99 Comments

I had leftovers from Sunday for lunch, Skirt steak w romesco sauce, grilled yellow bell peppers, red onions and asparagus with preserved lemon aioli, Mediterranean potato salad, a glass of Italian red - and now I don't feel like working at all.

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I have almost certainly mentioned before that my older daughter has been reticent to learn to drive. She has changed her tune because she doesn’t want to show up to college with a permit, and because a camp friend is having a party at her house in PA in August and my daughter concluded that she could drive herself (spoiler alert: we are not going to let her drive herself to this party).

But the point is this: Maryland has reduced the testing for a new license because of the backlog from the MVA being shut for a couple of months, and to keep things relatively safe for testers. So my daughter only has to pull into a parking spot, reverse into a parking spot, and complete a three point turn, and that’s almost the entirety of the rest. What a terrifying prospect!

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It would be interesting to see self-parking technology meet the Maryland parking test.

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There are a lot of Teslas around here, I assume it’s just a matter of time until someone tries this

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damn. No 3 would be happy to be able to take his test. He had his scheduled the 2nd week of May. Not sure when it will be now.

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How does she do on those three items?

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She can just about park front in. She’s decent at general forward motion at neighborhood speeds. Apparently she can complete a three point turn smoothly. Reversing remains uncharted territory. Part of the overarching challenge is that she’s frightened of driving generally, and specifically finds the minivan to be hard to place in space... but she won’t practice in my Civic as it’s a manual. Which is funny because it’s very forgiving, she learned how to start in first gear in under 10 minutes (but then panicked about shifting to second and stalled trying to slow and turn because she didn’t know that you can do that by letting the engine revs get too low). There has been a lot of drama and self-inflicted problems.

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The Civic clutch almost engages and disengages itself, it's so light.

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It’s funny, car writers rave about the feel and relative ease of use of Honda manuals, and they’re not wrong, but otherwise I’m firmly on the record for💤💤💤

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This is a long read, and despite the headline, not really focused on Kellie Chauvin: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/kellie-chauvin-history-asian-women-being-told-whom-they-should-n1231600?adfasd

"Dhingra is adamant that no assumptions should be made about any couple’s racial dynamic, particularly if there’s no personal connection to the couple. But he also emphasized that people need to push back on the perpetuation of the problematic ideas in society that devalue Asian Americans while upholding whiteness."

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Interesting

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One of my fave bands from the 90s just put out a new album today. I'm only the second song and am thrilled. Today is a good day.

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I’m not a massive jazz fan but I’m looking forward to this new live Thelonious Monk that was recorded by a janitor at Palo Alto high school back in the day. The review I read said it was one of the most interesting live recordings of Monk that the reviewer had heard.

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Which band?

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Hum. It's their first new album in 22 years, lol. Just released it with no warning.

It's heavy and muscular. They do that lush, dense wall-of-sound thing I like so well.

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Time to step on all the fuzz pedals at once!

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Yessssssssssssss

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oohh....stars is still on frequent rotation on my playlist.

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For a moment I read “Hum” as a verbal pause

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Elsewhere in college

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Known bigot Marge Schott's name to be removed from U Cincy's baseball field.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/29352693/university-cincinnati-remove-marge-schott-name-baseball-stadium

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Today in the 'rona

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American states & territories' flags as if they are Japanese prefectures

https://i.redd.it/29w086udtj651.png

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What are the figures on the New Jersey flag supposed to be? The Florida flag color is also not one that I would associate with them. The Missouri flag is almost the Hong Kong flag.

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New Mexico: unchanged

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Glory to Missouri

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UW alumni would not at all be pleased with that Washington flag.

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Nor the Ducks fans with Oregon's.

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lol at both of those

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But California's flag, totally fine with us!

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Why that brown color though?

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I am happy with both the California and Ohio flags!

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Oh I didn't notice that the Ohio flag was Flavortown!

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It's almost exactly the same, just the brown of the bear and the white field are reversed. And they took off that red stripe! :)

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"Hey, mister! You can do that here! The Stanfurd Faculty Club has a policy against ________"

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Eating Del Taco in a Taco Bell

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well thought-out experimental design.

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Alligator sausage when I visited New Orleans. Very tasty actually.

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Yesterday’s DBD turnout was pretty low. Wonder why?

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I didn't finish my self-evaluation for my performance review until 1:48 am :(

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Hope you did well.

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Heh, I have a pretty healthy opinion of myself. Whether it's accurate...

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recovering from father's day? recovering from the tulsa rally? work?

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Forbidden Meat

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Just hot dogs and McNuggets, really. Nah, actually tongue and tripe (my dad loves both), and sweetbreads. I like sweetbreads, I would prefer to skip the others. I have not eaten any non-mainstream species though.

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Minke whale, which made for decent tataki (sp?). I wouldn’t have gone out of my way for it but figured what the hell.

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Alligator, Emu, Ostrich, Snake, Right Whale (not endangered), Skua, Puffin, Basking Shark (fermented), Scorpions/Crickets/Ants/Termites, Duck tongues, Goose webbings, Caterpillars infected with cordyceps fungus, Sea cucumber, Abalone, Whelk, raw conch, Fugu, Horse tartar (in China), Spam. List goes on because, you know... AZN.

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This is what is served in the AstraZeneca cafeteria?

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Alligator (good, tastes chicken-ish like a light poultry)

Goat tartare (I was a bit skeptical mostly due to the tartare, but I enjoyed it)

Beef lengua (taste was good, but the texture was unmistakably tongue)

Kangaroo (lighter than expected)

Emu (mostly tasted like the spices it was cooked in)

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I think tongue is all in the preparation, so to speak. I feel the same about tripe.

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dunno. beef tongue is one of my favs at kbbq.

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I've had tongue once and the texture was extremely off putting. Never again

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Lengua is the best. Tongue in Japanese yakitori is the best. Love tongue.

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Had tongue a lot. Looks odd when you buy one, but it’s fairly popular in lunch meat....alligator in Texas, pig ear, intestine, pig feet, chicken feet, crickets, sea cucumber, (abalone is not forbidden, is it?). Less exotic: buffalo, venison, rabbit. Always liked head cheese too.

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Cochon in NOLA used to serve the most amazing fried pigs’ ears as an appetizer

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Tongue really needs to be slowly pressure cooked until it's melt in your mouth soft. Then it's super tasty (and affordable).

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Or cut thin and grilled on japanese coals

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Exotic (to Americans) Meats I have eaten:

Dog (would not try again)

Donkey (delicious. Good Donkey burgers in Beijing)

Horse (only sashimi in Japan. Very good)

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Horse sashimi? I'm a bit skeptical of raw non-sea food although I am willing to eat beef tartar.

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It's great! it tastes like very nice cured beef.

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I've had dog. It was fine, but I felt badly about it.

I've also had alligator. Also goat penis (do not recommend).

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Today in Covid-19

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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Trump doubles down on less-testing, walking back "I was joking" defense

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1275393117571690496

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Would love it if someone held the press secretary's feet to the fire at the next briefing about why she said he was joking when he clearly contradicts her.

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Kentucky reduces polling from 3700 to 200. Louisville now has one voting poll for tomorrow.

https://apnews.com/98fb1ac0a0680a9a85b79667958a7532

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not surprised. Anything Moscow Mitch can do to prevent people from voting.

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It looks like absentee ballot request were much much higher than usual and in Louisville (Jefferson County), the voting location is the Expo Center where they hold the state fair so at least there's lots of room. Of course, if you take public transportation and didn't do absentee then it'll be tough to get there. Governor Beshear, back on May 5, sent info to all registered voters on how to get an absentee ballot so hopefully most people did that to get Moscow Mitch outta there.

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at least it looks like buses are free in Louisville today. Get out and vote!

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Trump freezes H1-B visas by Executive Order

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/22/trump-visas-us-immigration-tech-companies

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Complete lack of understanding of the economy, particularly in the Tech world. This will impact the admittance of talented workers from India and Asia who play a large role in tech companies, including as founders. Whether "Americans" can fill these tech roles is highly unlikely. Hence, the trickle down effect could impact the stock market and hence wealth creation. Trump is shooting himself in the foot.

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It’s always fascinating to me how certain groups of Americans don’t grasp how much benefit this country derives from other countries’ brain drain. Between cutting basic research and cutting out immigrants, we’ve set something in motion that could affect us for years, and not for the better.

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"

DC Trojan5 hr

It’s always fascinating to me how certain groups of Americans don’t grasp " - anything at all

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Oh, we'll fill these roles all right. But we'll fill them in India via our Indian subsidiary paying Indian taxes.

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nailed it

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yeah, those 500k that will now be unfilled will be ably filled by the existing US workforce. So much face palm

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Pro

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Cal Softball alum and USA National Team member Val Arioto (who is not on Twitter) and teammates supposedly have walked away from Scrap Yard Fast Pitch team after the team's GM used the team account to tweet at Trump about standing for the anthem.

https://sports.yahoo.com/professional-softball-players-slam-team-scrap-yard-fast-pitch-national-anthem-protest-tweet-donald-trump-031344109.html

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Apparently the entire team quit.

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Val Arioto is also from Pleasanton

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Djokovic has the coronavirus. He probably got it from Grigor Dimitrov. Also no telling how many people they spread it to since Djokovic's exhibition tournament had no social distancing. The fact that I actually got a Djokovic autograph at US Open a few years ago is indicative of how much he interacts with fans.

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/29351887/novak-djokovic-tested-positive-coronavirus

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"Djokovic, 32, organized the Adria Tour to give players a chance to compete after idling since the men’s and women’s pro tours were suspended in mid-March.

But it has proved calamitous, resulting in at least seven positive tests (Djokovic and his wife; fellow players Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki; and two coaches) after being staged without following basic health and safety protocols to guard against the transmission of the highly contagious virus, such as mask-wearing when possible and maintaining six feet of space between people."

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He and his wife are also anti-vaxxers and his wife has been posting 5G-Coronavirus stuff on her insta

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He did say he wasn't sure if he would take the vaccine if it was required to start playing again.

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Touching moment in support of Bubba Wallace and Black Lives Matter at NASCAR yesterday (that's not a sentence any of us expected a month ago)

https://twitter.com/BubbaWallace/status/1275412873846624256

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Turns out the noose hanging in the garage stall assigned to Wallace's car for this race weekend has been hanging in that garage since at least last fall.

That doesn't excuse it, but it does point out the potential for folly of always jumping to the most inflammatory conclusion possible as fast as possible.

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Strange times. But hurrah to them.

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PLAY BALL! Owners and players agree to 60 game season. Opening day will be late July.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/06/mlb-annnounces-2020-season.html

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And I just noticed without fans there isn't anyone to BOOOO the Asstros.

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Yup, the Astros are totally getting away with it.

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Altuve - "My wife doesn't like it when they take off my shirt!"

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I'm hoping it carries over to 2021. Unfortunately Pantone 294 is going to miss out on booing them at the Angels game now.

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But NL West plays the AL West. The beginning of the season will allow 30 players for the first 2 weeks. That means 4 extra pitchers to hit Astro hitters.

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Cal

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Go Bears!

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Cal gets a late PWO commitment from Evan McLurkin (6' 185 lbs, Notre Dame HS @ Sherman Oaks, no stars, WR/Safety). I forecast he'll join the roster as a safety.

http://www.hudl.com/v/2Cju8G

Pro: good reads, smart. Cons: athleticism is not quite top level; doesn't pop off the screen with strength, speed, technique. I think he's a longshot to see the field any time soon, but strange and good things tend to happen at Walk On U.

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Seems to have a nose for the ball with some good lateral quickness, rather than pure speed. Who knows. Wilcox has coached up some of these guys successfully.

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