172 Comments

Scottie alert:. Costco has the Nordicware gold baking sheets on sale. Two 1/2 and one 1/4 sheet for 16.99 I think it is. If you need more

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Bad sign of the apocalypse: ABBA has reunited and is releasing a new album.

Ever worse sign: they'll be touring as digital versions of themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/02/abba-reunite-for-voyage-first-new-album-in-40-years

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Oh come on. Take a chance on it!!!

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That’s not how you spell “awesome”

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You? You like ABBA?

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I’m 50 and I didn’t move to the US until 1982, ABBA was like the Borg

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pltm, I mean I don't actually hate ABBA, but if you asked my to list all the bands I like, they wouldn't make the cut.

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Dancing queen is one of the first songs I remember at all.

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I can think (easily) of a lot of things that would be a lot worse though.

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Cugel's spirits corner:

Highland Park's cask strength Release #1 is a truly awesome dram, and at $90, is quite the bargain in a QPR

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Queen's Park Rangers

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Quality Price Ratio

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This Fort Worth-bound, max-canine train is pulling out of the station...next stop, San Diego!

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Paywall

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AT LAST THIS NATIONAL OUTRAGE IS OVER

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Sep 2, 2021Liked by Rick Chen

Strike! Strike! Commentators of the blog unite!

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Apparently people are saying the DBD is behind the paywall. I'm guessing it was a configuration error?

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You thought you were going to cancel us?!?!

To quote Wu-Tang:

What? Y'all thought y'all wasn't gonna see me?

I'm the Osiris of this shit

Wu-Tang is here forever, motherfuckers

Let’s take it back to '79

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Yeah, it was just 20 minutes ago or so. Back up now!

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yes, configuration error. I have remedied the situation.

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I thought it was an intentional move to mimic most newspapers, and commit self-destruction. Glad DBD is back publicly available again.

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Once upon a time I lived in Anchorage for nine years and I still have relatives that live there. If I see reference to an Alaska story I will sometimes check the Anchorage newspaper site to see the local take. I regularly get solicitations to subscribe, for more than it would cost me to subscribe to the NYT.

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Weird. I've seen some cases where new messages appear but don't have the "New reply" box before. I search by new reply and sometimes the screen flickers and new messages appear.

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That I haven't seen, but will keep my eye out for.

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We're back, baby!

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Racism

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If you're asking us to tell our personal stories about racism--I have some, but it feels too personal to discuss here.

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Texas 2021 (I generally liked and enjoyed my time in Texas)

https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1433043246113083393?s=21

Dallas area principal accused of promoting CRT and is now suspended . .. after posting a social media photo.

Of him hugging his wife, who is white.

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the whole situation is stupid and is basically small town politics. And while there are plenty of racist overtones over the reasons he was suspended, it wasn't because of that picture. Asking him to take it down is racist BS though

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Texaghanistan has officially fallen to Qanoniban. Biden needs to start airlifting people out of that failed state.

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I don't feel this "cut out the red states" attitude is helpful to be honest. There were more Trump voters in California than like 6 states combined, and there are more Democrats in Texas than like 6 states combined.

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"The district asked Whitfield to remove the photo to avoid further controversy"

I'm surprised they didn't ask him to stop being Black to avoid further controversy.

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Abortion Law

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So what is to stop liberal states from passing similar laws targeting gun manufacturers or churches tax exempt status for violating for violating lobbying activities or police departments for violating civil rights?

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Nothing. In fact, they should probably get started on that right away.

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They really should get started with that right away.

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First of all, it's a cynical and morally monstrous law. Secondly, it seems like it's basically unenforceable and destined to create a huge mess in the court system.

Like, if I were a Texas Republican who cared about my party's long-term political prospects (not just an extreme ideologue) I would have been praying for the Court to overturn this law. The abortion issue is going to be a huge headache for them now.

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Who's in the Venn diagram of "Texas Republican" and "not just an extreme ideologue" at this point? George W. Bush? Anyone else?

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Heh, yeah, that's the problem. It used to be Republicans had enough sense to realize that actually outlawing abortion would destroy it as a good political issue for them. But they've been overtaken by the wild-eyed true believers now.

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BREAKING: An anti-abortion anonymous tipline in Texas is being spammed by TikTokers sending Shrek memes.

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1433295251003912192?s=20

It would be a shame if someone reported the Amanda Huginkiss getting an abortion at Landry's Restaurant HQ

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I read a reddit thread where people were suggesting putting politician's names and their families names. Others suggested this wasn't a good idea since they could immediately throw those out. The better thing, they suggested, was to make up fake names at random real addresses. Or something like that. That way the would have to investigate something rather than just throw out the fluff.

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Right, throwing obviously fake data at their server might be able to DDoS them for a while, but it's pretty easy to eliminate that data. Throwing data at them that *seems* plausibly real, real enough to merit investigation, however, will cost them a lot more time and money, and potentially make the whole enterprise unprofitable.

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I take it back. I guess it wasn't real addresses but real sounding names.

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Rusty Shackleford

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Joey Freshwater

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Ron Mexico

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Mother Nature is pisssed

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No 1 showed me a video he took of water running under an overpass. The street lights were I think 18 feet tall and they were almost submerged. City Center (probably where the tweet shows) is submerged, some cars up to the steering wheel. He was there for a month last August subletting his friend's place. Luckily he only stayed there a couple of months until he found his own place.

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Yeah, I have a bunch of co-workers in the Philly/surrounding area. Lots of pictures this morning on the company Slack of flooded basement and stories of tornados touching down blocks away. It's a mess.

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That tweet's images have a wall mural that's a little too on point...

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Tropical Storm Ida is flooding New York City and tornado warnings have been issued for Virginia

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Gonna be lots of flood cars flooding the market in the next 6 months.

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I'm really surprised by how badly Philly was hit (and to a lesser extent NYC) given their proximity to my location, where it was a day of steady, heavy rain with nothing spectacular to report.

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The worst of it arced over us - but it is wild that the difference between “unpleasant” and “animals waiting nervously by a boat” was 50 -75 miles

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3.54 inches of rain at my house yesterday and it looks like we had 5-6 tornadoes throughout MD. Now the remaining forecast has temps in the 70s and pleasant weather.

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Our Crumbling World

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell sells 2.5 million dollar private plane to fund his lawsuit defense against Dominion.

Oh No! . .. Anyways . . . dot gif.

https://www.salon.com/2021/09/01/mike-lindells-meltdown-begins-he-recently-sold-a-mypillow-plane-to-fund-dominion-lawsuit/

Pillow mogul turned election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell is facing multiple difficulties in his two-pronged quest to prove that the 2020 election was stolen by China — and to fend off a colossal lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, which claims that Lindell and many others defamed the company and did enormous damage to its business and reputation.

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Today in Covid 19

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Washington Nat's VP Bob Boone (73) resigns rather than get Covid vaccine. Two other scouts also no longer with team due to this policy.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32128466/washington-nationals-vp-bob-boone-resigns-team-covid-19-vaccine-requirement-source-says

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bye

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That seems to be the consensus on a couple local chat boards I checked.

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Candace Owens tries to get covid test from private institution in Colorado. Company rejects her appointment due to her history of downplaying covid and making fun of those in masks and getting the vaccine.

https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1433265904075292672?s=20

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I appreciate the increasing hostility businesses are showing towards people who choose to be unvaccinated. Delta charging employees higher healthcare premiums, NBA allowing the Knicks, Dubs, and other teams in cities with vaccination requirements to prevent unvaccinated players from entering their arenas.

The carrot didn't work for getting these people vaccinated, so it's time for the stick.

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Enough carrots, time to bring out the sticks.

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Pro

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Game #133: A’s can’t hold off Tigers in 8-6 loss

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/9/1/22653477/oakland-as-game-133-detroit-tigers-score-result

The Oakland A’s lineup produced on Wednesday, but this time their pitching faltered instead.

The A’s scored six runs, but that was quite enough tonight in an 8-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. The defeat snaps a three-game winning streak.

Oakland took a couple of early leads in the 1st and 4th innings, but each time Detroit answered back to tie it up. The A’s jumped on top again with three runs in the 5th but then went quiet, while the Tigers to scored in each of the 5th through 8th innings to take control.

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At the risk of being a jinx, A's ahead 8-6 today in the bottom of the ninth.

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No jinx, they won.

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So frustrating! When we were up 6-3 in the fifth, I was feeling pretty good about this game. Blargh!

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Giants lose game, dignity, and division lead

The holy trinity!

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/9/1/22653411/san-francisco-giants-brewers-recap

FULL DISCLOSURE: I don’t want to recap this baseball game because it was not an enjoyable baseball game and I didn’t ask to be born. So please keep that in mind when reading this article, and if it’s not my best work and that bothers you, send all complaints to this.is.a.totally.real.email.address@voxmedia.com.

The San Francisco Giants game on Wednesday night was bad all the way through, just as their previous three games were bad all the way through. The only difference is that on Wednesday, against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants briefly gave the illusion of maybe being able to keep the game from being bad.

It was brief, though. And even when the Giants gave that illusion, it was only in the form of tying the game, not taking the lead.

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As a Giants fan, I feared a little market correction would be coming at some point...hopefully they can navigate their way out of this little tailspin...

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Yeah. It looked like the Brewers are just better, and the Gabe is back to not maximizing his chances of winning. A losing combination for SF, but then those were both known from last year's late season.

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It's a little frustrating that the first time they have had a real losing streak all year means they immediately lose first place . . . but that's what you get when you're in a division with the freaking Death Star.

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Exactly...it's kinda like '93, when they were so solid, yet Atlanta would...not...lose....I will hate the Colorado Rockies forever bc they couldn't win a single game v. the Braves that entire season.

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atoms

@atomsareenough

The #Dodgers are alone in 1st place

https://twitter.com/atomsareenough/status/1433303758981648386?s=20

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We all knew this day was coming. Every day it didn't happen was a bonus.

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Lasted for less than a day. Now tied for 1st.

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Late rally propels Dodgers into first place

https://www.truebluela.com/2021/9/1/22653554/los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-news-atlanta-braves-justin-trea-turner-max-scherzer

The Dodgers had some clutch hitting in the eighth, coming from behind to defeat the Braves, 4-3. Not only did LA pick up the sweep with the win.... BUT THE DODGERS ARE NOW IN SOLE POSSESSION OF FIRST PLACE!!!!!

For the Dodgers, it’s their first time in first place since April 28.

“It’s a start,” Dave Roberts said following the game. “We’re getting there. We have to continue to play good baseball. theres a lot of baseball left.”

A lot to get to tonight, but we’ll start with the eighth inning. After Alex Vesia allowed a solo home run in the top half of the inning, the Dodgers entered the bottom of the inning trailing a run.

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Dave Roberts just couldn't help himself, and pulled an effective Scherzerer who still had a low pitch count. And made a couple more inexplicable moves. But fortunately for the Dodgers, and Dodger fans, they still have so much talent (even without multiple pitchers) that they still overcame their manager. (Contrast with the Giants, who do not have enough talent or depth, and now certainly pitching, to beat the best teams with less than their best effort, or their best team on the field.)

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You do know that Scherzer pulled himself because he felt his hammy tighten up while warming up on the mound before the first inning, right? He went as long as he felt like it wasn't getting worse and after 6 he said he was done.

And both Treinan and Kenley weren't available because they both pitches 3 out of the last 4 days.

So bickford, vesia, and Joseph pitched. Bickford and Vesia arguably the 2nd and 3rd best relievers over the last month. Behind Treinan

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Other College

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Norther Colorado at Colorado (-38). o/u 56.5. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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NoCo, plus the points. Under. This feels like this will be Dorrell's first true year as head coach, and with a new QB, I agree with SGBear, they'll take it slow.

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I'm not buying CU's success from last year. I think CU will win the game, but they'll take it slow with their new QB. NCU and the under. CU lacks a proven QB to get it to their talent WRs and they'll probably run the ball behind their pretty good RB Jarek Broussard and four returning O-linemen.

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This. I don't buy CU's success last year (especially once they imploded after Landman went down) and I think they'll be scrapping with OSU and WSU to avoid being the Pac's second-worst team. Of course, the worst will clearly be Arizona.

Northern Colorado, under

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What happened almost immediately after Landman's injury tells all you need to know about how valuable he was/is.

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[The Athletic] BigXII expansion talks focused on BYU, UCF, Cincy, Houston.

https://theathletic.com/news/big-12-expansion-talks-focused-on-byu-ucf-cincinnati-houston-sources/5CZvjXPK0mL1

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Those are all G5 schools with recent histories of success. That said, I'm surprised they're not trying to poach Boise St.

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I’m guessing it’s a geography thing. UCF and Cincinnati helps WVU in terms of travel. Houston is a bigger market than Boise and has history with the old SWC schools.

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Boise is a long way away. Those 4 make a tremendous amount of sense on numerous fronts.

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As long is it's not the Pac-12 with the Culture-Shock All-Star membership.

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So, they're basically left with the Big 8/SWC leftovers and the C-USA all-stars.

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Yeah and I don’t see them keeping their P5 status with this new lineup.

The Alliance should lineup against the Big 12 getting an automatic bid to the playoffs.

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Kansas State (-1!) vs. Stanfurd in Arlington TX. o/u 53. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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KState, under. Hoping for a season-long 'furd implosion.

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furd, under

Both teams seem pretty mediocre, but Shaw's a better coach and he'll somehow finagle his way to a victory

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Finagle is a wonderful word

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Indubitably

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Southern Utah @ ASU (-45!) o/u 55.5. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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S.Utah, under

ASU's offense is going to be solid this year

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That's fairly bold, especially the under. If ASU is what we are led to believe, they could cover the o/u themselves.

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I'd switch both if not for the NCAA investigation. I think there may be a slow start due to all the off-the-field distractions.

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Both Utah and ASU are playing on Pac-12 networks tonight, first game at 4:30 and 2nd game at 7:30 PDT. Time to start getting that college football infusion.

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It's disappointing that 7 of the conference's 12 games will be on Pac 12 networks this week. Those are all FCS games, but Alabama-Birmingham had a national telecast against an FCS team this week. So it's not like FCS is some major barrier to coverage.

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Saves me from feeling compelled to watch a bunch of dead rubbers tho

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Alabama-Birmingham didn't have anything up against it though.

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Agreed

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Agreed.

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Utah State @ Wazzu (-17) o/u 67. Your pick vs spread & o/u?

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Wazzu, under. 17 seems really low.

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Wazzu and points, under. Utah State was awful last year, but 67points is a high hurdle to beat.

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Covid is the real winner in this game.

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Utah State, over

Wazzu was pretty lousy last year and Rolovich is a moron

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BYU (-12.5) vs. Arizona in Las Vegas. o/u 54. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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BYU, over. Arizona needs at least one more year to rebuild.

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BYU, under. Both are breaking in new QBs, but AZ should be really bad this year.

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BYU, over

It's going to be an uuuuugly year in Tuscon (although they're probably looking forward to another inexplicable, mind-meltingly bizarre win when Cal visits Tuscon)

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I think BYU is massively overrated in general but especially this season. They lost their very talented starting QB to the NFL. They are being overrated due to their Covid asterisk success from last season. I’m still not completely sold on their HC being better than average.

I think Arizona keeps it close, they will cover.

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Agreed...U of A, fired up for their 1st game under the new regime, and it's a neutral sight. I like Sandra Bullock's SPEED boys.

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Haha

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LSU (-3) @ UCLA. 65 o/u. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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LSU, over. Not convinced at all about DTR. He looked awful in the first half last week against a bad Hawaii team. By the time he was able to put it together, the game was pretty much over. Run game was excellent, but they can't allow themselves to become one-dimensional.

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UCLA, over

I liked what I saw from their run game last year and last week. If DTR can avoid awful turnovers (which was a major accomplishment last year), they'll keep this close and possibly win.

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I think Ucla wins this game.

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Rooting for UCLA, but that LSU D pretty tough.....until DTR proves he can complete a forward pass, I'd give the points there...

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That UCLA D looked pretty solid too, especially compared with recent versions.

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I watched the whole game...Hawaii's offense was horrific. The OL couldn't block, the QB was running for his life on every play and when he did have time to throw, he was total trash. Overall, UCLA looked like they had the makings of a good team but Hawaii wasn't answering any of those questions for me. LSU will be much more revealing

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LSU's QB situation is DICEY. I'd stay away from this game, so many WTF possibilities in this one

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I think between UCLA’s run game, their defense and the uncertainty for LSU on offense and especially QB will all add up to a Ucla win.

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Chip Kelly & the Bruins are always good for one or two “what the hell” results and running the ball over LSU would certainly count

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LSU's DL is pretty salty though, they wont be getting anything close to the yards they did last week.

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Oregon State @ Purdue (-7). O/U 59.5. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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OSU, under. Just cuz.

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Purdue, under. I think OSU without Jemar Jefferson and having QB Gebbia hurt (at best, may be rusty from not practicing and at worst, not playing) will make their offense sputter. Purdue still sucks.

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Sam Noyer will start. Gebbia will not play. This is good for OSU. But the Beavers haven't started a season well vs FBS competition in a long time, and the weakest part of the team, the interior defensive front, is banged up, their best d-lieman out until at least some time in Oct.

Purdue wants to run, and just might be able to. Tempting to take Purdue to win, OSU to cover, and the under. Noyer might just be too good, and too experienced, for that to all happen though.

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"their best d-lieman out until at least some time in Oct."

Oh, cool. Just in time to shake the cobwebs off and be at full strength for Cal on October 30th.

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That's a distinct possibility at this point.

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OSU, over

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SJSU @ USC (-14) 59.5 o/u. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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SJSU, over. Nearly 90 degrees at kickoff. Big question for USC is if they learn discipline, which has been lacking for a while.

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SJSU, under

USC will definitely win, but it will be close enough that the "I can't believe it's another year of Helton" dread starts to set into USC fans' heads.

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Oh I’m already there

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USC and over

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I'd with the over & SJSU, not that they'll win, mind you.

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Fresno State @ Oregon (-20.5) 64 o/u. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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Oregon, under.

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Oregon, under. Duck defense should stonewall them + kinda new QB for Oregon = under.

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Oregon, under

TDR and that defense will probably hold them to 3 points

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I still can't believe TDR is at Oregon. I think that alone means Oregon covers.

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Weber State @ Utah (-28.5) 49 o/u. Your pick vs. spread & o/u?

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Weber, under. What Berkelium97 said.

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Weber, under

Utah usually wins these FCS games handily, but they're never 50-0 blowouts.

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Against Weber St., too! Still, I'm picking the under.

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Agree with that. I can see a lot of 2nd half running and some Utah reserves, and Witt not wanting to embarrass a neighbor, and a 45-7 Ute win.

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Cal

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There's a bunch of new front page articles by a bunch of new authors! Recommend you go check them out!

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The what now?

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After being used to 1-2 articles per day for the last 18 months on this site, I'm really enjoying the explosion of content this week.

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Sep 2, 2021Liked by Rick Chen

The amount of new content is very impressive and a bit overwhelming.

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Sep 2, 2021Liked by Rick Chen

Fantastic amount of new content...

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Remember, it's all that golden sunshine pumping out blue koolaid from the firehose!

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It football season. (Lets see if the enthusiasm persists come hoops season.)

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My lips are getting tired from all this reading.

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