out of there just last week for the first time in about a year.

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My cousin is in charge of that renovation.

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Tip

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Just the ___

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Tri

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Or ouch ouch, you're on my hair...

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How much are you supposed to tip for takeout? I feel like I tip more based on the number of items rather than the price of the items. So I have tipped the same just a couple of bucks to both the pizza place ($15 spending) and at fancier restaurants that I used to dine at (bill closer to $40). Am I doing this wrong?

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no tip culture in China/Thailand/Singapore (all places I've spent the last 365 days)

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I've been tipping a lot more during the pandemic. $20 on a $15 meal in a few instances. Same reasons as the other people.

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I do it on need basis. I ask how they're doing. If it is a really popular place, 0-15% and mentally "save" that money for someone else. If it is a place that's struggling that is at risk of financially imploding, I'm ordering several meals worth of food and giving like 30%-50%. I certainly would expect someone to do the same, but I feel that I'm investing in my own community and quality of living. I don't want to emerge from Covid with all retail except fast-food gone.

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I'm definitely really bad there. I haven't been patronizing anyone except the grocery store since the pandemic. I only ate out when invited in the first place, so since the pandemic started I make 99% of my meals at least partly at home, and 95% of them completely. That's not an exaggeration either. I only order out once every two months. I guess I go to a family-owned greengrocers, but somehow I think they'll be doing fine without my patronage.

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Most of the take-out places I've been to just have you put your card in the reader they extend out the window for whatever the amount is for whatever the order is. Not even an opportunity to add a tip. At the other ones, I'm not getting any extra service; its pick up a bag or box and go. The service/server component has been eliminated. I'm wondering if we will ever go back to even a limited service model in most cases.

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during these times, I tip a lot more when I order takeout, somewhere in the 25-30% range

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Exactly - because of COVID, tipping 20-25% easy on take out.

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I'll remember to do that on the rare occasion that I do another non-fast food take-out (it's like once a month occurrence). I gave a big percentage tip when I was at a taco truck like 2-3 months ago because it felt nice to talk to someone in person again. The slightly nice local restaurant that I have ordered from has had zero human interaction that it felt easy to just type a low number when I put in my payment info online.

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Everyone's considering different factors. I know I've felt really lucky to be insulated from the more devastating effects of the pandemic, so I try to do my part to be supportive. This might be slightly over-the-top, but when I got my moisturizer last week, I called the store at the mall directly instead of ordering online, because I know they don't get credit for the sales from the website (even if you pick up in store). That's a large chain, though.

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in perhaps my most bougie comment of the day: my older daughter has been exchanging texts with her pal at the local Macys Clinique counter since before the pandemic for that very reason.

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Same. I'm not going to notice the difference if I tip an extra few dollars more than normal but it could make a decent difference to the person receiving the tip.

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I think I did that toward the beginning of the pandemic. Then I realized that I often don't even see anybody when I go pick up the food. Then again, I think eating out (mostly not at expensive places...particularly since I have almost always lived by a college/university) was my main expenditure in the past that my spending has significantly been less during this pandemic. Are the restaurant staffs still dependent on the tip during the pandemic? I sure hope not.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Dang, I was going to link a Politico article about the damage Qanon has done to families, but it looks like it was taken down.

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Survey report: 15% of all Americans (29% of Republicans) believe "Donald Trump has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that include prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites."

https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/after-the-ballots-are-counted-conspiracies-political-violence-and-american-exceptionalism/

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Even if one somehow believes that child sex traffickers do exist in government and Hollywood, how do those people not believe that Donald Trump is not a big part of that? I would think those conspiracies gain some credence because of Trump.

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Honestly, they think that he's friends with Epstein so he can take them down from the inside.

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In a way the approach is ingenious and damn scary. If you want to convince people that your opposition is bad, what worse offense is there than child sex trafficking? Just repeat the accusation over and over and over, with plenty of fire and brimstone, and people will not only start believing it, they'll be super amped up for action. Sounds crazy, but the experiment has been done, and the data is there.

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When you don't allow facts to distract you, you can believe whatever you want, and not believe anything that's inconvenient.

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PRO

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Tiger Woods' agent says golfer in surgery with multiple leg injuries after single-car accident in California

https://twitter.com/SkySportsNews/status/1364302232087388162

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https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1364300282499375111

Single driver accident. Car looks messed up and he tore through a bunch of trees. I think he crashed here, which is a 45 mph zone on a downward slope coming out of RPV:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7821124,-118.3695269,3a,75y,32.96h,73.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scfT_cQnFxHdeHkAhhBjL-w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Looks like all gas, no brakes. So... on brand. I hope he gets better soon.

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At 7:15AM. Same time he was arrested last time he had a DUI.

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DMV should revoke this MFers license

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Natalie Tyson (BA UC Berkeley, MA Counseling from "Palo Alto University", current UCB IB/MCB Undergrad academic advisor) gave a shout-out to Stomper on Jeopardy last night.

https://twitter.com/Stomper00/status/1364040236662095875

https://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad/advisor-profile-natalie-tyson

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MLB deadens baseballs so they will fly a couple feet less this season

https://twitter.com/latimessports/status/1363912975355023364?s=19

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CAL

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Sigh. Bears claw back from a 0-5 second inning hole, take the lead in top of the 7th via a rally that included 4 homers, then a middle reliever retires none of his four batters - including a bases-loaded walk. Cal falls to 1-3. Next up: four game series vs. USF starting on Thursday.

https://twitter.com/CalBaseball/status/1364067561176846339

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Some of these early-season Cal Baseball games are tough to watch (and so far only the two road games were streamed). The Cal blown lead inning started with an error before the new guy couldn't find the strike zone. The offense also has not clicked before the 4 homer outburst yesterday (probably against Pacific's worst starting pitcher).

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FIRE EVERYONE

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