148 Comments

Does anyone here think the Big 10 is going to give in to political pressure and play? Does anyone think the SEC/ACC/Big 12 will give in to reality and postpone their season?

Expand full comment

I think as long as the Michigan president/AD are against it then the Big 1X will not play. I don't see SEC/ACC/Big-12 postponing. Red states.

Expand full comment

Maybe and no.

Expand full comment

"But investors’ hopes were dashed when S&P Dow Jones Indices, the company that oversees the S&P 500, announced late Friday it would not add Tesla to its widely tracked index. Instead, the e-commerce site Etsy, tech maker Teradyne and pharmaceutical company Catalent, will join the S&P 500 effective Sept. 21."

I wonder if all the Tesla fan boys are taking this well... oh wait, I'm sure they're not.

Expand full comment

My niece's husband worked for them. Not sure if he quit or was laid off, but when they required him to come back off furlough he declined after seeing the way they were handling the situation with the virus.

Expand full comment

Tesla ended up selling $5 billion worth of its stock at the high point.

Expand full comment

the fan boys....ugh. if it is in the S&P/DOW just means that everyone's retirement will have to have some. and at way to high of a price.

Expand full comment

Ohhh nice, but it isn't walking distance to Memorial. Who am I kidding...we won't be watching games there for a couple of years.

Expand full comment

Stanford alum being “special” about masks shocker

https://twitter.com/guardian_sport/status/1303407447453970432?s=21

Expand full comment

I need to make a list of moderately famous 'furd grads, so that i'm not taken aback when one of them does something stupid.

Expand full comment

If you traveled back in time from 2020, what's a reference or code phrase that you'd use to find other time travelers? Something not too obvious (can't draw shadow orgs attention to yourself), but something that would show them you have shared knowledge of the future.

Expand full comment

covfefe.

Expand full comment

Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV

Expand full comment

Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV

Expand full comment

I'd intentionally mispronounce Faustian Bargain as Faucian Bargain

Expand full comment

First person to say something to me about a gathering storm gets punched

Expand full comment

I don't get this reference, so which one of us is the time traveler?

Expand full comment

If I were a time traveler and someone tried to identify themselves using a QAnon phrase then I would punch them

Expand full comment

(I forgot my phone when I went for a walk yesterday, so had no podcasts/music to distract me and this is what I ended up thinking about)

Expand full comment

excellent use of free time.

Expand full comment

Back to school

Expand full comment

Today is the first day of school in our remote-learning district. I guess things didn't go quite as planned because most of the neighborhood kids were outside riding bikes and jumping on the trampoline by 11am.

Expand full comment

The info hub/server that the whole county is using just crashed, so it's now an impromptu early dismissal day.

Expand full comment

This is the second week in MoCo. Still ironing out some tech issues but it’s much less chaotic than the spring thus far.

Expand full comment

I know my godson (6th grade) has just 2.5 hours of Zoom classes in the mornings and is given assignments to do for the rest of the day.

I don't think they're making the younger kids do a whole day of web meetings

Expand full comment

I haven't heard kids out playing but a local news site had a story about technical issues for Arlington County.

Expand full comment

Someone with an Eastern European name (eg, Vladamir, Irina).

Expand full comment

I dated a Russian girl named Irena in grad school

Expand full comment

Melanija Knavs

Expand full comment

My friend Mike's full name is Mikhail Alexandrovich Elkin and once for his birthday I drew it for him in a sort-of alcohol label style: www.instagram.com/p/BeUzbMdlASC/

Expand full comment

Been watching some old Hollywood movies. OF course some of the stars in those days had to change their names to sound less ethnic, something that probably doesn't happen today:

Issur Danielovitch = Kirk Douglas

Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko = Natalie Wood

Expand full comment

I didn't know that! What movies did you watch? We watched Eat Drink Man Woman this weekend, and I thought it was great 18/19

Expand full comment

Most recently, Rebel Without a Cause (hence Natalie Wood). I had seen it long ago in college but recently revisited because a podcast I follow is talking about it this week. Obviously a lot of the style is dated, but it touches on some issues that are still pretty relevant today.

Eat Drink Man Woman is very charming! I liked when Ang Lee was doing smaller character-driven stuff like that. Lately he seems more interested in technology and effects.

Expand full comment

I found Rebel Without a Cause unintentionally funny, I just couldn't take it seriously, and I watch a lot of old movies.

Expand full comment

I mean, it's done in a kind of melodramatic style, even for the time. Audiences were just more used to that kind of thing.

Expand full comment

"The film has not aged well, and Dean's performance seems more like marked-down Brando than the birth of an important talent. But "Rebel Without a Cause" was enormously influential at the time, a milestone in the creation of new idea about young people."

After reading Ebert's review, it's even weirder than I remember:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-rebel-without-a-cause-1955

Expand full comment

Oh, I know, but in other movies, it can work fine, there was just something about it that didn't work for me.

Expand full comment

I watched The Departed the other day. Not bad.

Expand full comment

That was a great movie. The food looked incredible. The best was when they showed him making the duck.

Expand full comment

Then there was the remake with a Mexican-American family, Tortilla Soup. Not as good as the original, but not bad either.

Expand full comment

I think I saw that one as well.

Expand full comment

Weather

Expand full comment

apocalyptic. temps over 100F, air quality over 160, sun is red to gold, wind 20 to 30 mph from the North (meaning hot wind, here).

Expand full comment

We hit 113 on Sunday afternoon. That temperature, combined with a nearby massive fire with ash raining down and apocalyptic red glare from the sun shining through the smoke, made for an interesting day.

Expand full comment

It was over 100 fall weekend and the power was intentionally out for a few hours on Sunday afternoon. Without fans or any breeze from the outside, we spent that time complaining and being covered in a sheen of sweat.

But, it also meant that there were no screens on in the house and I LOVED that part of it. No news or basketball white noise in the background and there were actual conversations!

Expand full comment

Overcast in Emeryville, but the light coming through my window isn't grey; it's yellow

Expand full comment

Same in W. Oakland...

Expand full comment

https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Bay-Area-yellow-glow-sky-wildfire-smoke-15550298.php

The big fires are now further away, so even though the smoke is drifting over our region, it's higher in the atmosphere and not affecting surface air quality as much. It's also being blocked by the fog layer, creating that yellowy glow.

Expand full comment

very interesting

Expand full comment

Delightful. We didn't have to put on the AC at all during the weekend. It's getting a little warmer and more humid over the next few days, but we should be able to start opening the windows again by the weekend.

Expand full comment

The weather this weekend was an absolute delight

Expand full comment

The weekend was beautiful; then yesterday the wind shifted and picked up and the fires started/took off. Today it is middle of the night dark at almost 8 AM due to wildfire smoke, and we have miles of territory under evacuation orders.

Expand full comment

My brother (in Tigard) lost power for a while last night from the high winds and such

Expand full comment

After a day of burning down homes, buildings, and infrastructure, and injuring and losing people, we have demonstrated that nothing whatsoever was learned from the Paradise fire down the road in California.

Expand full comment

Its clearing up enough now to be able to see, but its still a shade of dark yellow. Hadn't thought about it until I saw another thread above, but what a great way for a lot of schools that went back to distance learning today. Evacuations, power interruptions, a LOT of internet and cell traffic, wildly weird smoke effects, traffic rerouting, and more to disrupt the fresh start on distance learning.

Expand full comment

Hotter than hell. 109 in Moraga on Sat and 105 on Sun. Supposedly only 95 today. I'm just glad it isn't humid.

Expand full comment

Somehow Berkeley and North Carolina switched weather. It is low 60s this morning, low humidity, and beautiful blue skies. No air con needed. Will warm to low 80s during the day. And nothing is on fire.

Expand full comment

French toast

Expand full comment

My father taught me the style that soaks the bread in the mixture. Let is sit in there for a minute or two. It's moist and more substantive so your insulin doesn't spike as badly from having several bready/syrupy ones.

Expand full comment

Wait, how else would one make it? Soak the bread in the egg/milk mixture, fry it up in some fat (bacon fat is the fat of choice chez Scootinez), let it sit on paper towels for a minute to soak up excess grease, top with a bit of syrup, but not too much.

Expand full comment

Before that, everyone I knew *dipped* the bread in the egg mixture. Like only a few seconds.

Expand full comment

Oh, we're soakers here. Just a quick dip would definitely create an inferior product.

Expand full comment

we always gave more of an aggressive dip. Like really submerge it, before frying in butter.

Expand full comment

Prefer it savory but basically fine with it

Expand full comment

Ditto

Expand full comment

Don't like it.

Expand full comment

you are dumb. Is delicious

Expand full comment

I think I don't like sweet bread. Although chocolate chip pancakes are good.

Expand full comment

Elsewhere in college

Expand full comment

I didn’t watch any college football this weekend. I watched a little Tour de France and the Italian Grand Prix, which was more interesting than usual.

Expand full comment

SMU, aka Dallas Methodist, vs Texas St. was a very competitive and entertaining game.

Expand full comment

Monza? That was nuts!

Expand full comment

Yeah, while I’m not broadly in favor of rules problems deciding a race, it was fun to see some new faces win - and Hamilton can still race a bit when he puts his mind to it.

Expand full comment

I saw some of the Tour de France on Saturday morning during a part of the stage featuring lots of downhill riding on damp, slick tarmac. The speeds they hit in those suboptimal conditions are incredible.

Expand full comment

It’s bonkers. I’d think twice about driving at 50mph on those downhill stretches far less riding at that speed.

Expand full comment

I didn't even realize college football was on this weekend. Since Cal isn't playing, I probably wouldn't have watched any college football.

Expand full comment

I knew that some of the G5 schools were playing, but I didn't realize that the independent teams were playing until I saw that the BYU-Navy game was going on and the score was 35-0. At that point I figured there's no point in watching.

Expand full comment

BYU vs. Navy

Expand full comment

Today in CV19

Expand full comment

Gyms just re-opened today. As did playgrounds. See y'all in, like, 2023.

Expand full comment

i went to SoulCycle outside in Philly this weekend. was pretty well orchestrated.

- bike 6+ ft apart

- outside in a parking lot structure

- everyone had headsets to listen to music

i hear private gyms in NYC are open, but i just go to my basement

Expand full comment

One of the gyms nearby has taken over a corner of the strip mall across the street and does spin classes there. I've also seen a yoga class a couple times a week in the park across the street from me. As one who is just a runner and always outside regardless of weather, I would prefer one of those outside classes if I was broadening out.

Expand full comment

My gym has been having outdoor boot camp classes at the lake. Social distancing and masks required. This is week 1 of 4. We finished the previous boot camp on 8/28 and had a week lay off in between. The sense of somewhat normalcy is the only thing keeping me going.

Expand full comment

The gyms seem like the worrisome of the two

Expand full comment

Yeah, I don't really see outdoor playgrounds as a big risk for transmission.

Expand full comment

[Some researcher at SDSU]: Sturgis caused a quarter million infections and caused $12.2b in damages.

https://twitter.com/SDSUCHEPS/status/1302480031638147074

Expand full comment

One of the females No 2 hangs out with tested positive and is asymptomatic. So he sent us a text that he had to be prepared to move in case his test came back positive. Basically he hangs out in their suite every day so I guess they told her it was very likely he and her roommate would be positive. I guess Vandy isn't preventing non-dorm members from entering even though they're supposed to. Luckily his test came back negative as did her roommate's. I asked if they would re-test her in case it was a false positive and he said they now won't test her for 90 days. They feel their test is extremely accurate.

Expand full comment

so of course it was a false positive.

Expand full comment

yeah which is why I'm confused why they won't retest her. I suppose she could always try to find a local place to get tested but I think she can't leave the building. I think she can only go to downstairs to pick up her food.

Expand full comment

Oktoberfest

Expand full comment

Blech, beer.

Yay, sausages.

Expand full comment

Sitting around a picnic bench with a bunch of mates drinking too much beer all day and eating roasted pork knuckle sounds pretty damn good right now.

Expand full comment

Something bad that made you stronger/wiser

Expand full comment

I don't know about stronger/wiser, but there definitely was a major inflection point in my life that felt really bad at the time. Years ago, shortly after getting married, my MIL offered us $$$ for a down payment to buy a house. We got one in contract, classic plan of buying the worst house in good (North Berkeley) neighborhood. 48 hours before we were to close on the house, the seller checked herself into a mental institution to void the sale.

We kept on looking, got close to some deals, but never closed, and then I think my MIL needed the $$$ for something else. Anyway, it changed the path of my life - built my own live/work unit instead, which put me on the path to manage the building, and ultimately develop other live/work buildings. Ces't la vie.

Expand full comment

I worked my way up from the bottom in my current profession and didnt start til I was about 30 so was always a bit of a late bloomer professionally speaking. I took a job with a new company to get my first real "promotion" and it was a disaster. My boss and I were like oil and water and after 6 months he told me I should find a different career cause I wasn't ever going to make it in this one. I didn't agree, I just thought he sucked as a manager. I left after 10 months, the shortest I have ever had a job. 13 years later I am the #2 in a company 10x the size of the one I left and my old boss is still in the exact same job as he was back then. Suck it, Kurt.

Expand full comment

Fuck Kurt.

Expand full comment

But in all seriousness, I'm glad I had a similar experience. Fit within a company cannot never be emphasized enough.

Expand full comment

What is your industry?

Expand full comment

I'm in Strategic Sourcing so the strategic engagement, negotiating and contracting part of the larger Procurement umbrella

Expand full comment

so... what?

Expand full comment

he buys stuff for a large company.

Expand full comment

this is how I had to explain it to my father in the end

Expand full comment

within the procure to pay cycle, we're the front end. We're given requirements... we find it... negotiate it

Expand full comment

After the Credit Crisis, investment banking contracted massively. I held on for a few more years, but there was a moment when I realized that my career in that industry was over. I was crushed. I felt like a failure. So I moved out of Singapore.

It forced me to step away from the rat race. I'm unstressed, live a higher quality of life in a lower-cost city, and its the best worst thing to happen to me.

Expand full comment

I’d say grad school taught me the value of knowing when to cut my losses but since I’m still in my current job...

Expand full comment

Going through a painful divorce. Emerged with a Stoic outlook on the world which has served me well since 2011.

Expand full comment

How did you get that scar?

Expand full comment

palm of my left hand, from a pocket knife used inappropriately at boy scout camp.

Expand full comment

Scar on my left leg just above the knee. Chainsaw kickback. Took about 3 months for all the wood to come out of the wound,

Expand full comment

car sets for infants were optional in the 70s

Expand full comment

When I was seven or so, I went on one of those Chinese-tourist bus tours of Vegas, Grand Canyon, and other parts of the American Southwest. One night, we had stopped at a rest stop and I was just outside of the convenience store when I saw the bus driving away. I started to run through desert after the bus when I fell and got a deep gash on my thigh just above my right knee.

Turns out the bus was driving over to pick us up.

I still have a massive callus on that spot to this day.

Expand full comment

Bitten by a dog (not ours)

Expand full comment

Slipped and scraped most of the skin off my knee while walking down into a bat-filled cave in New Mexico. Was really annoyed because the previous scar on that same knee had just been fading away, but now the new one is worse.

Expand full comment

My wife has one scar on top of another on her right knee and both of them were from falling on Block Island in RI. She’s not shown much interest in going back.

Expand full comment

One on my right wrist from a drunken tumble

Expand full comment

Small one on my cheek from chickenpox. A bunch on my legs/knees from various bike crashes as a kid/teenager. V-shaped on near my elbow from a motorcycle crash (off road).

Expand full comment

Major scars. Ankle, Torn Achilles. Right knee, fell off my bike riding down a hill without any hands.

Expand full comment

This one on my eyebrow? Chickenpox as a kid. The one on my shoulder is surgery. This one down here? (Makes a circle with thumb and forefinger on knee).

Expand full comment

OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

Expand full comment

Trump Orders Reporter To Remove His Mask At Press Briefing

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/face-mask-trump-white-house-press-jeff-mason-234423760.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=1_02

President Donald Trump demanded that a reporter remove his face mask in the middle of a question at a White House press briefing on Monday — but the journalist refused.

“You’re going to have to take that off. Just take it off,” said Trump as he pointed to the mask worn by Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters.

“How many feet are you away?” asked the irritable president, referring to social distancing efforts to help stop the spread of COVID-19. “If you don’t take it off, you’re very muffled. So if you take it off, it would be a lot easier.”

Expand full comment

I'm guessing I'm in some government database now. I was in the park reading over the weekend and where I was sitting I could see they had closed down Key Bridge about a half mile away. Protestors have been regularly blocking it on the DC side. After awhile I noticed a drone flying over the bridge. Later, after the bridge reopened, I started to walk home and the drone flew by overhead headed toward downtown DC. It went a ways past then turned around, came back, and hovered right over me for about fifteen seconds. At least I resisted the urge to wave or worse.

Expand full comment

About a month ago local police installed a video camera in one section of my usual biking route. I guess someone had been tagging the walls of a tunnel on the trail with politically charged graffiti. So now every time I pass the camera I stick out my tongue and flash a peace sign. If that gets me put on a local list somewhere, then so be it.

Expand full comment

The feds have been hoovering up cell phone signals for years if you’re remotely close to protests, so I guess now they have their own picture of your smiling face to go with it!

Expand full comment

Trump refuses to criticize Putin after Russian assassination attempt on Navalny

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/07/opinions/navalny-poison-trump-putin-vinograd/index.html

Expand full comment

Why would he criticize something that he wants to do?

Expand full comment

US Post Office destroyer Louis DeJoy being investigated for campaign contribution violations by coercing executives at his firm to contribute/reimbursing them + lying to Congress

https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1302712873207181312

Expand full comment

He's the perfect symbol of this administration. Guilty AF

Expand full comment

Oops

Expand full comment

Probe launched after bags of mail dumped in 2 spots in L.A. area

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mail-dumped-glendale-parking-lot-los-anagles-area/

An investigation was underway after surveillance video captured bags of mail being dumped in the parking lot of a Glendale spa, CBS Los Angeles reports. The video, taken outside of 7Q salon, shows a Budget box truck backed into the parking lot. Moments later, bag after bag could be seen being tossed from the back of the truck and onto the ground.

Lilia Serobian, co-owner of the salon, found the bags and took cell phone video of them Thursday when she realized they were filled with hundreds of unopened envelopes and packages from the U.S. Postal Service.

"It was completely unusual," Serobian said. "If they're taking for their personal use, basically, why'd they have to drop off all the unopened packages somewhere."

Expand full comment

This smacks of someone who didn't want to do their job rather than a DeJoy thing.

Expand full comment

It wouldn’t be the first time

Expand full comment

PRO

Expand full comment

My grandmother has never liked Djokovic's temper and was glad that they defaulted him out of the US Open because of it.

Expand full comment

DeAndre Hopkins getting PAID 🤑

https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1303370625009020929

Expand full comment

Kawhi gives the Nuggets the middle finger

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1303175733183836160

Expand full comment

I'm glad that clip shows so many angles of it because I was convinced that finger was going to get dislocated. Dude's got strong fingers.

Expand full comment

I thought for sure broken on the rim.

Expand full comment

CAL

Expand full comment

I looked up the hex codes for Navy Blue and California Gold and now I use those hex codes for customized background or font color on a lot of my personal spreadsheets.

Expand full comment

For others who are interested: https://brand.berkeley.edu/colors/

Expand full comment

Me too! I use their color palette for my personal spreadsheet. Work uses my corporate colors, which are unfortunately red and white.

Expand full comment

This is the one I used (https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/calberk.sidearmsports.com/documents/2017/6/1/17_Cal_BrandGuidelines.pdf), but I like the shading from the link you provided.

Expand full comment

GO BEARS!

Expand full comment

Former Cal runner and Olympian Alysia Montano is on the cover of the most recent Runner's World magazine. I haven't read the full interview yet but glancing through it's more about activism than just running. I think she's still in Berkeley.

Expand full comment

Yes, I saw her at a Lunar New Year festival on 4th St earlier this year!

Expand full comment

Robert Paylor stands on his own for the first time since the incident

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1303101209205714944

Expand full comment