On our drive across the country No 1 and I stayed at the Graduate Hotel in Iowa City. It was a pretty cool hotel. They asked if I have been at the one in Berkeley. I didn't know there was one in Berkeley. Looks like they took over the Durant Hotel a couple of years ago.
There was a reception there when I went back to Berkeley for the alumni conference 2-3 years ago. I think Graduate hotel and The Study are both of these chain hotels that are taking over a hotel next to a major university to cash in on alumni coming back for ball games or reunions, etc.
Speaking of bourbon in Oxford, I finished my experiment with pecan whiskey. The goal was to make pecan whiskey like the boys from Red Cup Rebellion gave us at the Ole Miss tailgate that didn't have the deep-south amount of sugar in it.
Version 1 just had freshly toasted fresh pecans and a vanilla bean steeped in IW Harper bourbon. Version 2 added a bit of demerara sugar. Version 1 was good, but the pecan nose was a bit strong. It was also TOO dry with the smoke, wood, and nut. Version 2 was helped a lot by the sugar, but then combination made me wish it was in a cocktail rather than a whiskey. Wasn't really a sipping whiskey and the addition of pecans did not make it better than the original bourbon.
It made me think it was a waste of time and that if I wanted to infuse aromatics, I should dabble in making my own bitters. The bad news is that I ruined a half bottle of decent bourbon. The good news is that I had a pretty good buzz for a few nights and had fun doing it.
Malaysia: ex-Prime Minister sentenced to 12 years for graft. One of the 11 charges was him getting US$10m deposited to his bank accounts. His defense: he didn't know it got deposited there.
My younger older brother is a lovely human being, who is an excellent father and is basically my intellectual and emotional twin -- my sister-in-law says our separate answers to the same question are indistinguishable 95% of the time. He was my best friend growing up and I never don't enjoy spending time with him.
I only had it once back in high school when visiting a friend whose family is from Australia. It was not remarkable enough for me to remember its taste 20 years later other than salty.
This is true. The Big Game became our bowl game that year. Cal snapped a 7-game losing streak to 'furd, which included the first OT game in the series (2000).
The North goal posts were last seen being carried out the stadium and down Bancroft Way.
Short answer: Holmoe didn't do a good job managing the many people involved in football, or actively looked the other way. As is typical with Cal, we only cheat when we are bad, like really bad.
Michael Ainsworth and Ronnie Davenport. Professor Saragoza (IIRC) giving out passing grades to football players (Mr. Ainsworth and Davenport?) for classes not attended. Something about phone calls (!!!) that were not reimbursed.
Not really good on deets at the moment. Nonetheless, stupid shit all around.
Gale Sayers. When I was a student in the late 80's, I actually had an English Lit book with his name/signature and school year written in the back. Stupid me actually turned the book back in, instead of keeping it.
Matt Biondi, I think. Eleven olympic medals (eight gold, two silver and one bronze). During his career, he set three individual world records in the 50-meter freestyle and four in the 100-meter freestyle.
Norm Van Brocklin: NFL hall of fame QB, 9-time NFL pro-bowl, two-time "Superbowl" champ. Led U of Oregon to 3 straight great PCC seasons, but never beat Cal - who went to 3 straight Rose Bowls under Pappy Waldorf. Left high school one year early to go kick Hitler's ass for 3 years. He died of a heart attack at age 57.
David Binn (Go Bears!). Debi Thomas. Dennis Haysbert was offered out of high school (football), but he's better known for his screen roles. Does Bill Neukom count?
my high school...afshin ghotbi? assistant manager of korea soccer team from like 2000-2010 and then manager of the iranian national team in 2010-2012ish.
my local high school...either jim edmonds or keith van horn.
I went to an all girls, academically focused school, so nobody (though our most famous alum, Olivia de Havilland, died this week), but if I get to combine with our boys' school, Barry Bombs or Tom Brady.
I just checked my HS wikipedia page to see if we had any notable athletic alumni....the whole thing is a controversy section about two fairly recent kids who were arrested for hate crimes, and three 'notable' alumni who had minor pro football and baseball careers and now coach.
Famous athlete (in that she was an athlete, but is not famous for being an athlete): Gabrielle Union
Less famous: Val Arioto (her brother was in my year/Brandon's year, and she's a bit younger), Sean Mannion (after my time; his dad was one of the AP Civics teachers, but I wasn't in his class)
The pickings are pretty slim, but the options are: 1) An 80s USC player who was Pac-10 PoY, got drafted by the Clippers, but never made a roster; 2) A furd basketball player who was drafted by the Lakers but didn't stick in the NBA beyond a couple years; 3) a former MLB reliever who lasted ~3 years in the bigs; 4) a current assistant coach in the NBA who didn't get drafted
Berkeley Food Co-op. Famous for its twin pines logo. They also had a credit union. Sadly, the whole concern foundered on internal politics and eventually went out of business in the 1980s..
I still remember my Mom's number: 23660.
My grandmother's number was 4 digits beginning with 8.
belong to our local food co-op. Which started as a hippie health food-ish thing and now is a full supermarket style grocery store with a deli, sushi bar, and ridiculous 'craft' beer selection.
My great grandfather was a serious union man in the Lanarkshire mills and was heavily involved in establishing cooperative shops so that the comrades’ money wasn’t going right back to the company.
Actually I had a small moment of pride the other night when we were talking about some kind of college points card that the 17 year old will be using and the 15 year old responded, with appropriate disdain, that it sounded like company scrip to her.
is that the one where he wears the nutslinger? Mike Meyers gave an AFI lifetime achievement speech where he says rarely does a man maintain his virility while wearing a pony tail, high thigh boots, and a nutslinger.
There was a time (a year or so ago) when you can easily find episodes on Reddit (before they crack down on it), and it's always surprising that Jeopardy is apparently a daytime show in one market (I want to say Alabama) so that you can see that night's episode by around noon.
I watched with my grandmother whenever I could! The only issue for her was that she had to wait until she saw the text to be able to answer the question because she found American accents difficult to understand.
I used to watch it all the time. Completely shit or bust on answering questions - like I’d be nailing geography questions and then they’d have a series on the Old Testament or baseball and that was me finished for audience participation
I love Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek is a delightful person, and Ken Jennings is the GOAT. I watched it a lot growing up, and the GF and I have been watching it pretty much nightly during quarantine. I'm excited to see Nick on there sometime. I tried out once when I was right out of college, but it was for the regular version and I was by far the youngest person there. Just missed the cut then. Might try again sometime, but I feel like I should really study and take it seriously if I wanted to do it.
No 1 tried out and got called in for the 2nd round (after the online test) for the college competition. When they went around asking everyone to say something about themselves he was called first and didn't know what they were looking for. He wishes he had seen a few people go before him. I think he did well on the 3v3 part.
Yeah, I wish I'd tried out for the HS or college tourneys. Those are so much easier. But yeah, they also want to select for people who are telegenic, so I bet it helps to have anecdotes ready to discuss.
TL;DR: Russians are innocent, despite what our own agencies who look after these things say. I am not a toady. I have a friend who's black, but would somebody PLEASE think of the lives of unmarked storm troopers that I've despatched to various cities.
NYT: Trump never invited to throw out first pitch at Yankees game. Claimed he was after seeing Fauci do it. Can we just play Yakkity Sax on a loop for the next 98 days?
Lunch: leftover Mexican meatballs in a tomatillo sauce with onions over lime rice with a little cilantro, topped with grated cotija, washed down with a glass of Zinfandel.
Elsewhere in college
MAAC cancels falls sports (ie, Canisius, Fairfield, Iona, Niagra, Monmouth, Quinnipiac, Rider, St. Peter', Siena).
https://www.wivb.com/sports/maac-cancels-fall-sports-competition/
oh no - not Canisius! yep, I know someone who went there
Graduate Hotel
On our drive across the country No 1 and I stayed at the Graduate Hotel in Iowa City. It was a pretty cool hotel. They asked if I have been at the one in Berkeley. I didn't know there was one in Berkeley. Looks like they took over the Durant Hotel a couple of years ago.
There was a reception there when I went back to Berkeley for the alumni conference 2-3 years ago. I think Graduate hotel and The Study are both of these chain hotels that are taking over a hotel next to a major university to cash in on alumni coming back for ball games or reunions, etc.
I had some ridiculously over-priced bourbon at the Graduate Hotel in Oxford, the night before the game.
Speaking of bourbon in Oxford, I finished my experiment with pecan whiskey. The goal was to make pecan whiskey like the boys from Red Cup Rebellion gave us at the Ole Miss tailgate that didn't have the deep-south amount of sugar in it.
Version 1 just had freshly toasted fresh pecans and a vanilla bean steeped in IW Harper bourbon. Version 2 added a bit of demerara sugar. Version 1 was good, but the pecan nose was a bit strong. It was also TOO dry with the smoke, wood, and nut. Version 2 was helped a lot by the sugar, but then combination made me wish it was in a cocktail rather than a whiskey. Wasn't really a sipping whiskey and the addition of pecans did not make it better than the original bourbon.
It made me think it was a waste of time and that if I wanted to infuse aromatics, I should dabble in making my own bitters. The bad news is that I ruined a half bottle of decent bourbon. The good news is that I had a pretty good buzz for a few nights and had fun doing it.
Revel Stoke costs $12 a bottle... just sayin
ruin is a strong word for 'whiskey with a flavor that I don't like that well'
Well maybe you didn’t ruin it then
😃
Malaysia: ex-Prime Minister sentenced to 12 years for graft. One of the 11 charges was him getting US$10m deposited to his bank accounts. His defense: he didn't know it got deposited there.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/malaysia-najib-12-years-jail-1mdb-linked-graft-case-200728110222866.html
It could happen to anyone really
Let's fucking hope.
Fingers crossed
I recently learned (thanks to Reddit) that Singapore got expelled from Malaysia, and that's how they gained their independence.
Fact: the "sia" in Malaysia was added as a symbolic gesture when Singapore merged with Malaya in the 1960s.
Fact: While ethnic Chinese were and continue to be the vast majority of Singaporeans, all military commands are given in Bahasa Malay.
The Singapore national anthem is in Bahasa Malay.
This is America
This made me appalled. Then angry. Then sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT4yhVo9TgE
I’m opting to not watch
Say something good about a sibling
No.
same
Only good things to say about all three. They have raised three great families and have been checking in on me more often during the virus.
My sister is a good person, and generally fun to be around.
My sister was always way cooler than me.
My brother is a remarkably patient and engaged father, and a pretty good cook.
My brother is adorkable in the best way
My younger older brother is a lovely human being, who is an excellent father and is basically my intellectual and emotional twin -- my sister-in-law says our separate answers to the same question are indistinguishable 95% of the time. He was my best friend growing up and I never don't enjoy spending time with him.
I don't have one, that's the best thing I can say about it :)
Vegemite
No.
I only had it once back in high school when visiting a friend whose family is from Australia. It was not remarkable enough for me to remember its taste 20 years later other than salty.
Would try if I had access to it
blech! once was enough
I’ve never had cause to try it
1999
TIL: Cal vacated all 4 wins from that football season due to altering two players' grades. Somehow, I didn't know this. Does anyone know more?
IIRC, this was also why Cal was not bowl-eligible in the first season under Tedford in 2002.
This is true. The Big Game became our bowl game that year. Cal snapped a 7-game losing streak to 'furd, which included the first OT game in the series (2000).
The North goal posts were last seen being carried out the stadium and down Bancroft Way.
My first big game win. Damn the tie in 88.
Short answer: Holmoe didn't do a good job managing the many people involved in football, or actively looked the other way. As is typical with Cal, we only cheat when we are bad, like really bad.
Michael Ainsworth and Ronnie Davenport. Professor Saragoza (IIRC) giving out passing grades to football players (Mr. Ainsworth and Davenport?) for classes not attended. Something about phone calls (!!!) that were not reimbursed.
Not really good on deets at the moment. Nonetheless, stupid shit all around.
Party over oops out of time
Great year for movies.
Who was the most famous athlete who went to your high school?
Gale Sayers. When I was a student in the late 80's, I actually had an English Lit book with his name/signature and school year written in the back. Stupid me actually turned the book back in, instead of keeping it.
Matt Biondi, I think. Eleven olympic medals (eight gold, two silver and one bronze). During his career, he set three individual world records in the 50-meter freestyle and four in the 100-meter freestyle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Biondi
his mom was my GATE teacher at Rheem
I had her as a sub at Camino Pablo. Didn't like her.
Psshhhhhh it's Giorgio Tavecchio and it's not even close!
oh yeah I did forget about Giorgio!
Norm Van Brocklin: NFL hall of fame QB, 9-time NFL pro-bowl, two-time "Superbowl" champ. Led U of Oregon to 3 straight great PCC seasons, but never beat Cal - who went to 3 straight Rose Bowls under Pappy Waldorf. Left high school one year early to go kick Hitler's ass for 3 years. He died of a heart attack at age 57.
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David Binn (Go Bears!). Debi Thomas. Dennis Haysbert was offered out of high school (football), but he's better known for his screen roles. Does Bill Neukom count?
my high school...afshin ghotbi? assistant manager of korea soccer team from like 2000-2010 and then manager of the iranian national team in 2010-2012ish.
my local high school...either jim edmonds or keith van horn.
or alex morgan...
I went to an all girls, academically focused school, so nobody (though our most famous alum, Olivia de Havilland, died this week), but if I get to combine with our boys' school, Barry Bombs or Tom Brady.
and Lynn Swann!
I just checked my HS wikipedia page to see if we had any notable athletic alumni....the whole thing is a controversy section about two fairly recent kids who were arrested for hate crimes, and three 'notable' alumni who had minor pro football and baseball careers and now coach.
Current pro: Brandon Crawford
Famous athlete (in that she was an athlete, but is not famous for being an athlete): Gabrielle Union
Less famous: Val Arioto (her brother was in my year/Brandon's year, and she's a bit younger), Sean Mannion (after my time; his dad was one of the AP Civics teachers, but I wasn't in his class)
Randy Johnson
Probably Tom Meschery, who had his number retired by the Warriors.
I'm old enough to remember him.
Quite a 'stache.
https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/2003552021-300x0.jpg
Definitely part of what made him memorable.
Tyson Griffin, UFC fighter from several years back
The pickings are pretty slim, but the options are: 1) An 80s USC player who was Pac-10 PoY, got drafted by the Clippers, but never made a roster; 2) A furd basketball player who was drafted by the Lakers but didn't stick in the NBA beyond a couple years; 3) a former MLB reliever who lasted ~3 years in the bigs; 4) a current assistant coach in the NBA who didn't get drafted
Mr. Butt Fumble
😂
Bart Starr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Starr
Jackie Jensen. Lead Cal to both the College World Series and Rose Bowl and won the AL MVP.
Fire Trail(s)
My mother in law’s place in Maine is at the end of one. All the homeowners on it club together to have it regraded and leveled every so often.
I want to get a dirt bike to ride on some of these.
Co-Ops
Berkeley Food Co-op. Famous for its twin pines logo. They also had a credit union. Sadly, the whole concern foundered on internal politics and eventually went out of business in the 1980s..
I still remember my Mom's number: 23660.
My grandmother's number was 4 digits beginning with 8.
I remember these. The whole foods on Telegraph and Ashby used to be one.
belong to our local food co-op. Which started as a hippie health food-ish thing and now is a full supermarket style grocery store with a deli, sushi bar, and ridiculous 'craft' beer selection.
My father in law used to belong to a tofu coop and take his dividend in regular deliveries. They eventually cut him off.
My daughters preschool is a co-op.
My great grandfather was a serious union man in the Lanarkshire mills and was heavily involved in establishing cooperative shops so that the comrades’ money wasn’t going right back to the company.
Actually I had a small moment of pride the other night when we were talking about some kind of college points card that the 17 year old will be using and the 15 year old responded, with appropriate disdain, that it sounded like company scrip to her.
I lived in one for a couple of years; Ridge Project.
Sean Connery
Zardoz. If you have to google it -- you're welcome.
is that the one where he wears the nutslinger? Mike Meyers gave an AFI lifetime achievement speech where he says rarely does a man maintain his virility while wearing a pony tail, high thigh boots, and a nutslinger.
The penis is evil.
That really was a dreadful film
Former milkman
The Man Who Would Be King
A solid film
Alex
P Keaton. I played scrabble with the boys a couple of weeks ago and I had to tell them about "After I zoquo, I like to uushnu".
Morgan
https://media.self.com/photos/5d02818f5ff561bde794b3d1/4:3/w_2560%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-1149421060.jpg
Rider, Stormbreaker is a very enjoyable teen action movie. It's the right level of cheesy
I'll take swords for $200, Alex
Neon
Ooh. I just remembered that we have a local dude who teaches you how to make neon signs.
http://www.glas.work/classes
Dodge car from the mid 90s with the smiley face front.
Hong Kong's Kowloon and Wanchai are the kings of neon
https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/e7800636/800wm/E7800636-Neon_signs_in_Hong_Kong.jpg
Jeopardy
There was a time (a year or so ago) when you can easily find episodes on Reddit (before they crack down on it), and it's always surprising that Jeopardy is apparently a daytime show in one market (I want to say Alabama) so that you can see that night's episode by around noon.
Was in the audience as it was being filmed once and it is EXTREMELY difficult to keep yourself from blurting out the answers
I watched with my grandmother whenever I could! The only issue for her was that she had to wait until she saw the text to be able to answer the question because she found American accents difficult to understand.
I used to watch it all the time. Completely shit or bust on answering questions - like I’d be nailing geography questions and then they’d have a series on the Old Testament or baseball and that was me finished for audience participation
I love Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek is a delightful person, and Ken Jennings is the GOAT. I watched it a lot growing up, and the GF and I have been watching it pretty much nightly during quarantine. I'm excited to see Nick on there sometime. I tried out once when I was right out of college, but it was for the regular version and I was by far the youngest person there. Just missed the cut then. Might try again sometime, but I feel like I should really study and take it seriously if I wanted to do it.
No 1 tried out and got called in for the 2nd round (after the online test) for the college competition. When they went around asking everyone to say something about themselves he was called first and didn't know what they were looking for. He wishes he had seen a few people go before him. I think he did well on the 3v3 part.
Yeah, I wish I'd tried out for the HS or college tourneys. Those are so much easier. But yeah, they also want to select for people who are telegenic, so I bet it helps to have anecdotes ready to discuss.
Yeah I'm sure he could've given some had he thought about it.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Happy Barr-Lies-to-Congress-Day!
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/attorney-general-william-barr-house-judiciary-committee/
Opening statement: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000173-92ce-d36e-abff-fffe9ce50000
TL;DR: Russians are innocent, despite what our own agencies who look after these things say. I am not a toady. I have a friend who's black, but would somebody PLEASE think of the lives of unmarked storm troopers that I've despatched to various cities.
I know it's important to stay informed with what's going on, but if I had to watch this guy for more than a few seconds I'd kill myself.
I feel your pain. 😱
I don't believe he has a friend who's black.
Maybe he knows Clarence Thomas
I was thinking Ben Carson, but whatever.
Oh him too! Or Herman Cain.
He really is a monumental arse
Trump claims Twitter trends are illegal because he's the butt of them.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1287880895051907072
I see he’s got the same firm grasp on “how twitter trends work” as he had on “how tariffs work.”
PRO
NYT: Trump never invited to throw out first pitch at Yankees game. Claimed he was after seeing Fauci do it. Can we just play Yakkity Sax on a loop for the next 98 days?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/us/politics/trump-yankees-fauci.html
This is so petty, and so Trump. Sad
Him getting jealous of Fauci and trying to do this was the most predictable Trump response ever.
I assumed he was not being truthful about throwing out the first pitch, but not why.
CAL
Oakland Athletics 3 - The The Angels Angels 0: Canha (Go Bears!) homers
https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=401225725
Emmy Nominations
https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/emmy-nominations-2020.html
No Rhea Seehorn means these are invalidated to my mind.
Cal alum and former Cal track hurdler and now emerging superstar Yahya Abdul-Mateen II got a nomination for Watchmen.
At least El Camino got a nod.
Should have been Ranchero
Indeed, how the hell is that possible?
Saul is up for Best Drama so you can't tell me they weren't watching the show. I don't get it.
Lunch: leftover Mexican meatballs in a tomatillo sauce with onions over lime rice with a little cilantro, topped with grated cotija, washed down with a glass of Zinfandel.
So, so good.