206 Comments

Bowles Hall song

..Historically, like when I was a student, Bowles was all male and so was the song. Now that it’s coed, does anyone know if the lyrics have changed?

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Ooh, if anything could get me to go back to school again, that would be it.

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Lebanon's government just stepped down due to the nitrate explosion last week

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/middleeast/lebanon-government-future-intl/index.html

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that looks horrific.

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Chicken spaghetti is not bad either...

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Well, chicken cacciatore over spaghetti is quite fine, but might be better over polenta.

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What's your brand of toothpaste? Why?

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Whatever's on sale that promises to both whiten and freshen breath

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Usually Sensodyne, sometimes Arm & Hammer.

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I think I use Colgate at the moment. I really don't pay much attention.

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Sensodyne. It is, or was, the only one you could get on the shelves that actively repaired your dentin to reduce sensitivity. Where's Kodiak when you need him?

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I use that too.

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Crest Pro Health, because it's cheap at Costco/Sam's Club. Otherwise I'd probably use Arm & Hammer. Also No 2 likes the Crest Pro Health.

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Name a food that he re-entered your life only because of shelter-at-home

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Carbs.I now have slices of toast for breakfast, chapatis with curry at lunch, biscuits/cookies for tea, pulao on Sundays, and each weekend we bake something (cakes, cookies, muffins, etc.)

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Both of my daughters have been on restricted diets so there hasn’t really been an expansion of choice

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I have gone long with flour tortillas though

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Tater tots. They are GD amazing in an air-fryer.

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TIL: Hiram College's motto is "Fiat Lux"

https://www.hiram.edu/discovery-blog-posts/let-there-be-light/

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I only heard of Hiram College about a month ago from a visit to the James Garfield National Historical Site (his old house where he did one of the first "front porch" campaigns in US presidential election history). Garfield was both an alum and later an administrator at Hiram College.

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There are a lot of colleges/universities with that motto (or variations of it like UW with "lux sit"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_there_be_light

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Are you Garfield today?

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I was a bit nerdy as a kid. I was a fan of Garfield comics in the 80s and video games. I got all of those long rectangular Garfield books up to a point. I continued video game playing into adulthood. One of my favorite games is Red Dead Redemption 2, an open-world cowboy game. In it, there's an one-legged NPC who gives you his prized horse Buell, named after his general in the Civil War of the battle that took his leg. General Don Carlos Buell fought in a lot of different battles like Shiloh and the Siege of Cornith. Buell had a long record of being belligerent toward his men and eventually was relieved by General Rosencrans and his Army of the Ohio. The Army of the Ohio was formed by primarily in Hiram, Ohio by a former professor of the college there - Hiram College. That professor, despite no military training and only a desire to join the war effort, was rewarded with a commission as a Colonel. That Colonel fought through major battles, eventually got promoted to General. After the war, he got talked into becoming the representative for Ohio's 19th district and then later accidentally became the President of the United States in a political maneuver previously highlighted in the DBD of the 1880 Republican Convention. He was elected to President but was assassinated and replaced by the VP, another Hiram College alumnus. The person I'm talking about is, of course, Garfield.

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Ohioooooooooo

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Lasagna is always good on Monday's. I like the Michelangelo brand from the freezer case.

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Tell the DBD an English vocabulary word today. DBDers should try to appropriately use them in posts today.

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Niblings

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I already use this term to refer to my brother's future offspring.

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The Phrontistery (http://phrontistery.info/archaic.html) is my favorite archive of old words.

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Two words that I know but still have to think about whenever I read them or try to use them, to make sure I'm not fucking it up, are:

teleology

epistemology

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One I'm super familiar with, the other, not at all.

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Epistemology has come up a lot in recent years with respect to information bubbles.

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Two words that I’ve historically used to test dictionaries (carry-along ones generally don’t have them):

1. Smegma (medical, but semi-NSFW)

2. Callipygian (@rugbear: another word to use for buns, non-burger related)

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One of my Bowles Hall colleagues back in the was known as SmegmaMan.

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Another uncommon genitalia word I enjoy knowing is "pudendum"

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I suppose that one could refer to a genital piercing as a pudendum addendum

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One could verily describe a horny person looking for some women to hook up with as having a pudenda agenda.

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pqtm

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I do a double take when I see pictures of European kitchens with Smeg refrigerators

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Cards Against Humanity taught me #1

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I love petrichor--as a word, as a scent, and as a microbial phenomenon: https://www.sciencealert.com/that-rain-smell-turns-out-we-re-smelling-the-circle-of-life

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Ditto!

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Interesting, no idea; I also love smell of hot asphalt when the first drops of summer rain fall.

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Also try speaking them to a speech to text app and see what you get.

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educe

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mellifluous

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One of the contractors that we work with has an absolutely beautiful, mellifluous baritone and I enjoy talking to him very much. The dude should be on radio.

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as in soft mellifluous buns....for burgers of course. ;-)

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Considering mellifluous refers to sound, I'm a bit confused...

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mel·lif·lu·ous

/məˈliflo͞oəs/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

(of a voice or words) sweet or musical;

Sweet is what I was referring too. ;-)

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@UUSHNU@ and @ZOQUO@

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sleeping last night was similar to a tough ZOQUO.

no power, no AC, 85+ deg still at 1000p.

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fecund

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Ross Bowers and his girlfriend are apparently quite fecund.

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politesse

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tantalize

was reading Harry Potter w/ my 13 yr old on Sun. i made her stop and read some Greek mythology w/ me so she would understand why it means what it does.

after all, what chance did Tantalus stand against kismet??!!

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kismet

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As it happens the other night I was trying to explain jokes about Nelson’s last words actually being “kiss me, Hardy,” in the broader context of his corpse being crammed into a barrel of wine for transportation back to London for a state funeral - the teens were like “we have no idea who you’re talking about but nice casual homophobia old man.” Oh well.

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Kids, harumph!

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Elsewhere in college

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Ross Bowers is going to be a daddy

https://twitter.com/_RossBowers/status/1292246297114705924

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When I saw Twist retweet this, I assumed it was just one of his friends.

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Iowa State U: 2.2% of students who moved back to campus tested positive for CV19

https://who13.com/news/coronavirus/isu-reports-66-covid-19-cases-among-students-tested-during-move-in/

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Vandy is requiring a clean test before allowing the student to move in. They mailed tests to all students the last couple of weeks and setup a couple of zoom calls where each student would dial in and a health care professional would watch them do the test. I assume this is both to confirm the student is the one actually doing the test and to confirm they've done it correctly. Then after move-in they plan on testing each student again.

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Vassar expects a test result from a legit lab from within the prior seven days

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How is this actually going to work? In the bay area, you can't really get test results within a week right now, so...

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I'm not sure where they're having the students send samples. The Zoom call is on the 11th or the 12th and they want the students to drop off the samples at a UPS store ASAP. With classes starting on the 24th and the first move in day around the 18th that gives them about 5 days assuming next day shipping.

And they need to start using the monitoring app today.

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It looks like they'll have a website to show positive results amongst undergrads, grad students, faculty, and staff. Waiting for the spike and then they send all the students home.

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I'm getting one next Monday. I get my results in 48 hours.

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I wonder if it's regional because the local urgent care facility where I'm getting tested tomorrow quoted 4-8 days. The LHI Care one where I also have an appt today, though I'll probably cancel assuming the one tomorrow is on after my video chat with a doctor in about an hour, also quoted about 4-8 days.

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I got mine back in under 24 hours.

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Kaiser

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We ran the 15 year old through a test on Thursday after her trip to NC so she’s the guinea pig. Times are supposed to be coming down here to 2-3 business days.

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Just got the result!

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#WeAreUnited and #WeWantToPlay unite. IMHO, this is a big deal.

https://twitter.com/Trevorlawrencee/status/1292672300152758273

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And because it is 2020, there's this...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1292873531382992901

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Like I said, workers of the world unite.

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Lasagna

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I once had a "raw" lasagna at a food expo at a hippie convention. It was not a great experience.

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Had they not told me it was lasagna, it could have been an interesting dish with unusual textures and flavors. But it was NOT good as lasagna.

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This science journalist (her specialty is climate science) had an opinion on lasagna; a lot of people weighed in to tell her her opinion was wrong.

https://twitter.com/KendraWrites/status/1292623019790213120?s=20

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Reasonable people can disagree about bechamel sauce in lasagne, but I am skeptical of the food opinions of someone who won’t eat butter (as said scientist declares downthread)

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Unless there is a food allergy involved, it would seem to be a disqualifying event.

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Her opinion is massively right. My lasagna is noodles, meat sauce and cheese (and not ricotta, nobody needs grainy textured lasagna).

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When my wife and I started dating it was a little jarring for me to discover that lasagne could involve ricotta, spinach, and no meat. Conversely she’d never even heard of people making it with bechamel sauce. Oddly enough I have lost interest in all varieties of same, so having kids who don’t eat dairy (ergo no lasagne) has been no hardship.

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My wife makes three types: the "classic" style, one with roasted veggies and smoked mozzarella and one with bacon, Swiss chard, and tomato sauce.

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That last one has my attention

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I think I would need a couple of batches of each to evaluate. And probably declare all 3 to be "premium" quality choices.

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Stay in your lane!

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A 100 layer lasagna is too much noodle to sauce/cheese ratio. That only works if the result is a 40" tall lasagna (going by my 4 layer-ish, 2 inch-ish tall lasagna).

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Lasagna dimension aside, I agree that this sauce/cheese to pasta ratio is off for me. Then again, I think the standard pasta dish does tend to have too much carb to cheese/sauce/meat for my liking. Then again, I guess you're supposed to have the pasta course and a separate entree course that's just all meat.

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that's a good point about having just a pasta course then the main meat entree. I remember Bancheros in San Leandro, a homestyle Italian place, you would order something your entree, like Chicken Parm, and they would bring spaghetti with Marinara, salad, etc for the whole table along with your entree. It was really good.

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I remember that place.

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Same, right on the border with Hayward.

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Oooh, speaking of separate meat entree, that reminds me I'm going to make some steak tonight :D

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That math tho

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dammit...you're right. 64" tall lasagna.

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Keep trying. You'll get there eventually.

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4 layers would be top, bottom, then 2 in the middle. I guess i was then calculating 3 additional ones on top so that's ((100 - 4)/ 3) * 2. Oh that's just for the additional layers. It's that plus the original 2 so it should be 66".

I could've just done 100 / 4 * 2 but I guess I was thinking each group of 4 would just use the top of the previous layer as the bottom of this layer.

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I'm rocksanddirt, and I endorse this message.

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I was very excited to make lasagna/e and tiramisu once, and Golden Oso sneered at me for my 80s menu. SCREW YOU GOLDEN OSO IT WAS DELICIOUS :D

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Tiramisu is a pedestrian dessert and deserves corn like creme brulee

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*scorn

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As a basic bitch I quite like creme brûlée but i can only digest so much... so if it’s fatty main course or creme brûlée the main course is going to win every time

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Dessert goes in a different stomach!

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Agreed.

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Not any more, alas

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Are you calling him a cow? 🐮

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What's good is good, both are timeless.

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The recipe I use is Lidia's Italy Italian-American Lasagna with the Meat Sauce recipe.

https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/italian-american-lasagna/

Not sure why the meat sauce isn't on her website but here it is:

https://louisiana.kitchenandculture.com/recipes/lidias-italian-american-meat-sauce

I ended up buying a cast iron lasagna pan that has higher sides. It's super heavy duty and works well for other stuff, like cinnamon rolls.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018AATHK

The other one I want to try is the Sopranos Cookbook lasagna recipe. This cookbook has a bunch of really good recipes.

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the best lasagna i ever had was a pesto lasagna in the town of Apricale.

Apricale is quiet time-forgotten little town near the French-Italian border in the province of Liguria where all the olive oil and pesto generally come from.

it was about 10 miles inland from Ventimiglia which is the "border town" where there is one of the best weekly flea-markets in all of Europe.

we spent a week there 13 yrs ago when the kids were super young.

the pesto lasagna was SO good that went back at least twice more to the same restaurant to have some.

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ooh....pesto lasagne sounds good. I wonder if I can find a recipe. I have started making a pesto pizza when I make pizza. Costco's (I'm lazy and don't have enough basil) pesto sauce with their fresh mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and some grilled chicken.

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we have tried to make it a couple times and it is good.

there is an Italian guy at our local farmers market who makes it much better

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so I guess you replace the red sauce with pesto? Everythign else is the same?

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but honestly, the reason the one in Apricale was so good was just the freshness and amazingness of the olive oil and pesto itself.

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We had a similar experience with pesto (just in regular pasta) while being stereotypes and staying in the Cinque Terra. I don’t much care about pesto one way or the other but that local stuff was amazing

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no .. there is a cream based component to it as well.

also i have seen some versions w/ thinly sliced potatoes that turn out really good too.

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Very very common in Liguria to serve pasta with sliced potatoes, green beans and pesto.

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Wife makes it with marble potatoes cut in half; need to be cooked before hand.

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TIL: In my head, "lasagna" was spelled "lasagne". I wrote out "lasagne" and spell-check had corrected it to end in 'a'. The dish IS actually spelled lasagne, the plural of more than one singular flat sheet of lasagna. So I ended up going down the Internet rabbit-hole this morning and found out that only Americans spell it the singular way, which is odd because we didn't adopt the singular versions of other Italian foods like panino, spaghetto, zito, and linguino.

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Is it also pizzo?

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Pizze/Pizza I believe.

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Then I was like "why did I think it ended in 'e'? I never ate it at home, so I never really saw boxes of it at home nor pay attention to it in the grocery store. And when I did read it, I was eating out an Italian restaurant.

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MMmmm

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DBD AV Club

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I re-watched Stardust at a Netflix Party last night and was reminded how enjoyable that movie is. Everything and everyone is connected on a perfectly predictable quest, and it's feel good fun.

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Perry Mason ending was quite good, and the sneaky false beginning of the episode was quite clever.

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I listened to 1000 gecs by 100 gecs essentially on a dare and thought it was good silly fun. Started to revisit Los Lobos and enjoyed their “best of” list in a way that I did not at the time and wanted something faster and louder out of my music.

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"100Gecs fans be like “yeah the music sucks but you’ll get used to it”

35K"

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I make no apologies. Not appreciably worse than listening to Steely Dan or some other such dad rock ( not that you would, I know)

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I was listening to this song while working out, and was struck by how much it sounded like OMD, the vibe of late 70's early 80's was very strong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNW8JIUCjU

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My son had me listen to 100 gecs. Yeah, it is ridiculous fun that isn't for everyone

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Today in Covid-19

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Scientific test on which masks perform best. Results are not that surprising but do quantify what I suspected. TL;DR: surgical masks obviously work best, poly-based masks second, home-made masks 3rd, and bandanas are so loosely woven that they are really ineffective.

https://www.sciencealert.com/simple-low-cost-experiment-reveals-which-face-masks-are-best-at-blocking-droplets

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Trump claims he passed the Veterans Choice Bill, something "nobody's been able to do for 50 years". He calls on a reporter, gets called out that Obama passed that in 2014, so he ends his press conference.

https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1292253941510688768

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Trump narrows down where he wants to give his GOP acceptance speech. His choice are a) White House (which violates Hatch Act), and b) Gettysburg, site of his constituency's worst defeat

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1292872318562205699

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BTW, finished reading Gettysburg by Stephan Sears, did a great job showing how flawed Lee's generalship was during the battle - did retreat well though, driving Lincoln nuts.

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I've stood behind the fence where some of the Union defenders were during Pickett's charge. I don't know what the hell Lee was thinking, ordering that attack uphill across a long open field.

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Real problem was he didn't personally check on battlefield conditions, relied too much on subordinates, and didn't listen to Longstreet, who wanted to flank the union army on the right, putting Lee's army between them and Washington DC.

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I think the Union would have sniffed out a flanking attempt just as they spotted Longstreet's attempt to flank them at Little Round Top on the second day. It still might have been worth a try, unlike what Lee actually did.

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The union didn't have anyone in place however, and the confederate scout got lost looking for the way, gave bad information back to HQ, AND Longstreet wasn't so much as spotted as Sykes idiotic troop placement ended up causing problems for both sides.

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hahahaha

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(ICYMI) Trump - in a bit of political theater - signs executive order to fund extended Federal unemployment. Obviously, only Congress has this power, but everybody knows that Americans are too ignorant to know that/care.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/08/trump-executive-order-coronavirus/

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I’m starting to lose the ability to be upset about the extent to which most people neither care nor understand how their government is supposed to function. I don’t even mean like a philosophical basis for how interventionist a government is, just the mechanics. I feel like a chump for having taken any of this seriously.

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(ICYMI) Friday Night Massacre at USPS. Yesmaster General reshuffles 33 top management to new roles create chaos in absentee and census process.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/07/friday-night-massacre-us-postal-service-postmaster-general-major-trump-donor-ousts

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Increasing the price to mail a ballot is a good sign of just how worried these low grade criminals really are.

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I don't understand how they can do it though. I mean, bulk mail is bulk mail. I assume they follow the normal bundling rules to get the rate -- can the USPS exclude certain senders from access to bulk mail?

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I imagine so, based on codes for bulk rates that get scanned. I don’t think it’s likely to be a challenge in terms of the mechanics.

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(ICYMI) NY Times: Trump sent someone to inquire whether his face could be added to Mt. Rushmore. (soft paywall)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/us/politics/kristi-noem-pence-trump.html

Update: Trump denies it as fake news, which in my mind, means he totally did it.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1292628590425759747

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Of course he did:

“Everyone is busy trying to create a Potemkin village for him every day,” said a senior administration official involved in the pandemic response. “You’re not supposed to see this behavior in liberal democracies that are founded on principles of rule of law. Everyone bends over backwards to create this Potemkin village for him and for his inner circle.”

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PRO

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A's win NINTH in a row, beating the Asteriskros 7-2. Laureano gets HBP twice, ends up charging Astros batting coach - who challenges him to a fight but then doesn't step forward. 🐈

https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=401225905

https://twitter.com/TMSNXBayArea415/status/1292808983997284361

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Asstros. They provoked Laureano. He'll probably get the blame though...let's see what sentence MLB metes out.

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Rumor is 10-15 game suspension for Laureano and Cintron.

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If Kelly got 8 then I'd be ok with 10-15. Now the Player's union can appeal Larueano's but who appeals Cintron's? Maybe he does individually?

Maybe Manfried needs to address how he's going to punish the Asstrisk's pitchers that hit opposing batters since the opposing pitchers can't for fear of being suspended.

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The Astrisks hitting coach should get just as many games as Laureano. It's on video. And Jomboy does the needful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2NhptOahQg

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That coach was a joke.

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He and Dusty fit right in to their team. I believe Dusty was the one that yelled "Get back on the fucking mound" at Joe Kelly after the play where he covered first base.

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Giants middle relievers fall apart again. Dodgers come from behind to win 6-2. Solano goes 1 for 3, batting average falls to 0.455.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401225902

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Giants batting is bad. But look at this filthy Gausman heater

https://twitter.com/SFGiants/status/1292561790748905472

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He was on. Dodgers had no chance against him. All they had to do was see enough pitches to get him out of the game and attack the pen.

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Solano is quite a story. It's his 15th year in pro ball and easily his best year (SSS) so far. His hit last night was a swinging bunt.

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Aug 10, 2020Liked by Ruey Yen

And some guy from a school in the south bay came in T-37.

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It's a shame he didn't get to hear the crowd as he walked up 18. I did hear a few Go Bears as he walked to the tent after his round. I wonder if it's easier to play when there is no one there watching you.

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The announcers referred to Cal being 25 miles away many times, and said Go Bears! at least once.

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Also complimented the Cal golf program several times.

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I only watched the last hole but I loved his little Cal binder that had all his notes. I assume he pulled it out before each shot. Sort of like all the swimmers that wear Cal caps at different events.

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CAL

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Just got an e-mail that season tickets are cancelled for this year. Haven't officially cancelled the season, but they're saying that if people are allowed in the stadium, they will offer single game tickets only.

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BREAKING: [source: Dan Patrick] PAC-12 (and Big 10) FOOTBALL SEASON CANCELLED. FUCK!

https://twitter.com/dpshow/status/1292810469779136512

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As the day rolled along, began hearing about players and coaches who "want to play", and talk that that might change the decisions. This is astonishing. Everyone wants to play. But that should have no bearing on the matter. The desire to act recklessly on a matter that would adversely affect lots of others isn't something that ought to override safety. (Although that mentality has permeated nearly every issue for the last 5 months.)

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Yeah, top 15 ranking and chance of winning the North has unraveled, sadly.

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At this point, still have a chance to do so in the spring.

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I wonder how it will impact spring admits. For example, the coaches may not have as much time to work with them to get them ready for the fall because they'll be working on gameplans for the actual games. Would they be eligible to play?

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And that may help Cal more because we have fewer guys who might skip a spring season in favor of staying healthy for the 2021 NFL Draft?

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And more time to learn and practice Musgrave's playbook.

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It's kismet...Cal was going to win the Pac-12 thus the season is canceled.

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This news is not all bad for us. Perhaps they will have a spring season and if so it will give our offense more time too learn and get comfortable with Musgrave's playbook. Not much will change between now and spring personnel wise.

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Aug 10, 2020Liked by Ruey Yen

Covid-19 sees SEC football as a fecund field.

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Go Bears!

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