I guess I need a title … uh … the Grill, whatever today is.
1. Goodman’s Spoiled Bastard: Lost S6/E1 is up. I pretty much agree with his take on where they’re going with the parallel timelines (including the speculation that the non-crashed survivors may end up on the island anyway) and also with this:
The reason I’m still watching into this sixth season is because the writers have gone beyond being interested in cobbling the issues above into some kind of “mythology” but have, with admirable flair, created a cast of characters that I care about. None of the rest would matter if you didn’t care about the characters.
2. JoePo may be a bit prolix, but pretty much everything he writes includes at least one gem that makes the whole thing worth reading.
a) An appreciation of Stan Musial includes this reality check:
Musial. People like to say that people have changed. I don’t see that exactly. The world has changed. Technology has changed. Movie and ticket prices have changed. Gas prices have changed,. Many of the rules have changed — the reserve clause is gone, Title IX is in place, they let people swear on cable TV, airplanes and restaurants won’t let you smoke and you can no longer hold your infant in your lap in the front seat of your car. But people? I don’t know. I get a little queasy when I hear old time ballplayers talk about how none of them would have used performance enhancing drugs, and a little queasier when I hear old-time politicians talk about how they always reached across the aisle. You will still hear a lot of people romanticizing America in the 1950s. Those people tend to look a lot alike.
b) His story about NFL films finds an excuse to quote the great Bill King’s call of the holy roller:
*Bill King’s famous call: “Stabler back … here comes the rush … he sidesteps. The ball is flipped forward. It’s loose. A wild scramble. Two seconds on the clock. Casper grabbling the ball. It is ruled a fumble. Casper has recovered in the end zone! The Oakland Raiders have scored … on the most zany, unbelievable, absolutely impossible dream of a play. Madden is on the field. He wants to know if it’s real. They said yes, get your big butt out of here. He does! There’s nothing real in the world anymore.”
My favorite part of that call — the “He does!”
Mine too.
(NFLFilms himself also has good taste in quotes)
c) And his collection of random thoughts about the Super Bowl includes this fine bit of analysis:
8. Saints’ coach Sean Payton is a mastermind at creating matchup problems.
9. This leads to the inevitable comparison between coaching football and playing chess.
10. In chess, though, it doesn’t really help if you yell at your bishop.
3. SF Beer Week starts tomorrow. (And, conveniently, lasts 10 days.) Drink up.
1. In college, I played electric banjimer for Accidental Zen Treatise on Formula 1 Racing and Life
Why are flight search engines so stupid? I’ve been searching for San Francisco – London – Bologna – Paris – San Francisco and getting quotes of $5000 and above (along with some of wild and crazy routing). But if I split it into (a) SFO – LHR – SFO and (b) LHR – BLQ – CDG – LHR it comes out at about $1000. I realize that there’s a lot of data out there, but it seems like adding a few pretty simple extra rules/hints could vastly improve performance.
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Interesting. My guess is that the mix of intercontinental flights and those within EU is causing the high price you’re finding. It actually may be a lot cheaper to do it by splitting your ticket, and even cheaper if the starting and ending points of the EU flights aren’t LHR but one of the other London airports using the discount euro airlines. Which you may not be able to do using a single search engine.
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I can’t do the budget airlines with my schedule, but yes, splitting the ticket is what drops it from $5000 to $1000. My question is, since this is such an obvious thing to try why don’t the search engines include it in their rules?
#3 – Boy howdy, that’s a whole lotta yummy beer doins. If nothing else we should gather at Triple Rock for Ape In Space on the 11th.
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I’m not a big fan of the monkey in beer form, or the crowds that go with it. But I plan on being there tuesday for the barrel-aged beers. Also tempted to stop by on saturday to try the imperial stout.
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We might try for the progressive dinner, especially if we can get into CP. We have an unused gift certificate for there that’s getting restless.
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Color me jealous. I have an arbitration March 1-5, so I’m likely to be notably absent during normal-human-being hours until then.
1. Following one of Goodman’s links leads to the realization that California itself is a decoherent state.
Get the fuck out, panda!
“His arrest history includes charges of battery, drug possession and drag racing.”
Odd, on beautiful days such as this, wonderful and fanciful titles dance to my tongue.
Bad news for Shooty Babbitt.
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That’s a pretty good take on why I’ll miss Marty Lurie’s show…the happy, gentle little soundtrack in the lazy hour before the game starts. Baseball Muzak to chill to.
The real screw job is that KTRB’s hedging on its alternaKNBR sports station identity to bring in Savage, who will stay just long enough to say enough outrageous contrived things, regain notoriety, and bail for a real station/contract after serving his obligatory quick Norman Dale tour of the sticks.
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That sucks.
I don’t want to listen to a station that broadcasts that poisonous fuckwit Savage, so I guess this is the year I get an MLB radio subscription.
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it’s better any ways.
Ratto, on how terrified we should be by the terri-fists.
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Just tell him terrorists play for the giants.
Scary
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I’m not positive what I just saw. I think I’ll be a zombie soon, though.
Poppy’s on some crappy game show on GSN.
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What?!
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Your visage.
There was a Poppy on some game show. Her name was Poppy.
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I thought there was a 1.6% chance it was truly you–she took like 12 years and nine schools to get her degree.
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Bwahaha! Hey, I’m only carrying super-duper-ultrasenior megacredits from five schools. And four of ‘em are JCs.
1.
Totally agree. I also think that people who need Locke to actually be a special person, or who demand that Jack (or Sawyer) ends up with Kate are crazy. Locke’s a great character, special or not–and we still get to see the awesome Terry O’Quinn on the show as the Nemesis.
(emphasis part of original article)
I pretty much agree with this, too. I’ve met a lot of people that stopped watching at the beginning of season 3 and still complain about how nothing ever gets answered, not realizing that seasons 4 and 5 were full of plenty of answers (as well as new questions).
I’m really interested to see how Ben reacts to Smokey, because he’s probably realized that his daughter wasn’t who he thought she was.
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I realize now that I have irrational hatred for this show. I don’t know why.
imagine if you were caught on national TV browsing FK.
imagine if you were caught on national TV abusing your power.
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Nice.
Paging FSU. Schrute speculates on the conclusions of the ballpark task force, rumored to be released soon.
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I think ‘ol W. Blake has been having a bit too much wine.
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Note that his odds leave the house with a vig of around 25%.
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That sounds like Selig’s style.
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#6 seems tailored to my tastes
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My sources don’t have any new info on the timing of The Commission report. However, they do suggest the possibility/likelihood that the report itself won’t be released at all…or that it may already been given to Selig…and that all that will be “released” will be whatever conclusions or summary that Selig is inclined to make public.
I’m betting on #2 (limited time for Oak/Fre to get ‘er done), as I’ve said previously. It will be hard to dismiss Alameda County as per se unviable right now. Giving the AC options a 12-18 month window to persuade the A’s is long enough to seperate real options from fantasies, while being short enough to let Wolffish just blow them off until the clock runs out and officially then gives the team the South Bay option.
On my belief that MLB is inclined to tie its own hands to the least extent possible, it probably won’t be #1 (SJ only), and defintely not #3 (Oakland before Fremont) or #6 (SJ dead to A’s forever).
Poppy baiting.
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What’s the over/under for number of posts blocked by the moderator that use a shortened form of the animal + the city name?
Paging batgirl and her airhorn. Two men fend off cougars by swinging a big stick.
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You rang?
I have to question the methodology of this study, especially with respect to the “least drunk” city.
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Um, yes. That’s hardly plausible.
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Did the study account for the fact that Hub Irish Catholics have a baseline BAC of 0.1?
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That’s gotta be a joke…. Although presumably there’s been a bid decline in the last 6 months to a year….
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There are still Kennedys somewhere in the city.
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That and your response to me are some quality snark.
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thank you. My snarkometer is working overtime today. Some minor trouble in paradise this morning, and some minor trouble with a junior researcher who I am managing. Not enough to make me mad, but enough to produce two good quality snarks. I’m probably done for the week.