Sample a flight of tasting pours or order a pint from the 16 rotating drafts (including some rare small-batch beers) on tap at Sierra Nevada brewery's tasting room in West Berkeley. - Lonely Planet
I was at the Heritage Garden & Museum in Sandwich, MA yesterday for Mother's Day. I wore a Cal cap. I got two "did you go to school there" from two different guys. I had two quick chats with both gentlemen, one who went to grad school and one who was an undergrad in '83. I departed with a "GO BEARS!" to each of them. The grad student responded with a "yeah", while the older undergrad correctly gave a "Go Bears" back.
I've been the recipient of random "GO BEARS" a few times (to which I did not respond). I think we fail to recognize the internal panic that introverts go through whenever any sort of social interaction is sprung upon them.
I was running in Hong Kong during the umbrella revolution demonstrations of 2015 wearing a Cal cap and passed a white girl wearing a Berkeley tank top running the other way. We both passed, realized what happened and turned and shouted Go Bears! at each other from 30 feet away. Went back to the hotel, took a shower, then was getting tear gassed two hours later.
Have also given/received Go Bears! in the Singapore airport from a Cal rugby alum/player (also saw him again later in Little India) and on the Great Wall of China twice.
Cal Survived Covid. Now, Back to Its Usual Problems.
The university conducted tens of thousands of coronavirus tests, aborted the football season and lost $10 million. Is that light at the end of the tunnel another train?
as of just a few years ago i think they are still considered a micro-brewery because of how things are classified, even though they are anything but "micro"
while we don't have a dedicated pizza oven, we grill our pizzas in the Big Green Egg and they turn out great.
i know that the standard sites all say to heat up to 600+ deg F. but what works the best for us is to put the pizza directly on the grate at 300-350 deg F. that way the crust gets nice and crispy and little charred, it cooks the crust and the toppings/cheese cook nicely as well.
the hardest part is transferring the pizza from the pizza peel onto the grate since there is an annoying 4 in drop.
so every pizza is an adventure and sometimes they are round, but mostly they are football shaped by the time am i done sliding them around. about 1 out 10 end in disaster and need to be thrown away.
What about putting a pizza stone on the grate? Would that help with sliding the pizza off the peel? You wouldn't have to worry about the edge of the pizza between the grates.
we have tried the pizza stone thing. i am sure we are not doing something properly, but even when you heat up BGE and stone, the other method makes better tasting pizzas
Interesting. I left our old pizza stone in Louisville so I've just been putting parchment paper on a heavy baking sheet. I've been holding off on getting a new one since I really want to get the pizza oven.
My neighbor has taken up pizza making as a hobby. He recently started making his own dough, etc. He's on the fence about buying one of those fancy outdoor high-temp pizza ovens.
I've been doing it every 2 or 3 weeks with the sourdough discard. No 2 got me some Caputo 00 Flour and making a Neapolitan style with that flour is even better. Now that No 2 will be back for a few weeks and No 1 most of the summer I'll probably be making the Neapolitan pizza more often along with the sourdough crust.
One of the things I'm thinking of getting. I was looking at the Oomi multi fuel 12" oven. They had a clearance sale I think last fall but I didn't pull the trigger. I'd also consider making my own but those take so long to get ready in terms of lighting the wood and preheating so I think I'd just get the Oomi one.
Remember when the DBD discussed the hair-raising glass-floored bridges and platforms around the world, including some of the newer ones in China? Well... one f***ing failed. Fortunately, nobody died but one person is going to need counseling.
If you on the East Coast (Canada to NC) and see a ray/skate with a really round/disc-shaped head/body - stay away. That is the key characteristic of an Atlantic Torpedo Ray. They are electric and the bigger ones can deliver up to 220 volts, which will ruin your day.
the only connecting point here being "Virginia" - I realized when I drove to Dulles the other week it was the first time I'd been in Virginia at least since everything closed down last March. It's quite possible I hadn't set foot there at all in 2019. This is relevant only inasmuch as I live within a couple of miles of the state.
[WSJ] Melinda/Bill Gates' divorce is reportedly due to Bill's connection with Jeffrey Epstein since 2013. She has been trying to divorce for over a year. Ooof.
"Association with Jeffrey Epstein" is something that's been repeated so often about so many people that I'm not sure what it means anymore. Epstein seemed to throw a lot of parties and invited a lot of famous people to them (probably not all of whom would have known about everything he was doing). It's hard for me to understand what an "association" is with a guy who was clearly clout-chasing all over the place and casting a wide net.
Of course, I don't know the Gateses and Melinda would know more about what Bill was doing. This is more just a general comment about news reporting and how these connections are often drawn lazily.
Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Lindsay Gottlieb has agreed to a six-year contract to become the women's head coach at USC, sources told ESPN.
Gottlieb leaves the NBA after an aggressive USC pursuit to bring her back to the Pac-12 Conference, including a massive upgrade in program salary and resources with hopes of restoring USC to the elite of women's college basketball, sources said.
Gottlieb was the first power-five conference female head coach to make the leap to the NBA sidelines, moving from the University of California to the Cavaliers in 2019.
actually you're getting the Clay Helton of WBB. And before everyone chimes in with her final four run, she is a perennial 5-6th place finisher since. Same thing happened when she was at UCSB. Took over a good program and turned it to shit. She lucked into the Final Four run. I was not sad when she left, and I look forward to WBB sweeping the season series with UCS every year she is there.
I had Moderna dose #2 on Friday. Side effects were pretty mild. I had a faint ache in the back of my neck for a couple hours on Saturday morning. I had a brief, 20-minute sensation of feeling chilled in the afternoon (not full-on chills like you get with a fever, but a slight chilliness--probably not helped by the on-and-off rain and hail that day). And I had an hour on Sunday of feeling a little worn down. Overall, not too bad.
No 1 got his 2nd Pfizer on Fri. Said Sat was just like he had the flu off and on without being nauseous. No 3 is getting his on Wed and probably pitches on Thurs so we'll see. Maybe the coach will change the schedule.
I heard an interview with him ahead of the election and he was just as woefully ignorant about government as I had expected. I'd be surprised if he could pass a US Citizenship test.
Right, he's from a different generation and just stuck around forever. His style was a broader kind of humor than the Patrick/Olbermann intellectual approach, making puns out of player names and stuff.
Bob Baffert's Kentucky Derby-winning Medina Spirit tests positive for a banned drug and faces DQ pending test on B-sample. Baffert has had 30 horses test over 4 decades, including Triple Crown winner Justify.
Considering what a big deal doping is in horse racing, it is mind boggling to me that he could get away with 30 positive tests over the years. Minor fines mean nothing to this dude
Baffert cheats, like all of the top trainers that win 25+% of their horse races. That's how someone can win 1 of every 3 to 4 races they enter with equine athletes.
That said, the levels found are measured in trillionths of a gram, so they're pretty minute. Plus, uniformity differs among jurisdictions, and each state has its own threshold level of allowable medication. So a fail at Oaklawn in AR or CD in L'ville may not be one in Louisiana, etc.
Still, when you have elite level horses that continue to fail tests, there's definitely something to that. Ya gotta love the Rick Pitino-level arrogance by Baffert as well...just straight denial.
This is a bit like cycling for me, where I think this guy is definitely cheating but also he's kind of just doing it better than everyone else who is also cheating.
CAL
go bears!
I was at the Heritage Garden & Museum in Sandwich, MA yesterday for Mother's Day. I wore a Cal cap. I got two "did you go to school there" from two different guys. I had two quick chats with both gentlemen, one who went to grad school and one who was an undergrad in '83. I departed with a "GO BEARS!" to each of them. The grad student responded with a "yeah", while the older undergrad correctly gave a "Go Bears" back.
I've been the recipient of random "GO BEARS" a few times (to which I did not respond). I think we fail to recognize the internal panic that introverts go through whenever any sort of social interaction is sprung upon them.
Go Bears!
Go Bears!
I was running in Hong Kong during the umbrella revolution demonstrations of 2015 wearing a Cal cap and passed a white girl wearing a Berkeley tank top running the other way. We both passed, realized what happened and turned and shouted Go Bears! at each other from 30 feet away. Went back to the hotel, took a shower, then was getting tear gassed two hours later.
Have also given/received Go Bears! in the Singapore airport from a Cal rugby alum/player (also saw him again later in Little India) and on the Great Wall of China twice.
in the NY Times today ..
Cal Survived Covid. Now, Back to Its Usual Problems.
The university conducted tens of thousands of coronavirus tests, aborted the football season and lost $10 million. Is that light at the end of the tunnel another train?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/sports/sports-cal-berkeley-covid.html
pretty rare that you see us called "Cal" in the national media, that is not obviously a sports site like ESPN
Maybe the author went to Cal.
NYT seems to want to take shots at Cal Athletics...why not write about improprieties at an SEC school?
I don't think that article took any shots at all.
I agree. No shots at Cal.
How was your vacay week, Scootie?
New Yorkers in general have an inferiority complex about California.
Doesn't everyone?
PUNCH TWIST
Sierra Nevada Beer
as of just a few years ago i think they are still considered a micro-brewery because of how things are classified, even though they are anything but "micro"
they have a brewery and taproom a little south of Asheville NC.
it was closed last time i was there. but hopefully open this fall when i expect to go back ...
Pizza oven
while we don't have a dedicated pizza oven, we grill our pizzas in the Big Green Egg and they turn out great.
i know that the standard sites all say to heat up to 600+ deg F. but what works the best for us is to put the pizza directly on the grate at 300-350 deg F. that way the crust gets nice and crispy and little charred, it cooks the crust and the toppings/cheese cook nicely as well.
the hardest part is transferring the pizza from the pizza peel onto the grate since there is an annoying 4 in drop.
so every pizza is an adventure and sometimes they are round, but mostly they are football shaped by the time am i done sliding them around. about 1 out 10 end in disaster and need to be thrown away.
What about putting a pizza stone on the grate? Would that help with sliding the pizza off the peel? You wouldn't have to worry about the edge of the pizza between the grates.
we have tried the pizza stone thing. i am sure we are not doing something properly, but even when you heat up BGE and stone, the other method makes better tasting pizzas
Interesting. I left our old pizza stone in Louisville so I've just been putting parchment paper on a heavy baking sheet. I've been holding off on getting a new one since I really want to get the pizza oven.
Most of my pizzas are more oval than round. I can't do the throw it up in the air and spin it so mine usually end up oblong.
My neighbor has taken up pizza making as a hobby. He recently started making his own dough, etc. He's on the fence about buying one of those fancy outdoor high-temp pizza ovens.
I've been doing it every 2 or 3 weeks with the sourdough discard. No 2 got me some Caputo 00 Flour and making a Neapolitan style with that flour is even better. Now that No 2 will be back for a few weeks and No 1 most of the summer I'll probably be making the Neapolitan pizza more often along with the sourdough crust.
One of the things I'm thinking of getting. I was looking at the Oomi multi fuel 12" oven. They had a clearance sale I think last fall but I didn't pull the trigger. I'd also consider making my own but those take so long to get ready in terms of lighting the wood and preheating so I think I'd just get the Oomi one.
A neighbor of mine built a giant pizza oven in his backyard, great pizzas with and without tomato sauce.
Pearls Before Swine
Obligatory
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2a/ce/c0/2acec02ccec81eb2b981ad7723866365.gif
pqtm. I've never seen the 2nd one.
The first one is still on my refrigerator door.
Yeah, I had that one clipped out and tacked up for a long while too.
Now long enough ago that I actually received a newspaper.
https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/pearlsbeforeswine/s-2511206
Created by Stephan Pastis (UC Berkeley BA Poli Sci '89, UCLA JD '92)
Great song by COC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbJFvVY0euk
Remember when the DBD discussed the hair-raising glass-floored bridges and platforms around the world, including some of the newer ones in China? Well... one f***ing failed. Fortunately, nobody died but one person is going to need counseling.
https://twitter.com/MattCKnight/status/1391028401906098184
US oil pipeline that carries about half of the East Coast's refined products has its software hit by ransomware. Gas prices tick up in Southeast.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57050690
oops
Torpedo
Ray
If you on the East Coast (Canada to NC) and see a ray/skate with a really round/disc-shaped head/body - stay away. That is the key characteristic of an Atlantic Torpedo Ray. They are electric and the bigger ones can deliver up to 220 volts, which will ruin your day.
https://poseidonsweb.com/dont-touch/
They don't look like torpedos
the good news is that I almost never go in the sea anyway
Factory, Alexandria
I was there on Friday. It was closed for the night. Speaking of closed, about 15% of Old Towne Alexandria seems to be out of business.
My mom "worked" in an antique shop in an old mini-mall in old town; I actually worked a few blocks away at Second Story Books warehouse.
Maybe it's just me but using "worked" makes it sound like the antique shop was a sex establishment.
Nah, just that it was a job she did for fun really, not for money.
Cugel: https://content.invisioncic.com/r254450/monthly_2020_03/Thor.gif.324208b0cbba191fe1d1efc8d80f4d05.gif.10430ea06cf71f8211e9a16c012d6a2a.gif
pqtm
the only connecting point here being "Virginia" - I realized when I drove to Dulles the other week it was the first time I'd been in Virginia at least since everything closed down last March. It's quite possible I hadn't set foot there at all in 2019. This is relevant only inasmuch as I live within a couple of miles of the state.
Conversely, on some of my longer runs I get within a couple miles of MoCo but can't remember the last time I was in Maryland.
sandwich
[WSJ] Melinda/Bill Gates' divorce is reportedly due to Bill's connection with Jeffrey Epstein since 2013. She has been trying to divorce for over a year. Ooof.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/melinda-gates-was-meeting-with-divorce-lawyers-since-2019-to-end-marriage-with-bill-gates-11620579924?mod=trending_now_news_pos1
"Association with Jeffrey Epstein" is something that's been repeated so often about so many people that I'm not sure what it means anymore. Epstein seemed to throw a lot of parties and invited a lot of famous people to them (probably not all of whom would have known about everything he was doing). It's hard for me to understand what an "association" is with a guy who was clearly clout-chasing all over the place and casting a wide net.
Of course, I don't know the Gateses and Melinda would know more about what Bill was doing. This is more just a general comment about news reporting and how these connections are often drawn lazily.
Uh oh. Windows 10 has crashed.
Elsewhere in college
Sources: Lindsay Gottlieb returning to women's college basketball, hired as USC head coach after stint as Cleveland Cavaliers assistant
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31421960/sources-lindsay-gottlieb-returning-women-college-basketball-hired-usc-head-coach-stint-cleveland-cavaliers-assistant
Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Lindsay Gottlieb has agreed to a six-year contract to become the women's head coach at USC, sources told ESPN.
Gottlieb leaves the NBA after an aggressive USC pursuit to bring her back to the Pac-12 Conference, including a massive upgrade in program salary and resources with hopes of restoring USC to the elite of women's college basketball, sources said.
Gottlieb was the first power-five conference female head coach to make the leap to the NBA sidelines, moving from the University of California to the Cavaliers in 2019.
well I guess they've decided to take women's basketball seriously.
actually you're getting the Clay Helton of WBB. And before everyone chimes in with her final four run, she is a perennial 5-6th place finisher since. Same thing happened when she was at UCSB. Took over a good program and turned it to shit. She lucked into the Final Four run. I was not sad when she left, and I look forward to WBB sweeping the season series with UCS every year she is there.
Coach G is a great person and great recruiter* and mediocre basketball coach.
*and even then we had a LOT of transfers for a successful program
I agree with this take.
I guess the lesson is that Bohn can't help hiring people from Ohio
that's still an upgrade
This makes my heart pop.
!
Today in Covid
FDA approves Pfizer shot for 12-15 year olds. Likely to be approved by CDC on Wednesday.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/10/pfizer-covid-vaccine-fda-clears-use-in-kids-ages-12-to-15.html
Arizona State senator Townsend repeats her 2019 claim that vaccination is somehow communist
https://twitter.com/AZKellyT/status/1390386508004089857
This is also her last night - literally praying to find voter fraud
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1391059745809780739
I had Moderna dose #2 on Friday. Side effects were pretty mild. I had a faint ache in the back of my neck for a couple hours on Saturday morning. I had a brief, 20-minute sensation of feeling chilled in the afternoon (not full-on chills like you get with a fever, but a slight chilliness--probably not helped by the on-and-off rain and hail that day). And I had an hour on Sunday of feeling a little worn down. Overall, not too bad.
No 1 got his 2nd Pfizer on Fri. Said Sat was just like he had the flu off and on without being nauseous. No 3 is getting his on Wed and probably pitches on Thurs so we'll see. Maybe the coach will change the schedule.
AL gives a good incentive to vaccinate
https://abc3340.com/news/local/talladega-superspeedway-to-allow-covid-19-test-vaccine-recipients-to-drive-track
County Health Dept. are going to start offering free $10 Subway coupons to get more people vaccinated.
diarrhea on top of being symptomatic? sign me up
Twist is trying to sneak in line.
Nick Saban set to appear in PSA urging Alabama residents to receive COVID-19 vaccination (when the football coach talks, people listen...
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/nick-saban-set-to-appear-in-psa-urging-alabama-residents-to-receive-covid-19-vaccination/
isnt the ex-Auburn coach a congress person or something?
i am sure he doesnt agree ...
maybe the Alabama fans will listen and the Auburn fans won't.
Tommy Tuberville is a United States Senator, which doesn't get any less absurd the more I see or type it.
I heard an interview with him ahead of the election and he was just as woefully ignorant about government as I had expected. I'd be surprised if he could pass a US Citizenship test.
And they gave up Doug Jones for this guy.
Sadly, I assume he reflects his constituents.
I get why you can't have a citizenship test for people born in the US, but it should be mandatory for congressmen and presidents.
that is a phenomenon that irks me to no end, as you might imagine
Imagine if Wilcox' was making commercials urging people to get vaccinated
if Helton was doing it, SC alumni would be trying to unvaccinate themselves
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Never underestimate the gun culture in America
https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1391428096214110212
it certainly paints a picture
maybe Mom could dial it back on the new guns until she gets her tats completed
Dogecoin plunges nearly 30% during Elon Musk’s SNL appearance
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/08/dogecoin-price-plummets-as-elon-musk-hosts-saturday-night-live-.html
He wasn't that bad. His monologue was surprisingly refreshing. Less polished than actual performers but I thought that's what made it refreshing.
and admitted to having asperger's which explains... a lot
yes it does. Kinda makes me see him a bit differently now.
PRO
Kenny Mayne out at ESPN. He will be missed. And he will be remembered for this gem.
https://twitter.com/JeffEisenband/status/1391856515057954821
Seems like he's the last of that 90s SportsCenter generation to go. All the sardonic/quippy guys like Patrick and Olbermann.
And then there's Chris Berman, chugging along....the last bastian of the founders...
Right, he's from a different generation and just stuck around forever. His style was a broader kind of humor than the Patrick/Olbermann intellectual approach, making puns out of player names and stuff.
Exactly...and now he's pretty much a part timer with the NFL Primetime...18 weeks a year, 1 day a week...not too shabby.
Celtics' Jaylen Brown expected to miss the rest of the season with an injury
https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1391875744880644097
Heh...Astros complained about being taunted by fans. I'm thinking the taunting will be even louder now.
There is this article that says they didn't complain. But I could see them complaining.
https://fansided.com/2021/05/06/astros-complain-mlb-yankee-fans/
Bob Baffert's Kentucky Derby-winning Medina Spirit tests positive for a banned drug and faces DQ pending test on B-sample. Baffert has had 30 horses test over 4 decades, including Triple Crown winner Justify.
https://www.espn.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/31416038/kentucky-derby-winner-medina-spirit-tests-positive-anti-inflammatory
Considering what a big deal doping is in horse racing, it is mind boggling to me that he could get away with 30 positive tests over the years. Minor fines mean nothing to this dude
Baffert cheats, like all of the top trainers that win 25+% of their horse races. That's how someone can win 1 of every 3 to 4 races they enter with equine athletes.
That said, the levels found are measured in trillionths of a gram, so they're pretty minute. Plus, uniformity differs among jurisdictions, and each state has its own threshold level of allowable medication. So a fail at Oaklawn in AR or CD in L'ville may not be one in Louisiana, etc.
Still, when you have elite level horses that continue to fail tests, there's definitely something to that. Ya gotta love the Rick Pitino-level arrogance by Baffert as well...just straight denial.
This is a bit like cycling for me, where I think this guy is definitely cheating but also he's kind of just doing it better than everyone else who is also cheating.
Exactly.
he went on fox this morning and blamed cancel culture.
@you mean he watches Fox? I'm shocked@
My horse got a contact high!
https://twitter.com/rickbozich/status/1391773986120417280?s=21
"junky" horse per our previous president
Giro d'Italia started this weekend.
there are a lot of bike races, but this one is my favorite. perfect combo of high level racing, great scenery and history.
21 stages, almost 3500 km.
Stage 2 - nice flat stage that ended in a bunch sprint finish.
the stage went through Lombardy, the part of Italy where risotto comes from.
a bunch sprint finish is one of the more exciting ways to end a race. the top sprinters can hit speeds up to 70 km/hr.
this one was won by a relatively unknown rider, i certainly had never heard of him ...
Stage 1 - short time trial won by the reigning world champion.
time trials are often called the "race of truth" because each rider rides the course by themselves w/o the help of teammates or any race tactics.
nothing surprising happened.
Chelsea defeats Manchester City 2-1. Pros - solidifies Chelsea's positioning for a top 4 finish. Con - was not the Champions League Final.
Heh, I was a little thrown off when I saw that matchup on Saturday.
They also play Leicester twice in four days starting Saturday. The first is the FA Cup Final. The second is key for PL positioning.
Space Junk
I spent way too much time watching live streams of a dot moving across the Earth on Saturday afternoon.
That photo is hella disturbing.
should be renamed, "My First Buttplug" by Hasbro