unclevlad

Alcaraz takes sets 2 and 3...6-1 in the third...but Tiafoe comes back. Forces another tiebreaker, and wins it...he is 8-0 in tiebreakers in this Open, a new record.

First crack is from Alacaraz. Double faults to drop the first set tiebreaker; Tiafoe, 8-6 in the breaker.

Heh. No, probably several years ago. The good news is, it's all labor, so...not exactly cheap but the estimate is manageable.

I suppose so, but on the flip side...who cares about em? That's not meant to be personal. It's just that there's no fan connection to them. Expanding on them is something world-building geeks like (yeah, I count myself), but the majority want to start from something familiar. Plus, here's the background info on the Haradrim: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Haradrim Dark skinned, barbaric, warlike, oppressed periodically, evil. What kind of picture does THAT paint? And what kind of reaction would be generated?

Meat is life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And in it now. Saved serve relatively easily twice to win the last set 6-2. Ruud technically takes over the #1 spot, but Alcaraz passes him if he wins tonight. The Ruud story is amazing enough...he started the year at #8. But Alcaraz started at #32...to vault SO much in a year is amazing. And it's not a 1- or 2-tournament result, as was Raducanu. Mostly it was a great clay-court run...won Barcelona and Madrid, quarters in Paris (losing to Zverev). But he did great on the Sunshine Double, Indian Wells semi and winning Miami. Those are both hard-court 1000s.

And if it is Ruud-Alcaraz, they're playing for #1 AND their first major title. First time for that; to start with, it's very rare for both players to be in that position. Ruud is up 2-1 in sets and a break in the 4th; Tiafoe-Alcaraz comes after it. Scheduled for 7 Eastern, but it's 6 now. IF this goes to 5 sets...ok, probably not, Ruud just got a 2nd break to go up 4-1 and about to serve...but if it does, that match will get started late. A question will be how much Alcaraz' marathon 5 hour match (that ended, IIRC, around 3 Eastern time on Thursday) took out of him.

The issue is the basis for the objection, and its highly subjective application. As a counter, tho, one can argue many of these took place before it was even a consideration, particularly during the heyday of the Hollywood star system. And figure, too: multiple centuries of Christian iconography present Christ as white. So...it's not as simple as the tweet presents. It never is.

What's scary as heck to me is that the Florida commission overseeing judges, went with (according to an NBC story on this) a $50,000 fine and 120 day suspension...backed up by a report from the Florida Bar Association. Another reason why this was egregious on the part of the judge...if anyone *needed* more...this is from the Bar Assoc's story https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-news/court-removes-brevard-county-judge-murphy/ That's rather damaging to those defendants. I don't think it's grounds to overturn any adverse finding down the line, as these are preliminary hearings, but it's really bad. EDIT: he agreed he botched that later.

So, hand washing glasses and plastic; not unusual. Hear a THUD!! What... The faucet's turning looser than it should... Wait...what's that big gap...... Cheapo home builders. Granite countertop, great! Undermount sink, fine. ONLY using glue to mount it...not so fine. The glue gave out. The better way is to support the weight; the glue will fail. It lasted for about 10 years, tho, so the builder's off the hook. And of course it's Friday afternoon. And these days, service people tend to be VERY busy. First countertop people said...late September. OK, that's not good. Next one said Monday. YAY! Can't figure they'll work weekends in any case, right? That'll get the sink re-mounted. There's a second part; they want to dismount the garbage disposal (understandable). So that'll have to be remounted...and reconnected anyway, so dismounting it is no big deal. They did point out, tho: the adhesive will need to cure. So I have the plumber coming in Wednesday. Ugh. Oh well. A few days isn't a crisis.

Note from the US Open. Tomorrow's Swiatek-Jabeur match is the first time since 2013 featuring 2 players in the top 10. One...sure. Serena, clearly, if nothing else. But that's how prevalent upsets have been for a pretty amazingly long time. What's curious is, it's happening now when the rankings for both men and women have been so volatile for the last couple years.

The details in the NYT story are kind of macabre...they sound like bad TV writing. Story says Mr. German had made a freedom of information request for emails, planning a follow-on. I rather suspect that they'll come out now, supporting his initial charges (that Telles created a toxic workplace, harassment, improper contact, we know this drill.) The evidence sounds as solid as a CSI show, as csyphrett said.

Rules changes have been made official today. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-2023-rule-changes-pitch-timer-larger-bases-shifts --Pitch clock, including a rule that the batter has to be in the box. Love this. Super-fidgety hitters and slow pitchers are incredibly annoying. --The infield shift is out. Hate this. Just caves in to robotic hitting. OTOH, the fact is...that's how it's taught ALL the way back to elementary schoolers (a comment I've heard a few times) so expecting hitters to adjust is impractical. The bases go from 15 to 18 inches as well. Fundamentally, the goal here is safety, to help avoid collisions and tripping, particularly at 1st. So pretty much what's been discussed all year, I think. EDIT: ....how much ya wanna bet that the conspiracy theory types will argue favoritism...that the clock's started slower for Yankee pitchers, for example. One thing that MIGHT happen...if this is operated by the home team, then there's a more plausible case for favoritism. Not sure who'll run this, tho.

Still going, but it's a foregone conclusion at this point, with the Bills up 21 halfway through the 4th, and the Rams overall getting very badly outplayed. Aaaannnddd....Stafford throws another pick by trying to dump a ball short but getting it batted. That said, it's week 1. Good win for the Bills, as a road game, as one of their tough games (division winner vs. division winner). Rams have to be worried, tho, that a notable concern was the domino effect of losing Miller, and, yeah, the pass rush hasn't been impactful. Sloppy game, as expected. 7 turnovers to this point, with 5 minutes left.

Well, I suppose that's better than calling him Chucky........

Got me curious. The last time any Canadian team won the Cup? Montreal, 1993. By comparison, the diehard hockey towns of LA and Tampa have won 6 in that period.

When one sees "under medical supervision" connected to "family has been called in"...yeah, that's not a good combination, ever. Well...RIP. I'd say you earned it, ma'am.

Or to be precise, Sorcereur avec Fromage....

HSMA p. 7 has the core list of HTH martial arts maneuvers. Going past that, you get into the rules to build your own if you want more. I have a couple I often build...a power strike that's +1 OCV and +3 DCVs OR -1 DCV and +4 DCVs depending on my mood, for example. It's pretty easy. What I'd MUCH rather see than a list...especially just SFX-related stuff since that's trivial to specify...would be a maneuver builder that writes up the HSMA rules. Huh...I might just do one for myself. Not like the rules are that complex from a coding standpoint. HD's list is, I believe, straight from HSMA. And yeah, at least in the HSMA styles, there's almost nothing that's not on that list. There might be a few...especially ranged combat (Enerjutsu), and I think the speeder package (Hypercombat) might. But the vast majority are standard maneuvers using style-specific names. Books like Lucha Libre...that's almost a campaign book where the fundamental focus is the world of Mexican-style cinema and wrestling, so it wouldn't surprise me at all that there are wider-scaled maneuvers. And was there an HSMA prior to 6th, with the build-a-maneuver rules?

And to take that further, out of how many cops and military? And on the politicians, they don't mention the level, or the nature. City council? County school board? The count also includes candidates, not simply elected. So how large is the pool of people here? Not saying it's good that there are any...but there will always be some. So, the phrasing is misleading, but hey, it's the Daily Beast. The original AP story discusses the fact that just being on the list means little...how many times have you signed up for something you later went, oh, this was a mistake.... To be sure, some people saying that are doing CYA, so denial skepticism is justified.

Oh, I hear ya. "Rabid" doesn't begin to describe some of em. There was a period where, driving home from work...Finebaum's radio show was on. Ohhhhh man................ On the flip side, after being #11 (?), Oregon dropped out altogether. Yeah, that happens when you get taken behind the woodshed. EDIT: ESPN Bottom 10 is out.

Grinder of a match. And just now, Francis Tiafoe backed up his win over Rafa by taking out Rublev to make his first-ever Grand Slam semi. He also moved into the top 20 for the first time ever. This is his breakout tournament. Man, the Vuelta's snakebit. Down to 138 riders from the 184...a full 25%. And now down one of the more notable riders left.

Preseason ratings have about as much predictive value as a Magic 8 Ball.

Yes, it was. IIRC, the Seminoles in Florida have a too-similar tale. But putting down the Indian tribes was considered laudatory, and it's part of the folklore of the West. Arguably THE most prominent character type in American movies is the gunslinger. Billy the Kid is lionized to a fairly large degree, despite the fact that he was nothing more than an out of control punk with a fast finger. The Chicago gangsters were romanticized for quite some time. Bonnie and Clyde. It's this broader history LL is referring to.

Figure that the last events to qualify as an insurrection would've been during the Civil War, so it wouldn't come into play. The key takeaway is in calling it an insurrection, and the article points out that several different judges now have said yes, it was. The guy was convicted, the event has been characterized...boom. This will likely go up the judicial chain before anything is really settled, tho.