156 Comments
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Weather

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Post typhoon weather is the best. Sunny, warm, but not hot and very very breezy.

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projected high today 104. Humidity at 23%, which is high enough to feel at 104.

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Seems to be way more humidity in LA this summer, we've even had three days with rain in the morning which I can't remember happening in my ten years down here

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I just drove home in the Miata top down and it did feel more humid than usual.

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Mid-90s, 70% humidity, no clouds. I'm avoiding outside.

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Horrible heat wave in the West means weather is perfect in the Bay. Unreasonably, I feel guilty.

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I've been feeling guilty for the last month or so. Especially given that my mother-in-law is driven indoors by the Sackamenna heat.

Mrs Slug went up to visit her mom a couple weeks back. When she returned she described how spoiled she was by having cool nights at home and how much easier it is to sleep at night because it is cool (or cold).

Mrs Slug said that she asked her mom how cool it got at night and that it might affect her sleep. Her mom said, "I'll turn the air conditioning down to 78."

Mrs Slug's (internal) response - "78?!?! 70-effing-8? Are you kidding me?"

We're spoiled. Very, very definitely spoiled.

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Our strange Mid-Atlantic summer of bouncing between heat waves and unseasonably pleasant weather continues this weekend: highs in the high 70s/low 80s, lows in the 50s and 60s, and little humidity. I'll take it!

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and in between times, bonkers storms flying through

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I had a reservation to an outdoor concert at the Natl Gallery of Art sculpture garden this afternoon but just got an email that it's canceled for fear of one of those bonkers storms.

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Changed some recessed lighting lightbulbs in the kitchen ceiling, did some caulking in the downstairs shower over the weekend, stopped a leak that suddenly had shown up. The touchscreen in my Lexus suddenly stopped responding. Need a new digitizer, may fix it myself because it is a $70 part but the dealer charges $5k to install it.

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Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) suffers a heart attack on set.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bob-odenkirk-better-call-saul-heart-attack-1234989892/

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His friends have been confirming on Twitter that he'll be all right, thankfully.

https://twitter.com/davidcrosss/status/1420606389395804162

https://twitter.com/ambertamblyn/status/1420530202036297728

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Get well soon Bob, Better Call Saul is the best show on TV.

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I heard he collapsed but I didn't realize it was a heart attack. I hope he recovers quickly. I wonder how much this will delay Season 6 of Better Call Saul...

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Olympics

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I check in periodically to look for the less common sports. In small doses I like watching table tennis, badminton, archery, canoeing, rowing. Track starts today and I'll be most interested in that.

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I've found the fencing broadcasts surprisingly compelling.

Lee Kiefer, the American woman who won individual gold, is fun to watch. Lots of energy and really hops around a lot during the bout. (And I'll always root for a fellow hapa.)

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Siobhan Haughey is the pride of Hong Kong after winning two silvers in swimming. Everyone has been celebrating so hard!

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she has to keep moving, she's tiny

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Yeah, I love how she uses her quickness to get around the taller, longer opponents she has to face.

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The NBC Sports app on Apple TV has been adequate for my purposes, I'm only watching about an hour a day in the evening, but the sports I've caught have been fun to watch. Enjoyed the surfing coverage, but the waves looked incredibly difficult to navigate.

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The lack of spectators really cuts into the broadcast enjoyment. In addition, I don't give much of a F* about beach volleyball.

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usually by now, I've cracked and started watching... but I'm just not that interested. Other places to spend my mental energy I supposed.

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Yeah, same here, easily the least I've paid attention to the game in my life. And I grew up in a household where all we watched was the Olympics and tennis majors.

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[NBC at 7:30 am this morning]: "Suni Lee and Jade Carey are in the all around finals."

[Me]: "Suni is Asian, so they'll cover Jade Carey. This is Yamaguchi / Kerrigan all over again."

[Wife]: "Ugh... you're so cynical."

[NBC] ... plays extended B-roll on Jade Carey

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NBC ran a big package on Suni Lee last night, we met her parents (who are super cute), learned all about her dad's bad accident cutting down a tree, etc.

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Yes, I liked that.

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The tv coverage has been really lackluster, as always. Rampant ads, fawning and hubris bordering on jingoism from the announcers, and way too much time wasted on showing family reactions in distant locations. Even the coverage of the less popular events on NBCSN and CNBC has been lackluster, as the live broadcasts often don't match what's on the schedule.

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Some of the athletes are also complaining about the shift in the schedule (particularly in swimming) for the TV audiences in the US. Instead of the finals in the evenings, they are in the mornings to be on during the prime time in the US.

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Coverage has been poor, and poorly chosen. I've watched some, in part due to the lack of alternatives at times, but far below what I watched historically, and NBC has done nothing to encourage me to watch more.

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NBC has traditionally tended to pre-plan what they want to focus on and not been very good at adjusting when something unexpected happens.

They also seem to be covering the Olympics as if it's still 1996.

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NBC covers everything as if its still 1996.

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here's an article from The Verge pointing out just the basic errors NBC has made in provisioning https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/29/22589928/peacock-2020-olympics-streaming

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NYC gotta NYC. If it is not based/from western Europe or NYC, it is not important.

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NYC:

84: Witt (East German) > Sumners > Chin

88: Witt > Thomas

92: Kerrigan > Yamaguchi, even after Yamaguchi won gold

98: Lipinski > Kwan

02: Hughes > Kwan

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Fixin'

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There is so much good info on DIY repairs on YouTube, I always check there first to see if a potential repair can be easily accomplished before calling a professional

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This is how I find many of the things I do on the Miata. There are so many people doing Miata repair that I can find anything in a video or a post.

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This is so true, my son suggested this to me, and he was definitely correct.

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New power steering pump in the car. Went pretty well and fixed my issue.

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But how many times did Twist interrupt you to fill up the air in his tires?

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Latest was a cutting out a leaking section of a bilge hose and it actually went as planned and had no hiccups which is rare on boat repairs.

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In the middle of replacing the plastic cover on the fluorescent tube light in our down stairs bathroom. Got the panel, now just need to cut it to shape the opening.

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I've literally fixed 1,000's of things in my life, but the last thing I can think of was fixing the copier. Mainly my crew fixes things now.

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I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in,

to stop my mind from wondering,

where it will gooooooo

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Wandering?

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pltm you're right, it IS "wandering."

For whatever reason, I've always been terrible at hearing lyrics.

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You must be full of mondegreens.

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Going to replace a handle of a bathroom faucet this weekend. There's been a slow leak in it for years (it's a piece of crap), and the rust build up has seized the connecting hardware to the point that I can't get any of it to budge. My solution: I will physically cut the hardware. Luckily, we have an extra matching faucet handle from the last time we had to replace another sink, so I can just swap it out once I get the old one disconnected.

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I take it that you have groundwater with loads of mineral content.

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City water supply that probably has tons of mineral content. I haven't looked, tbh, but it wouldn't surprise me. East Bay water.

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Alameda County Water, perchance? But I digress.

If there's a way to hold a container with CLR against the rusted joint(s), you may be able to use the CLR to break the corrosion so you can unscrew the joint or lift off the handle.

Aside from that, WD40 makes a version that contains penetrating oil called WD40 Blue Torch. It is effective at loosening frozen joints.

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Angle stops still working?

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It kinda leaks. When I disconnect the supply line, a small trickle flows, which, of course, over time, probably will cause a problem up at the fixture. Hadn't thought of that as the root cause of the problem...thanks!

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No 1 shut his MBP screen on a small piece of the comforter and cracked the corner of the LCD. Found a place in SJ that said their screen was OEM so we got it for 320 vs 520+ installed from Apple. I helped him install it and it is definitely not OEM. I pointed out to the seller the things that were slightly different physically and that the LCD shows up with some 3rd party name in the system report. The guy came back with "You know more about them than I do. I'll let my supplier know". Offered either return for refund or $100 off. Also when No 1 removed the battery connector apparently he ripped something because the battery shows up as not connected. He took it to Apple and since there was a technical bulletin about a battery issue for his range of MBP they're replacing the whole bottom of the laptop minus the logic board for free!!

He said he can tell the screen doesn't look as crisp since it isn't OEM so he's going to wait for the new MBPs to be released later this year and get one and sell this used for maybe 600. He doesn't like the touch bar and the fact that his only has a few USB-C ports. He misses the other ports that Apple is adding back.

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DBD Test Kitchen

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I was on very thin ice last night, suggesting something about cooking to my wife, but since I helped a bit, it was ok. Sliced the tomatoes about 3/8 inch thick, sprinkled with granulated garlic, salt and pepper, and roasted in the oven before they went in the panini.

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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Marco Rubio is an embarrassment.

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1420767103435542535

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I'm no fan of Rubio, but I have to agree with him here -- it's theater of the ridiculous. There's no reason why fully vaccinated people need to wear a mask, let alone a mask and a shield. Despite CDC doing a 180 on this issue, they haven't presented ANY evidence that vaccinated people can spread the virus.

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The Philippines is currently undergoing a giant spread of delta AND they asked him to wear a mask.

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What did I just read?

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Someone who is apparently not a fan of masks. Our county is back to full indoor mask, regardless of vax status.

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Worse than that, he's a covid "truther"

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FALSE! I'm a Covid realist. I masked up before CDC advice. (They originally lied to us so that we wouldn't there wouldn't be a run on masks -- so I'm supposed to believe everything they say now?) I also got jabbed (Pfizer) as soon as I could.

But Covid is not the only danger out there. What kind of physical, intellectual and psychological damage are we imposing on people (especially kids) by continued masking, school shutdowns, etc? How many people have committed suicide? (I had a friend who killed himself at the beginning of the second lockdown.)

Since I'm fully vaxxed, I'm more likely to get struck by lightning while holding a winning lotto ticket than I am to die, or even suffer from severe breakthrough infection. Vaxxed or not, kids are extremely unlikely to have severe disease. So why are we allowing those who choose not to get jabbed to prevent us from living (pre-covid) normal lives? It's long past time that we seriously consider the collateral damage that our Covid policies are inflicting. If more people are dying because of our Covid policies than would have died from Covid, maybe it's time to rethink the policies.

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He's right. The CDC has done a 180 on the issue and hasn't presented ANY evidence, apart from the giant repository of information on their website - including the front page with 186 scientific citations that explicitly describes what is happening and why the recent decision was made.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/fully-vaccinated-people.html

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@Oh hey it's that super reasonable science guy.@

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Starting tomorrow at EBMWU, mask are required if you're indoors *regardless of vaccination status*.

If you fail to wear your mask indoors, you are subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination. Failure to wear a mask indoors is considered Gross Misconduct.

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Trump tries to sabotage the Biden infrastructure deal

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/28/infrastructure-deal-trump-501287

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Civil case against Trump and Trumpkins appears head to go to discovery phase after defendants' arbitration bid is denied.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-family-loses-big-appeals-court-fight-to-force-fraud-and-deceptive-practices-lawsuit-into-secret-arbitration/

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Today in Covid-19

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Interesting that Vegas does considering their Mayor opened up the casinos early. Although I guess masks were still required at the time.

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Pfizer says that the effectiveness of its vaccine drops to 83% after 6 months, bolstering the company's case that a booster is needed.

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bolsters their balance sheet too (but if the lab data actually backs up what they claim, then gimme that booster)

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Pfizer is part of my portfolio, so boost that balance sheet too

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Appropriately cynical. Love it.

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Five governors will not follow updated CDC guidelines on masks: Iowa, Texas, Arizona, Nebraska, and Florida. There are some good quotes like Arizona's Ducey saying that the reason of not following the CDC is because Biden/Harris can't control Covid, so wearing masks diminishes confidence in the vaccine.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/07/28/5-republican-governors-oppose-cdc-mask-guidance-as-covid-cases-hospitalizations-surge-nationwide/?sh=2e9ca60e5518

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well, we are not going to get to 3 million deaths (1% mortality) if we don't make sure everyone gets the 'rona. /sarcasm

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knock yourselves out, I guess.

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Gov Reynold (R-IA): The cause of America's surge of Covid is [checks hate-filled notes]... brown people.

https://news.yahoo.com/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-blames-150800150.html

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if all else fails, make shit up to scapegoat poor immigrants.

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Makes me a little hesitant to visit my sister who lives In Iowa. Fortunately she lives in far northeast of the state and I fly into Minneapolis so don't really have to interact with much of the state.

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Iowa is not that bad at all.

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Iowa City was fine when I visited when my nephews were going to school there but can't say that much of the rest of eastern Iowa I saw did much for me.

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Ha! I meant vis-a-vis covid surge.

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Pro

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[Jeff Passan] Dodgers to get Max Scherzer and Trea Turner for prospects. What did the Dodgers give up in order to get those two stars? My goodness.

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1420899794550239236

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GBBR

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GBBR. I still think Keibert and Josiah Gray is an overpay for 3 months of Scherzer and 1 yr and 3 mo of Trea Turner. But I guess they had to beat out the Pads and the Giants.

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[WoJo]: Deal close for Lakers to get Russell Westbrook for Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and 2021 Draft Pick

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31913935/sources-los-angeles-lakers-nearing-deal-acquire-russell-westbrook-send-3-player-package-pick-washington-wizards

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Damn, they are selling out for the now.

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I wonder how well Westbrook will mesh with both LeBron and AD. I could see this being a dumpster fire. LeBron the GM isn't very good.

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There's only 1 basketball...should be interesting. Westbrook a volume scorer.

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Game #103: A’s unload against Padres in 10-4 rout

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/7/28/22599186/oakland-as-game-103-san-diego-padres-score-result

Now that’s more like it.

The Oakland A’s have been mired in a slump all month, but everything clicked on both sides of the ball Wednesday and they cruised to a 10-4 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

So many of the hops that have gone against the A’s lately went in their favor this time. When they homered there were runners on base, and a couple of infield hits played big roles in rallies, and they racked up five hits with runners in scoring position plus a sac fly. It all came bunched together in a single afternoon, and one big win doesn’t make up for several weeks’ worth of one-run losses, but nonetheless it was encouraging to remember what this team can look like on a good day.

On the pitching side, Sean Manaea carried a perfect game into the 6th inning. He retired the first 16 batters he faced before issuing a walk with one out in the 6th, and then the next batter blooped a flare that barely eluded the reach of shortstop Elvis Andrus trying to make a tough over-the-shoulder catch. With two on and two out, Manaea got Fernando Tatis Jr to ground out to escape the jam.

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Giants get punched in the face by a very rude Dodgers team

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/7/28/22599303/san-francisco-giants-dodgers-recap-buster-posey

There was exactly one good thing that happened during the San Francisco Giants 8-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, during which we learned that they have a very different interpretation of “Beat LA” than I do.

That one good thing was relief pitcher José Álvarez taking an at-bat and drawing a walk. Remarkably, it was the second walk that he’d drawn this season. I did not expect Álvarez to have two plate appearances this year, let alone two walks.

Álvarez’s one walk was as many as the rest of the team, combined.

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Fuck the Dodgers.

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I don’t think Ted Lasso would approve of that! (Even tho I gave it a heart.)

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If you're gonna lose, may as well do it in a game where the fans can stop paying attention early.

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There were 2 groups in the row in front of us. One group had a kid from Sac that went to a small college in Louisville down the street from our house that knew a kid that played with No 1 in HS. Also he knew a few kids that went to No 1's HS. He was a Yankees fan watching the end of the Yankees/TB game on his phone.

His friend was complaining that he paid money to watch this game. Then he said he thought about it and at the end of the day the Giants are still in 1st. Also they had a friend from Sac that pitched in the game.

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Walker Buehler pitches scoreless baseball to beat Giants on his birthday

https://www.truebluela.com/2021/7/28/22599348/walker-buehler-scoreless-birthday-start-dodgers-offense-giants-recap

For the second time in as many starts, Walker Buehler was stingy against the Giants. On Wednesday night in San Francisco, the Dodgers offense provided much more support in a 8-0 win that pulled Los Angeles to within two games of San Francisco in the National League West.

Buehler, pitching on his birthday for a third straight year, allowed only the occasional batter to reach base on Wednesday, with three singles and two walks. Two of those were erased on ground ball double plays.

Only once did two Giants reach base against Buehler in the same inning, and that was only because of a wild pitch on a strikeout of Alex Dickerson in the sixth, one of eight strikeouts Buehler had on the night.

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Lions defeat the Vikings with a ninth-inning field goal.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401228582

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I loled when I saw that score on the ticker last night

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Minnesota became the first MLB team ever to hit 7 HRs in a game and not win.

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I love all the random statistics in baseball

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Ohtani has broken about 100 random records that no one ever talked about

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NBA Draft

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Very interested to see what the Dubs do with the 7 & 14 picks. Will there be a big trade, a sign and trade, will they commit to additional young talent, will James Wiseman, Andrew Wiggins or Kelly Oubre still be on the team tomorrow morning?

So many variables and I'm a little bummed I won't be able to watch live.

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These mock trades that have the W's dealing 7, 14, Wiseman, Wiggins and future 1's are hilarious....why not just toss in Curry too. What a joke.

I wish I had more faith in Myers, and to a certain extent, Kerr...I don't think Bob can draft for schitt without Jerry West...and I don't think Kerr can coach for schitt w/o Curry...his inability to adapt his O to utilize Wiseman in ANY capacity was so disappointing.

If Kuminga slides to 7, they should grab him, as a trade chip if nothing else...Wagner could work....Duarte or Trey Murphy III at 14 are interesting...

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I read this as Troy Murphy and had flashbacks.

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I had to doublecheck first time I saw it, myself! Ha

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Other College

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[MBB] USC's Assistant Coach Jason Hart resigns to be the Clipper's G-League Head Coach

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31905641/sources-jason-hart-become-new-head-coach-g-league-ignite

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[USC fans] Give Reggie Bush his Heisman back since paying players is now legal!

[NCAA]: Nope.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31905468/ncaa-consider-returning-2005-heisman-trophy-ex-usc-trojans-star-reggie-bush

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[Yahoo] Quinn Ewers is thinking of skipping his senior year of high school so he can enroll early at Ohio State so he can sign around a million dollars in NIL money.

https://sports.yahoo.com/will-americas-no-1-qb-recruit-quinn-ewers-give-up-7-figure-nil-offers-for-one-more-season-of-texas-high-school-football-200803437.html

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Bonkers

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I hope he does it, and flames out spectacularly as a qb.

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Texas A&M regents direct their President to vote "yes" for Texas inclusion into SEC, choosing to keep the quiet part quiet.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31907675/texas-board-says-expansion-right-path-directs-president-approve-extending-invites-texas-oklahoma

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The optics of ducking Texas at this point would be hard to get over.

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this kills me, so funny https://streamable.com/rb25ti

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That is funny, what movie is that from?

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American Hustle I think

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You are correct; sad thing is, I've seen that movie, I liked that movie, but I don't remember that scene at all.

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Big XII alleges that they have evidence that ESPN tampered with Big XII member schools in an attempt to get the huge exit fees for OU and UT voided by having some schools jump ship to AAC (where ESPN has 100% TV rights). While Big XII's Cease & Desist is toothless, it is a step in the direction that Big XII sues ESPN for big $.

https://twitter.com/RossDellenger/status/1420515796418187265

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Cal

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Is it just me or was there virtually no coverage of Pac-12 media days outside of the Pac-12 itself? I know and understand that the UT & OU move to the SEC story will dominate, but still, it seemed awfully quiet.

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I didn't even notice coverage inside of the Pac-12.

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Bah-dum-bum TSSSHHHH

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It's all locked behind paywalls of Pac-12 Networks and the pay-media outlets that covered it. There is precious little content for Cal. The Q&A with Wilcox was good, but the clips of Wilcox & Garbers is fluff unrelated to Cal footbal from Pac-12's Ashley Adamson and Nigel Burton.

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I saw some tweets from the SC "beat writers" but honestly anything from Helton is going to be "faith family football good kids working real hard" so there's no particular need to read up on it.

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That's pretty much all content of media days. Unless you have a crazy person as a coach (e.g., Mike Leach).

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GO BEARS!!!

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36 days til the start of the season. 🐻🐻🐻

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Trying to get someone to cover for me so I can be there for opening day, but it's not looking good

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just have to quit the job!

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Ugh it’s my company!

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Oh then that's easy. You should fire yourself on Friday, and then re-hire you on Monday!

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Oh I need to look for tickets for the Nevada game. I guess the longer I wait the cheaper they'll get on seatgeek. Probably the same with Sac State.

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Section T, Stubhub $20 tix for Nevada

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One thing I do hope is that the stadium will require fans to prove 2 vaccinations at the gates (or one with J&J), which will reduce the Covid risk. That's assuming the guidelines for attendance do not change between now and then.

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Highly highly unlikely. The conference needs max. capacity possible at every game, and any form of Vax checking at the gate would be a fiasco at best, and result in massive problems. If it gets bad enough for this to be a consideration, attendance limitations or outright cancellations will occur first.

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I'm guessing they won't. Is there a requirement for vaccination for the game?

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