The Decapoda or decapods (literally "ten-footed") are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimp. Most decapods are scavengers. The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, with around 3,300 fossil species. Nearly half of these species are crabs, with the shrimp (about 3,000 species) and Anomura including hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, squat lobsters (about 2500 species) making up the bulk of the remainder.
Source: Wikipedia
While the below image is photoshopped, I still found it to be well done and amusing.
The Arizona audit report, which was scheduled to be presented today, is delayed.
According to the Arizona Senate president, "The team expected to have the full draft ready for the Senate today, but unfortunately Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and two other members of the five-person audit team have tested positive for COVID-19 and are quite sick." https://twitter.com/DianneG/status/1429891348744839169
The CEO of the fake audit company dying of Covid would be [chef's kiss].
Could have put this in the Covid section, but I think it goes here tl:dr, they created a monster, but they don't control it:
"On Saturday night, we got a little taste of how difficult that vaccine-resistant genie will be to put back in the bottle. And it wasn’t the only evidence that Trump’s GOP will struggle to confront the conspiratorial impulses it has allowed to spread largely unchecked.
Speaking at a rally in Alabama, Trump offered one of his most forceful endorsements of vaccines to date.
“I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You’ve got to do what you have to do,” Trump said, before adding with emphasis: “But, I recommend take the vaccines. It’s good. I did it. Take the vaccines.”
It was at this point that the crowd began to stir. Some didn’t like this message from the former president they had come to support. There were some jeers.
Trump again qualified his remarks by noting that this is about personal choice.
“You got — no, that’s okay. That’s all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine,” Trump said, before defusing the situation a bit with a jokey comment: “If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know.”
But then he added: “But it is working.”
It was a sight to behold: Trump being booed at a rally by his own supporters. A look at the archives suggests that’s largely unprecedented, save for when Trump praised Tom Brady at a 2016 rally in Maryland."
Yeah I came to Cal from the NY tri-state area and didnt know how to pronounce anything. I remember pronouncing Marin like "mare-in", having only read it on paper and not heard anyone speak it, and drawing some flabbergast. And I continue to pronounce Nevada ne-vah-duh to this day (though easier to get away with having moved back east). Or-reh-gone -- that's a weird one for me. I never pronounced it that way for the state, HOWEVER, I did pronounce it that way for the game Oregon Trail growing up, for whatever reason, as if the game and the state names were about different things.
Netflix shares first images from its Cowboy BeBop production with John Cho (UC Berkeley, BA English '96). Pic #6 on the slide show indicates that he's been working out. Also, production was halted for 7-9 months in 2020 when Cho injured his knee on set. I am sure Covid didn't help.
Shadow & Bone (Netflix 9/19). I've only watched the first episode and I'm on the fence of just not continuing any further or seeing if it gets any better. It's got high production value. The cynic in me sees it as a group of producers trying to catch a fraction of the Harry Potter tribes of magic. The acting is melodramatic, which makes me impatient as they try to establish the plot. Someone please tell me if it gets better -- or if I should just quit and move on.
Agreeing with the consensus here. It's a little stuffed in places- the two Designated Love Interest Protagonist leads are boring YA schlock but the stuff going on around them is fairly interesting, which is why the show added the thieves in from later books.
I agree with FS. I enjoyed it, but I like this sort of story. It is based on a series of books and they fit two separate ones into season one. The acting levels out, but is always on the edge of YA melodrama. Which actually fits for the main character and whatnot, imo.
I mean...it had its moments and as something different, it was reasonably good. But it was pretty confusing initially (they tried cramming pasts of like 5 different books into 1 season). Its not top end fantasy TV but it was decent
Finished The White Lotus. I enjoyed it, especially all the beautiful shots of Hawaii. Lots of terrible people that have a lot of problems but face no consequences. I found Paula and Olivia to be the most annoying of the group. I felt really bad if Kai and of course Armond.
That is the first time I’ve seen someone take such a realistic crap on TV. I have seen two people take a crap in public in real life and that looked just like what I saw.
Started Mare of Easttown and I’m really enjoying right now. I’m three episodes in. It’s reminds me a bit of True Detective Season 1. Kate Winslet is great in it.
Kate Winslet is fantastic - Mare is a great show. Emmy wise, Queen’s Gambit/Anya Taylor-Joy v. Mare/Winslet is a modern-day Affirmed v Alydar of the tv world.
It’s very good and as someone who has worked in tribal government and traveled extensively to tribal nations throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and Washington, it seems to be pretty accurate. All my Native American friends and colleagues seem to really like it.
That's the other show I wanted to see (but don't have Hulu). I was reading an interview with Jemaine the other day. Watched a couple of Wellington Paranormal last night. Cute, but don't know how many more I need to see.
Not sure how it hit my radar, but "Frank of Ireland" (Netflix?) is a pretty funny (dark-ish) six 22-min episode series. Stars two of Brandon Gleeson's sons, one of which looks very much like him (for better or worse!). A very Irish show (to my non-Irish eyes, at least).
“Marshawn Lynch: A History” (on Kanopy). Pretty dramatic cut-up/mash-up/pastiche editing which situates Marshawn and his career in a broader racial/cultural context.
I see that a lot of the discourse is that season 2 isn't as good as season 1, but for me, I'm really liking the rise of the non-ted lasso characters - which is very different than Mythic Quest where I was dissatisfied with the shift in focus away from Ian and Poppy.
Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein have been on fire. The Christmas episode was great, as was the Rom-Communist one.
side-FMA note: I stopped watching Curb midway thru S9. For some reason, the other night I decided to check out the MAGA hat eps in S10. But decided to go finish S9, which was quite good on the back end. And FMA was there in Fatwa (looking much younger even tho it was only 5(?) years ago).
And yes...I liked the flashback/current day combo of those two eps.
I stumbled across these weekly S2 recaps (unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a dropdown menu on the page for other articles, so I had to use the search feature).
It's a little early to declare that the new season is bad when it's not nearly over yet. Seems to me that they're building to something with the psychiatrist character.
it's just not as tight as season one. They have the luxury of being able to ride individually good scenes with very good actors. I would not be surprised if there was a theme that actually being relentlessly nice is not always the kindest thing, as people get their edge / get their edge back. But it feels disjointed.
This season of Brooklyn 99 has been very bad - they're trying to tread the line between ACAB and finishing their season and it's not going well.
I think they either should have just continued with what they have done for the previous 7 seasons OR just ported everyone to being post office employees or DMV workers or something because trying to tread the line between not-being copaganda and showing cops that the audience are supposed to like and identify with is resulting in messy and bad and unfunny TV
I don't think this season has been especially weak for me. The episodes have felt a little stuffed to get their whole narrative in perhaps, but I'm still enjoying them.
Like, I definitely see that the other episodes are trying to "address issues" with policing, but it's not going well out of its way to do so after that first episode IMO.
For example, making the primary internal villain the police union chief . . . clearly that's a commentary on real-life police unions, but within the function of the show it's pretty normal to pick out a new NYPD antagonist and have him/her butt heads with Holt. It's just John C. McGinley now instead of Kyra Sedgwick. And the scenes are all still lightly comic in tone.
Skewers of pork loin, bacon, red onions & nectarines, side of roasted sweet potatoes; a 2008 August West Pinot Noir (which while great, is trending downward now) to wash it down.
Baking bacon has been such a game changer for me. I hate hate hate the cleanup from cooking it in a frying pan, but baking it is so easy and hands off and it comes out perfectly every time.
I realized that I could put parchment paper on top of my baking sheet and put it in the oven. No fuss cleanup. The only time I might put a few strips of bacon in the pan is when making this smokey black bean dip recipe since it wants the bacon grease for the beans.
I have the Nordic Ware gold non-stick baking sheets, and cleanup is a breeze. They are on sale at Costco in the flier that just arrived today, so starting in a week or so? They are seriously a miracle product, I threw out all my old baking sheets after using them for a bit (and they're not expensive, I think it's like $25 for two big and one small one).
I just bought a 2 pack of the heavy duty Chicago Metallic annodized steel baking sheets. I didn't want to buy non-stick for fear of ruining them. I guess I usually use parchment paper so maybe it doesn't matter. The heavy duty ones seem to hold heat in better for better cookies.
Oh that reminds me I was going to make white chocolate macadamia cookies and forgot.
My Toronto Blue Jays lose in pathetic fashion....again. Charlie Montoyo is the worst manager in the MLB and needs to be fired. I saw a stat 2 months ago where our bullpen's ERA was 4.85 in the 8th inning or later, and that ERA is going down despite still giving up runs in the clutch. I've never been more frustrated with an over .500 team in my life. Can't hit with RISP despite having the #1 offense, manager actively loses us games (bullpen pitcher that was in was a low leverage loser in the top of the 9th), we are top 5 in the league in errors, and of course we have the worst bullpen ever. Just take a look at how Marcus Semien lost us the game in the top of the 9th.
Mid-Atlantic baseball update. Both teams should be playing at Williamsport.
O's have lost 18 in a row and have been outscored by more than 100 runs in that streak.
Saturday night the Nats lost based on an inning of catcher's interference, single, HBP, HBP, grand slam. Yesterday they gave up an inning of HBP, walk, walk, groundout to first with a throw home to the backstop to score two. Good thing I can watch real baseball on national channels.
The Giants thing seems to be not doing great on base hits, but leading the leage in team HRs, and spreading the HR hitting around. I wonder if maybe it's harder for opposing pitchers to not be able to focus on just a couple of superstars, rather there are just a lot of guys who can hit it out in any given game.
Painful. The A's had their chances in the eighth and ninth but could not get the big hit. For some reason Pinder pinch hit for Seth Brown with two outs in the ninth and struck out. It was the Melvin typical lefty-righty thing. I guess he forgot that Brown hit a game winning walk-off homer against a lefty a couple of months ago.
The Dodgers were in an unfamiliar position of late, trailing early on Sunday. They dug a hole they could not get out of in a 7-2 loss to the Mets on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, snapping the Dodgers’ win streak at nine games.
In the Dodgers’ six wins over the Mets in the previous nine days, New York had only three singles in 47 at-bats with runners in scoring position. But they had three run-scoring hits in the first inning alone against David Price. The first was a double by the freshly-activated Javier Báez to score Brandon Nimmo from first. The singles that followed were of the runners-in-scoring-position variety.
“Leading the game off with a walk is never good,” said Price. “That’s how you give up runs.”
Dodgers need to get Bauer and Kershaw back. Beyond Buhler and Scherzerer, you can only have Dave Roberts make a half dozen pitching changes a game, and count on Jansen to get away with balking every pitch 2-3 times per every 5 games, for so long. Getting Mookie back would help them too.
Even if the police investigation doesn't come up with anything, no way a team touches him with a 10 foot pole. With everything that has come out, that he's texted, and said, no way he pitches in the MLB again. Regardless of what stupid Manfred does.
Bauer will absolutely be back with some MLB team...just not the Doyers. But some less-scrupulous team will take a flyer on him, esp. after his recent win in court. Maybe the Rangers...or Rockies.
No fucking way Bauer is back with the Dodgers. I don't think most of the players want him back.
Don't forget about Urías. His IL stint was to skip a game or two to rest his arm. He had gotten hit in the calf with a pitch and he probably could've just come back the next start or maybe missed just 1 game.
Kershaw just started throwing so he probably won't be built back up to throw more than 4-5 innings by the time the playoffs are back. Not sure if Gonsolin will be back, though the way he was nibbling it might be better that he doesn't come back.
Going to be Scherzer, Buehler, and Urías in the playoffs. And they've been pretty damn good all season. Buehler is 2nd in innings pitched. If they could find a 3rd, they could move Urías back to the hybrid start 1 game and rely on him to throw 3 to close out a series. Maybe they'll also do a Kershaw/Price piggy back starter as the 4th starter.
Given how deep their starting rotation was at the beginning of the season, they currently have 1 starting pitcher from opening day active right now. And they still have about the 2nd best record.
You don't make the investment in a Cy Young pitcher they did in Bauer to not have him pitch (unless you are Cleveland, and are actively trying to self-destruct).
They have a month to get Kershaw ready to go for when it counts, and its hard to imagine they don't get it done; again, the investment made makes failure to do so both fiscal and baseball malpractice.
After what Bauer did there is no way the Dodgers let him pitch. They would've already waived him if not for the 40 mil they owe him for this year, and his player option next year. They're letting MLB take the lead on his administrative lead and when/if they suspend him, they can stop paying him. They're also waiting for the police to finish their investigation and hope that he gets charged, at which point they can probably invalidate this contract and not owe him another penny.
He's persona non-grata in the locker room. I'd imagine the owners/GM would take into account the players voice in this.
i hate rest days during the grand tours because it becomes such a part of the daily routine.
on the other hand the Stage 9 mountain finish was fun to watch and stunning scenery in Andalucia. i never associate the south of Spain w/ long sustained hills like that, but this one was dubbed the "Stelvio of Spain" because of the steep gradients and all the hairpin bends.
Raiders beat the Rams 17-16 in a game that means absolutely nothing (Nathan Peterman was the Raiders leading rusher AND passer) if that tells you anything.
Cal Women's Soccer draws with defending national champions Santa Clara 1-1, the biggest conflict of interest for me ever but it was still cool to watch especially with SCU having targets on their backs this season despite returning a lot of the roster from the title team.
I think it's relatively low risk and high reward. Considering there probably weren't any conventional suitors that would've been lucrative, and it has some hipness factor entering the new NIL landscape, and cache and maybe some press from being the "first" to do it, and with all that crypto jazz being appealing to the kidz these dayz.
That said, a lot of unknowns with how the financials unfold.. Do they immediately try to cash out the crypto or ride it/ play the market, or some combination? I admittedly know very little about trading anything let alone crypto.
this is what a recent Cal alum says who lives in Ft Worth.
If you like BBQ Heim BBQ is good (get there early though because they sell out around 5-7PM), also try Spring Creek BBQ, Woodshed SmokeHouse is good and it's on the River near TCU I think. If you want to try Tex-Mex Paco's resteraunt on West Magnolia Street is good for a late night snack (they server birria later at night). If you want a burger Rodeo Goat is good, there is one on West 7th Street where a lot of Bars/Clubs are. If you have some time outside of the game: the Botanical Gardens are nice, and I've heard that the Zoo is supposed to be really good (I haven't been yet). The stockyards are fun if you want to see a rodeo, or go on a trail ride and herd cattle (they do that 2x a day), or look at the Historic part of the town.
I get into DFW at 5 PM on Friday and have Monday until the Rangers game and fly out Mon early morning. So I guess I've got to find 2-3 dinners (assume I'm eating at the game Mon night).
I guess I've got to find something to do Sunday and Mon afternoon before the Rangers game. Haven't taken the time to look up anything to do yet.
Fort Worth isn't my favorite... most of the city is a dump except around the TCU campus. The Metroplex has a ton of food options but is basically tract homes as far as the eye can see
I went to some giant honky tonk there 25 years ago that I thought was Gilley's but apparently wasn't and that's the sum total of my experience with Fort Worth.
Joe T's is phenomenal Tex Mex but post game is probs too late, that place gets packed in a hurry. Its margarites, enchiladas or fajitas only but SO good. We did the Botanical gardens last time, it was nice. Billy Bob's on a Monday night sucked but was ridiculous if you want the honky tonk experience
shut your whore mouth, I am undefeated in road games I have attended going back to the freaking Copper Bowl in 91 or whatever it was. Cal is going to smoke those fuckers. CHEEZ IT VENGEANCE
TCU tickets- for those going, I would like some opinions. I took a look at availability on Saturday and basically, there will be plenty of seats available, especially in the less desirable sections (end zone, upper deck, etc). My question to those attending is: Do you want to sit together (17 of us at last count) in an end zone or upper deck place (price likely $25 and up) or the Cal section OR do one of 2 "everyone do your own thing" options which is a) look for cheap tickets as we get closer to game time (I saw sites with $12-15 tix already in crap areas with anywhere from 2-12 in a group) or b) look for better seats individually. From memory, that stadium is pretty intimate with the lower deck seats right on the field. No idea about the upper deck but it was a pretty nice stadium... If we want 20 seats together, I can buy them if people commit to me that they are attending no matter what but would like input...
My opinion: everyone sits together with slightly worse seats. The joy for me isn't watching Cal football - that's going to happen anyways. But having folks who are really into the game makes it 342% better.
Ok, TICKETS ACQUIRED. We have 2 rows of 10 in Sec 228, rows X and Y, seats 9-18 in both. I got an email so I can e-mail out codes to folks once I figure it out. Because I did electronic, I only got a $5 fee so $505 in total. With 19 folks, we have a spare and $26.58 per person. If we get a 20th person, its $25.25 each. I'll figure out the Venmo situation with the Missus, if I get extra cash I'll buy booze and bring it (no obligation, obvs)
Game time is 2:30 so we should be getting plenty of sun as we're on the East side. Dress accordingly (hat, sunscreen, sunglasses). I asked about shade tickets and they said no group discount if we did that so it would've been an extra $20 per person. Interactive seat map below
Absolutely....sitting together with Cal fans/DBD’ers is definitely our group of 8’s preference for the TCU game, even if we sacrifice a little in terms of seat location.
On my trip to Iceland, the fishing towns - except Reykjavik - have langostino on everything and several langostino dedicated restaurants. It's so damn expensive though.
I remember being genuinely shocked at how expensive even locally sourced food was in Iceland. Turns out that not having economies of scale (and lots of local middlemen) make a difference.
Grocery store food is more expensive than the continent, but it's restaurant food that was really, really expensive. My take was that all Icelandic commercial properties are small. Restaurants need larger scale (60+ tables) for the business model to work. If you're going with 10-20 tables like the entire island of Iceland, then you're doomed to have exceptionally high prices to survive. In turn, almost no locals will go to the restaurants and they'll heavily cater to tourists, who are a captured customer. My most treasured tourist-item I took back was three bright yellow "Bonus" shopping bags with the slightly mentally deranged looking piggy bank mascot on the side. http://d33veqcui7lu1w.cloudfront.net/files/looks/large/2011/11/03/1694371_bonus.jpg?1320332683
I agree, as far as the taste experience. But the effort to get the meat is greater, though the natives have more skill than I ever developed. And of course it's nice if someone does it for you, and you can get some awesome crabcakes in Maryland.
No actual days off from my freelance job - but I plan to be unemployed by April so planning a big travel around China then a huge USA Road Trip Summer 2022 when I move back (covid/Biden/China all permitting)
Great. Have a wonderful time. My Lassen trip two weeks ago was cut short when Lassen was closed on August 6th due to the Dixie Fire. In any event we were smoked out by late in the day on the 5th. Still managed to hike the Bumpass Hell Trail which was great....
I'm supposed to be on my way to Tahoe right now to start my two-week summer vacation, but the AQI is currently above 800 due to the Caldor fire and I am sitting on my sofa in foggy SF instead. 🥺 Fingers crossed for a wind shift over the coming days.
I was at Tahoe in mid-July and right near the end of the week the air started getting smoky from the Tamarack Fire. Seems like that was the last good week of air they had up there.
Amazing that SF has been spared the shit air this year (and the heat). July was cool and clear, which is the opposite of last year, which was hot and orange.
The fires this year are all far enough away from the Bay Area so as to make poor air quality unlikely (thanks to the sea breezes). That could change, of course. The Fall tends to bring more prevailing winds out of the northeast, which could funnel smoke here (like it did for the Paradise fire).
Just went to daughter's Kinder first day in Eureka Valley. Was surprisingly warm and sunny. (We're just a 10-min walk east, but EV is usually much colder and windier, because SF™️)
Had three trips, each planned when things were "looking better". PVR in early June (after we both got our 2nd shots). Santa Monica (work trip mid-July), halfway thru which the County announced that masks were needed indoors again. And two weeks ago in HNL (again work trip), where mid-week, they announced more restrictions on dining, etc.
Henri caused a bit of a family drama when my sister-in-law wanted to be prepared but my brother-in-law thinks it's all overblown and disaster preparedness is stupid. He's a smart guy, I don't understand why he doesn't even get an extra propane tank for the BBQ because you'll need that anyway even if you're a zero on the prepper scale.
I have a few neighbors with generators running since the start of the storm that I'm getting pretty jealous of. It'd be pretty pricey to get a home one that we could wire to the main breaker, but with a small portable one I figure we could at least load up a chest freezer and make ice for a cooler for perishable fridge items that way
we have one of those portable gas generators. we have a sub-panel in the house that acts as a transfer panel so that the generator can power some "essential" circuits.
we looked into the built-in ones as well, but it would have been a pretty significant cost.
My good lady wife and I differed on the value of a whole house generator, which I think was mostly because she missed all the summer-time multiday outages. However those are so rare now that I'm forced to concede it's maybe okay we didn't spend the money.
Gas powered generators are a 20th century technology trying to solve 21st century problems. Best to go with solar and battery storage if you can afford it. With the battery you get to actually use it during non emergencies to help offset your energy bill and they can discharge at night when the sun is down. Plus, batteries are fairly seamless in terms of turning themselves on when the power goes out.
This is what irks me about California's new-build solar law. So if I put a solar roof on my house in Tahoe, which I'm happy to do, it's going to be covered in snow during all the months in which I'd really want it to kick in during multi-day outages.
Except you need a warehouse full of batteries to cover the duration of the outage when it darkly overcast and storming for several days, and everything (including the panels) is covered with ice/snow/limbs and trees (which probably broke the panels when they landed on them).
Most batteries are still tied to the grid, so even if it is cloudy and overcast, the battery can take from the grid while it is still up to get fully charged. Even while cloudy and overcast the panels will still work, just not at full efficiency.
If a tree or tree branch falls and breaks your OV panels, chances are it landed on your house since most panels are on the roof and caused enough damage that you can’t be in your house and won’t be needing power.
the local standard is generators powered by natural gas, not gasoline. Those are cheaper than solar panels / whole house batteries. My energy bills are low anyway, which I assume is a function of the mid-Atlantic having filthy energy.
Lots of rural areas in the NW have propane (Natural gas is pretty much limited to town) for some of the utilities anyway, so adding a generator is a relatively small addition, and doesn't add roof weight to truss systems that were not designed to handle it.
in lower Westchester near NYC it was not nearly as bad as predicted.
it rained hard a good fraction of the day, but we didnt get any of the gale force winds which is usually what topples trees into the above-ground power lines for multi-day power outages.
we even went out to dinner on Sun night in the Bronx. very few people were out and a lot of stores and restaurants were closed.
it is probably not going to exceed your deductible.
last time we had big power outage, ConEd had a way for us to fill out some forms for food spoilage reimbursement. it was a pain, of course, and my wife had to go back and forth with them for a while. but in the end we ended up getting something along the lines od $200-300 back
National Grid is saying 11 PM tonight, but hopefully sooner. We are *very* fortunate that nothing hit the house and that the weather has been pretty mild so having no A/C or fans hasn't been too unpleasant (most just swampy humidity).
We also fortunately have natural gas hot water, so we were able to hand-wash dishes and take showers, and we're avid campers so I was able to cook a simple dinner outside on my camping stove.
FDA officially approves Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Also, it has a shitty brand name "Comirnaty". Imma still call it "the Pfizer shot". GOP to move goalposts on vaccine mandates in 3, 2, 1...
Yeah, that's what we have bottom half of the conference ball coaches for, where the damage of schadenfreude can be kept down to a few million $ here or there. Schadenfreude that kills people other than the ones committing said schadenfreude is definitely not needed!
Taiwan's domestically developed Medigen vaccine gets emergency approval from the Taiwan CDC and Tsai Ing-wen (the Taiwan presdient) gets her first jab.
Crumbling Democracie(s)
The Arizona audit report, which was scheduled to be presented today, is delayed.
According to the Arizona Senate president, "The team expected to have the full draft ready for the Senate today, but unfortunately Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and two other members of the five-person audit team have tested positive for COVID-19 and are quite sick." https://twitter.com/DianneG/status/1429891348744839169
The CEO of the fake audit company dying of Covid would be [chef's kiss].
I think they're pulling a mike Lindell.
Smoking crack? Instigating a second revolt?
lulz
Could have put this in the Covid section, but I think it goes here tl:dr, they created a monster, but they don't control it:
"On Saturday night, we got a little taste of how difficult that vaccine-resistant genie will be to put back in the bottle. And it wasn’t the only evidence that Trump’s GOP will struggle to confront the conspiratorial impulses it has allowed to spread largely unchecked.
Speaking at a rally in Alabama, Trump offered one of his most forceful endorsements of vaccines to date.
“I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You’ve got to do what you have to do,” Trump said, before adding with emphasis: “But, I recommend take the vaccines. It’s good. I did it. Take the vaccines.”
It was at this point that the crowd began to stir. Some didn’t like this message from the former president they had come to support. There were some jeers.
Trump again qualified his remarks by noting that this is about personal choice.
“You got — no, that’s okay. That’s all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine,” Trump said, before defusing the situation a bit with a jokey comment: “If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know.”
But then he added: “But it is working.”
It was a sight to behold: Trump being booed at a rally by his own supporters. A look at the archives suggests that’s largely unprecedented, save for when Trump praised Tom Brady at a 2016 rally in Maryland."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/23/trump-booed-gop-vaccines/
he was all but booed by coming to nevada and insisting the wrong pronunciation was the right one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WisjXBWvo_g
What is with the Ne-vah-duh people? Are they the same as the Or-uh-gone ones?
i truly do not know but it's one of the best ways to find out whether or not people are from the west
same deal in LA when people are going to san pedro or los feliz
The real test is to see if someone can even approximate correct pronunciation of things/places with Native American-derived or given names.
Yeah I came to Cal from the NY tri-state area and didnt know how to pronounce anything. I remember pronouncing Marin like "mare-in", having only read it on paper and not heard anyone speak it, and drawing some flabbergast. And I continue to pronounce Nevada ne-vah-duh to this day (though easier to get away with having moved back east). Or-reh-gone -- that's a weird one for me. I never pronounced it that way for the state, HOWEVER, I did pronounce it that way for the game Oregon Trail growing up, for whatever reason, as if the game and the state names were about different things.
I still sometimes slip and say Ore-gone (no schwa sound in the middle)
lol but Ravens fans LOVE the Patriots!
DBD AV
Netflix shares first images from its Cowboy BeBop production with John Cho (UC Berkeley, BA English '96). Pic #6 on the slide show indicates that he's been working out. Also, production was halted for 7-9 months in 2020 when Cho injured his knee on set. I am sure Covid didn't help.
https://www.ign.com/articles/cowboy-bebop-netflix-release-date-first-images
i'm all in
Shadow & Bone (Netflix 9/19). I've only watched the first episode and I'm on the fence of just not continuing any further or seeing if it gets any better. It's got high production value. The cynic in me sees it as a group of producers trying to catch a fraction of the Harry Potter tribes of magic. The acting is melodramatic, which makes me impatient as they try to establish the plot. Someone please tell me if it gets better -- or if I should just quit and move on.
Agreeing with the consensus here. It's a little stuffed in places- the two Designated Love Interest Protagonist leads are boring YA schlock but the stuff going on around them is fairly interesting, which is why the show added the thieves in from later books.
I agree with FS. I enjoyed it, but I like this sort of story. It is based on a series of books and they fit two separate ones into season one. The acting levels out, but is always on the edge of YA melodrama. Which actually fits for the main character and whatnot, imo.
I mean...it had its moments and as something different, it was reasonably good. But it was pretty confusing initially (they tried cramming pasts of like 5 different books into 1 season). Its not top end fantasy TV but it was decent
Finished The White Lotus. I enjoyed it, especially all the beautiful shots of Hawaii. Lots of terrible people that have a lot of problems but face no consequences. I found Paula and Olivia to be the most annoying of the group. I felt really bad if Kai and of course Armond.
That is the first time I’ve seen someone take such a realistic crap on TV. I have seen two people take a crap in public in real life and that looked just like what I saw.
i could not believe what i was seeing re:crap
I know some NASA guys who built a poop simulator to test their microgravity toilet. It was disturbingly realistic.
Started Mare of Easttown and I’m really enjoying right now. I’m three episodes in. It’s reminds me a bit of True Detective Season 1. Kate Winslet is great in it.
Kate Winslet is fantastic - Mare is a great show. Emmy wise, Queen’s Gambit/Anya Taylor-Joy v. Mare/Winslet is a modern-day Affirmed v Alydar of the tv world.
I want my 6 hours of White Lotus back. Yuck.
Reservation Dogs is so fucking good.
bonus points for Wu Tang t-shirt and song(s)
It’s very good and as someone who has worked in tribal government and traveled extensively to tribal nations throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and Washington, it seems to be pretty accurate. All my Native American friends and colleagues seem to really like it.
I believe the main creator and the whole writing team are all Native American so the authenticity is no surprise
That's the other show I wanted to see (but don't have Hulu). I was reading an interview with Jemaine the other day. Watched a couple of Wellington Paranormal last night. Cute, but don't know how many more I need to see.
Do you have Spotify? I have Hulu access free via my Spotify subscription.
Do not, but there is the Dis+Hulu+ESPN plan, iirc. But bailed on Dis and have ESPN thru ATTTV
generally there is a black friday deal for a year of hulu with ads for $2/month
It's apparently coming to Disney+ internationally within the next month.
Not sure how it hit my radar, but "Frank of Ireland" (Netflix?) is a pretty funny (dark-ish) six 22-min episode series. Stars two of Brandon Gleeson's sons, one of which looks very much like him (for better or worse!). A very Irish show (to my non-Irish eyes, at least).
based on the trailer, this looks very fun
Very funny. one of those shows with unappealing characters, but ya still love 'em.
Opposite of Detectorists, where most characters are quite nice (and you still love them!)
Last What If...? was really great, much better than the first one, really clever. hearing Chadwick Boseman's voice acting made it a bit poignant.
“Marshawn Lynch: A History” (on Kanopy). Pretty dramatic cut-up/mash-up/pastiche editing which situates Marshawn and his career in a broader racial/cultural context.
Ted Lasso -
I see that a lot of the discourse is that season 2 isn't as good as season 1, but for me, I'm really liking the rise of the non-ted lasso characters - which is very different than Mythic Quest where I was dissatisfied with the shift in focus away from Ian and Poppy.
Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein have been on fire. The Christmas episode was great, as was the Rom-Communist one.
the discourse is what is bad
The discourse is always bad.
For good discourse, see the weekly recaps that I linked below.
I usually go to Alan Sepinwall's recaps at Rolling Stone ( https://www.rollingstone.com./tv/tv-recaps/ted-lasso-recap-season-2-episode-5-rainbow-1211746/ ) but I do like Linda Holmes.
will check this out! thanks...
and I actually liked the side-character stories with MQ
Yeah, the C.W. (F. Murray Abraham) episodes were excellent.
I didn't really find the testers storylines all that interesting. Nor Brad and his brother and Jo. Nor Carol. (CW stuff was good)
side-FMA note: I stopped watching Curb midway thru S9. For some reason, the other night I decided to check out the MAGA hat eps in S10. But decided to go finish S9, which was quite good on the back end. And FMA was there in Fatwa (looking much younger even tho it was only 5(?) years ago).
And yes...I liked the flashback/current day combo of those two eps.
It doesn't hurt that C.W. was my favorite side character in Season 1. Just hilarious whenever he shows up.
icymt (from my late-Friday DBD post)
For the Ted Lasso crew...
I stumbled across these weekly S2 recaps (unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a dropdown menu on the page for other articles, so I had to use the search feature).
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1016518274/ted-lasso-recap-season-2-episode-1-premiere-jason-sudeikis
Fun reads in a clever format. Found myself both smiling and getting misty-eyed just reading the recaps!
I loved the Christmas episode, and thought the Rom-communist one was even better. For my money, complaints about season 2 being "bad" are silly.
Agreed. S2 is quite solid.
It's a little early to declare that the new season is bad when it's not nearly over yet. Seems to me that they're building to something with the psychiatrist character.
Like you said, I think the focus of the season is different than season 1. I like it and I do like seeing the storylines of the other characters.
it's just not as tight as season one. They have the luxury of being able to ride individually good scenes with very good actors. I would not be surprised if there was a theme that actually being relentlessly nice is not always the kindest thing, as people get their edge / get their edge back. But it feels disjointed.
This season of Brooklyn 99 has been very bad - they're trying to tread the line between ACAB and finishing their season and it's not going well.
I think they either should have just continued with what they have done for the previous 7 seasons OR just ported everyone to being post office employees or DMV workers or something because trying to tread the line between not-being copaganda and showing cops that the audience are supposed to like and identify with is resulting in messy and bad and unfunny TV
pqtm at "copaganda"
I don't think this season has been especially weak for me. The episodes have felt a little stuffed to get their whole narrative in perhaps, but I'm still enjoying them.
I forgot it was back on! good to know it's not worthwhile
Don't listen to him!
alright I'll give it a shot! I'm mostly watching reruns now anyway (although it looks like Archer is back?)
Eh, I thought the first episode was bad but the other ones have been more in line with the usual B99 stuff.
Agreed about the first episode.
Like, I definitely see that the other episodes are trying to "address issues" with policing, but it's not going well out of its way to do so after that first episode IMO.
For example, making the primary internal villain the police union chief . . . clearly that's a commentary on real-life police unions, but within the function of the show it's pretty normal to pick out a new NYPD antagonist and have him/her butt heads with Holt. It's just John C. McGinley now instead of Kyra Sedgwick. And the scenes are all still lightly comic in tone.
Oh I watched the first 2 episodes and forgot to watch this weeks.
DBD Kitchen
Skewers of pork loin, bacon, red onions & nectarines, side of roasted sweet potatoes; a 2008 August West Pinot Noir (which while great, is trending downward now) to wash it down.
i made shortbread for the first time and had the same feeling i felt when i realized i could just make bacon at home whenever i want
Did you do the Ted Lasso recipe? Which is just butter + flour?
nah i used a recipe from a friend which looks like it was this one: https://www.saltharvestcreatives.com/ted-lassos-biscuit-recipe/
v good and eatable within 2 hours
Baking bacon has been such a game changer for me. I hate hate hate the cleanup from cooking it in a frying pan, but baking it is so easy and hands off and it comes out perfectly every time.
aluminum foil in a cookie sheet so you can fry the bacon in its fat while it bakes and then easily pour off the fat into a jar for later
I realized that I could put parchment paper on top of my baking sheet and put it in the oven. No fuss cleanup. The only time I might put a few strips of bacon in the pan is when making this smokey black bean dip recipe since it wants the bacon grease for the beans.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/smoky-black-bean-dip-104800
The first time I did it in the oven I didn't put parchment paper and it was a PITA to clean the sheet.
I have the Nordic Ware gold non-stick baking sheets, and cleanup is a breeze. They are on sale at Costco in the flier that just arrived today, so starting in a week or so? They are seriously a miracle product, I threw out all my old baking sheets after using them for a bit (and they're not expensive, I think it's like $25 for two big and one small one).
That is useful information! I just looked on their website and also saw a link to these if you want a blue and gold household: https://www.costco.com/.product.100773940.html
I just bought a 2 pack of the heavy duty Chicago Metallic annodized steel baking sheets. I didn't want to buy non-stick for fear of ruining them. I guess I usually use parchment paper so maybe it doesn't matter. The heavy duty ones seem to hold heat in better for better cookies.
Oh that reminds me I was going to make white chocolate macadamia cookies and forgot.
Cuban marinated skirt steak tacos this weekend.
a quick orange juice and garlic marinade makes the whole thing super tasty.
the best part of the recipe is this running commentary in the sidebar of the cookbook
https://icuban.com/food/churrasco_cubano.html
similarly, Saturday night, pre-storm, made this recipe:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018078-steak-fajitas
I cook it according to the first comment: let steak rest, serve peppers and onions piping hot
Other College
Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibwU71oVp0E
My Toronto Blue Jays lose in pathetic fashion....again. Charlie Montoyo is the worst manager in the MLB and needs to be fired. I saw a stat 2 months ago where our bullpen's ERA was 4.85 in the 8th inning or later, and that ERA is going down despite still giving up runs in the clutch. I've never been more frustrated with an over .500 team in my life. Can't hit with RISP despite having the #1 offense, manager actively loses us games (bullpen pitcher that was in was a low leverage loser in the top of the 9th), we are top 5 in the league in errors, and of course we have the worst bullpen ever. Just take a look at how Marcus Semien lost us the game in the top of the 9th.
Mid-Atlantic baseball update. Both teams should be playing at Williamsport.
O's have lost 18 in a row and have been outscored by more than 100 runs in that streak.
Saturday night the Nats lost based on an inning of catcher's interference, single, HBP, HBP, grand slam. Yesterday they gave up an inning of HBP, walk, walk, groundout to first with a throw home to the backstop to score two. Good thing I can watch real baseball on national channels.
Neither team would have gotten past regionals with the run of mistakes they make on a routine basis.
Good point.
Tell me if you've heard this one before...Giants beat the A's on a PH HR by an unheralded player (before this season).
Hooray! Giants get the ugly bridge trophy thing.
Game #3 screwed by the umps
I firmly believe Gabe Kapler sold his soul to the devil, especially after his results with the Phillies.
What happened to Longoria this time? I saw he was finally back, and now he's disappeared from the lineup again?!
he was deactivated yesterday for feeling shitty after getting his covid shot (really).
He's just now getting it?!
At least he should be good again by the weekend.
The Giants thing seems to be not doing great on base hits, but leading the leage in team HRs, and spreading the HR hitting around. I wonder if maybe it's harder for opposing pitchers to not be able to focus on just a couple of superstars, rather there are just a lot of guys who can hit it out in any given game.
Painful. The A's had their chances in the eighth and ninth but could not get the big hit. For some reason Pinder pinch hit for Seth Brown with two outs in the ninth and struck out. It was the Melvin typical lefty-righty thing. I guess he forgot that Brown hit a game winning walk-off homer against a lefty a couple of months ago.
Mets get to David Price early, snap Dodgers win streak
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/8/22/22636937/david-price-early-runs-dodgers-win-streak-over-mets-recap
The Dodgers were in an unfamiliar position of late, trailing early on Sunday. They dug a hole they could not get out of in a 7-2 loss to the Mets on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, snapping the Dodgers’ win streak at nine games.
In the Dodgers’ six wins over the Mets in the previous nine days, New York had only three singles in 47 at-bats with runners in scoring position. But they had three run-scoring hits in the first inning alone against David Price. The first was a double by the freshly-activated Javier Báez to score Brandon Nimmo from first. The singles that followed were of the runners-in-scoring-position variety.
“Leading the game off with a walk is never good,” said Price. “That’s how you give up runs.”
Dodgers need to get Bauer and Kershaw back. Beyond Buhler and Scherzerer, you can only have Dave Roberts make a half dozen pitching changes a game, and count on Jansen to get away with balking every pitch 2-3 times per every 5 games, for so long. Getting Mookie back would help them too.
I don't think Bauer's ever coming back.
DO NOT WANT
Even if the police investigation doesn't come up with anything, no way a team touches him with a 10 foot pole. With everything that has come out, that he's texted, and said, no way he pitches in the MLB again. Regardless of what stupid Manfred does.
Bauer will absolutely be back with some MLB team...just not the Doyers. But some less-scrupulous team will take a flyer on him, esp. after his recent win in court. Maybe the Rangers...or Rockies.
No fucking way Bauer is back with the Dodgers. I don't think most of the players want him back.
Don't forget about Urías. His IL stint was to skip a game or two to rest his arm. He had gotten hit in the calf with a pitch and he probably could've just come back the next start or maybe missed just 1 game.
Kershaw just started throwing so he probably won't be built back up to throw more than 4-5 innings by the time the playoffs are back. Not sure if Gonsolin will be back, though the way he was nibbling it might be better that he doesn't come back.
Going to be Scherzer, Buehler, and Urías in the playoffs. And they've been pretty damn good all season. Buehler is 2nd in innings pitched. If they could find a 3rd, they could move Urías back to the hybrid start 1 game and rely on him to throw 3 to close out a series. Maybe they'll also do a Kershaw/Price piggy back starter as the 4th starter.
Given how deep their starting rotation was at the beginning of the season, they currently have 1 starting pitcher from opening day active right now. And they still have about the 2nd best record.
You don't make the investment in a Cy Young pitcher they did in Bauer to not have him pitch (unless you are Cleveland, and are actively trying to self-destruct).
They have a month to get Kershaw ready to go for when it counts, and its hard to imagine they don't get it done; again, the investment made makes failure to do so both fiscal and baseball malpractice.
After what Bauer did there is no way the Dodgers let him pitch. They would've already waived him if not for the 40 mil they owe him for this year, and his player option next year. They're letting MLB take the lead on his administrative lead and when/if they suspend him, they can stop paying him. They're also waiting for the police to finish their investigation and hope that he gets charged, at which point they can probably invalidate this contract and not owe him another penny.
He's persona non-grata in the locker room. I'd imagine the owners/GM would take into account the players voice in this.
I read somewhere that no charges were going to be brought.
rest day at La Vuelta.
i hate rest days during the grand tours because it becomes such a part of the daily routine.
on the other hand the Stage 9 mountain finish was fun to watch and stunning scenery in Andalucia. i never associate the south of Spain w/ long sustained hills like that, but this one was dubbed the "Stelvio of Spain" because of the steep gradients and all the hairpin bends.
https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/3365/big-ride-velefique-a-fistful-of-bar-tape
That looks like a lovely road for driving and a grueling road for biking, especially with the lack of shade.
Raiders beat the Rams 17-16 in a game that means absolutely nothing (Nathan Peterman was the Raiders leading rusher AND passer) if that tells you anything.
Cal
Cal Women's Soccer draws with defending national champions Santa Clara 1-1, the biggest conflict of interest for me ever but it was still cool to watch especially with SCU having targets on their backs this season despite returning a lot of the roster from the title team.
FTX Field? Hmmmm...into the world of cryptocurrency.
I predict this isn’t going to age well.
Paid 100% in crypto!
https://calbears.com/news/2021/8/23/cal-athletics-ftx-unveil-10-year-landmark-relationship.aspx
Could be a great move, or not. In the case of Kabam, the co. was acquired and the new owner terminated the agreement.
I think it's relatively low risk and high reward. Considering there probably weren't any conventional suitors that would've been lucrative, and it has some hipness factor entering the new NIL landscape, and cache and maybe some press from being the "first" to do it, and with all that crypto jazz being appealing to the kidz these dayz.
That said, a lot of unknowns with how the financials unfold.. Do they immediately try to cash out the crypto or ride it/ play the market, or some combination? I admittedly know very little about trading anything let alone crypto.
soooooo...is it really paid in crypto? I thought you were being facetious (the email from Cal didn't say, or at least I didn't see that)
This agreement is 10-year, $17.5 million agreement. Does anyone remember how much the Kabam agreement was?
10/18 I think
I've read it was 15/18, which comes out pretty similar with inflation.
had to reread the email again. I *think* you're joking...
other stuff to do while at TCU
have people got any ideas?
this is what a recent Cal alum says who lives in Ft Worth.
If you like BBQ Heim BBQ is good (get there early though because they sell out around 5-7PM), also try Spring Creek BBQ, Woodshed SmokeHouse is good and it's on the River near TCU I think. If you want to try Tex-Mex Paco's resteraunt on West Magnolia Street is good for a late night snack (they server birria later at night). If you want a burger Rodeo Goat is good, there is one on West 7th Street where a lot of Bars/Clubs are. If you have some time outside of the game: the Botanical Gardens are nice, and I've heard that the Zoo is supposed to be really good (I haven't been yet). The stockyards are fun if you want to see a rodeo, or go on a trail ride and herd cattle (they do that 2x a day), or look at the Historic part of the town.
I will always recommend Babe's Chicken Dinner restaurant to anyone heading to the Metroplex.
there was some museum of american art in fort worth that was pretty cool
I get into DFW at 5 PM on Friday and have Monday until the Rangers game and fly out Mon early morning. So I guess I've got to find 2-3 dinners (assume I'm eating at the game Mon night).
I guess I've got to find something to do Sunday and Mon afternoon before the Rangers game. Haven't taken the time to look up anything to do yet.
Fort Worth isn't my favorite... most of the city is a dump except around the TCU campus. The Metroplex has a ton of food options but is basically tract homes as far as the eye can see
I went to some giant honky tonk there 25 years ago that I thought was Gilley's but apparently wasn't and that's the sum total of my experience with Fort Worth.
was it billy bob's?
billy bob's was fun with the d($)bd crew a few years ago, there was a lady reading a book at the bar and everything
lulz, I still have a pic of dmoney looking simultaneously amused and disgusted at the sight
Joe T's is phenomenal Tex Mex but post game is probs too late, that place gets packed in a hurry. Its margarites, enchiladas or fajitas only but SO good. We did the Botanical gardens last time, it was nice. Billy Bob's on a Monday night sucked but was ridiculous if you want the honky tonk experience
@Well we can get to Joe T's early when Cal gets blown out@
shut your whore mouth, I am undefeated in road games I have attended going back to the freaking Copper Bowl in 91 or whatever it was. Cal is going to smoke those fuckers. CHEEZ IT VENGEANCE
TCU tickets- for those going, I would like some opinions. I took a look at availability on Saturday and basically, there will be plenty of seats available, especially in the less desirable sections (end zone, upper deck, etc). My question to those attending is: Do you want to sit together (17 of us at last count) in an end zone or upper deck place (price likely $25 and up) or the Cal section OR do one of 2 "everyone do your own thing" options which is a) look for cheap tickets as we get closer to game time (I saw sites with $12-15 tix already in crap areas with anywhere from 2-12 in a group) or b) look for better seats individually. From memory, that stadium is pretty intimate with the lower deck seats right on the field. No idea about the upper deck but it was a pretty nice stadium... If we want 20 seats together, I can buy them if people commit to me that they are attending no matter what but would like input...
My opinion: everyone sits together with slightly worse seats. The joy for me isn't watching Cal football - that's going to happen anyways. But having folks who are really into the game makes it 342% better.
Ok, TICKETS ACQUIRED. We have 2 rows of 10 in Sec 228, rows X and Y, seats 9-18 in both. I got an email so I can e-mail out codes to folks once I figure it out. Because I did electronic, I only got a $5 fee so $505 in total. With 19 folks, we have a spare and $26.58 per person. If we get a 20th person, its $25.25 each. I'll figure out the Venmo situation with the Missus, if I get extra cash I'll buy booze and bring it (no obligation, obvs)
Game time is 2:30 so we should be getting plenty of sun as we're on the East side. Dress accordingly (hat, sunscreen, sunglasses). I asked about shade tickets and they said no group discount if we did that so it would've been an extra $20 per person. Interactive seat map below
https://www.seats3d.com/ncaa/texas_christian_university/football/#/
Awesome! Thanks for taking care of the tix.
I agree with both SGBear and HSB. I'd rather sit with the DBD+ group even if the seats are a little worse.
I'll call later and pick up the tickets. We'll have 3 spares so if folks have extras or want to join the extravaganza, let me know
Let us know how much and we can venmo you the money.
do we know what time the game starts? tailgate?
SGBear is still working on the tailgate. Dont think the time has been announced but think I saw a 2:30pm floating out there somewhere?
thx for organizing
is it too late to add 2 more for tix to the game?
or good timing since we have spares ..
we'll have 3 spares so yeah, you can have 2 of them
Awesome! On behalf of Newellbany & our other 6, a hearty thank you, FS!
cool. thanks. will bring some young Cal alums into the mix.
preference is to sit together. prices dont seem too bad. but happy to go w/ whatever group consensus is.
Absolutely....sitting together with Cal fans/DBD’ers is definitely our group of 8’s preference for the TCU game, even if we sacrifice a little in terms of seat location.
ok, we seem to be aligned
Crabs
Marylanders are fully justified in how much they hype blue crabs. They are delicious.
Crab > Lobster > Langostino > Shrimp > Slipper lobster > Monk Fish
What? Monk Fish is not in this category!
But they market monk fish as a poor man's lobster. I think it has all the texture of overcooked lobster without the flavor.
it's also kosher, fwiw
(we're the ones who popularized the awful Hydrox cookie, but I'm not sure kosher consumers are driving monk fish popularity)
Nothing wrong with a Hydrox!
i would put Langostino at the top for myself
fresh steamed ones that you get on the west coast of Norway are among the best things i have ever eaten.
also, some good ones at nice Italian restaurants in NYC.
On my trip to Iceland, the fishing towns - except Reykjavik - have langostino on everything and several langostino dedicated restaurants. It's so damn expensive though.
I remember being genuinely shocked at how expensive even locally sourced food was in Iceland. Turns out that not having economies of scale (and lots of local middlemen) make a difference.
Grocery store food is more expensive than the continent, but it's restaurant food that was really, really expensive. My take was that all Icelandic commercial properties are small. Restaurants need larger scale (60+ tables) for the business model to work. If you're going with 10-20 tables like the entire island of Iceland, then you're doomed to have exceptionally high prices to survive. In turn, almost no locals will go to the restaurants and they'll heavily cater to tourists, who are a captured customer. My most treasured tourist-item I took back was three bright yellow "Bonus" shopping bags with the slightly mentally deranged looking piggy bank mascot on the side. http://d33veqcui7lu1w.cloudfront.net/files/looks/large/2011/11/03/1694371_bonus.jpg?1320332683
60+ tables for a restaurant to work?? I dont think I've ever been to one that big :)
“She’s got the crabs, dear, and I don’t mean Dungeness.” -Mrs. Doubtfire
I don't like crab meat, prefer shrimp once in awhile.
Allen Crabbe. Where is he now?
Just chilling with his family in LA, from the looks of his IG.
The things I miss not being on any social media (besides LinkedIn and DBD)
I like Red King Crab over Golden King Crab
Dungeness might be my very favorite thing to eat in the entire world, but I also like sri lankan mud crabs, and alaskan king crabs.
while i grew up eating and really like Dungeness, steamed blue crabs from Maryland might be might favorite in the crab category.
I agree, as far as the taste experience. But the effort to get the meat is greater, though the natives have more skill than I ever developed. And of course it's nice if someone does it for you, and you can get some awesome crabcakes in Maryland.
Physical effort and skill required:
Blue crab>Alaskan King>Snow>Dungeness
I have no interest in deconstructing crabs, especially not when they are available in the convenient cake format.
you lose one Maryland point, please report to Old Bay Penitentiary to serve your sentence
I will reclaim that point with my atrocious driving
We pick crabs a few times per year and I often find that my patience runs out before my appetite. They're delicious, but it's a tedious process.
My wife's family, who were all from Baltimore, had tremendous skill and could go through 6 crabs while I did two.
That's the benefit of King crabs. Big enough to make the return of effort worth while. Probably not the price though,
Summer vacation
I already had my summer vacay #1 to Iceland. Vacay #2 is to Fort Worth to drink booze and watch the Bears with you degenerates.
No actual days off from my freelance job - but I plan to be unemployed by April so planning a big travel around China then a huge USA Road Trip Summer 2022 when I move back (covid/Biden/China all permitting)
I fully endorse a 2022 USA road trip & am planning my own Coast to COVID II Road Trip!! See you on the Highways!
Written in very light pencil:
LA (family, Disney)
Vegas (restaurants)
Grand Canyon
Austin/San Antonio/Houston - friends + barbecue
New Orleans - food - Dookie Chase's, Jacque Imo's amongst others
Orlando - Diseny
North Carolina - friends + barbecue
Maryland - friends
New York - going to see about a girl
Pittsburgh - left in 1977, haven't been back since. My actual hometown
Yellowstone - never been
SLC - friends
we are off to Yellowstone in Sept. Did up the coast for the redwoods in July. spending august in the valley with smoke and heat.
Road tripping with pups to Ft Worth for Cal game. Leave 9/2.
Went to the 9ers-Chargers game at the new SoFi stadium.
Nice stadium.
The Chargers blast loud music to make it sound like a club. Likely to mask that the crowd was like 60% Niners and 10% Raiders.
And 30% Chargers?
they showed like the same 10 charger fans on the big screen over and over.
probably half and half chargers and those that don't care.
I heard the concessions at SoFi were horrible. Did you try to get food?
only went 'cause on tv, the rams-chargers game the previous week looked relatively empty on tv.
turns out, it totally wasn't.
lines were f-ing ridiculous
and the available choices in my section are atrocious. basically, nachos w/ pinkish cheese or chicken nuggets and $17beer
that sounds nasty.
apparently, the nacho cheese is vegan.
even worse.
headed off this Fri for 2+ week end of summer trip
- Bozeman for a couple days to stay w/ HS friend
- Glacier NP w/ the family
- family goes home on Labor Day
- i am spending the Labor Day week in Tetons/Jackson riding my bike and "working"
- flying to Dallas to see all of you for TCU game
Great. Have a wonderful time. My Lassen trip two weeks ago was cut short when Lassen was closed on August 6th due to the Dixie Fire. In any event we were smoked out by late in the day on the 5th. Still managed to hike the Bumpass Hell Trail which was great....
they say the smoke situation in MT/WY has gotten dramatically better in last few days.
I'm supposed to be on my way to Tahoe right now to start my two-week summer vacation, but the AQI is currently above 800 due to the Caldor fire and I am sitting on my sofa in foggy SF instead. 🥺 Fingers crossed for a wind shift over the coming days.
Yes We Cannon's IG stories looked like something out of China's northeast circa 1995
it's bad
Just like the discourse
I was at Tahoe in mid-July and right near the end of the week the air started getting smoky from the Tamarack Fire. Seems like that was the last good week of air they had up there.
we were in Reno right when the Tamarack Fire. it was great for the first couple days and then it got SMOKEY
.. right when the fire started ..
I didn't start the fire .. . it was always burning while the world's been churning.
you made a good choice
Amazing that SF has been spared the shit air this year (and the heat). July was cool and clear, which is the opposite of last year, which was hot and orange.
The fires this year are all far enough away from the Bay Area so as to make poor air quality unlikely (thanks to the sea breezes). That could change, of course. The Fall tends to bring more prevailing winds out of the northeast, which could funnel smoke here (like it did for the Paradise fire).
Maybe right when we play Wazzu??
That would be about the right time!
Just went to daughter's Kinder first day in Eureka Valley. Was surprisingly warm and sunny. (We're just a 10-min walk east, but EV is usually much colder and windier, because SF™️)
My friend's parents didn't end up going for the same reason. I ran into them at Safeway and got the details.
Say what?
Had three trips, each planned when things were "looking better". PVR in early June (after we both got our 2nd shots). Santa Monica (work trip mid-July), halfway thru which the County announced that masks were needed indoors again. And two weeks ago in HNL (again work trip), where mid-week, they announced more restrictions on dining, etc.
Henri
Henri caused a bit of a family drama when my sister-in-law wanted to be prepared but my brother-in-law thinks it's all overblown and disaster preparedness is stupid. He's a smart guy, I don't understand why he doesn't even get an extra propane tank for the BBQ because you'll need that anyway even if you're a zero on the prepper scale.
I have a few neighbors with generators running since the start of the storm that I'm getting pretty jealous of. It'd be pretty pricey to get a home one that we could wire to the main breaker, but with a small portable one I figure we could at least load up a chest freezer and make ice for a cooler for perishable fridge items that way
we have one of those portable gas generators. we have a sub-panel in the house that acts as a transfer panel so that the generator can power some "essential" circuits.
we looked into the built-in ones as well, but it would have been a pretty significant cost.
My good lady wife and I differed on the value of a whole house generator, which I think was mostly because she missed all the summer-time multiday outages. However those are so rare now that I'm forced to concede it's maybe okay we didn't spend the money.
Gas powered generators are a 20th century technology trying to solve 21st century problems. Best to go with solar and battery storage if you can afford it. With the battery you get to actually use it during non emergencies to help offset your energy bill and they can discharge at night when the sun is down. Plus, batteries are fairly seamless in terms of turning themselves on when the power goes out.
This is what irks me about California's new-build solar law. So if I put a solar roof on my house in Tahoe, which I'm happy to do, it's going to be covered in snow during all the months in which I'd really want it to kick in during multi-day outages.
Except you need a warehouse full of batteries to cover the duration of the outage when it darkly overcast and storming for several days, and everything (including the panels) is covered with ice/snow/limbs and trees (which probably broke the panels when they landed on them).
Most batteries are still tied to the grid, so even if it is cloudy and overcast, the battery can take from the grid while it is still up to get fully charged. Even while cloudy and overcast the panels will still work, just not at full efficiency.
If a tree or tree branch falls and breaks your OV panels, chances are it landed on your house since most panels are on the roof and caused enough damage that you can’t be in your house and won’t be needing power.
the local standard is generators powered by natural gas, not gasoline. Those are cheaper than solar panels / whole house batteries. My energy bills are low anyway, which I assume is a function of the mid-Atlantic having filthy energy.
Lots of rural areas in the NW have propane (Natural gas is pretty much limited to town) for some of the utilities anyway, so adding a generator is a relatively small addition, and doesn't add roof weight to truss systems that were not designed to handle it.
in lower Westchester near NYC it was not nearly as bad as predicted.
it rained hard a good fraction of the day, but we didnt get any of the gale force winds which is usually what topples trees into the above-ground power lines for multi-day power outages.
we even went out to dinner on Sun night in the Bronx. very few people were out and a lot of stores and restaurants were closed.
I think it swerved to the east -- everyone I talk to in CT says "oh it wasn't so bad" and RI is currently reeling
indeed. it was expected to hit Long Island first. but hit RI instead
anyone know anything about whether or not homeowner's insurance will cover food spoilage?
It should - source, a friend who lived in New Orleans for years and dealt with this repeatedly.
it is probably not going to exceed your deductible.
last time we had big power outage, ConEd had a way for us to fill out some forms for food spoilage reimbursement. it was a pain, of course, and my wife had to go back and forth with them for a while. but in the end we ended up getting something along the lines od $200-300 back
so the power company did, but otherwise not worthwhile through insurance?
Rhode Island got hit rather hard. Still no power after nearly a day, and the freezer is dripping into the basement. Might not be back for some time
Have they estimated when it might be back on?
National Grid is saying 11 PM tonight, but hopefully sooner. We are *very* fortunate that nothing hit the house and that the weather has been pretty mild so having no A/C or fans hasn't been too unpleasant (most just swampy humidity).
We also fortunately have natural gas hot water, so we were able to hand-wash dishes and take showers, and we're avid campers so I was able to cook a simple dinner outside on my camping stove.
HUZZAH it's apparently back on
going to hustle home after lunch to avoid the inevitable ice dam in the fridge door once the ice maker kicks back on
Today in Covid-19
FDA officially approves Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Also, it has a shitty brand name "Comirnaty". Imma still call it "the Pfizer shot". GOP to move goalposts on vaccine mandates in 3, 2, 1...
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine
It is still under emergency use for 12-15 year olds.
They need to get to the six month data point, so Christmas-ish?
Can we at least call it "the Phizer-BioNTech shot" to put some respect on BioNTech's name?
is it bio 'n tech like kum & go?
no
How many headlines of "right wing politician/talk show host/pundit mocks vaccines/masks and then dies from covid" are we going to need?
I quite enjoy those and would like to see more.
Agree. Bring them on
apparently someone needs a lot of those.
I enjoy a daily dose of schadenfreude but I don't feel that's how I need to get it.
Yeah, that's what we have bottom half of the conference ball coaches for, where the damage of schadenfreude can be kept down to a few million $ here or there. Schadenfreude that kills people other than the ones committing said schadenfreude is definitely not needed!
Taiwan's domestically developed Medigen vaccine gets emergency approval from the Taiwan CDC and Tsai Ing-wen (the Taiwan presdient) gets her first jab.