unclevlad

Shorter paragraph captures the most important point to me:

The churn never ends. It just buries itself into the ground and waits, like 17-year locusts.

He had a will; his wife is principal heir and sole trustee. It's just that an estate this large is insanely complicated, and the goal is to donate MOST of it. Easier said than done.

The $64,000 question of the week... How the HECK did 7-0 vs. 6-1 end up on Thursday Night Football??? This is a very plausible conference championship caliber matchup...but with the NFC, hey, it could happen in any round. Green Bay's a strong favorite to win their division, second only to the Cowboys in that regard. (After 7 games, the Cowboys have a 4 game lead??? Unheard of.) Arizona has the Rams chasing them...this could be like the National League West this year, or going back to the mid-2000's with Manning's Colts, where 12-4 couldn't win the division a couple of those years. Or possibly not; the Rams have more challenges remaining, with games against the Titans, also the Packers, Vikings, and Ravens. Plus round 2 with the Cards. Cards' schedule is very soft after tonight...Niners, Panthers, Seahawks twice, Bears. They do have the Cowboys in a game that *could* be for the #1 seed, and the Colts aren't awful.

There is no doubt in my mind that Bolsonaro is guilty of crimes against humanity; I've said that several times. If no charges can be brought in Brazil, then yes, I'd love to see the International Criminal Court bring him and the others mentioned to trial...but that seems unlikely. I don't know the mandate of the ICC, but it doesn't feel like this is in that mandate. Most of what's in there amounts to corruption...of a particularly heinous type, but corruption, profiteering, and incompetence. The charge of genocide against the indigenous people...that was removed. That's the one where an ICC case might well exist, it feels like.

Charlie Sheen could pull off some sides of Stark, but would've been WAY off on others. RDJ pulls off the brilliant side...you can totally believe he could build those Iron Man suits. RDJ pulls off the superior/disdainful/egotistical angles; Sheen's always struck me as a crude and condescending. Tony Stark has a god complex; Sheen comes across as a frat boy. I can't see Sheen-Stark doing the final finger snap. It was perfectly in keeping with RDJ-Stark. And my GOSH, RDJ *nails* the visuals. But, yes, their casting was inspired. Hemsworth. Hiddleston. Cumberbatch might match the RDJ casting; we just haven't seen enough of Dr. Strange yet. And Bozeman's Panther transcended the genre.

By this time tomorrow, more or less, we will pass an awful marker. 5,000,000 people dying from Covid-19. And in less than 2 weeks, we will surpass 250,000,000 cases. I don't track or mark most of the statistics much any more, but these 2 strike me. It feels appropriate to note them. Light a candle. Spend time reflecting. Pray, if you like.

It's taking place, but... Allen's estimated worth was $20 BILLION or so when he died. So anything and everything, even if it might seem innocuous, gets reviewed internally by 5 lawyers...then vetted by the PR department...before going through Legal again, just in case. So every decision seems to move at the pace of an NFL (or NCAA) investigation.

Just scheduled a combo shot...booster, and flu. Late morning tomorrow.

What's scary is, I can't argue with his opinions very much. MAYBE there'll be a surprise in the NFC and one of the teams mentioned gets in...not like the Vikes and Saints are so much better that it's a loss. But still, even before we hit the halfway mark, there's at least 6 teams (WFT, Eagles, Giants, Lions, Seahawks, Niners) that have no shot. And the AFC teams....... The only 'drama' with these guys is when the coaching carousel gets kickstarted. And who's on it...Pete Carroll, perhaps? Seahawks have been sliding for a couple seasons. I don't really think he'll be fired during the season, tho. Not paying close enough attention to say who'll get canned during the year, but I expect at least one in the next, say, 3-4 weeks.

Definition of Poor Scheduling Decision... The South Korea womens' national soccer team played the US team. It was Carli Lloyd's final game. 316 caps, Carli Lloyd. 2 time player of the year, Carli Lloyd. One of the anchors of one of sport's great dynasties, Carli Lloyd. 6-0, USA. Duh. Hopefully the South Korean team got a nice paycheck for it.

Not as a responsive-defensive action. This is what Deflection is for.; it's pretty much one of the exemplar situations.

11 years too late, but the Chicago Black Hawks have been called onto the carpet. In 2010, one of their players reported a coercive sexual advance by the team's video coach at the time. They did absolutely nothing because the team was in the middle of a Stanley Cup run. This left a sexual predator free...and made unwanted advances at a team intern. They let the coach go 3 weeks later...after the playoffs. And hoped it would never see the light of day. Yes, well, it did. It took a LONG time but it did. The NHL fined them $2M. This might've been the max they could; that, I don't know. Covering up such an action deserves the most severe punishment that can be applied. Execs that are still with the team, that SHOULD have acted, have all resigned...duh...but that's nothing after such a long period.

Ehhh....my pumpkin spice from Spice House lists cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove, in that order. It *can* work; but it needs to be added with a very, very light hand, and only to the right kind of base coffee. I've got a light-medium roasted Costa Rican I'm drinking right now, with notable fruity, bright flavors...no way I'd add any spice to it. Bed, Bath, and Beyond had "acorn spice" hand and dish soaps from Mrs. Meyers. I like the brand's dish soap...figued, What the hey, why not. Oops. The hand soap scent is VERY strong and lingering. Won't be getting any more of those scents.

Remember spending CRAZY amounts for disposable masks? IIRC, I got some masks (before mandates were issued, figured they'd happen) at Walgreens...but just once. Then I figured, OK, I'll get some TP from Amazon...cuz there wasn't ANY in the stores...and THEY had next to nothing. Ordered more masks...that orderr, AFAIK, never got shipped. I think it took 2-3 tries to find a seller that wasn't showing 6-8 week delivery times...figured the chance I'd never see it was too high. It was kinda amusing...a couple months ago, I saw disposable masks at that same Walgreens, while filling up the usual prescriptions. $15 for 50. Again, I'm pretty sure this was before indoor masks were required again...but I figured it was gonna happen. Even commented to the pharmacy clerk "remember what these USED to run?" and we shared a small laugh. But, yeah, I think the total stripping of those several items was a face-smack on an individual level...but that run, I'm pretty sure, was AFTER everything hit the fan. Early March, Italy got *hammered* by the first major wave outside China. That's when we knew the genie was out of the bottle. That was major news on the 8th and 9th. NBA shut the season down. Right after, the NCAA shut down all postseason basketball play. Other sports followed suit for much of that day. The NBA's was the jaw dropper. The NCAA's was a foregone conclusion. And then, I think, perhaps the icing on the cake. Trump's press conference, setting up the task force. Remember that? It almost seemed like he might DO SOMETHING POSITIVE. Yeah, we know how long that lasted...but still, it was a major about-face, and if anyone needed it after sports shut down, that made it all Too Real.

Not entirely true. Some of us expected it to be pretty bad. It probably is safe to say that none of us expected so much intransigence. And any hope pretty much ended a week after that thread started. That's the night the NBA shut down. Y'know, I could've gone another 10 years without being reminded of that stretch..............

Slight correction necessary. Only the first one, the candy holiday, is NOT a boozer holiday.

Something around 4 levels of Shrinking, so +8 DCV. But figure its base DCV is 3, so the net's 11. And that's a good point, but I'm not one to allow the kinds of simple, catch-all Drains. What OP posted, with some serious advantages...that's reflecting this by paying for the generality. I'd hate to see the skill roll, tho...at -30? That would be impressive.

How about...yeah, this is him finding his natural level...

I dunno, for me, trying to watch soccer is a great cure for insomnia, so if it's that late? Perfect timing! And when is soccer going to get rid of the stupid "stoppage time" and simply STOP THE GAME CLOCK like any sane person would do? So people can, like, UNDERSTAND when a half is over.

Real Madrid is a club, so they don't count.

EXACTLY what Drain has been set up on this Trigger?

To top off a fairly lousy day of TV football, we get Colts-Niners. In the Bay Area. In the middle of a massive rainstorm...this morning, I saw stories on weather.com. IIRC they were talking 5 inches of rain from this. It's also being described as an atmospheric river, dumping on the area. Yuck. There was MNF way back in 2007 that I mostly missed...and glad I did...Steelers beat Fins 3-0 because the field was totally unplayable. Rain, and a TERRIBLE field. I remember a couple wet-weather games on this field, and the turf didn't hold up. But that was some years ago. Still, heavy rain the whole game...it's gonna be ugly. There are no teams in the AFC with 1 loss. There are 5 in the NFC with 1 or 0. If Seattle beats the Saints tomorrow, that creates a 2-loss margin between the Cowboys at 5-1, and the rest of the conference. It also means there will probably be a desperate scramble for that last playoff spot.

Yeah, I just saw this. The details are pretty ugly, if they can be substantiated. It brings up a question, tho: were these issues reported, are they tracked? Who follows up when serious safety issues are disregarded? Who, if anyone, in this movie's production company knew anything about this? The end of the CNN story indicates complaints were filed on these 2019 allegations...with the production company and the Directors' Guild, but neither did anything. One can readily hypothesize that it's Penn State and Sandusky, or the Catholic Church shuffling priests accused of inappropriate contacts...just cover things up, don't do anything, don't rock the boat. The other angle is, OK, if these allegations can be substantiated, now there's pattern and practice on the part of the assistant director, and to my mind, that supports at least reckless endangerment charges. At least...because from what I've found, that's only a misdemeanor, and only a year in jail. Doesn't feel nearly adequate. But there's no doubt in my mind now, that charges against the assistant director WILL be filed.

Whereas I would've been shocked that the Broncos actually managed 3 wins... Raiders (surprise!), Cards, Bucs, Titans, Pats, and Giants (!!) all win in pretty much no-contest games. Bengals, just looking at the score, might look that way, but it was 17-13 Baltimore...then the Ravens forgot how to defend, looks like. 4 plays, 75 yards; then 3 plays, 90 yards. Boom, boom, out go the lights. 2 more TDs in the 4th to add insult to injury. Still, 6 serious cakewalks on the same day. Not a great day for us couch potatoes.