196 Comments

It's Fat Bear Week, everyone! Go vote on today's first round matchups. https://explore.org/fat-bear-week

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The Big Lie, I will demand a recount and full audit if my bear doesn’t win.

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Mac

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Last night at Pub Quiz, during the music section one of the songs was Louie Armstrong singing Mack the Knife - and I started singing Mac Tonight - I think that advertisment stopped airing in like 1990.

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The Big Mac is basically the Club Sandwich of burgers. I don’t mind them but I prefer the quarter pounder.

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and Me. The clip that Paul Rudd always showed when he went on Conan's show.

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"The Beggar's Opera" was a satirical 1728 English musical that adapted popular contemporary tunes and added new lyrics. It lampooned corruption via the main character who was a highwayman. This was later adapted into a German version via the 1928 German musical "Die Dreigroschenoper" that had the same plot. The smash hit from that was "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", a song you'll no doubt recognize:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7eO7MKEZAY

The musical was later translated back into English and had a disastrous run in America of only 10 days in 1933. The play was reworked 22 years later and had a successful six-year off-Broadway run. One year into that run, Louis Armstrong covered it as an instrumental. Four years later, Bobby Darin sang "Mack the Knife", which is why we all know the tune about "MacHeath" the early 18th century highwayman and the murderous things he does with his knife.

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Little Mac, from Tyson’s Punch Out. King Hippo was a real challenge until I finally figured out how to handle him.

Glass Joe reminds me of Kris Bryant...sooooooo soft.

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I've never had a Big Mac. I've had plenty of McDonald's, just never a Big Mac.

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They're fine - I'll eat them every once in a while - especially since we don't have quarter pounders here.

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i have had them once or twice. i dont like the special sauce

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What was that ad making fun of McDonald's a little while ago where the McD's executives were talking about their hamburger innovations and somebody brought up the "special" sauce. A woman in the room was like "isn't it just thousand isl..." and everybody was like "SHHHHHHHHHHH!"

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Never? That surprises me, even I've had one, although I think I preferred quarter pounders

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Give the DBD a single line from a commercial jingle

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...and away go troubles, down the drain!

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I guarantee it!

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The best part of waking up...

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How you do find something like this?

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Step 1. be old AF

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PLTM!!! holy forking shirtballs that's awesome. I initially didn't click on the link because I thought it was just a regular Folger's commercial.

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That's *something* in your cup.

That was awesome. When they put their foreheads together, I thought, "that's pretty creepy". But thought it was still a Folgers commercial. Got me!

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Dublin, Berkeley, San Lorenzo...

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Cupertino, San Jose?

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yup

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For NorCal kids only . . .

"I'm a credit man."

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*cringe*

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Always felt bad for those ladies having to carry Paul around . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0B2GZsNbwE

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For a great low rate you can get online, go to the General and save some time!

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Let's see how old we are...

"When you say Bud, you've said it all"

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Go for the Gusto...

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I'm from the "Zima. Zomething different." era.

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Not to be topped by Richard Lewis in the Boku commercials, telling us it was a drink for adults.

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Farms...in Berkeley? Mooooo!

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Dublin, Berkeley, San Lorenzo, Cupertino, San Jose!

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damn...should've read before I posted.

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And I shoulda read further down before I added to two 408 shops

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Meow, meow, meow, meow...

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1-877-KARS-4-KIDS K-A-R-S Kars for Kids

That commercial singlehandedly pushed me off commercial radio and entirely onto NPR

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I've listened to a lot of sports radio over the last decade -- formerly WFAN (NY) and now WEEI (Boston) -- and this song is forever seared into my head.

I think it's worse when you listen to these stations online, because they have a smaller set of national commercials that they play OVER and OVER and OVER again, sometimes the same commercial multiple times in a row, just on repeat. Whereas if you listen over the real airwaves on an analog radio, there's more variety and local advertisements.

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I despise that ad.

That is all.

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I always hit the mute button when those ads come up.

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If I'm in the car, I will hit the power button and simply wait it out.

That's how much I despise that ad.

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For me, that's "I'm Tom Shane..."

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In my mind, that series of commercials is a step-down in annoyance from the singing kid. Although, I do find his flat monotone to be incredibly flat. There's just a wee bit of inflection to let you know he's human. Tom Shane sounds so...repressed.

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I'll be shocked if anyone recognizes this jingle, but it played on every A's broadcast on KSFO in the late 80s/early 90s and is engrained in my brain. Good luck -

"Every beer man has his once in a while beer..."

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Matthew’s…6400 Mission Street…top of the hill, Daly City…

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this was my other one.

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DBD Kitchen

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DBD AV

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Started season 3 of Sex Education and I’m enjoying it. Two episodes in but it is very funny.

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Started Midnight Mass on Netflix....interesting. Just 1 episode in...

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It's light on scares and has a double helping of overlong monologues but I found the final two episodes properly exciting.

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I can deal with some monologues, provided the writing & acting is good, that remains to be seen...

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It rests very heavily on the performance of Hamish Linklater, who I think does an excellent job.

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Crumbling Democracies

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Oh jeez. MIT Review previews report where there are a huge amount of foreign troll farms trying to influence cultural views

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook-troll-farms-report-us-2020-election/

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So do people think the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Reconciliation Infrastructure Bill are DOA now?

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Not yet...

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Australia's Second Amendment is non-negotiable!!!*

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1442474803978440705

* Australia's second amendment in 1910 allowed the central government to assume the debt of state governments

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AOC challenger has a new commercial. It doesn't mention much about her Qanon and Proud Boy support

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1442981570684637185

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Today in COVID

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You don't need to catch Covid to die of it. A thread.

https://twitter.com/summerbrennan/status/1442806675325476867

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Ugh. Not nearly enough words, and still one too many.

Anti-vaxxers are fucking terrorists.

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Ignerrorist

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Cal

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Marcus Semien sets MLB record for HRs by a second baseman. Go Bears!

https://www.si.com/mlb/bluejays/news/semien-homers-to-set-second-basemen-hr-record

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Cal vs WSU tickets. Cheapest with fees on Seatgeek is $38. I thought it would've gone down.

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still overpriced

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Battle for the Bottom of the North this weekend. I like our chances to beat WSU.

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Go Bears!!!

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Benefit for Cal Band. Oct 8 @ University Club - Memorial Stadium

Dinner, open bar, raffle.

Tix start @ $240/each.

https://events.trustevent.com/templates/index.cfm?fuseaction=templates.home&eid=4109

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hard pass

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Other College

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UW Milwaukee midfielder sets NCAA record for fastest goal @ 3.2 seconds. Opponent was Youngstown State (OH).

https://twitter.com/MKE_WSoccer/status/1442237861290553347

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Who could have possibly predict this? Boise State cancels vaccination/test requirements at games.

https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/college/mountain-west/boise-state-university/article254510197.html

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The only thing I find shocking is that this lasted as long as it did and they didn’t scrap it before the season started.

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It's a recruiting/market reach event. And a way to get an interesting game between 2 teams that don't have the schedule room to do a home and home. And I agree, unless its an uncommonly cool situation, I VASTLY prefer on-campus games to neutral site ones; they are almost always a better fan/customer experience.

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Mormons love Las Vegas, so I’m sure the BYU fan base will love this.

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A decent percentage of Las Vegas residents are mormon - when Cal played the Vegas Bowl, CGB had a ton of discussion about this.

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Notre Dame wanting more Polynesian kids' eyes on their program I'd wager

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I know these destination games make money, but unless it's a bowl game, I'll take my college football on campus, thank you.

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They're a bit iffy. It's been a while since SC was a draw for anything on the east coast - I think the last time I saw them here was against Syracuse at the Met Life stadium, and to be honest that was as far as I was going in one day to see them - if it had been at the Carrier Dome, I'd have passed.

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When a college game is at an NFL stadium, the big city swallows it up. It's just not a college football weekend in the same way.

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On the other hand, I saw Aaron Rodgers debut against Kansas State in Arrowhead Stadium. Atmosphere was not lit and it took me 3 hours to get out of the parking lot, but I didn't have to go to Manhattan either.

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I agree but I view these games as more for recruiting, money, and a chance for transplant alums/fans to go to a game without having the travel far.

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Three of our next five games are against the bottom-25 (WSU, Colorado, @Arizona). A loss to any of them is a death knell for our waning hopes of a bowl game.

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A loss to any of them is a death knell for Wilcox and staff.

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At least it should be.

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TypiCAL sour old Blue - not winnable? Both TCU and UW were winnable.

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I agree, it should be but this Cal and it probably won’t. To be honest, unless we go 1-11 Wilcox is coming back next season. We could probably go 3-9 or even 2-10 and Wilcox would probably be allowed to return with some changes to his coaching staff.

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Hopefully the mighty Bears will finally show their stuff and put away lesser opponents without all the drama of a Greek Tragedy.

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So, you're saying there's a chance...

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I wouldve posted this on the power rankings article but it slipped my mind. I would just like to compliment Oregon State coach Jonathon Smith for the job he is doing up there. For years Wilcox had my praise of doing the most with the least, but considering 2019 (even though they went 5-7) and this season so far, Coach Smith has that team punching above its weight very well and im impressed. I would not want to face them on any level, as they seem scrappy enough to want to upset anyone in the conference (see Civil War last season). Cristobal will probably win P12COTY if UO finishes well but Coach Smith should be right there with him considering the building of that program.

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Which is surprising because I was never that impressed with him as the UW OC and I know plenty of UW fans who were happy to see him leave.

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Pro

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ICYMI: Arizona Cards fails to be a student of history of what happens when you attempt a >67 yard field goal with your all-blocking crew on the field.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1442193451873759232

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Just punt the ball! or Punting is winning!

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Or simply take a knee. There was literally two seconds left at the snap.

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https://twitter.com/AdamMcCalvy/status/1443310247477719046

Adam McCalvy

@AdamMcCalvy

Devin Williams is being placed on the 10-day IL with a fractured right hand. He told us he had too much to drink after Sunday’s celebration, got upset about something and punched a wall with his pitching hand. He will need surgery.

“If I could take it back, I would.”

1:22 PM · Sep 29, 2021 from St Louis, MO·Twitter for iPhone

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Wait. What? Tampa Bay and Montreal may be planning to BOTH be home cities for the Rays? Go RayPos? Go Ex-Rays?

https://twitter.com/sportslogosnet/status/1441906705403625472

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This is about pushing Tampa to take on financing for the stadium. Splitting one franchise between two cities 1,300 miles apart is a harebrained idea that cannot work in the long term.

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I would love it if it did happen because it would give me an annual excuse to make the drive up the Northway. God, I love Montreal.

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You need a baseball game to go to Montreal?!

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Me too, and not that I can act on this, but I found Montreal women to be among the most attractive I've ever encountered.

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Boy howdy

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Tamponreal Ex-Rays

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This seems like a terrible idea.

The Rays have a similar problem as the A's: a terrible stadium in a bad location and ownership that is too cheap to do anything about it.

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Giants beat D-Backs 6-4

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/giants/article/Giants-beat-Diamondbacks-stay-2-games-ahead-of-16495240.php

Dodgers over Padres 2-1

https://www.truebluela.com/2021/9/28/22699471/walker-buehler-scoreless-dodgers-padres-recap

Both of their opponents tried to come back against the bullpen but fell short. Giants lead the NL West by 2 games with 5 left to play.

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Can anyone explain why on earth Brandon Belt would be BUNTING, putting himself at significantly increased risk for injury deep in an important pennant race, and headed into the post-season? If that was a Kapler call, it would rival his worst decisions ever (and as last season's stretch drive proved, there are lots of them). If it wasn't, failing to coach Belt our of such lunacy would be an equally bad decision.

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I don't think bunting carries significantly greater risk than swinging a bat.

The result of losing Brandon Belt for up to 4 weeks certainly makes it easy to second guess the decision for Belt to bunt. But at the time it was a freak injury and it still is a freak injury.

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Leaves both hands as stationary targets further into the strike zone for an extended amount of time.

I get the idea of trying to beat the shift, but you can't lose site of the big picture when making risk/reward analysis at this point and expect optimal results. And as good as the talent is at making up for mistakes, the margin of error with the Dodgers, and now the Cardinals, out there is pretty marginal.

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Are you implying that the pitch was intended to injure? Or that Belt was lazy?

You can't always account for freak injuries.

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I would want my players practicing ways to get on base if defensive shifts are going to be a thing. You can't expect that a pitch is going to come in high and tight at the hands JUST when a guy is trying to bunt. The chances of bunting for a hit are probably greater than the chances of that.

This is 100% hindsight criticism.

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He's been doing it on occasion throughout the season, trying to bunt to beat the infield shift. It's not a sacrifice play.

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You're pinned at your own 1 yard line. Do you a) go into a 12-personnel package to at least threaten to do the obvious or b) go into a no back set. And what kind of play do you call if somehow you chose the latter?

https://twitter.com/NFLBrasil/status/1442229714911825925

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Has a LOT to do with how your o-line stacks up with the opponent's d-line and what the opponent's edge rush/blitz capabilities and preferences are. In that position, you have to be sure you can block for whatever play or alignment you choose to run.

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Yeah, that's the big question. How is your OL doing? If there's a good chance they're going to screw it up and maybe even commit holding in the end zone then you play conservatively and don't do anything fancy.

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Cards win 17th in a row. Will play either Giants or Doyers, whichever does not win the NL West.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32302659/st-louis-cardinals-win-17th-consecutive-game-clinch-national-league-second-wild-card-berth

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The only salvation for this season will be if the Giants could slide into the wildcard game and then be one and done. Man, that'd be great.

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Bitter man

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hey, the Giants have been actively sabotaging A's stadium efforts in Oakland, hoping it becomes a one-team market. If they succeed, you'll really see bitter.

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Further, if Fisher and Kaval weren't so fucking greedy, they could easily stay in Oakland and build a new stadium at the Coliseum site. But Nooooo. Fisher and Kaval have to have a new stadium along with a real estate deal that will enrich them from merely fucking obscene to really over-the-top-I-aspire-to-be-Elon-Musk obscene.

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In any case, when the Coliseum is about to come down, they should first order up 10 Chinooks to lift off Mt Davis & transplant it to the top of Allegiant.

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this is about whether the A's ownership is incompetent - of course they are. This is about whether the Giants can fuck themselves. I submit they can.

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Oy…I’m pulling for the Howard Terminal park more than anything, if for no other reason than to keep Newellbany from getting bitter…

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Can someone explain to me how the Giants are making the Oakland city council vote no on Howard Terminal?

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thank you for your support

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Knock it off.

Fisher and Kaval don't need that kind of help. They're fucking incompetent. And evil, besides.

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The A are basically the Chargers of MLB. Incompetent ownership, playing in a dilapidated stadium, continue to threaten to move unless the city gives them free land and pays for a new stadium.

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What's the matter with an A's fan hating the Giants? You don't think the Giants have been sabotaging?

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A's have an elimination number of 2 with 4 games to go, and they'd have to jump over 3 teams to get to the wildcard. Not happening. At this point, should I be rooting for Seattle to beat my A's tonight to help get the Red Sox out of there? Am I allowed to do that? Three AL East teams in the playoffs is two too many.

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My Blue Jays lost to the Yankees in the middle of a dogfight, didnt need to see that.

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Old Mickey D’s menu in that pic seems basically like In N Out but with worse burgers

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I can recall when Big Macs were $1.95 or something like that in the late 70's/early 80's.

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Unpopular opinion: Chick-Fil-A is a pedestrian chicken sandwich.

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With talk like that, the Confederacy is going to invade into Manassas and then continue north to your house.

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I'll just bide my time until a Sunday, when the Chick-fil-A folks won't work.

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Not unpopular at all. I would choose Popeye's and Wendy's any day over Chick-Fil-A.

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The one Popeye's spicy chicken sandwich I had was horrible. May have just been the location I went to since No 3 said they're pretty good. I think Chick-Fil-A has the best fast food chicken sandwiches.

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I like Chick Fil A as well. I really like their fries as well and all their sauces.

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The Chick Fil A sauce is amazing. I tried making my own using a recipe I found online. It wasn't bad. Then I found Target sells a large bottle of it. Game changer!

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Don't have experience with or much access to Popeye's, and if I'm at Wendy's I'm not getting that deep into the menu to have chicken when a Wendy burger is available. Chick-Fil-A featuring chicken is a change of pace advantage, and the times I've had them, have been perfectly adequate. (I'm not sure how un-pedestrian a chicken sandwich can be without getting too far into some fringe, probably a wildly over-spicy fringe.)

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they're consistently okay, which is a perfectly adequate sales strategy

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Mcdonalds burgers for me have been trash ever since I grew up, Im not sure what it was back in the day but for me Im strictly a chicken nuggets w bbq sauce type of guy.

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I'm the same, except that I am also willing to have some of their breakfast items as well, like their sausage biscuit and hash browns.

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One of their best, and best selling, items.

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I tried an egg McMuffin once (not sure they still sell it) but have avoided these heavy, indigestion causing breakfast items.

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When I get McD breakfasts I do either the Sausage BIscuit or the Sausage McMuffin. I don't like the Egg McMuffin eggs. I do like the ones in the Sausage and Egg Biscuit. For some reason they make the eggs a different way for the two sandwiches.

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No idea what happened in your experience, but they are excellent. And also not anywhere near big enough to be heavy in any sense (unless you but a whole bag of them). More of a breakfast snack, which is good on the run.

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McD's burgers have remained essentially the same for half a century. However, the rest of their menu (eg, fries, shakes, pies) are quite different. I'll add a bit of perspective. Yes, McD's burgers are trash - but that's relative to other types of burgers. And chicken nuggets didn't exist. Back in the day, it was very expensive to buy consumer goods. Cars, clothes, and food were far more expensive on an inflation adjusted basis. And the quality/availability wasn't there. Where could you get a better burger than McDonalds? A restaurant, a competing fast food place, or make it yourself. On a relative basis, a restaurant burger is about the same value - which means that a restaurant burger is a multiple more expensive (eg, $3 vs. $18). McD's was cheaper than competing fast food, but it was comparable in quality. But if you went to a grocery store, fresh ground beef was not like today due to less efficient logistics. Grocery stores either laid out chunks of defrosted ground beef or you bought frozen ground beef in plastic tubes. If you got fresh ground beef, it was very expensive vs. frozen. And substitute foods that you'd make at home were also trash - often made with canned, frozen, powdered, and boxed ingredients. Food quality is exponentially better today.

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Also McD's tastes (mainly) the same no matter where you are on the globe. So if you've been on a train from Beijing to Moscow for.7 straight days, or have to grab something quick between meetings in Beijing, or are recovering from the flu in Paris - you know what you're getting and what it tastes like. And also getting a coke with ice in france in 1992 was nigh impossible.

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I loved the McDLT. Those were the best McD sandwiches. In the last 10 years the infrequent times I'd go I just got the $1 McChicken. Once both No 3 and I got a Big Mac just so he could try it.

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Good point re logistics! I actually don’t mind MCD’s, especially if I am in an airport or a foreign country. I do like their fries better than In N Out, which for some reason opted to go the soft/soggy route. The burgers cannot compare to a place like In N Out but they are so consistent, sometimes that hits the spot just fine.

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