74 Comments

Bon Appetit Test Kitchen Variety Show starting in a few: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbJ84xWs8aw

Expand full comment

Lunch

Expand full comment

Egg drop soup

Expand full comment

A Xolo lunch, one pollo, one vampiro, one 805

Expand full comment

Tomorrow at around noon the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds are doing a flyover and the course they're flying takes them within a mile of me three times. I'm looking forward to it but am afraid there will be a lot of folks not social distancing. Everyone have a fun and safe weekend.

Expand full comment

If it's like NYC then there won't be any social distancing.

Expand full comment

As I came home from a walk I noticed they brought in a mobile sign that says to stay safe and practice social distancing. Hard to believe it's a coincidence. I bet they are expecting folks to gather in the park across the street to watch. I think I'll take a walk to get away from any crowd.

Expand full comment
author

Buckeye-state alert:

https://www.notsopuremichigan.com/

Expand full comment

Other card games

Expand full comment

Cribbage baby

Expand full comment

Oh, also, Egyptian Rat Screw.

Expand full comment

That is a game I haven't played (nor even heard about) in probably 15-20yrs

Expand full comment

Progressive Rummy! I will play that any day, any time, any where.

Expand full comment

My wife and I got into a Rummy and Gin Rummy kick a couple years ago and were playing a couple rounds a night 3-4x per week.

Expand full comment

Asshole is BEST DRINKING GAME CARD GAME

we played it w/ the kids recently. they already knew how to play it but apparently at summer camp the game is called President.

Expand full comment

We called it Presidents AND Assholes in college

Expand full comment

Parts of the Midwest enjoy euchre

Expand full comment
author

I'm a fan of Bridge (and to a lesser extent Spades...and I guess also Hearts). I learned in high school but actually didn't play much at Cal (the Bridge club ran out of the math department was way intimidating). I then played more in grad school (even a collegiate championship because I didn't exhaust my eligibility in undergrad) and still play online with some grad school friends. The online game had stopped after other people started to have kids and I had to do too much international travels, but restarted since the pandemic shutdown.

Expand full comment

i am big bridge fan too.

but after playing a lot in grad school and even collecting a few master points at tournaments, i have had no one to play with in 20 yrs.

Expand full comment

Anyone else familiar with the game Mao? The whole point of the game is that you don't explain the rules and have to figure them out, plus the winner of each round gets to make up a secret new rule.

Expand full comment

When we were kids we used to play a lot of Hearts, which is like a super simple starter game for Bridge.

Expand full comment

I've only ever played the computer version

Expand full comment

hearts is a good family game as well. we have been playing it more w/ 13 and 16 yr old during coronavirus.

would love to get them bridge but it takes another level of commitment to want to track every trick and every card that went by

Expand full comment

There's always that ONE GUY who is constantly trying to shoot the moon, only because he does it every time no one falls for it.

Expand full comment

thats me! i can usually manage 1 out of 3 times even when everyone knows it.

Expand full comment

Haha, true

Expand full comment

Hearts is a lot of fun. Learned to play at my first job. It was when Windows for Workgroups was the OS and our office was wired up with coax for our network. We would either play Hearts (first 4 to join) or networked FPS games. Once we had a power outage so we walked to Picantes and someone brought a deck to play analog Hearts.

Expand full comment

We used to play Descent and Heretic/Hexen during lunch. I've always had a hard time playing FPS so it took me a while to get used to Heretic/Hexen. For some reason flight sims aren't as bad.

Expand full comment

My grandmother taught me Hearts, Crazy Eights, and King's Corner as a little kid and we still play any time I visit her.

Expand full comment

Another card game I used to play was Mille Bornes. My cousin got it for us when they visited from France around 87 and I brought it and played with my roommates in college. I used to also play it with the boys. it was a lot of fun. I think the Sun workstations in the WEB also had a version.

Expand full comment

We wore that game out as kids

Expand full comment

it was pretty hard to find an edition of Mille Bornes that had the original French artwork. there is an American version out there, but not nearly as entertaining.

nothing is as satisfying as giving someone else a Creve! (flat tire)

Expand full comment

I think mine had all the french words. Not sure if that is the original french artwork or not. I don't know if I still even have it in one of the bins in the garage.

Expand full comment

Love me some Mille Bornes.

Expand full comment

Love Mille Bornes. We used to play it as kids all the time. We also used to play Hearts, and the three of us kids once beat my Mom so badly at it that she walked away and refused to play with us ever again.

But my favorite card game growing up (and even today whenever I'm with the particular group of friends I grew up with at Tahoe) is Pedro, which nobody outside of SF ever seems to have heard of.

Expand full comment

plz explain

Expand full comment

When we were kids we'd play it on drives back and forth to Nebraska to visit relatives.

Expand full comment

Haven't played it in 20 years. Can't recall how to play it.

Expand full comment

I don't think I've ever played it.

Expand full comment

H2O Uno is the best version

Expand full comment

It's super simple.

Expand full comment

This is a super helpful comment for the statement "Can't recall how to play it" haha

Expand full comment

Uno is a lot of fun. Used to play it with my boys. Haven't heard of the others.

Expand full comment

It was a pretty popular game at one time. I think their were game instructions on or in the box in most cases.

Expand full comment

I remember it being a popular summer camp game during my preteen years

Expand full comment

when you only have 1 card left, you scream "UNO, MOTHERF*CKER" otherwise you have to draw more cards.

Expand full comment
author

Obscure college football trivia

Expand full comment
author

The 1942 Rose Bowl was played in Durham, NC

Expand full comment

Interesting - I had no idea:

Duke was expected to win by more than two touchdowns and went off as a 4–1 favorite.[19] Some wondered why Oregon State would even make the trip. Before the game, the NBC announcer that called the game, Bill Stern, asserted that the Blue Devils could beat the Beavers by throwing 11 helmets on the field. The comment was heard by members of the Oregon State team at the hotel. After the game, George Zellick told reporters that the team was "hopped up" to win the game based on Stern's comment. The weather, also, seemed to favor the visitors. One Duke player claimed that there was more rain than he had ever seen. The Beavers' Gene Gray, looking up at the same sky, described the weather as "misty." The temperature was a hair over 40 degrees at kickoff. The referee that was supposed to handle the opening coin flip was Lee Eisan. Eisan was the second-string quarterback for the 1929 California Golden Bears, who lost the Rose Bowl 8–7 to Georgia Tech after Roy "Wrong Way" Riegels ran 69 yards the wrong direction to set up the game-winning Georgia Tech safety. Eisan made a less often talked about blunder. In the third quarter, trailing 8–0, California ran an end around pass on fourth down. The end around sucked all of the Georgia Tech defenders in. Eisan used the misdirection to get behind the defenders and might have scored a touchdown but fell down and failed to make the catch. Eisan could not find a silver dollar in North Carolina, so he borrowed a 50-cent piece from Oregon State's Martin Chaves. The Blue Devils won the toss and elected to receive. Before kickoff, there was a moment of silence to honor those lost at Pearl Harbor 25 days before.

Spoiler: OSU won!

Expand full comment

Q: Does Harmon probably try to squib it?

A: And he does!!!

Expand full comment

Not obscure. Everyone knows that! And he gets it to Rogers..

Expand full comment

There's another one...the ball is still loose!!!

Expand full comment

as they get it to Rodgers! They get it back now to the 30, they're down to the 20...

Expand full comment

OHHH, the band is out on the field....

Expand full comment
author

Uno, Phase 10, Uno Flip

Expand full comment

Love Phase 10. Back in middle school, I would sometimes play with some friends and my favorite math teacher and he would always taunt the person text to him by showing the Skip(s) in his hand. I've since learned that you can Skip anyone, not just the person next to you.

Expand full comment

Weather

Expand full comment

Sun, sun and more sun. It'll be between 78-94 for the foreseeable future

Expand full comment

beautiful spring here. got lots of seeds started in the garden.

Expand full comment

After all day rain yesterday we have a bit more this morning. But the afternoon should be better and the weekend looks like 70s and mostly sunnier. About time.

Expand full comment

It was mostly sunny and perfect for mowing after work yesterday. Looking similar today, except rain is supposed to move in this evening, and make for a soggy Saturday (of course). Sunday should be better, and then good weather next week for sitting inside working. (Just like normal!)

Expand full comment

Hear hear

Expand full comment

Coronavirus news

Expand full comment

A Japanese aquarium closed during the coronavirus outbreak is asking people to make video calls to their eels so the sensitive creatures remember humans exist and don't pose a threat.

The Sumida Aquarium, housed in the landmark Tokyo Skytree tower, has been closed since the start of March and its animals have become used to a largely human-free environment during the two-month calm.

But the aquarium said the "unprecedented situation" was having some unexpected downsides.

"Creatures in the aquarium don't see humans except keepers and they have started forgetting about humans," it said on its Twitter account this week.

"Garden eels in particular disappear into the sand and hide every time the keepers pass by," it noted. That is causing difficulties for keepers trying to check on the health of the animals.

"Let us make an emergency plea," the aquarium wrote.

"Could you show your face to our garden eels from your home?" it requested, calling the event a "face-showing festival".

https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/forget-me-not-japan-aquarium-seeks-video-chats-eels-doc-1qx6zn1

Expand full comment
author

I am mildly bummed that the Japanese could not solve this problem by using some human-like robots. I guess those are housed at the Miraikan.

Expand full comment

Our crumbling democracy

Expand full comment

Pro

Expand full comment

Cal

Expand full comment

Whoa! CBS Sports picks the Bears to go 11-1, win the North!

Expand full comment
author

GO BEARS!

Expand full comment