Cup of Coffee

July 1, 2011: Seattle

61 Comments

Yesterday I went to Seattle for the last time before the move. I won't miss Yakima, but I'll miss being a couple hours from Seattle.

Also, Jeff A, the Milkmaid was touched that you remembered her birthday. Well done as always.

61 thoughts on “July 1, 2011: Seattle”

  1. "Homer, the plant called and said if you dont come in today, dont bother coming in Monday"
    "Woo Hoo! a four day weekend!"

    Im one of the 'lucky' ones who get some free vacation time because the State is broke. Without going down the political road too much, it stinks!

    1. I think we're all hoping that the shutdown doesn't last long, but it sucks that it's going to cost you and many others a lot more than just a little inconvenience. I had to send my wife to get my license tabs yesterday because they expired at the end of June (and because I first procrastinated and then forgot to do it myself). She said it was a bit of a zoo with everyone and their uncle trying to get their license and/or registration-related business with the state done before the shutdown.

    2. Moss loves that quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Homer, and uses it all the time.

  2. I kind of thought that maybe this NBA lockout thing would be averted or short lived. Apparently, I'm in the extreme minority on this. I will be very upset if this lasts a long time. The league sort of ebbs and flows, but man, they are on the top of a wave right now. In my view, the problem is primarily about revenue sharing. I'm not sure how that is resolved in the context of a labor dispute, but here we go.

      1. Color me an avid fan. I'll always be back, and I'm such an avid fan that I watch games from Opening Night all through the season.

        I know you are all shocked to hear this. 😛

        1. It always seems weird to me when sports leagues have this situation. When I think about strikes and lockouts, I usually think about people that aren't payed much to begin with. Here, there is a tremendous amount of money at stake for both side and it's hard to imagine that they both don't desperately want to get things fixed before the season starts. Still, I don't know a whole lot about the situation, so maybe they're just so far apart at this moment that it might not happen.

          1. My off-the-cuff view on it is that with a lot of money at stake, doing well in negotiations could mean many extra millions or billions down the line, so there's a lot of pressure on each side to get everything they can out of the deal. A lot of money to be lost, but a lot of money to be gained, too.

    2. I'm rather astonished that the players offered salary givebacks so early in the negotiations. I personally can't stand having something promised to me only having it not be delivered.

      It's hard to have a lot of sympathy for the owners writing contracts they couldn't afford. To me, it seems as though as much as anything, the owners need safeguards put in place so that they don't run themselves out of business trying to compete with one another. Surely it doesn't speak well to their discipline, but in any competition I suppose it's good to set clear boundaries or some participants are going to go off the deep end.

  5. Off of yesterday's responses, the MMM will go ahead and go up Monday. If it works with bS, I'll let the book post go up in the morning and I'll schedule for noon or 1PM.

    1. that works for me, Magoo. I will plan to put the book post up around 9 a.m. central time.

  6. Hey Spooky, speaking of your move, when will you officially make it? I might be near LA in about three weeks, although I haven't verified if I have to go or not.

      1. Well it sounds like this trip is pretty likely to happen, so if you aren't busy on the 19th, perhaps a couple beers would be in order.

        1. Sounds awesome. At this point I have no idea what I'll be doing and when...I'm at the mercy of the studios to see when I'll be working. I'll keep it as open as possible.

          1. Sounds good to me. I'll be traveling alone and will have a car, so there won't be any planning required.

            1. Jeez, its near impossible to arrive at LAX at a decent time. I probably won't be in until near 8:00 pm on the 19th.

              1. I have heard of Pizza Port, but I didn't realize it was near LA, although unfortunately they all look to be a bit far away from where I'll be staying. Damn. Thanks for the other links though, I will definitely use that info.

                And Spooky, I'll be getting into LA at 11 on the 19th, so I will have plenty of time to find beer.

                  1. That works pretty well. I'll be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in Montebello a couple miles from there. That should make things easier.

                    1. wow -- had to look up both of those. had an idea where Montebello was, but I hardly ever got more than 15 miles from the ocean or The Valley

                    2. It must have been hard, Rhu_Ru. 😉

                      I'll always cherish my once-in-a-lifetime SoCal office with an unrestricted view of the ocean. No buildings in front of me - just the ocean clear out to the horizon.

                    3. Actually, living there was kind of claustrophobic. Jammed against the ocean with people for a couple hours driving time in all directions.

                      I needed seasons and horizons.

                    4. people for a couple hours driving time in all directions

                      That really got to me the last two years I was out there. At times I just wanted to get out somewhere far enough where I could actually see the stars. Yeah, I wound up seeing them by going to 29 Palms often enough, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind at the time.

  7. I had rugby practice last night in the 95F heat (100+ heat index). Even with stopping every 10-15 minutes for water breaks, I'm definitely still feeling the effects of the heat.

    2. I had softball "practice" for about an hour last night, which wasn't too bad. I wanted to go running too, so I waited until about 7:50 before going out. I tried to wait as long as possible so that I could go running and not have it be dark out. I could have probably held out a bit longer as it was still about 90. To compensate, I went a mile shorter than usual.

    2. Ooh, I missed one yesterday! I had a customer who claimed to be the biggest Harryhausen fan ever, but she insisted his name was "Harry Hausen," not Ray Harryhausen. I showed her a boxed set of his, and she was too proud to admit defeat and claimed they were two different people who did the exact same things (and apparently, the same movies).

      OH! I also got a guy who was Fleetwood Mac's biggest fan, and yelled at me for not believing him that "Fleetwood Mac" was the name of the person. In his defense, he tucked his tail between his legs when I proved the guy's name was Mick Fleetwood.

      OH OH! Two girls were arguing over who was the biggest "Sarah McLaughlin" fan. They pulled me aside and asked to settle it for them. I said "You're both mispronouncing her name, so I'd have to say neither of you qualifies for the title."

      1. I want to punch Sarah Mclaughlin for making my wife cry all the time with those ASPCA commercials. (ok, maybe not punch.)

      2. but she insisted his name was "Harry Hausen," not Ray Harryhausen.

        Semi-related: Dad tells a story about Mom hearing Dann Bilardello's name on a Reds' radio broadcast, something like "Bilardello up to the plate" and thinking he was Bill Ardello.

        1. Not much different than Vic Torino.

          The local card shop owner told me a tale about a guy who came in looking for Paul mow-LEE-ter cards. I'd have laughed louder, but as a kid in the early '70s with no network ballgames to speak of, trying to pronounce NL ballplayers' names off the baseball cards was entertaining, I'm sure. Julian Javier, Billy Grabarkewitz, or Jim Lefebrve come to mind...

          1. Now that you mention Moliter, I remember when he got his 3,000th hit and Dad was explaining the significance. I thought his last name was "Paulmoliter", I guess thinking sort of like "Palmolive" floor cleaner.

        2. The first few times I heard the name "Luol Deng", I thought sure his name must be Lou Alldeng.

      3. Your post yesterday reminded me of my first TV news job in Iowa. We had a newsroom tip line that people could call with news stories. At least two or three times a week, right after the 6pm news, we'd get a call from a woman we came to know as The Question Lady. I think she was just a lonely woman who wanted somebody to talk to. She'd start by asking a few questions about the stories on the 6pm newscast, but whenever you tried to end the call, she'd just keep asking question after question, usually of an increasingly personal nature. One night we all decided to tag-team her call, passing her off from one person to the next to see how long she'd stay on the line. We finally had to give up after almost two hours so we could get the 10pm news ready.

        I also took a call one day after LA Law had run an episode about a guy with Tourette Syndrome. Yep, the caller had it, too, and he spoke adamantly (between little 'whoops' and 'yips' and a lot of profanity) about how he had been discriminated against his whole life because of his condition. He was especially peeved that there weren't any radio stations that would give him a job as a DJ.

        1. Speaking of LA Law and the thread farther above, when I lived in LA we used to joke about those (few) days following a rain -- we imagined the streets and skies were filled with camera crews getting stock footage of downtown and the skylines of LA during that short window when the air was smog-free.

    1. No wonder Green Bay purchased their herd of cattle. It's a shame more towns can't do that.

    2. That's some messed-up stuff. You shouldn't be able to depreciate and expense the same thing. Classic double-dip.

      Moss isn't even sure you should be able to depreciate the cost of acquisition over a time period. Maybe an expansion franchise fee, but not the owner's cost of acquisition...especially for a non-depreciating asset (duh).

      A lot of operations are run this way, though. Paper losses, but the money and/or tax deductions flow through to somewhere else. They're not meant to be profitable.

      1. so, what is the tax treatment of franchise sales like?

        Presumably, franchises are most often sold for more than the purchase price. In any sane world, that would imply asset appreciation not depreciation -- unless the seller had made significant capital investments during his ownership tenure.

        In 2008, Forbes valued the Knicks at $613 million, Lakers at $584M, Bulls at $504M. In 2011, Forbes valued the Knicks at $655 million, Lakers $643M, Bulls $511M. FWIW.

        1. Any entity that increases the Knicks value in that time period would seem fishy to me.

  10. Hey everybody,

    I'm going to be out of town for the majority of this weekend. I'm not sure yet when on Sunday I'll be back to accessing the internets, but either way it's likely that I won't be able to watch or listen to much of Sunday afternoon's game. So, if there's someone who will be around and following the game who would like to fill in on Sunday's recap, that would be great. Now, since it's a busy weekend for everyone, if no one's able to do that, I don't have any problem throwing something up for it myself if I get back and there's nothing up or scheduled, it just may not appear till Monday. In either case, I think my track record shows that neither I nor a potential fill-in need worry too much about this recap being more than half-baked.

    If someone does fill in, please feel free to continue the Sunday tradition of naming Hitter(s) and Pitcher(s) of the Week. I promise to give your selections a full equal weight to each other week's picks when I tally up the results for the coveted, exceedingly-meaningful DK's Players of the Season Awards at year's end (the standings of which, I believe, are led currently in both categories by meat's Sesame Pork Roast).

  11. anyone watching the Womens World Cup? England scored on an awesome header from a sweet cross pass

    1. I've been keeping some tabs, but not actively watching anyone besides the WNT.

      Just had a thought - if we call the MNT the "Birds of War" (if you aren't on that boat, you really should be), can we call the WNT the "Birds of War" as well, or is that sexist?

      1. Muuch more appropriate for the women. But then, I'm old, and therefore inherently sexist. 😉

  12. holy moses! what a save by the New Zealand golaie

    holy smokes what a goal for England!
    this is a great match

    1. Obviously I'm not the one out there having a ball rifled at me, but I thought the NZ keeper could have grabbed that ball instead of parrying it and keeping it alive.

  13. My TJ database isn't working correctly today. I'll be back with horrible puns and nonsensical analogies next week.

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