251 Comments
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I love bourbon in the fall. Also winter, and spring, and summer.

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One drink ain't enough Jack you better make it three

I want to get drunk I'm gonna make it real clear

I want one bourbon, one scotch and one beer

One bourbon, one scotch, one beer

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DBD AV

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I watched the first episode of Tales from the Loop on Amazon and I am intrigued by this series.

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Peaky Blinders (S1) just finished the season last night. (Netflix, 17/19 WB). Very good writing - everyone is flawed but yet is written in an empathetic way. Immersive production. Should be watched with a bottle of Bushmills at hand - taking a sip every time someone sculls a glass of whiskey.

Excellent acting around Cillian Murphy, who does an excellent job keeping a handsome poker face.

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Peaky Blinders is amazing. Just wait until you get to the season with Adrian Brody!

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RIP Helen McCrory.

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I liked the first season as well, but then stopped watching after seeing the first episode of the new season.

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Just watched the last two Brooklyn 99 episodes. They were fantastic.

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Watching the Late NIght with Seth Meyers interviewing the B99 actors and Stephanie Beatriz sounds nothing like Rosa. It was unexpected that it's like the complete opposite.

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I saw an interview with her before and was SHOOK

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Yeah, she's actually a way more bubbly personality than you'd expect from her character on B99. She has a role in the movie In the Heights that is closer to her real voice.

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I remember she was on Modern Family as Gloria's sister. I think she had a different voice for that as well.

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the audio part of AV.

i have a pair of wired outdoor speakers that came w/ the house. there is a centralized controller for it to distribute music to all different rooms before Sonos et al were a thing.

it had stopped working and i was messing w/ the controller before the weekend. it seems to work now but the wiring is quite unstable. not sure when i pull the trigger to get a set of wireless speakers

anyone have suggestions for decent outdoor weatherproof (northeast snow) speakers. i already have Sonos, so something compatible would be nice. are there even non-Sonos speakers that are compatible?

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To answer, your question, I’m using two Ultimate Ear speakers that I bought that can tether together.

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I’m a big believer in Sonos but they are mostly indoors. Although I thought I saw they are making more wireless outdoor speakers now.

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is the wiring shielded with a grounding shell? you might be getting some interference if it's going past other electronics

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so it looks almost like an internet cable w/ 4 or 6 sets of wires. the instability seems more from the electrical connection than the sound being intermittent.

i think the whole thing is 20 yrs old (not that electronics should not last ...)

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oh interesting, sounds like a digital connection. Could try mating it differently at each end, or seeing if it's a loose connection from wiggling. If it's not analog, it *shouldn't* be unstable

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The missus and I started watching Sex Education on the Netflix. Very entertaining

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Started the new season last night. Love this show. Gillian Anderson is clearly amazing, but so is the whole cast of young actors. Amazing writing, humor, acting, and lots of character growth. There is nothing not to love about Sex Education.

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It’s funny, my wife and I like it.

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DBD Kitchen

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Tonight: pepian, which is one of the Guatemalan national dishes.

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Elote.

We had a big lunch so only had elote for dinner. Well, elote and banana pudding. Went the boiled --> grilled over gas burner route. It was GD delicious.

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I made taro swirl mooncakes yesterday!

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using Taro? they usually aren't Taro are they? I thought it was something like rice flour. I don't like them but I seem to remember that they are chewy.

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No, mine are flaky. Some people put a ball of mochi in the center, which would be chewy. I added a bit of purple sweet potato to my filling to nudge the color toward purple, and my crust relied on food coloring, but people also use ube extract or purple sweet potato powder. Here's what I did: https://genesandtonic.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/taro-swirl-mooncakes-%e8%8a%8b%e9%a0%ad%e9%85%a5/

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Thanks!

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Wife made the bacon/Swiss chard lasagna last night, paired with an excellent 2012 Rioja; my daughter made a marble bunt cake.

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I bought a used Ooni 3 pizza oven. I'm excited to start using it. I'll let you know how things go. Maybe the next DBD Pi Day will include homemade pizzas.

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we have one that is wood pellet only...there is a learning curve but the pizza is generally noms

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I'm worried about sliding the pizza off the peel into the oven. I guess I'll have to make sure I put a lot of flour down so the dough doesn't stick. What I do now is put the dough on parchment paper before putting it on the baking sheet into the oven.

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half my pizzas look more football shaped than round.

the BGE has an annoying 3-4 inch drop between the level of the grill and the level of the pizza peel, so there is a steep sliding descent involved everytime that creates a lot of shape uncertainty ...

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yeah it's hard to get a perfectly round shape. I can't do the toss method to get them round.

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cornmeal works well but yeah, it does take practice. Also, put way less cheese and topping than you expect cause the dough can flip/fold over or it slides off and creates a massive mess

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Oh that's a good recommendation. i used to have a peel and baking stone for the oven and got fairly good at sliding the pizza off. However, this oven only has an opening that's like 2 in tall so I'll have to be much more careful sliding it in there.

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where did you set it up? i'm intrigued but don't know where to put it

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I haven't yet. I was thinking of just getting a stainless steel cart where I can move it off the deck and under the patio overhang. It came with a cover so I can cover it when I'm not using it.

The guy also gave me a peel, a bucket of wood pellets, and the gas/propane converter.

He decided he's going to build a whole pizza oven in the backyard so he didn't need this.

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wow that guy is serious about his pizza

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They guy lived in a neighborhood in Livermore on South Vasco, south of LLNL in a huge 2 story house. I've never been to that part of Livermore and didn't know that neighborhood existed.

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Livermore extends all the way to Santa Clara County!

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Grilled salmon last night, with butter and garlic.

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finally made bone-in fried chicken for the first time on Friday night (previously I've only done boneless, skinless breasts). Crispy skin and the moisture retention was off the charts. I'll never go back to boneless/skinless again

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I misread that it was fried chicken. I was going to post that I use this for roasted chicken.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-roast-chicken-recipe-1940592

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ooh that *does* look good

I got two cookbooks at a neighborhood yard sale recently, both the Joy of Cooking "Chicken" book and a Williams-Sonoma chicken cookbook, and so there will be lots of poultry in the next few months

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It does make a good roasted chicken. I take the breasts and make chicken salad for the next few days. And then you can take the carcass and make good broth.

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Today in COVID

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SF Mayor London Breed has another French Laundry type moment.

https://twitter.com/ABC7/status/1438883200965615617

Now, personally I don't actually have a problem with people removing masks in spaces where everyone is vaccinated (the club had a vaccine requirement). But those are not the current rules in SF.

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eh, if you're eating and drinking you can.

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Yeah, but she wasn't. She was dancing and singing and taking pictures with people. Just leaving a drink on your table untouched is not what the rule is. It's her fucking rule, she should follow it.

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IMO that makes less sense than just saying that everyone needs to be vaccinated to be in such spaces. Then you don't need to worry about ambiguous masking rules.

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Have to get my physical today at my doc's office. Not really looking forward to it because of Covid.

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Somebody related to my Texas in-laws is anti-vax and has pretty terrible health, himself. He occasionally needs to go to the ICU (like right now) but can't because beds are full of COVID patients. Of course, the connection between those two things is completely lost on him. If he dies and that brings suffering to her family, especially the other anti-vaxers, Dr. Ms. Newellbany is going to fucking lose it.

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I hadn't appreciated what a luxury it would be to not have to deal with that kind of nonsense from extended family, in-laws, etc. Hope everything goes okay.

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Thanks. Her family is loaded up with COVID, including a baby, and some of them are still talking about the "risks" of vaccinations. She's like "you talkin bout RISKS? What about the fact that you're fucking sick NOW!"

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Risks?!?! We are talking risks?!? There are no risks?!? Risk, man…

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Pfizer says their vaccine for kids 5-11 is good...now, do I trust them?

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did you not w/ the adults? or 12+?

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after FDA review, yes

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while i am not saying that Pfizer is trustworthy or not (my wife works there), i think that the FDA is not entirely independent.

i had a college roommate who worked there after grad school who basically quit his job in protest once he realized that the FDA was nothing more than a rubber-stamp agency for the pharma industry. i am sure some things have changed over time but i think there is a lot of industry and govt pressure on the FDA to come up w/ the "right answer"

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Given that the FDA is essentially reviewing vendor-provided data, I think it's fair to say that they are not wholly independent, and that's before you even get to to thinks like regulatory capture and political pressure.

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"get to things" not "get to to thinks" SIGH

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I don't disagree. Regulatory capture happens with the FDA as well.

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also I now realize I came across a bit conspiracy-y. didn't mean to. I'm hoping the EUA review goes quickly and we can start getting kids protected.

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I have a ten year old nephew who went back to school in August. The vaccine can not come soon enough as there have been some cases where kids pick it up at school and then transmit covid to vaccinated parents.

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we're back to in-person instruction after a 13-day hiatus. Active student cases are down to 20 from a peak of >150

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I hope they did a serious check to make sure each student's vaccine card was valid.

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so there were concerns about this voiced during a town hall last week. Student Health Services says they review each one, but it sounds like, based on our public health experts we consult with from the state, that the environment where the spread began -- in an indoor bar, unmasked, with everyone shouting -- was basically too much viral load for the vaccine's immune response to overcome

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if only everyone just stayed masked, kept their mouths shut, and read their books, you know?

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How about reading AND yelling?

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Crumbling Democracies

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Taliban's Navy with a show of force

https://twitter.com/Jake_Hanrahan/status/1439304675514273800

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I half expected to see a Trump/MAGA Flotilla photo but this picture is equally absurd.

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Pro

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DeSean Jackson is not injured (yet) but he's not playing. Sad

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The Sunday night game (Chiefs/Ravens) was excellent, I don't know why, but I really root against the Ravens.

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So do I purely because Ray Lewis.

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Well maybe not purely but it's reason enough for me.

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Same, I always root against the Ravens for no logical reason and I like L Jack. It is weird.

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L Jack is on Team No Vax, right? Enough reason there...

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Yeah and surprisingly a lot QBs are on team no vax. My irrational Ravens dislike predates L Jacks stance on vaccines.

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I rooted for the Ravens when I moved to MD because Forsett was still on the team. Once he left, I became indifferent.

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That was a good reason to root for the Ravens.

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I know why I always root against the Ravens

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the Ravens doing the Omar "cheese stands alone" whistle for the intros was amazing

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That's awesome!

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I do kind of hate it when the result is decided by a random fumble at the end.

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We're not a fan of Lamar Jackson. Maybe some of that is that he went to UofL and we're not convinced he should've won the Heisman.

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49ers win an ugly one over the Eagles 17-11 behind a great defensive performance

https://www.ninersnation.com/2021/9/19/22682595/49ers-win-an-ugly-one-over-the-eagles-17-11-behind-a-great-defensive-performance

. . . so the Niners' defense is good again?

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I hope so, because the offense isn't going to be top-tier

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Offense looked great in Week 1. Philly seems to be pretty legit on D. I dunno, we'll see.

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all the RBs are hurt! laughing/crying

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Good news is that it's the most replaceable position.

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Manny Machado being the voice of reason??!!

https://www.mlb.com/news/fernando-tatis-jr-manny-machado-dugout-confrontation

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The Padres implosion is complete. Clean house at the manager level.

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Game #149: A’s outduel Ohtani, blow save, win in extras

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/9/19/22683157/oakland-as-game-149-los-angeles-angels-score-result

It took one inning longer than expected, but the Oakland A’s finished off the sweep in Anaheim.

The A’s beat the Los Angeles Angels by a 3-2 margin on Sunday, but not without some late drama. Oakland blew yet another save in the 9th inning, then came through in the 10th to retake the lead and earn the victory in extras.

There were three distinct acts to this game. The first act was what we’re hoping to see more of, with A’s starter Frankie Montas outdueling a top opponent in Shohei Ohtani. The second act was our recently recurring nightmare, as the bullpen coughed up the late lead. The third act was what we need right now, as the lineup scratched out a run in the 10th inning to grab a win any way possible. The go-ahead RBI came on a sac fly by Jed Lowrie.

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2 games back of the 2nd wildcard. Go A's.

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A's blew a save? Weird.

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Giants shutout by Max Fried and the Braves, 3-0

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Weekend results were basically back to status quo in the NL West: SF and LA both win 2 of 3.

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I think these next two series will produce the most movement. Dodgers 3 at Colorado and Giants 3 at Padres. All depends on how much fight the Padres have. Colorado is at home so they're always tough. Dodgers have top 3 pitchers going.

The last series of the year with the Giants playing the Padres (who will probably be knocked out by then) and the Dodgers playing the Brewers, may be moot (moo point!) since the Brewers will not have much to play for. I can see the Brewers setting up their rotation for the playoffs by then so the Dodgers may not see the top 2 starters.

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Lots of possible scenarios here. Padres might have some fight in them. Both teams have to play at Coors Field, which can create wacky results. Who knows what the Brewers want to do?

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I guess the NLDS won't start for about 4 days after the end of the season so they can still pitch their two 2 and still have them fresh.

Maybe the Padres will want to screw over the Dodgers and essentially give up the last 3 games of the year.

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Brewers might also be interested in making the playoff road tougher for LA, probably correctly seeing them as their top competition for the NL pennant.

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Clayton Kershaw rounding into form in 8-5 win

https://www.truebluela.com/2021/9/19/22682601/clayton-kershaw-gavin-lux-corey-seager-will-smith-dodgers-reds-series-win

A potent combination of Clayton Kershaw and home runs led to a 8-5 win and the Dodgers taking two of three against the Reds. It did get dramatic toward the end when the Reds made it a two-run game in the 8th inning but then the Dodgers tacked on a couple of runs in the ninth inning.

Kenley Jansen did give up a solo home run to Joey Votto but otherwise continued his recent fine pitching picking up two strikeouts his inning of work.

Neither team had homered in the first two games but that was not the case today as the Dodgers hit three and the Reds countered with two home runs.

Will Smith started the scoring with a solo home run in the second and then minutes later, Gavin Lux drove a ball over the right-center field wall for a two-run homer.

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Mookie Betts got a fan to return an opponent's first hit/HR ball and gave him a signed bat the next inning.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-trades-bat-to-get-tj-friedl-s-first-home-run-ball

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That was a very cool thing he did.

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Max Homa wins the opening tournament of the PGA season. $1.26 million dollar payday.

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Beat a Stanfurd guy that still has the silver spoon in his mouth.

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Jared Goff vs. Aaron Rodgers on Monday Night Football this eve.

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methinks Rodgers is in the twilight of his arm strength and accuracy

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Rodgers arm strength and likability both seem to be trending down.

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goff too.

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Goff still seems to have a good arm, as last week showed. The issue with him is processing and decision-making.

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And lack of talent around him

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Lack of mobility is his big problem. Also prone to strip sacks and inopportune interceptions.

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*tiny hands

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I'm not sure it's a twilight as much as, opposing coaches have figured him out and he hasn't adapted

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In a year or two he might be relegated to journeyman 2nd string status floating around the league. That seems to be the fate of former no. 1 draft picks that can't keep franchise status.

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Which is hella dumb.

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as an SC alum, I am attuned to identifying college QBs who are not going to succeed in the NFL and, well....

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Hey, he's already done better than any SC QB since Carson Palmer.

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Cal

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All offense, no defense.

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Need to break out my Keep calm and Drop 50 shirt that Alpha was selling a few years back. Actually I wore it to the Nevada game.

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hopefully we continue to have offense when facing better defenses

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Go Bears

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I know that Cal has had homecoming for a long time, but I've never really noticed it being any different from any other week. But perhaps that's just me. Now CAA is encouraging the chapters to hold a homecoming event and I was like... nah.

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There's no Counting Crows, which love em or hate em, is kind of weird. I would have added a lot more Toni Tony Tone, Digital Underground, Spearhead, Too Short, Lil B, G Eazy, H.E.R...

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You forgot Primus!

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Metallica are bad people who suck at both metal and life.

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Yes, yes, and yes!

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Bangles???

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Susanna Hoffs (UC Berkeley, BA Art History '80). She looks pretty good for 62 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg5heFDEbXA&t=10s

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WB/WNB?

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Other College

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Hawaii and SJSU combined for 21 punts on Saturday totaling nearly 1,000 punting yards

https://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore/_/gameId/401310705

SJSU punted 11 times. Nearly 30 FBS teams haven't reached 11 punts over the _entire season_.

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PAC 12 AAAFTEEEER DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK

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Oregon 48 - SUNY Stony Brook 7

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TIL: Stony Brook is located on the north shore of central Long Island.

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It's a pretty good school - part of the prestigious AAU.

SUNY really needs to switch to the California model of tiered higher education. As it is, the community colleges, the four year schools that are every New York kid's back-up plan, and the four legitimately good research universities (Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook) are all under the same SUNY umbrella. That's lousy branding.

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also some strong renaming is needed

University AT Albany? come on

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Oregon State 42 - I Da Ho 0

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UW 52 - Arkansas State 3

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Stanfurd 41 - Vandy 23

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Arizona 19 - NAU 21

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I wrote somewhere that Arizona might be the worst Pac12 team ever and this confirms that general view

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I agree and find this result even more strange after U of A player BYU so close.

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Arizona paid $500k to NAU.

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Oh Gawd! Terrible return on investment.

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If we lose in Tuscon again this year...

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Fire Wilcox will be trending.

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LOLOLOL

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Utah 31 - SDSU 33

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USC 45 - Wazzu 14. Slovis and De Laura get dinged up in game.

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I was not expecting the second half turnaround that SC managed. Too bad Rolovich couldn't inject any enthusiasm into his team.

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Rolovich isn't big on injections.

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pqtm

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Hahaha

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Let's see if Slovis gets the starting job back...

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Dart looked seriously legit. 95% chance that Miller Moss transfers at year end...

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Yeah, we shall see if he gets it back. Any chance he can in season transfer to Cal?

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I'd take Milner over him next season.

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I wonder how many months before Miller Moss is in the Transfer portal...

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CU 0 - Minnesota 30

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wasn't their defense supposed to be legendary? I suppose it's hard to be strong on defense when they're on the field the entire game

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Did you see how bad they offense was? The defense kept it close for as long as they could.

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I don't get Pac-12 out east

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What happened to the HAG Sports Coverage Plan (TM)?

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Same, but I think I'm going to drop my Verizon Fios TV service and get Fubo with the extra channel package that includes P12Network. I think it'll be about a net $15/month increase for me, but the picture quality will be better, too. I just can't stand listening to Starkey's loose renditions of what's happening anymore. I love him, and he's the voice of Cal, but Pawlawski constantly has to graciously correct him.

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It was known that the Buffs offense was suspect, and that does eventually break down a defense, but though I thought the Gophers could win, I did not expect what happened.

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63 total yards for the Buffs...

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I don't think the baby bison is the one whose running they should be worried about.

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Yeah, that Bison was undersized and will need some time to beef up, so to speak...

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They had 7 yards in the first half.

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BYU 27 - ASU 17

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BYU might win the Pac-12 South playing only 5 conference games.

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This was surprising.

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ASU can always be counted on for a poor-decision driven poor performance, and this was one of them.

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Fresno 40 - UCLA 37

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Fresno St has looked legit evert week. The ending of that game was a classic.

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Haener was in excruciating pain and drove them down the field anyway. Definition of tough.

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UCLA paid Fresno State $1.1m for this.

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That's gonna leave a mark.

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Chip can take the 1.1 mil out of the money the Niners are still paying him to go away

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ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

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watched the end in glorious potato-vision on my phone using a youtube stream of dubious legality, 19/19 would watch again

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Sam Lloyd

@llamsoyd

·

Sep 18

Replying to

@edsbs

every play is either a momentum-shifting fumble or a momentum-shifting 50-yard completion, except for the momentum-shifting 50-yard completion that ended with a momentum-shifting fumble

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1st day of school. Lets get it. I'm not sure how active I'll be on the site now that school is back in the swing of things, but I'll do my best for DBD and football recaps. Back to the grind at 10:30 AM with an intro to Earth systems course (I tried to avoid the big 3 sciences like the plague).

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good w/ luck that. remind me what you think you are majoring in?

my college roommate was pre-med track but avoided any course w/ any writing like the plague. we took "music appreciation" freshman year as a way for him to knock off a humanities requirement. there was not writing, but it ended up being a fun course

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Communication major with a focus in journalism (sports journalism)

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I avoided math til junior year. I majored in Egyptian Archaeology/Language and was a course shy of a double major in Classics when I graduated.

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i was about to fail my last Classics course during spring semester of senior yr - Demosthenes with mostly grad students. it was just way too hard for my rudimentary knowledge of Greek but there really werent any other good options that semester.

luckily they went out of their way to find a path for me to get the major. i had a independent reading course w/ 1 prof and we read some Sophocles once a week and they called it a translation course which is the last thing i needed.

i am pretty sure that having 8 instead of 7 majors graduate does good things for their dept statistics, but it was still very nice of them.

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was that Music 49A or the non-majors one? (I wanna say 10A or 10B)

I took 49A, and, despite having a music theory background and being in Cal Band, really struggled with it

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we took the one for non-majors.

i had played piano growing up and my roommate had played violin. but it was mostly just a basic intro to classical western music. we mostly enjoyed it and it was pretty easy.

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I chose... poorly

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Fall

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It’s time for PUMPKIN SPICE EVERYTHING!!

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explosive diarrhea gif

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I'm thinking of going to places I've never been before. Like Montana, Idaho, New Mexico. Just for a day or two and come back. Enjoy fall colors.

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all are excellent choices. happy to suggest a thing or two

- Idaho near Stanley and sawtooth mountains and redfish lake

- NM, Albuquerque or the High Road to Taos north of Santa Fe

- MT, Glacier NP for early winter or Yellowstone in the fall (technically WY)

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Rocky Mountain National Park is underappreciated.

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hot take: it's overrated -- basically identical to all of the national forest land in Colorado, just significantly more crowded, with horrendous traffic and very limited parking

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We drove from Durango to Los Alamos via a road on the northern side of the Santa Fe National forest (through Gallina, Coyote, and Abiquiu), en route to Bandelier National Monument & then on to Santa Fe. I'd happily spend days driving around there pausing only to stop & gawk at the scenery.

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We've done Santa Fe and environs several times, and it's a great place to visit. But on a more recent trip, I had one "you can't go home again" experiences: on the high road to Taos there was a church that inspired a magical feeling the first time we visited, with a room off the nave with 100 crutches hung from the ceiling (film camera era). 15 years later, the place was more like a christian amusement park. Sad.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely look into them.

I'm single, work for myself, and work from home so my schedule is very flexible, with lots and lots of airline miles, hotel points, and free hotel certificates sitting around. So thinking to do a couple of quick trips here and there.

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huge +1 for the Sawtooth Mountains. Craters of the Moon was cool but not worth the trip, unless you're traveling between West Yellowstone and Idaho Falls/Ketchum already

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I hear the Palouse region is gorgeous in the fall.

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Another red flag fire alert here which was projected to extend from 11pm last night to 8 pm this eve. So far the projected high winds have not shown up. Also, it rained early Sunday morning - actually a significant amount - very odd for the season.

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I went on a drive with the Bay Area Miata Association yesterday. Was worried it might be canceled but the rain ended early enough. Ended up being a beautiful sunny day driving up to Mt Tam. 27 Miatas.

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Mt Tam is fun. i have done it once or twice on a bike. i love that windy road down the back side w/ all the switchbacks.

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first time I ever saw a Miata, I was with JimmyChitwood down in Santa Cruz and we were like 14 or whatever and we nearly lost our freaking minds it was so f'ing cool

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The first gen with the pop-up headlights is the best gen. Though I may be biased...

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pop-up headlights ftw!

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Still not Fall in DC but there was definitely a hint of coolness in the air this morning.

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fall is the a great time in New England. a nice weekend away to see the leaves or long bike rides is great.

no plans out of the ordinary unless i can convince the family to go to Paris over Thxgiving.

also, i woke up this morning to the first crisp and cool morning of the season. felt great.

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I got some fresh local apples at a festival on Saturday! and local cider is back in supermarkets, mm mm

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Yum. Gotta get me some apple cider donuts made at an orchard - ideally hot, right out of the fryer. They're the best thing about fall (non college football category).

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apple cider donuts are an underappreciated fall food

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you ever go to Cider Belly??

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oh, constantly

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Can't wait to get back in CFB and HS stadiums, it is bound to be a great time in a great atmosphere.

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my beloved alma mater has lost their first 3 games 50-0, 34-0 and 41-0. I thought we sucked at football when I was there but lawdy...

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I went to the local HS game a couple of Fridays ago & they lost 42-8. Significant proportion of the starters have to play offense & defense. The kids in the crowd were up for it, but I felt bad for the players.

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Some of our local programs faired a LOT better thru the Covid situations than others, for a variety of reasons. The result has been a fain number of mismatches. But there are still some really good games when the teams/communities that came through the last year and a half with a plan come up against each other.

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Our HS is good at a lot of sports, but for football the kids run small, a lot of parents don't want the physical risks, etc. etc. One of the weird local quirks is that the prep schools "poach" promising football players from the more academically elite high schools in the county, so by the time HS rolls around, the rest of the county has much better / bigger players.

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this kid was classmates with my older daughter and got peeled off in middle school, for example: https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/tristan-bounds/22077

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we overheard the local high school game going on Friday night (it's around the corner in my neighborhood), I feel like we should try to go to cheer on the locals

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Go for it.

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I gotta gauge if it's one of those things where no one who isn't a student or parent goes. (New England isn't that into high school football.)

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Back in grad school in Austin, a bunch of us went to one of those Friday Night Lights high school football games. We loosely pretended to be college scouts, just by wearing a college polo shirt and khakis with deep, proud pleats. It actually worked - the school brought us free nachos!

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hahaha which high school was it?

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bahahaha

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hahaha, when we were in Boulder, we watched the 4th Qtr of a high school game, walking back from the restaurant the route took us right by one of the entrances to the stadium.

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