Flip Cup, also known as “Flippy Cup”, “Tippy Cup”, “Canoe”, or “Taps”, is a team-based relay-race drinking game. This drinking game is fun for large groups of people at house parties, but is also great for a chill night in with a few close friends. The best part about this game is that it requires minimal skill… Flipping a cup upside down can’t be that hard, can it?
They were quite complimentary about Geri Richmond, but came out swinging about the other two nominees at the confirmation hearing. (This is probably not something I would normally watch, but Geri is awesome, so that's why I'm tuning in.)
Senator Hickenlooper just commended Dr. Asmeret Berhe for getting her PhD in biogeochemistry and added, "Berkeley is one of the top schools in the country." Go Bears :)
Also since my flight is at 7 AM, I got a hotel room for Mon night after the Rangers game at the airport so I don't need to get up 30 min earlier than necessary.
I'm still here until Wednesday night. I put a VM into TCU group sales, but heard nothing back. I just called them again and it rolled straight into the "spare department line" voicemail.
So, is anyone else watching the second season of "Never Have I Ever"? Hella funny show, with John McEnrow narrating a teenage Indian-Amercian girl's coming of age story.
I was bored and slightly insomniac last night, so I thought I'd watch a movie for a change of pace. Started with "The Marksman" because I thought it would be the right level of mindless entertainment, it was dreadful, abandoned it after about 30 minutes. Then I watched "Black Death" which was so fantastically bad I stayed with it to the end, in which Sean Bean and Carice Van Houten get a jump start on their key roles in Game of Thrones (moody violent man who gets body parts separated, and quasi-witch) while Eddie Redmayne struggles with internalized misogyny over having a girlfriend as a trainee monk, all in the context of a 14th century outbreak of the plague. Truly, epically dismal, well worth a watch.
Fantastic dinner Sunday, one of guests brought Spanakopita as an appetizer, we enjoyed this and the first course of gazpacho with a vintage champagne. Main was roasted feta with roasted vegetables, shallots, broccolini, heirloom tomatoes & meyer lemons over orzo with lemon & parsley. Paired with a elegant '14 Napa Zinfandel at first, followed by a '17 Cornas - which I should have opened earlier, but my son swiped my second carafe.
For afters, my daughter made a strawberry hibiscus tart topped with fresh strawberries, raspberries and cherries and whipped cream, washed down with a '64 Armagnac.
it would be a different pasta - the onions get pretty sweet and mellow after a long slow go over heat, but the shallots start sweet and end up pretty savory.
"The question of whether Team Trump messed up the booking has never fully been addressed, despite serious reportorial attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery. But this weekend brought a new piece of data that suggests that they were indeed just drawn to the name of the company.
A month before Giuliani made Four Seasons Total Landscaping a perfectly odd footnote in U.S. political history, the Trump campaign made a fairly sizable expense to another landscaping company with an almost identical name."
Women's Hammer: Cam Rogers has a good throw and comes in fifth. She would have needed to match her personal best to get a bronze. Nobody can touch world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk, who won gold despite having one of the worst showing she's had at the Olympics since 2008.
NBC Olympic Track and Field coverage has been quite bad. In any normal T&F coverage, at the end of the event you are shown a graphic of the top several finishers with their times/distance/heights. On NBC, you almost never get this. Sometimes you get the top finishers with no numbers. Sometimes you get only the top finisher. Most of the time you get nothing at all.
mom was watching a replay of the korea japan women's volleyball match the other day online on nbc streaming. she was not pleased with the announcer who had a lot of good things to say about japan but very little for korea. it's like the announcer was still stuck in the 80s. (of course, team korea beat japan and essentially, knocked them out of the competition so that was good.)
Loved watching them both holding it together talking to the ref about a jump off, then when the guys asks if they can just have two golds and everyone agrees they burst into tears. (Italian guy falling all over on the track, the other guy with his coaches).
USA beats Spain to advance to the semi finals for Men's Basketball. KD is still unstoppable, but I thought Jrue Holiday was the most important player for the Americans - again he's made defensive play after defensive play. He's a menace. Ricky Rubio scored 38 for the Spainish - in what was the last run for Spain's Golden Generation (Gasol Brothers, Rubio, Rudy Fernandez).
I feel like the USA players are too used to getting bailed out on foul calls in the NBA which was leading to some poor shot selection in the first half (and the earlier games).
Karsten Warholm (NOR) won the 400m hurdles, beating his own world record by .75 seconds. From 1977 (Edwin Moses) until 2021 (Karsten Warholm), the world record was lowered by .75 seconds. Warholm doubled it today. The second place finisher also broke the world record.
I wonder if there are some tracks that are faster than others, like pools are. Maybe the way they make the surface changes the rebound so you can go faster?
some tracks are faster, most of the ones used in Olympics since Atlanta have been very fast. It's a combination of the material, the subgrade slopes, all tuned to the expected weather.
National's Victor Robles confirms one out to his outfield teammates and a praying mantis that made it onto his head in the dugout. He played the top of the ninth with the mantis on his head. It was not good luck because the Nats gave up five runs in the top of the ninth and lost.
Grand Slam for SF wasn't enough to avoid a 4 hour game and late night drama.
MLB Net coverage was another example of why baseball struggles. Finally got to the game 1 infield ground out shy of the middle of the 2nd inning. This is the equivalent of starting coverage of a football game with 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Spent over 3 minutes covering the stray cat loose in the Metz' outfield, waiting for someone to realize that if they would open a gate, the cat would leave. Had 2 yahoos no one knows and fewer people want to hear from talking for a half inning, then ran 4 solid minutes of commercials (not in split screen, like the ones they run all game long) while an at bat was in progress. This would have driven away all but the most faithful of Giants fans before they actually got to what was a pretty interesting game, enhanced when SF's bullpen self destructed for a while, only to miraculously recover.
Let's be brutally honest here. DeSclafani gave up 4 runs, Posey allowed a passed ball which resulted in an unearned run.
The only bullpen pitcher to have a poor outing was Jackson who, in 2/3rds of an inning gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk.
Alvarez pitched 1-2/3rds and gave up no runs on 1 hit, no errors.
Watson pitched 1-1/3rd and gave up no runs on no hits, no errors and a K.
Garcia pitched 2 full, and gave up no runs on 1 hit, no errors.
The bullpen did pretty well, excepting Jackson.
Coincidentally, I thought passed balls were, by definition, errors. Since the line score for the Giants showed no errors, I guess passed balls are not errors.
If there were a way to get me to care even less about college sports, it would be for the Pac to merge with the dregs of the Big 8, though I guess we could give them Colorado and Utah for an eastern division and get back to the Pac 10? Nah, still not interested.
I genuinely didn't think there was a way to put me off college football, but between "we'll make the players show up regardless" last season and the transition of the conferences into negotiating blocs for broadcast revenue, it's much more possible now.
I think I reached that point sometime last fall. Only, I didn't recognize until this past March when Spring practices were happening.
I was talking to Double D last night about the burgeoning move to a super league in CFB. I made the argument that the change in law and court opinions re: NIL rights and amateurism has drastically shifted the landscape. It means the NCAA does not have the power to legislate or investigate on any issue from which they could levy sanctions such as probation and ineligibility.
Recruiting Violations? The only thing left is the calendar. What are the sanctions going to be for violating a dead period?
Academic Ineligibility? That's entirely up to the schools now. With amateurism dead, the NCAA has no basis on which to assert academic ineligibility. Academic ineligibility is entirely up to the school.
Scholarship violations? What the hell are those? Money to athletes by third parties (read: boosters, alumni, local businesses, etc.) is no longer forbidden. Or put another way, the NCAA can't punish a program because an athlete received money for a no show job.
Title IX violations? That's civil litigation, pure and simple, that has no place with the NCAA. They aren't the enforcement arm of the Dept. of Education or the DOJ.
The green ones look pretty good. The all bright yellow is hard to look at unless its in a #Pac12LongAfterDark game, where they help illuminate the field.
̶U̶S̶C̶'̶s̶,̶ ̶T̶e̶x̶a̶s̶'̶,̶ USC's #2 receiver Bru McCoy is temporarily removed from the team due to domestic violence charge that endangers his season and career.
LSU starting QB fell and broke his non-throwing arm badly enough that he's having surgery. May be out for season. If so, LSU is down to 2 scholarship QBs.
Chase Garbers is trying to get a Cal celebrity golf match going - Collin Morikawa and Max Homa have already said they're in . . .just waiting for Aaron Rodgers. (Jared Goff and Brandon Hagy punching the air right now)
Took me a second to get what that clip was. So long ago it seems.
Currently watching https://www.energy.senate.gov/hearings/2021/8/full-committee-hearing-to-consider-pending-nominations
They were quite complimentary about Geri Richmond, but came out swinging about the other two nominees at the confirmation hearing. (This is probably not something I would normally watch, but Geri is awesome, so that's why I'm tuning in.)
Senator Hickenlooper just commended Dr. Asmeret Berhe for getting her PhD in biogeochemistry and added, "Berkeley is one of the top schools in the country." Go Bears :)
TIL: There's a reason why Rod Serling was a haunted visionary
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/rod-serling-twilight
DBD Cal/TCU
Flights are booked, as is a rental car - as far as we've got.
Got my AirBnB so I'm all set. It's a couple of miles E but they say that there is a free shuttle to the game 1 block away.
Also since my flight is at 7 AM, I got a hotel room for Mon night after the Rangers game at the airport so I don't need to get up 30 min earlier than necessary.
Any news on Cal tickets, DBD crew?
SGB is in Iceland. I think he mentioned something about tickets being available 8/15? Maybe Cugel knows when they'll be available through ATO
Their academic year starts next week, so I have (misguided) hopes that someone will be manning the phone next week.
I'm still here until Wednesday night. I put a VM into TCU group sales, but heard nothing back. I just called them again and it rolled straight into the "spare department line" voicemail.
Flip Flip Flipadelphia
DBD AV Club
So, is anyone else watching the second season of "Never Have I Ever"? Hella funny show, with John McEnrow narrating a teenage Indian-Amercian girl's coming of age story.
I was bored and slightly insomniac last night, so I thought I'd watch a movie for a change of pace. Started with "The Marksman" because I thought it would be the right level of mindless entertainment, it was dreadful, abandoned it after about 30 minutes. Then I watched "Black Death" which was so fantastically bad I stayed with it to the end, in which Sean Bean and Carice Van Houten get a jump start on their key roles in Game of Thrones (moody violent man who gets body parts separated, and quasi-witch) while Eddie Redmayne struggles with internalized misogyny over having a girlfriend as a trainee monk, all in the context of a 14th century outbreak of the plague. Truly, epically dismal, well worth a watch.
Still didn't put me to sleep though.
DBD Test Kitchen
Fantastic dinner Sunday, one of guests brought Spanakopita as an appetizer, we enjoyed this and the first course of gazpacho with a vintage champagne. Main was roasted feta with roasted vegetables, shallots, broccolini, heirloom tomatoes & meyer lemons over orzo with lemon & parsley. Paired with a elegant '14 Napa Zinfandel at first, followed by a '17 Cornas - which I should have opened earlier, but my son swiped my second carafe.
For afters, my daughter made a strawberry hibiscus tart topped with fresh strawberries, raspberries and cherries and whipped cream, washed down with a '64 Armagnac.
Made Alison Roman's shallot pasta twice over the last week. It makes the kitchen smell so so so good. Also I had a bunch of shallots.
I don't think I've ever had a bunch of shallots...but would you lose too much if made with regular onions?
ehhhh... I wouldn't. Too much difference between shallots and onions. Cook them low and slow.
it would be a different pasta - the onions get pretty sweet and mellow after a long slow go over heat, but the shallots start sweet and end up pretty savory.
Our Crumbling Democracy
So, so bizarre:
"The question of whether Team Trump messed up the booking has never fully been addressed, despite serious reportorial attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery. But this weekend brought a new piece of data that suggests that they were indeed just drawn to the name of the company.
A month before Giuliani made Four Seasons Total Landscaping a perfectly odd footnote in U.S. political history, the Trump campaign made a fairly sizable expense to another landscaping company with an almost identical name."
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/02/trump-campaign-four-seasons-landscaping-fixation-502163
That Politico piece leaves a person with more questions than answers. What is the fascination with companies named "Four Seasons"?
Somehow, I doubt that the Orange Menace is a fan of Vivaldi.
the hotel brand - trump thinks he's a hotelier
That makes sense in a warped way.
Trump raised millions but spent none of it on audits and GOP candidates
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/03/trump-spending-millions-gop-candidates-502233
Today in Covid-19
* sigh *
https://twitter.com/hinklecolin/status/1421300690916454402
Olympics
Women's Hammer: Cam Rogers has a good throw and comes in fifth. She would have needed to match her personal best to get a bronze. Nobody can touch world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk, who won gold despite having one of the worst showing she's had at the Olympics since 2008.
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/athletics/result-women-s-hammer-throw-fnl-000100-.htm
Thanks for the report. At least she can claim to be the best from the Americas!
NBC Olympic Track and Field coverage has been quite bad. In any normal T&F coverage, at the end of the event you are shown a graphic of the top several finishers with their times/distance/heights. On NBC, you almost never get this. Sometimes you get the top finishers with no numbers. Sometimes you get only the top finisher. Most of the time you get nothing at all.
They are dreadful. Absolutely dreadful.
mom was watching a replay of the korea japan women's volleyball match the other day online on nbc streaming. she was not pleased with the announcer who had a lot of good things to say about japan but very little for korea. it's like the announcer was still stuck in the 80s. (of course, team korea beat japan and essentially, knocked them out of the competition so that was good.)
Hurray for the high jumpers! https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/08/02/1023478353/mutaz-essa-barshim--gianmarco-tamberi-share-gold-medal--olympic-high-jump
Loved watching them both holding it together talking to the ref about a jump off, then when the guys asks if they can just have two golds and everyone agrees they burst into tears. (Italian guy falling all over on the track, the other guy with his coaches).
I also read that they're friends. One of them helped the other heal after a pretty bad injury.
Should have said they became friends after one of them...
My daughter's friend, Colin Duffy, climbed well in all 3 climbing disciplines and looks to be moving on to the finals as one of the top 8.
3 disciplines are speed, bouldering, and lead climbing.
I was just watching it a bit but then heard about the shooting at the Pentagon and switched over to local news.
came in 3rd place overall, so that is a good sign for the final round
Simone Biles returns to take bronze in the balance beam, with Guan Chenchen (China) and Tang Xijing (China) taking gold and silver.
USA beats Spain to advance to the semi finals for Men's Basketball. KD is still unstoppable, but I thought Jrue Holiday was the most important player for the Americans - again he's made defensive play after defensive play. He's a menace. Ricky Rubio scored 38 for the Spainish - in what was the last run for Spain's Golden Generation (Gasol Brothers, Rubio, Rudy Fernandez).
I feel like the USA players are too used to getting bailed out on foul calls in the NBA which was leading to some poor shot selection in the first half (and the earlier games).
I thought defensively Jrue Holiday was the key to the Bucks beating the Suns.
Karsten Warholm (NOR) won the 400m hurdles, beating his own world record by .75 seconds. From 1977 (Edwin Moses) until 2021 (Karsten Warholm), the world record was lowered by .75 seconds. Warholm doubled it today. The second place finisher also broke the world record.
I'm still a big Edwin Moses fan.
https://theundefeated.com/features/as-400-meter-hurdles-grab-the-olympic-spotlight-in-tokyo-dont-forget-edwin-moses/
He is of my time and was always a favorite, Not a whole lot of T&F on TV then but I would make sure to watch if I knew he was running.
Huge leaps: Moses likes what he sees in today’s hurdles game
https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article253189938.html
The second place finisher was an American Rai Benjamin, who went to some school south of here.
from Mt Vernon NY, just a few miles from where we live
that was a great race to watch. those guys were flying ...
I wonder if there are some tracks that are faster than others, like pools are. Maybe the way they make the surface changes the rebound so you can go faster?
yes! tokyo is a fast track (this discussion came up in a pop culture group i have)
https://in.news.yahoo.com/tech-behind-fast-track-tokyo-164454999.html
Some writers are also giving credit to new shoe technology.
It must be the shoes!
some tracks are faster, most of the ones used in Olympics since Atlanta have been very fast. It's a combination of the material, the subgrade slopes, all tuned to the expected weather.
Their faces when they saw the time were fantastic.
Warmholm tried to Superman his jersey but only succeeded in showing the world his nipples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qFJuTpqBLM
Pro
National's Victor Robles confirms one out to his outfield teammates and a praying mantis that made it onto his head in the dugout. He played the top of the ninth with the mantis on his head. It was not good luck because the Nats gave up five runs in the top of the ninth and lost.
https://gfycat.com/meekvariablearchaeopteryx
Giants were up 7-1, let the DBacks come back to tie it 8-8, win in extras 11-8.
Grand Slam for SF wasn't enough to avoid a 4 hour game and late night drama.
MLB Net coverage was another example of why baseball struggles. Finally got to the game 1 infield ground out shy of the middle of the 2nd inning. This is the equivalent of starting coverage of a football game with 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Spent over 3 minutes covering the stray cat loose in the Metz' outfield, waiting for someone to realize that if they would open a gate, the cat would leave. Had 2 yahoos no one knows and fewer people want to hear from talking for a half inning, then ran 4 solid minutes of commercials (not in split screen, like the ones they run all game long) while an at bat was in progress. This would have driven away all but the most faithful of Giants fans before they actually got to what was a pretty interesting game, enhanced when SF's bullpen self destructed for a while, only to miraculously recover.
Let's be brutally honest here. DeSclafani gave up 4 runs, Posey allowed a passed ball which resulted in an unearned run.
The only bullpen pitcher to have a poor outing was Jackson who, in 2/3rds of an inning gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk.
Alvarez pitched 1-2/3rds and gave up no runs on 1 hit, no errors.
Watson pitched 1-1/3rd and gave up no runs on no hits, no errors and a K.
Garcia pitched 2 full, and gave up no runs on 1 hit, no errors.
The bullpen did pretty well, excepting Jackson.
Coincidentally, I thought passed balls were, by definition, errors. Since the line score for the Giants showed no errors, I guess passed balls are not errors.
Other College
[The Atlantic] Pac-12 and the Big XII (uh, Big 8?) are meeting today. On the table is a discussion about a merger.
https://theathletic.com/2749212/2021/08/03/big-12-commissioner-bob-bowlsby-to-meet-with-pac-12s-george-kliavkoff-on-tuesday-sources/
If there were a way to get me to care even less about college sports, it would be for the Pac to merge with the dregs of the Big 8, though I guess we could give them Colorado and Utah for an eastern division and get back to the Pac 10? Nah, still not interested.
That would be the only upside to any such merger, getting the Pac-10 (or Pac-8) back as its own division.
Except you would think $C and Oregon would bolt for the new superleague at that point.
If that happens then there's no upside.
Maybe UC Los Angeles would also try.
I genuinely didn't think there was a way to put me off college football, but between "we'll make the players show up regardless" last season and the transition of the conferences into negotiating blocs for broadcast revenue, it's much more possible now.
I think I reached that point sometime last fall. Only, I didn't recognize until this past March when Spring practices were happening.
I was talking to Double D last night about the burgeoning move to a super league in CFB. I made the argument that the change in law and court opinions re: NIL rights and amateurism has drastically shifted the landscape. It means the NCAA does not have the power to legislate or investigate on any issue from which they could levy sanctions such as probation and ineligibility.
Recruiting Violations? The only thing left is the calendar. What are the sanctions going to be for violating a dead period?
Academic Ineligibility? That's entirely up to the schools now. With amateurism dead, the NCAA has no basis on which to assert academic ineligibility. Academic ineligibility is entirely up to the school.
Scholarship violations? What the hell are those? Money to athletes by third parties (read: boosters, alumni, local businesses, etc.) is no longer forbidden. Or put another way, the NCAA can't punish a program because an athlete received money for a no show job.
Title IX violations? That's civil litigation, pure and simple, that has no place with the NCAA. They aren't the enforcement arm of the Dept. of Education or the DOJ.
My son (gasp!) is feeling the same.
The fact that I'm resigned rather than mad is the warning sign for creeping indifference.
Would your perspective change if USC were to go independent?
I think that's a real possibility. USC has threatened to go independent at certain times in the past. I wonder what's stopping them now.
if we're talking about a scheduling alliance, we really should be talking to the big10.
FSU's President: Contrary to a media report, we have NOT talked to the SEC about joining.
https://twitter.com/CurtMWeiler/status/1422581437312667651
Clemson also denies talking to SEC
https://twitter.com/gmraynor/status/1422286696406650903
they've been sliding into the DMs
Coach Chris Petersen joins Fox News Sports
https://twitter.com/AndrewMarchand/status/1422182704230146049
The guy can't even spell his name correctly
Oregon unveils their new uniforms. They are still ugly as hell.
https://twitter.com/GoDucks/status/1422346943620030477
https://twitter.com/GoDucks/status/1422350684721057793
https://twitter.com/GoDucks/status/1422354671524487185
Can't tell the difference. I feel like I have seen them before
Other than the awkward captions ("You better believe I get up"?), those are gorgeous.
The green ones look pretty good. The all bright yellow is hard to look at unless its in a #Pac12LongAfterDark game, where they help illuminate the field.
At least I don't see any black or grey alternates.
Those will be in the next set revealed.
Oh right, they're probably not done.
̶U̶S̶C̶'̶s̶,̶ ̶T̶e̶x̶a̶s̶'̶,̶ USC's #2 receiver Bru McCoy is temporarily removed from the team due to domestic violence charge that endangers his season and career.
https://247sports.com/college/usc/Article/bru-mccoy-usc-football-2021-trojans-wide-receiver-arrest-168579149/
I'm not glad this happened, but I am glad that 1) he was removed, and 2) it's in the hands of actual police instead of the university.
LSU starting QB fell and broke his non-throwing arm badly enough that he's having surgery. May be out for season. If so, LSU is down to 2 scholarship QBs.
https://theathletic.com/2747853/2021/08/02/lsu-qb-myles-brennan-suffers-severe-arm-injury-max-johnson-now-in-line-to-earn-starting-job/
Cal
Go Bears!!!
Jim Knowlton announces that he got an... [does math in head]... eight year contract extension.
https://calbears.com/news/2021/8/2/athletics-news-knowltons-notes-an-exciting-time-to-be-a-golden-bear.aspx
Good. Now go sign a Wilcox extension, give Browning a raise, and go hit the pavement to raise more funds, Jim.
and fire Fox
Mozilla's been onto something this whole time
pqtm
Chase Garbers is trying to get a Cal celebrity golf match going - Collin Morikawa and Max Homa have already said they're in . . .just waiting for Aaron Rodgers. (Jared Goff and Brandon Hagy punching the air right now)
There's also the winner of Steph Curry's reality-TV golf competition (which is a totally logical sentence)
https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2019/6/28/18932723/cal-alumna-holly-fine-wins-steph-curry-abc-holey-moley-mini-golf
Allison Stokke should know something about golf too
@Chase just wants people who have won something@