136 Comments

Got my first shot, DT Oakland, Kaiser, super well organized.

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Got my first shot, DT Oakland, Kaiser, super well organized.

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Congrats. The one here in Arlington County I was at yesterday was also very well organized. I think they are getting it together finally.

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Semi-funny story; My wife got a large package delivered, from Young Living - I teased her that she had joined a multi-level marketing scheme - but it was a present for her from my sister in an absurdly large box.

Turns out Young Living IS a Mormon multi-level marketing scheme!

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Name a fermented food from "your culture"?

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Preserved tofu which is like my favorite thing to eat with plain rice.

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Kimchi.

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Natto all day.

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Meaning you'd eat natto all day? smh...

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I don't, but I can. I'm Japanese. haha

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Tequila

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This topic came about because I live close to an HMart. I go there at least once per week, often bringing back Korean treats for my lunch. My son declared today that he is not a fan of Korean food because every dish seems to be in some stage of fermentation.

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I have a lot of fermentation projects going (blame Brad Leone) - garlic/ginger paste and fruit right now.

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Hmm, I was born and raised in San Francisco, so . . . sourdough?

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Kaiser on Geary...sourdough didn't even come to mind :-(

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That was going to be my response too.

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Miso paste.

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Fermented Tofu. My mom used to use a little bit of it when she made the clear heart vegetable (literally translated). Or sometimes she would put it in congee I think. Just a little dab goes a long way

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I think that vegetable is also called water spinach and morning glory. It's also slang for a heartless person (I think).

Oh, and if you want to say that someone is not your type/not your cup of tea, you would say, they aren't your "tsai," or they aren't your vegetable.

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Interesting. I only knew it as the chinese name. I first had it in Taiwan in 85 when our family went and loved it so my mom started making it after we got back.

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I remember her telling me that in Taiwan it's sorta like peasants food since it's so cheap.

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*considered like peasants

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it's everyone's food. It's a pretty standard veggie for thai food and also a lot of cantonese.

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pulque

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dosas. the batter for the dosas is fermented in order to give those nice little bubbles when you cook/fry them up

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Yum. My friend just made canjeero (Somali sourdough pancakes), and she said they're similar to but less sour than Ethiopian injera. I definitely want to try it, because I love the bubbles and texture of injera, but would prefer something less sour. (Your mention of bubbles made me think of this.)

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My wife was telling me about someone she knows who had said that they'd found a place that had good injera for carry out but they could never finish it, and I couldn't understand that at all. I mean I understood the words but not the concept.

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I have half a mind to go to Guangzhou just to have some Ethiopian food.

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strictly speaking, South Indian is a very different culture than the North.

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I like beer.

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stinky tofu!

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yuck

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aka Natto: Worst...Food...Ever (from my adopted culture)

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I kind of like Natto. I wouldn't really go out of my way to get it, but it's interesting in a good way with rice.

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same. i rather like it. but i also like things like Marmite and Vegemite.

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Natto is...not my favorite

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Or as like to say: Natto is Not-oh my favorite

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My wife and daughter love the stuff, which makes the dinner table stink...daughter complains about my kimchee and I tell her that she's got no basis for that argument! (well...in a way that makes sense to a 5 yo, but she never agrees)

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My wife really does not like the aroma of Laphroaig, but think she's overreacting - it's just a dram.

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Same. My wife thinks all Islays are awful. That's fine--more for me.

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Norway: Rakfisk

Denmark: Surströmming

Germany: Beer

England: I dunno, bread?

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I know lutefisk but rakfisk was a new one on me.

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sauerkraut

more importantly: beer, wine

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Florida woman fought a middle school student at her daughter's school while wearing a boxing glove super glued onto one hand, loses. Link with her mug shot with a shiner. LET'S GO JAGS!

https://www.kvue.com/mobile/article/news/crime/jacksonville-mom-arrested-fight-with-student-duval-county-school/77-ffca1da6-5d2b-4e16-8b28-914e41650949

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So, not just Florida "Man"...

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I am feeling that picture in the header. I am not at all excited about going back to the office.

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Come up with a name for an unofficial college rivalry and what is the trophy?

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Fresno St v UC Merced battle it out for the golden cow chip

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Anyone ever been to Alaska? The missus and I are considering a jaunt there for our 25th anniversary extravaganza

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Matt Ha (former Mic Man) is from Alaska. I believe he's there now

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I have been there twice, but probably can't offer too many suggestions.

The first was on a 15-day long round-trip bus trip from Atlanta, GA to Anchorage, AK and back with my family in 1996 (the Alaskan highway was really bumpy and I had to sleep on the bus with bunks with head over face head to not hit it at night)...the highlight for me was Denali, saw a mother Bear with cubs from fairly close, and the modified school bus also hit a moose just outside it (we were only going 10 MPH so not much damage to the bus...the moose ran off but I would not be shocked if it had died). I remember having really good salmon in Anchorage (there was also a lot of spam and McD on this trip, so anything else was great!).

The second was a cruise down from Anchorage to Vancouver (with a lot of extended family for my grandmother's 70-year-old birthday), which covered a lot of the other Alaskan cities along the coast (I may have seen a whale in a distance but it also could have been anything). My family did not do anything particularly fancy shore excursion but I did drag them to see the Seward totem pole. This was 2008.

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I’m all for hitting parks on my travels...Newellbany & I have cranked out all the MLB stadiums, w/ Globe Life next in Sept on the TCU trip...now doing Natl Parks, so try & bang out Kenai Fjords near Seward...

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photos >> https://photos.app.goo.gl/HBps7NayGrVondzb9

we did a family trip a few year ago and it was great

- flew in/out of Anchorage and rented a car

- Anchorage, we went to the state fair. that was a good cultural experience for our NY city raised kids.

- Homer, fishing village, so we chartered a fishing boat for a day and then got to eat the fish for dinner

- we didnt splurge on the float plane and bear viewing, but in retrospect we should have

- Seward, great place to take the obligatory glacier cruise

- you can also get smaller tours/cruises where you can kayak around and get closer to the glaciers

- Talkeetna, most of the Denali flightseeing planes leave from here.

- the flightseeeing is also expensive but worth it because it is amazing to land a plane on a glacier and walk around

- also, Denali is notoriously hard to see, so this is one guaranteed way to see the mountain above the clouds at 20000 ft.

- Denali NP, we stayed outside the park and did the full day bus ride excursion

- great views and scenery and a decent amount of wildlife.

- bring your binoculars and best telephoto lens if you want photos because nothing is too close to the bus

- we saw 12.5 bears at a pretty good distance

- the 0.5 bear was a recently murdered baby bear cub that was killed by the papa bear because the mama bears dont have sex while they are nursing

can you give you more details if interested

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"see the state fair" 😀

"chartered a fishing boat" 😀

"land a plane on a glacier" 😀

"murdered baby bear cub" ☹

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at least that was at the end of the story so you could enjoy the rest of it

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i guess the photos of Denali NP were in a separate album

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HJWVZAaGYan1Qw839

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Yes, I worked in the Aleutians during one summer after sophomore year salmon fishing. Beautiful place, I managed to visit Denali while I was there toward the end of my stay when I had some time off from work.

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this might not be your cup of tea, but I recently learned that there's a tourist rail service with a couple of different services including Seward - Fairbanks, which includes going past Denali. That seems like it would be amazing in the summer.

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We're considering driving for flexibility and Seward to Fairbanks with stops in between seems the most likely route

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A traveling trip like that sounds like a great idea. I tagged along when the missus had a work trip to Alaska a few years ago and I felt like I saw all of Anchorage in a single morning. Driving around well outside the city towards places like Seaward and Whittier was quite enjoyable.

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I did the Inside Passage cruise in ‘14 with my miserable ex-wife, but I heard the train is fantastic. I’m planning a road trip w/ the red dog and the new puppy for end of summer after I get the vaccine (hopefully) and they open the border (ALSO, hopefully)...would love to get your thoughts after you go, FS.

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we looked into the train to potentially avoid long drives and enjoy the scenery, but the flexibility of the car won out in the end.

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didn't DCBlue live there at one point?

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I did. But it was 30 years ago so probably different in what's available. Most of what is mentioned above sounds right. I wouldn't bother with the state fair. Anchorage doesn't have too much touristy stuff but does have good hiking in the immediate area. And Anchorage has a huge tidal range (up to forty feet) so it's kind of fun to walk the Coastal Trail to see the difference. Seward is busy at 4th of July. Depending on the time you have, some people concentrate on either going south (Seward, Homer, Kenai peninsula) or north toward Denali but not both.

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generally you are right about the state fair.

on the other hand in dont think our kids have ever seen a lumberjack show or a piglet race. they were endlessly entertained that such a thing is even entertaining!

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Maine discussing whether to allow open-air funeral pyres. Y'all can go out like Darth Vader.

https://www.sunjournal.com/2021/03/23/maine-may-allow-viking-style-funeral-pyres/

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Only if they sing Yub Nub.

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Sending’ all those Pine Tree staters to Valhalla...

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Heck, why not?

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I would seriously reconsider my funeral preferences if this came into force.

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Bring in the hammerhead corvette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2vyk52HHPw

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Damn, kinda like my morning.

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Waterway Dulcolax

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https://twitter.com/lisasorg/status/1374700846219411457

There's a server error & I can't do the @nytimes Spelling Bee. So now my daily morning routine is completely disrupted, with all thought processes blocked, like the ship in the Suez Canal.

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I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that I am too cheap to pay for the NYT Spelling Bee. I just play for free, which locks you out after a few words, so I just try to find the pangram. If I was trying to complete it every day, it will take up a lot more of my time daily.

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Today's pangram was super easy! I don't think I got either Monday or Tuesday's.

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i typed in "function" and it cut me off right after that.

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what does that mean? that you couldn't type in additional (shorter) words?

when I started doing the pangrams, I didn't realize that the purpose was anything more than finding the pangram. when I tried to play officially, since I only subscribe to NYT – not the puzzles – after five words, it cut me off ("hey, you're good...you should subscribe and play more!").

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I only subscribe to the crossword app.

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i do the free thing too with the lock out.

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Regarding free puzzles, I'm now doing the WaPo Mini Meta (thanks @BuckeyeBear and ???): today's was harder than Mo or Tu – maybe that's typical – but I don't understand 5 Down. How/why is that a pun?

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summer as in someone who is summing

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In that vein, has anyone seen the Gary Gulman routine about the "documentary" he watched regarding development of the two-letter state abbreviations? He used "contractors" similarly.

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ahhhhh...well played, WaPo

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I also did not get this initially.

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Still blocked? That's one giant container ship.

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From yesterday ...

after Tarantino thread, i ended up watching Kill Bill Vol 1 and thoroughly enjoyed it.

i guess Vol 2 is on deck for tonight.

it was a close call between Kill Bill and the Darmok episode of TNG.

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pqtm. I watched STNG 05-02 "Darmok" on Netflix.

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@Berkelium97 and the House of Blue Leaves scene indeed was fantastic. thx for pointing that out.

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Another fantastic scene is the Hattori Honzo/Okinawa scene...love that he carries around a baseball, bc I do as well!

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The dialogue between Hattori Honzo and his assistant is another of my favorite scenes.

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I love all the dumb arguments about who should get the sake.

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"And you'd still get the sake!!!"

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Some dick rams car into anti-Asian Hate rally in Diamond Bar. https://abcnews.go.com/US/car-ramming-rally-protesting-anti-asian-hate-investigated/story?id=76628526

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Today in La Rona

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"And on the right, there’s out-and-out racism; Donald Trump wanted to cast this as a “Chinese” disease. That’s bullshit. The Taiwanese are as Chinese as the mainland Chinese.

[The Covid success in Taiwan] was a golden opportunity for the Western world to prove that democracy works. The Chinese government’s line is basically that democracy is chaotic and inefficient. “Look at us,” [they say], “building hospitals in 10 days. Look at us enforcing lockdowns. Fascism works. Fascism keeps people alive. Democracy doesn’t. Look at you in the West versus us here.”

But Taiwan blows that out of the water, because they’re as democratic as we are. They have a free press. They have everything we’re supposed to cherish. And while we were locking down for the third time, they were shooting off fireworks celebrating a 100th day Covid-free. Free!"

https://www.vox.com/culture/22289454/pandemic-year-contagion-world-war-z-station-eleven-rest-relaxation?utm_source=pocket-newtab

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Missouri liberalizes who can administer Covid vaccines to include midwives and respiratory therapists.

https://www.kmov.com/news/dentists-other-medical-professionals-now-eligible-to-become-vaccinators-in-missouri/article_b0a454c2-8bc0-11eb-80dc-7349bfac384e.html

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And vets too. Makes sense, though. Intramuscular injections are trivial to administer--nearly anyone can watch a 30 second instructional video or read a quick tutorial and successfully administer one.

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Elsewhere in college

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F. King Alexander resigns as Oregon State President on back of LSU scandal, which is hurting a bunch of colleges*

https://twitter.com/samkarlin/status/1374386333926354951

* - not LSU

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Here is Oregon's Justin Flowe's highlight reel from his highschool junior year. J. F. C. It is a horror show of destruction.

http://www.hudl.com/v/2Ex8bd

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Thibodeaux, Sewell the Younger, and both Flowe Brothers with TDR as coach is a fucking scary defense

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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ICYMI: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) rails against climate change science, using Greenland-recently-froze-because-it-is-called-Greenland story. What a fucking moron.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/us/politics/ron-johnson-wisconsin-misinformation.html

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PRO

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NHL: Ref Tim Peel fired after hot-mic caught him doing a "make-up" penalty

https://twitter.com/bestofmatt/status/1374533125406097408

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FYI, the crystal ball predicts only one former Bear gets drafted.

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The Texans waive Chad Hansen

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Niners should sign Hansen and then he and Garoppolo can have weekly "Walk-Offs"....Billy Zane and Scootie can be the Judges....

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I'm in.

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Hansen should go to Lions

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I would bet Curhan works his way into the mix as well.

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DeShaun Watson now has 16 Jane Doe sexual assault lawsuits. His lawyer's defense is "he definitely didn't do one of them".

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31122645/attorney-says-allegation-deshaun-watson-forced-woman-commit-sexual-act-completely-false

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that doesn't seem like a great defense

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I'm thinking his lawyer should stfu, if he doesn't have a real defense.

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Rusty Hardin! Big time celebrity lawyer in Houston. He has courtside seats at the Rockets . . .I have met but do not know him

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A's beat Rockies 4-1 as spring training starts to wind down.

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CAL

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While looking for something else, I was pleasantly surprised to find the full Cal Women's Gymnastics stream of their meet vs. UCLA on YouTube (made by some college gymnastics fan rather than Cal, of course). This was the meet where the Bears tied the NCAA record on bars and also set the program-best team score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvRN200NEgI

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GO BEARS!

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Sweatpants are my go to for everything, they work for school and doing casual work or even meeting up with friends casually.

Also PSA for Cal basketball: Pay Porter Moser whatever he wants to coach this team.

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I've been into these "stretch" jeans with a "comfort waist" over the last year, that come in khaki and dark gray, and could pass as smart casual but feel like wearing light sweats. A perfect crime. They're even nice to go hiking in. Could be one of those permanent changes for me post la rona.

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I've bought 3 pairs of pants from Huckberry and now won't wear anything. else

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I saw an article where it was suggested he be the next Duke coach. No way Cal will give him what some other program is willing to pay him.

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We must give him the keys to Berkeley that should work.

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i personally prefer a comfy pair of light jeans as my go-to-for-everything. that way i can even show up in a decent NYC restaurant w/ the appropriate upper half.

however, given that i am stuck in this walking boot thing for the next 4 wks, it is only sweatpants right now.

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