unclevlad

alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die nuff said

Don't even claim you saw THIS coming: This is even more surprising because it is St. Louis. Were this Arizona, I wouldn't be even slightly surprised. Or the Mets, or some of the other franchises where bad leadership is the expectation.

Good argument. I'd include Han, tho, as co-lead, and arguably most-loved character. Can't say the same for anyone else from Star Trek; Leonard Nimoy could count but, unfortunately, he passed away. Let's also note that this is a *pure* PR stunt, so that limits the potential pool greatly. It has to be someone instantly recognizable by non-fans. I'd also include some of sci-fi's most noted space-related writers, but unfortunately...most of them are Golden Age and passed away a very long time ago. Especially the recognizable ones like Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Bova,.... And, no, I won't nominate Orson Scott Card.

I don't. It's a disease. It's like any other natural disaster; it just makes like a royal PITA. OTOH, the liars, the grifters, the manipulators who trade the lives of others for personal and/or political gain..."hate" is way too mild. Many of them rate Dante's Ninth Circle...Antenor, the region for those who betrayed their homeland or political party.

Heh. Anyone else read Brust? Love the Vlad Taltos books, hope he gets around to finishing the series. Dzur is interspersed with scenes at Valabar's, the premier restaurant in its city. At the dessert stage, the waiter rattles off 5 or 6 different desserts like that. And OMG, they ALL sound sooooo good. Telnan is Vlad's dining compatriot; he's not exactly used to this. After the waiter (Mihi) rattles them off: Telnan stared at Mihi. Mihi looked smug. At last, Telnan said, "What?" "No, no," I said, "Don't make him repeat it. My heart couldn't take it." Of course, this is after similar lists on the peasants' platter and the entrees. Oh man, I want to go there just once......

In tennis...they're playing Indian Wells finally. It's a spring tournament normally. Brett Haber dropped a comment...come Monday when the next round of ATP rankings comes out, Roger Federer will fall out of the top 10. He held on to the rankings points because the ATP restructured points retention...normally, the points track over the last year, and it's a rolling year. But with the pandemic they made it 2 years. The only event left after this is the ATP Masters in Paris...but that's limited to the top 8, who are all ahead of Fed. Next major event would be the Australian Open, and if Fed can't play that, he'll lose the points from being a semi-finalist in 2020, I think. That'll drop him quite a bit. Rafa Nadal's ranking will in part depend on how long he's out; his foot problem is apparently chronic. It severely limited his schedule this year, and looks like will continue to do so. OK, when he can play...he's playing well. But he might not stay in the top 10 a whole lot longer either.

One of the major, embarrassing points about the anti-vax position WRT Covid is brought up there...that there are numerous vaccination mandates already in place. So how is a vaccine mandate unconstitutional, or an abuse of power? The flip side here might well be...imagine if mumps appeared today, rather than having a long, long history. Mumps is *generally* minor, but ints complications include encephalitis, and that's anything but minor. Transmissivity is, I think, similar. It seems likely that mumps vaccination would be fought just as strongly. Measles is more serious in some ways...but its fatality rate is 1 to 3 per 1000. Covid's is about 1.8%, or 18 per 1000 cases. A recent thread about a local Sam's Club that didn't enforce mask requirements devolved into the usual shouting match...and one <BLEEEP><BLEEEP><BLEEEP> actually said "Covid only kills 1% of the people who get it, so what's the big deal?" I kid you not. That entire thread got deleted, altho it took much longer than I expected for that to happen. It's plausible that measles would still draw far less pushback because it affects small kids, and can cause serious issues for a fetus. Those are hot-button problems. Covid "only kills old farts"...which isn't true, but shows extreme ageism. But even thinking that, should something like these diseases start to appear, that the US' response would be so crippled, is dumbfounding. (Pun absolutely intended.)

Some of it is merchants being cheap, particularly if they're offering free shipping. If they're charging a significant premium then do that, OTOH, I go ballistic. Doesn't even matter if it's not somthing that can get hurt without *completely* getting mangled (clothing, for example). They're just pocketing the shipping charge. Oh, and to you DASTARDLY HEATHENS who wanted to DENY me my coffee, I say unto thee: HA!!!!

One does what one can, but I hardly think I can take credit. IMO it takes a special skill to blow a 19 point second half lead. Granted, that skill seems to be sufficiently broadly distributed throughout all sports, that one can question whether it still counts as special. Writing in The Undefeated, William C Rhoden is calling for the NFL to act against...not Gruden, but those with whom he communicated, should they have been receptive to his rants. Apparently 650,000 emails are under review. MANY of them will be innocuous...probably the overwhelming majority. But even 5% would be 3000+, and one can ask how many of these were finding acceptance. It's beginning to look like this might be the racist/sexist equivalent of Ray Rice, where the case triggers a significant shift in how the behavior is perceived. Gruden himself is now done...but he's almost certainly not unique. While Rhoden's position smacks, to a degree, of a witch hunt, I don't think it can be rejected out of hand either. That said, I suspect the league will be very reticent to do so; the negative publicity risk is huge. BUT we'll have to see if they have any choice.

Looks like most of them were to Bruce Allen of Washington. Story is, they only came to light because of the complaints about Washington's culture. One can presume that, to a degree at least, Allen was a sympathetic ear, so...why would he inform anyone else? Arguably, the organization with more egg is ESPN and thereby Disney.

Unfortunate it has to be this way, but not even slightly surprising. Take that back. What's surprising is that this is the first such I've heard of, altho admittedly that's not saying a whole lot. I like the suit, in that there's no mention of damages, so the parent's not doing it for money or vengeance. Nope...just a mask requirement. Not sure if I'd rather the parents win...or the school board settles before trial and passes the order themselves. That'd render the case moot, I think, so...no trial, no argument, no decision. Long term, the best situation would be to win at trial and at least start some precedence momentum, but for the kids in that district, it'd clearly be better to get a mask order up ASAP.

I don't have any real hope that the situation can be fixed. It's possible that if the moderate, anti-Trump Republicans can join with some of the Democrats, maybe some good things can happen...but the hard left Democrats whose theme song is Queen's I Want It All will sabotage the effort as much as the hard-right Republicans. We've been in a form of civil war for some time; only in the last few years has this become blatant. Even before Trump, cooling things off would've been very difficult; his 4 years enabled and emboldened efforts that no one sane would've conceived as possible 10 years ago. It'll probably take another generation to assess the overall damage...the degree to which he accelerated the sociopolitical civil war into an actual civil war.

At least for me, part of my issue with Gruden was simply facial expressions...he always seemed to be snarling, and that predisposes me to think that's *him*. And his attitude has always turned me off. So, no, I don't think we're judging just on this. That said, I'm still very surprised it went down this way SO quickly. But I shan't miss him. Oh...it wasn't one incident. Copied from a story in the NYT: So he's got no chance of getting a public-facing job related to football, like another stint on MNF. This is beyond toxic. So...no, with THESE coming out...I'm not even slightly surprised now. And I daresay we can probably write the Raiders off for this year and probably next year. Figure that this year, the team's gonna be discombobulated for several weeks. Carr is hosed. Whoever the Raiders play? If ya wanna bet, take the other team and give the points..... (NOTE TO SELF: It's Denver -2 1/2 or -3 1/2...be interesting to watch the line.) Colts 22-3? WOW. Color me stunned. (Watching baseball again.)

I'd send both of you letter bombs for threatening MY COFFEE!!!!! but the batteries on the detonator would give out before they could arrive.

It already allows for that. I might have seen it called anything more than "2 bases for everyone* like...once? Maybe. Always seems like the umps don't want to stick their neck out. And baseball is still seriously anti-replay overall. Not as bad as soccer but close. They also have the worst rules with regard to replays, IMO...the slide rule, where for a tenth of a second the runner lifts off the bag and it takes 3 minutes to even see it...oh he's out!! HATE that one. Trap or catch situations are a total disaster. Fielder seems to catch it? Ruled as a catch? Runner on first heads back. Throw to second. GUARANTEED to get an out no matter how it's called in replay. So Braves and Brewers are on. Yet another How DUMB can you be? case. 2nd inning, IIRC. Runners on first and third, one out. Fly ball to left. Left fielder's Yelich...not much of an arm. Runner tags at third. No problem so far. BUT...*so does the runner from 1st*. Yelich has no play at the plate...so he throws to second. DUH. The stupid runner on first DOES NOT STOP or try to reverse course to get back to first. He's out easily...it wasn't close. And he's tagged out *before the runner from third crosses the plate.* NO RUN SCORED. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. SO MANY players show no judgement when it's needed. It's my #1 pet peeve in sports. Oh, quick aside. Interesting that the TV broadcasts have come up with a new ad hook. Shots from the center field camera are extremely common. The mound has all that clean space on it. So they're slapping a brand name into the picture stream now. Changes multiple times. EDIT: ARGHH!!! ANOTHER one. Rays-Sox tied up 5-5, bottom of the 8th. Runner on 2nd, 1 out. Fly ball to right, caught...2 outs. Runner tags and tries to take third. FINE, it took a VERY good throw and tag, and it was close enough to go to replay...but he was OUT. ARGH!!! Does ANYONE learn how to run the bases correctly any more???

Of course. Things got delayed just long enough so delivery would be today. A federal holiday. AAAARRGGHHH!!!! (yes, I can be terribly impatient at times...)

Ahh. Explains it. Thanks. Obviously no lightning struck the KC defense, given that they were so un-energized......

Wild day. Rays-Sox. Top of the 14th, 2 out, runner on first. Rays batter sends one off the wall in center; hits the wall firmly on the descent, and hops hard and fast. It actually *hits* the outfielder, who didn't have any time to react at all. This, not surprisingly, redirects the ball...and it flies right over the very short outfield fence. Confusion reigns. The runner on first was going on contact, of course, with 2 outs; he would've scored. Pretty good change the batter would've ended up at third. Nope. Final ruling...explained later...until a fielder establishes firm control, accidental contact is still considered to be the batted ball. So...ground rule double. No run allowed; they never seem to even if the rules allow it. And yes....the next batter flies out, IIRC. NO runs. Boston scores in the bottom of the inning, game over. Houston-White Sox. 6-6 in the fourth, runners on 1st and 3rd, no outs. Ground ball to the first baseman who throws home. Ball goes wild, gets away; run scores. On the replay? The throw home hit the batter, who I thought shifted a good step further inside the baseline on his path out of the box. LOOKS like interference to me...but not called. Shades of Reggie Jackson, IMO.

<sigh> So on the Nextdoor neighborhood app, someone posted that the local Sam's Club wasn't enforcing mask wearing in the store. Rather quickly that brought out the anti-vax crowd with their usual collection of misinformation. "It's a mandate, not a law. It's optional." True for vaccines, false for masking. And so on. And so on. And so on. And so on. And so on. and so on. I need a keeper to hit me with a cattle prod when I start typing in a response. It's lose-lose; say nothing and let their BS stand; challenge their 'facts' and get sucked into their morass. And start spiking your BP and giving yourself a migraine.

And the Raiders lose at home to the Bears? Are we beginning to see reality sink in? Bears didn't move the ball consistently...but did have 2 drives. Raiders helped big time on the first...roughing the passer *twice*, the first on 2nd and 22 at the Bears 20, and holding in the red zone. 3 free first downs. Nothing like that on the second. But the Raiders did absolutely nothing on offense. Both teams barely broke 250 yards. Glad I missed that one. Russell Wilson will miss at least the next 3 games. Unless they can suddenly find an offense without him, and with the starts of the Cards and Rams, the season may be more or less over before he gets back. And...please...tell me it's a nightmare. The Cowboys might be competent....??? NOOO!!!!!!!!!! EDIT: I've had baseball on tonight. SNF kicks at 6:30 my time; it's 10:15 now, so 3:45 so far...and there's still 6 minutes left. Anyone watching...why has this game been SOO SLOW?? OU-Texas took forever but there were over 100 points scored. 12 TDs, 6 FGs so 18 kickoffs. Those are always like pulling off the highway to get gas...even if it's right off the exit, it STILL eats up 20 minutes, no matter what. And secondary question...box score suggests the KC defense has been pathetic. Comments from the observers?

If you do that often enough, it may well be worth looking into a UPS or USPS box. I've had that happen a time or two with books...altho all my gaming stuff, and the vast majority of my books, have been digital for the last several years. Oh...and note, if it's too big for the box...rarely a problem for me, as we've got those big multi-boxes, maybe 20 individual, small boxes per house, and 2 package boxes that are notably larger, with their own keys...then their other option is to leave it at the door. That's a potential invitation to the porch pirates.

I've been considering either a box at one of the UPS stores, or a mailbox at the PO...but a lot of that is, I live in a tract subdivision. Bunch of finger streets, using the same numbering...not always all that consistently. It's not particularly uncommon to get misdeliveries...right number, wrong street, for example. Usually one of two. Last week 2 pieces were dropped in my box, for 2 doors over. The biggest factors here: I get a monthy distribution from my educational-institution 457. It was...annoying...to set up direct deposit. So it's not huge, but it gets annoying to sweat it. Second: my IRA got shipped over to a services firm, and they're CHEAP. I MUST call them; they WON'T do direct deposit. THAT one, I do 1 distribution a year...so it's quite substantial. Ohhh...and a couple years ago? It got mis-sorted, or dropped off somewhere else. After about 10 days from calling them, it hadn't shown...so I called them. They cancelled the first check and cut me a fresh one. I think I got the replacement before the original finally showed. This also isn't the first time I've seen a package take a bizarre route...I think Phoenix (lots of Amazon stuff gets sent from Phoenix) to EP to somewhere else has happened a couple times. But, yeah, there've been some other horror stories; somehow, some clerk at UPS tagged a watch I ordered as having a CITES issue...crocodile strap will do that. It requires a secondary inspection and more paperwork. Well, *that* triggered "additional brokerage services" and special processing...for which they charged me $130 or so. It was BS and EXTREMELY annoying because the status updates were seriously non-informative. With the help of the manufacturer, it was resolved and I got almost everything back, but it wasn't fun. And FedEx and DHL also both *stiff* you if customs duties are required. At least for me, by and large, customs duties won't be very high. FedEx's service charge has generally been substantially higher. DHL's done the same. Plus, if it's subject to duties, there's additional paperwork and that doesn't always go smoothly. Overall, I'd strongly prefer to avoid the situation altogether, if I can.

Any team that loses to the Lions or Jabs, as a home team at least, deserves to be relegated.

Lord Dunsany, a very early 20th century fantasy writer

Might have something to do with the fact that they're now considered the worst team in the league... Oh...I see the problem, I think. Miami's also playing at the same time...against Tampa Bay. At the same time, and the game's also on CBS. There's mention in the blackout article on Wikipedia that the same CBS station shows both, in the Orlando market. So that might be it. Yeah, those Falcons unis...the gradient, but to me even more, the numbers. The slash mark serifs on things like the 3 and 6, in particular.