@DC, I just finished reading Operation Pedestal by Max Hastings, a recounting of the British RN battling to resupply Malta in August 1942, and as I usually am, always somewhat surprised at how both disorganized and feckless they are, including ship captains giving up on ships way too soon, and the commanders not focusing on the main objective.
ANYWAY, that reminded me of a comment you made some years ago when I somewhat jocularly did a power ranking of various armies in WWII and you took exception to ranking the Red Army so high, with a comment to the effect that they advanced without proper weapons with commissar following them with loaded pistol - or some such; but that was a final week of the war ranking, not 1941.
Logged onto Instagram and first post is by my dad at the Van Gogh exhibit in NC. Caption concludes thusly: "If it comes to your town, you definitely should Gogh!"
I am sorry for the pain that today's DBD caused you. When I first saw the cartoon, it hit me a hard too because my father has been gone for 15 months and I miss him every day. He would have turned 81 in April. I will never delete his voice mails or emails and I pray that the pain never goes away because it means that I still means that much to me.
I'll try: For me, when my dad passed away, one of the great sadness I had was I'd never be able to fully describe him to anybody else. For me, he still lives in my mind, and shows up dreams, I remember conversation I've had with him, but what's lost is the ability for anyone else to really know who he was, and what made him special.
Real life Dad Joke: At a Cal game the announcers are saying "let's all clap for the scouts" or something, and I'm like: "What, why are applauding them, I'm sure they're all well paid".
In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters.
As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”
Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides, according to the book. “The gospel of the Führer.”
I'd say it was narrowly better than WandaVision. WandaVision was more consistent and generally had better character beats than Loki but really flubbed the finale, while Loki was weird and cool with the best finale of the three but also pretty clearly still underachieving its potential. The action, for instance, was generally quite bad, and Owen Wilson's character was largely superfluous after the first two episodes. Still good, but could be both tighter and more imaginative.
Cold Falcon had the best action choreography by a large margin but that's about all the good I can say bout it.
I think I would rather the TV series end finales with character vs character fights vs. big CGI things. I have the same opinion about the end of Black Widow, a film I greatly enjoyed.
I would say Falcon had a pretty good arc for the Falcon himself, but the other subplots felt off or incomplete (maybe in part because COVID screwed them up).
I love the wackiness that was Loki but didn't quite like the finale (it had odd pacing and was possibly too open-ended, which in itself was fine but was completely expected given the public nature of all the future MCU projects).
I agree, I thought it was consistently great, and had awesome art direction throughout. Also, good for Marvel to explore their more trippy side of their universe, and they pulled no punches with the ending.
I was absolutely not expecting this to be a 2-2 series after those first two games. Knowing that the offseason is just around the corner, I'm hoping this series goes as long as possible.
Big 12 coordinator of officials Greg Burks said at Big 12 media days on Thursday that cracking down on taunting will be a point of emphasis for the league this year.
Midway through taking questions from reporters, Burks was asked about the "gift that keeps on giving" for Big 12 officials: the Horns Down symbol, a taunt directed at Texas that has been an on-and-off struggle as a judgment call for officials.
"Lemme put it this way," Burks said. "If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that's probably going to be a foul."
Burks said if a player turned to the crowd to throw the sign, it "probably" would not be a penalty.
"Please all of you note, I said 'probably,'" Burks added. "We have to consider intent and consider the situation. We'll leave it to officials."
I dont understand why people think Furd will be decent. They sucked the last couple years and their recruiting has dipped significantly. Shaw's conservative coaching with marginal talent equals 4-8 IMO
Furd gets a bit of an east coast bias, since they play ND every year, and it is one of the few games that the media people who do these actually watch.
Exactly. There seems to be a disconnect b/t the oddsmakers and the national media. If Stanford has NFL talent in the trenches this year, then maybe Shaw can coax an 8 win season out of them, which will likely put them 3rd in the P12N. But it's no sure thing sans Davis Mills, who actually could turn out to be a decent pro and see time in HOU this year with Watson's status up in the air....but Vegas has STAN over/under win total at 4, while the national media seems to have them winning twice that....
Cal really looks to be underestimated by the national media, which is not surprising given the 1-3 record and disastrous offensive numbers in Musgrave's inaugural season. Any competent, even middle of the road, offensive effort from the Bears and 8 wins is totally reachable.
I do have my doubts as to whether Cal will EVER field even a mid-tier offense under Wilcox...I think his clear preference for conservative, run-heavy football requires a dominance from his OL that he could get at SC and in Madison, but not at Cal...really puts a ceiling on the O's productivity. And while I didn't much care for the Musgrave hire, I am willing to give the 2020 disaster a pass before totally bailing on him.
I tend to think of it as a go-kart kind of offense, which requires a downhill track as you say. Meanwhile teams like SC have Maserati level skill players.
I find it hard to trust any Pac-12 predictions going into this season (even more so than usual), because they will be based on last season and last season was a mess.
A belated and hearty thank you to HeyStudentBears for attending the North Carolina chapter's Summer Welcome Event. He helped keep the event alive as students were exceptionally shy at this event. DBD homies coming through, yo!
A neat side note, someone who lived above me in the dorms attended the meeting. It was interesting to see her after 31 years (!). She was a cheerleader, so she knew my high-school girlfriend who became a Cal cheerleader and my sophomore-senior year girlfriend's roommate was also a cheerleader. She married a Cal baseball player who played 12 seasons of pro ball, including three season at the MLB level with the Braves.
One of my current best friends lived almost directly below me in Unit 3 - I was 811, she was 710. We didn't *really* meet until my 22 birthday party in Hong Kong, but she recognized me from Spens-Black.
I wrote a reply, but it disappeared. Abridged...was Spens-Black 502. Still friends with person the computer/person paired me with. Was best man at this wedding; we had MBB season tix together for many years.
I've met the same dude(s) multiple times. Like currently there's a 6'3" kind of goofy but super nice white dude. In college, that was Little Dave. In Hong Kong that was Trent. In Houston, it was a guy named Tyler. Here in Shanghai, I met him again, but now his name is Ross. They all look super similar too - I have almost called Ross "Tyler" about a dozen times.
There's another variant in my life - a wide but fast and shorter white guy who plays soccer. Two in college - one was Matt, the other was Brent. Then in China, I taught with one: Also Matt. In Hong Kong it was Gordon. Then in Houston it was Max. Then I played basketball in Shanghai with him, but he's changed his name to Trent.
@DC, I just finished reading Operation Pedestal by Max Hastings, a recounting of the British RN battling to resupply Malta in August 1942, and as I usually am, always somewhat surprised at how both disorganized and feckless they are, including ship captains giving up on ships way too soon, and the commanders not focusing on the main objective.
ANYWAY, that reminded me of a comment you made some years ago when I somewhat jocularly did a power ranking of various armies in WWII and you took exception to ranking the Red Army so high, with a comment to the effect that they advanced without proper weapons with commissar following them with loaded pistol - or some such; but that was a final week of the war ranking, not 1941.
well sure, when they had been bolstered by Allied materiel and German stupidity, they were borderline unstoppable! ;)
Quantity is also a quality.
Logged onto Instagram and first post is by my dad at the Van Gogh exhibit in NC. Caption concludes thusly: "If it comes to your town, you definitely should Gogh!"
my Dad passed away in 2018 at 80 years of age.
busy day, just logged on, saw the cartoon.... it would have been my father's 81st birthday today. Wasn't strictly ready for that.
DCT, I am sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved dad.
Sorry.
I am sorry for the pain that today's DBD caused you. When I first saw the cartoon, it hit me a hard too because my father has been gone for 15 months and I miss him every day. He would have turned 81 in April. I will never delete his voice mails or emails and I pray that the pain never goes away because it means that I still means that much to me.
oh good heavens there's no need to apologize. I'm still just processing all of this [gestures vaguely]. The cartoon itself was rather sweet.
<3
Sorry DC, I meant to say something on Twitter, but I couldn't quite tease out what I wanted to say.
no worries, twitter isn't the best for that anyway
I'll try: For me, when my dad passed away, one of the great sadness I had was I'd never be able to fully describe him to anybody else. For me, he still lives in my mind, and shows up dreams, I remember conversation I've had with him, but what's lost is the ability for anyone else to really know who he was, and what made him special.
<3
<3 I'm sorry, DCT
oh shit.
Outdoor DBD meetup, inspired by UncleSam:
5:30 pm on Thursday, July 22
Wondrous Brewing (1306 65th St, Emeryville, CA 94608)
Free parking in the public garage across the street (entrance next to Subway)
They serve beer and encourage you to order food from their neighbors, Los Moles and Jasmine Thai
You are a good (and dedicated) organizer, TBB! :-)
I might be late.
there is a greater than zero chance I might be available for such an event.
I'll be happy if you show up, but said if you don't look like a gnome.
I will make an effort....
Sounds like fun. Remind me in a week!
PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR
ok fine. I'll probably still forget. I don't really check it.
tattoo it on your face!
Oh, come on! Be reasonable! Let him use a magic marker instead
Sharpie it is!
Facebook to pay influencers $1b over the next 1.5 years.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/facebook-to-pay-creators-1-billion-through-2022.html
Dad Jokes
Real life Dad Joke: At a Cal game the announcers are saying "let's all clap for the scouts" or something, and I'm like: "What, why are applauding them, I'm sure they're all well paid".
Oh, BOY Scouts.
What is the difference between and microwaved sweet potato and a flying pig?
One is a heated yam and the other is a yeeted ham.
it's still good, it's still good!
Q: What do you call a pointless pachyderm?
A: An irrelephant
A ham sandwich walks into a bar and orders a beer.
The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve food in here."
Why was Barbie mad at Ken?
- Because Ken comes in another box.
(actually it was my grandmother who told me that one)
- What did Buddha say to the hot dog vendor?
- Make me one with everything.
Painful
-What's the best part of living in Switzerland?
-Well, the flag is a big plus.
sadly, this took me more time than it should have
I like this one.
pqtm
Our Crumbling Democracy
In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters.
As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”
Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides, according to the book. “The gospel of the Führer.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joint-chiefs-chairman-feared-potential-reichstag-moment-aimed-at-keeping-trump-in-power
News flash:
Reported Kremlin Leak Appears to Confirm Existence of Trump ‘Kompromat’
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-leak-appears-to-confirm-existence-of-trump-kompromat
peepee tape exists?
SOMEONE ALERT ASHLEY FEINBERG
probably just a bunch of money laundering through trump tower apartments.
Trump rages over post-presidential books he did interviews for
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/15/trump-post-presidential-books-499741
completely unsurprising.
Florida man angry that he defamed himself.
Today in Covid 19
Delta Variant Widens Gulf Between ‘Two Americas’: Vaccinated and Unvaccinated
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/health/delta-variant-uk-usa.html
DBD Test Kitchen
DBD AV Club
I'd say it was narrowly better than WandaVision. WandaVision was more consistent and generally had better character beats than Loki but really flubbed the finale, while Loki was weird and cool with the best finale of the three but also pretty clearly still underachieving its potential. The action, for instance, was generally quite bad, and Owen Wilson's character was largely superfluous after the first two episodes. Still good, but could be both tighter and more imaginative.
Cold Falcon had the best action choreography by a large margin but that's about all the good I can say bout it.
I think I would rather the TV series end finales with character vs character fights vs. big CGI things. I have the same opinion about the end of Black Widow, a film I greatly enjoyed.
I would say Falcon had a pretty good arc for the Falcon himself, but the other subplots felt off or incomplete (maybe in part because COVID screwed them up).
Also in part because the story very much wanted to be political but was hampered by Disney's aggressively noncommittal policies.
That's true, but they've been able to work around this well enough in past Captain America movies.
Agreed about the action choreography, and that first episode had the most movie-like feel of any part of the three.
I love the wackiness that was Loki but didn't quite like the finale (it had odd pacing and was possibly too open-ended, which in itself was fine but was completely expected given the public nature of all the future MCU projects).
Hah, I'm busy talking to other friends who hated the ending. Seems like it's a bit polarizing.
Also, apparently it's not really the ending? They clearly intend to continue this story.
I think it would be a bit weird to hate the ending, but like the rest of the show, if you know what I mean.
There's a weird thing happening in TV reactions where people act like the final episode erases all the other episodes.
Easily the best MCU series so far and really good ending.
I agree, I thought it was consistently great, and had awesome art direction throughout. Also, good for Marvel to explore their more trippy side of their universe, and they pulled no punches with the ending.
Pro
Bucks even the series behind Khris Middleton and Giannis. Also CP3 having a terrible game.
He didn't have a "terrible" game overall, but the inopportune turnovers were brutal.
I was absolutely not expecting this to be a 2-2 series after those first two games. Knowing that the offseason is just around the corner, I'm hoping this series goes as long as possible.
With no preference on who wins, I was rooting for maximum chaos...particularly after the bad officiating.
CP3's turnovers were absolutely brutal. Not what you expect from that guy.
Other College
UC Davis suspended their entire baseball team and put the coaches on administrative leave due to misconduct
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/statement-uc-davis-varsity-baseball-team
That certainly is lacking on specifics.
Hmm...interesting. One of No 3's teammates went there.
Big 12 officials aiming to crack down on taunting in 2021, including 'Horns Down' gesture
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31822441/big-12-officials-aiming-crack-taunting-2021-including-horns-gesture
Big 12 coordinator of officials Greg Burks said at Big 12 media days on Thursday that cracking down on taunting will be a point of emphasis for the league this year.
Midway through taking questions from reporters, Burks was asked about the "gift that keeps on giving" for Big 12 officials: the Horns Down symbol, a taunt directed at Texas that has been an on-and-off struggle as a judgment call for officials.
"Lemme put it this way," Burks said. "If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that's probably going to be a foul."
Burks said if a player turned to the crowd to throw the sign, it "probably" would not be a penalty.
"Please all of you note, I said 'probably,'" Burks added. "We have to consider intent and consider the situation. We'll leave it to officials."
You'd think that with all the money UT is getting they could stand a Horns Down or two within a game.
This seems like a perfect problem for Abbot and the Texas GQP to solve through state legislation.
definitely will be behind the power grid legislation. Not. Sigh
Wait, is cancel culture and wokeness invading the Big 12 so that Texas won’t have its feelings hurt?
Sheesh, didn't they learn from the 90s that this didn't work?
What whiny bitches.
Maybe they should throw a personal foul flag every time "The Eyes of Texas" is played or sung.
why would they do that
why not?
is that song taunting of opponents on the field?
Pac-12 Preseason Rankings: CFN College Football Preview 2021
https://sports.yahoo.com/pac-12-preseason-rankings-cfn-232811954.html
P12N
1. Oregon
2. UW
3. LSJU
4. Cal
5. WSU
6. OSU
P12S
1. USC
2. ASU
3. Utah
4. UCLA
5. Colorado
6. Arizona
I dont understand why people think Furd will be decent. They sucked the last couple years and their recruiting has dipped significantly. Shaw's conservative coaching with marginal talent equals 4-8 IMO
Furd gets a bit of an east coast bias, since they play ND every year, and it is one of the few games that the media people who do these actually watch.
Good point.
Exactly. There seems to be a disconnect b/t the oddsmakers and the national media. If Stanford has NFL talent in the trenches this year, then maybe Shaw can coax an 8 win season out of them, which will likely put them 3rd in the P12N. But it's no sure thing sans Davis Mills, who actually could turn out to be a decent pro and see time in HOU this year with Watson's status up in the air....but Vegas has STAN over/under win total at 4, while the national media seems to have them winning twice that....
Cal really looks to be underestimated by the national media, which is not surprising given the 1-3 record and disastrous offensive numbers in Musgrave's inaugural season. Any competent, even middle of the road, offensive effort from the Bears and 8 wins is totally reachable.
Oh yes, that elusive middle of the road offensive effort.
I do have my doubts as to whether Cal will EVER field even a mid-tier offense under Wilcox...I think his clear preference for conservative, run-heavy football requires a dominance from his OL that he could get at SC and in Madison, but not at Cal...really puts a ceiling on the O's productivity. And while I didn't much care for the Musgrave hire, I am willing to give the 2020 disaster a pass before totally bailing on him.
Yeah, I agree with this.
I didn’t care for the Musgrave hire at all but like you, I’m willing to give him a pass for 2020.
When you're running the Toyota Tercel offense, you try for middle of the road.
When you’re running the Toyota Tercel offense, you try for as many downhill streets as possible.
I tend to think of it as a go-kart kind of offense, which requires a downhill track as you say. Meanwhile teams like SC have Maserati level skill players.
And like Maserati's, they don't get to the finish line first.
I find it hard to trust any Pac-12 predictions going into this season (even more so than usual), because they will be based on last season and last season was a mess.
Good point as well.
Vegas oddsmakers disagree.
Cal
A belated and hearty thank you to HeyStudentBears for attending the North Carolina chapter's Summer Welcome Event. He helped keep the event alive as students were exceptionally shy at this event. DBD homies coming through, yo!
A neat side note, someone who lived above me in the dorms attended the meeting. It was interesting to see her after 31 years (!). She was a cheerleader, so she knew my high-school girlfriend who became a Cal cheerleader and my sophomore-senior year girlfriend's roommate was also a cheerleader. She married a Cal baseball player who played 12 seasons of pro ball, including three season at the MLB level with the Braves.
One of my current best friends lived almost directly below me in Unit 3 - I was 811, she was 710. We didn't *really* meet until my 22 birthday party in Hong Kong, but she recognized me from Spens-Black.
I wrote a reply, but it disappeared. Abridged...was Spens-Black 502. Still friends with person the computer/person paired me with. Was best man at this wedding; we had MBB season tix together for many years.
She's married to Mike Cather? I have always liked sidearm pitchers. I can't think of another Cal-Braves player of that age.
Yup.
Do you think there's a finite number of people you'll meet in life, so you get repeats?
OH MY GOD, YES.
I've met the same dude(s) multiple times. Like currently there's a 6'3" kind of goofy but super nice white dude. In college, that was Little Dave. In Hong Kong that was Trent. In Houston, it was a guy named Tyler. Here in Shanghai, I met him again, but now his name is Ross. They all look super similar too - I have almost called Ross "Tyler" about a dozen times.
There's another variant in my life - a wide but fast and shorter white guy who plays soccer. Two in college - one was Matt, the other was Brent. Then in China, I taught with one: Also Matt. In Hong Kong it was Gordon. Then in Houston it was Max. Then I played basketball in Shanghai with him, but he's changed his name to Trent.
Anyone know when Pac-12 media day(s) is/are?
July 27th, got an email from Pac-12 networks
Link: https://pac-12.com/football/media-day-2021
Go Bears!!!
well obviously it's less hot because I left... that's not what you meant, was it?
*gold clap* Well played, sir.
This was 100% how I initially read this...
it's like we got a head start on the dad jokes section
+1 for libraries!!!
No data for the San Francisco area? Seems like a pretty big omission.