106 thoughts on “June 28, 2012: Thanks”

    1. heh, whoops. i checked if there was anything else there first, but didn't see nuthing.

    1. We've had three days at 109˚ this week. We should feel some relief today because it'll only be 102˚

      1. It was 109 in Rapid City, SD on Monday. Some place in MT was at 111. That's a lot of heat for that far north.

    3. 3-day outlook in Seattle:

      This Afternoon - Cloudy - Hi 71 °F
      Tonight - Rain Likely - Lo 56 °F
      Friday - Rain Likely - Hi 69 °F
      Friday Night - Chance Rain - Lo 57 °F
      Saturday - Rain Likely - Hi 65 °F
      Saturday Night - Showers Likely - Lo 55 °F
      Sunday - Chance Showers - Hi 68 °F
      Sunday Night - Mostly Cloudy - Lo 53 °F
      Monday - Mostly Sunny - Hi 71 °F

        1. It's pretty nice on the whole, but it'd be nice if we got back into one of our sun patterns for a while. It still doesn't really feel like summer.

  3. Sabathia aand Pettitte to the DL. I have really enjoyed Liriano's time with the Twins but now may be the time for him to pack for NY.

      1. I loved the article today lamenting the fact that Baker, Pavano, Blackburn, and Liriano are not under contract for next year. I m excited for all the freed up salary!

        2. according to Cots, Blackburn is under contract through 2013 ($5.5 mil!) and a club option for 2014 ($8 mil !!!)

          1. The 2014 option has no buyout though, so it's all but guaranteed the Twins won't pick it up.

          2. That's right. They said Blackburn is the only one of those four that is under contract next year.

            Wishful thinking, I guess.

  4. Not trying to be venture into the forbidden zone, instead I'm just amused that CNN writes "The Supreme Court strikes down individual mandate" in all bold at the top of its website while SCOTUSblog says "The individual mandate survives as a tax."

    Ya, me neither.

    1. Heh, CNN now citing to SCOTUSblog saying it survives UNDERNEATH it's own giant headline that it was struck down. This is probably why I check CNN about once a decade. Don't they have any Wolf Blitzer holographic Supreme Courts they can use to explain?

    2. Remember when CNN was an important source of newer? Fix News is winning the coverage battles with Judge Napolitano.

          1. I am so incredibly glad I don't like the NFL anymore. I will not need to feel compelled to watch that game.

          4. I had not heard that. How is that even possible? Maybe they should get Mark Cuban as the color guy.

      2. I just want to point out that those are typos caused by my phone. Fix News was not intentional, I was quite serious saying they covered the constitutional law aspects of the case best.

      1. Without commenting too much on the case, let me just say that having the Chief Justice author the opinion in a 5-4 vote upholding the law was a surprise.

            1. Totally off-topic, but when I was working in DC and bumped into him, I was completely shocked that Chief Justice Roberts is a) bald, and b) about 5'4". He hides both of those things well (especially his hair - there's basically none in the back).

              1. I figured he'd write the opinion but that it would be a 6-3 to uphold or a 5-4 to overturn. So I guess really I'm surprised that Kennedy was so firmly set to overturn AND the Chief Justice didn't go with him. Crazy stuff.

                  1. Right, so what the Steinbrenners are doing is just like what Hitler did.
                    Only, she copied it from a "Sons of Sam Horn" posting.

    4. So biggest loser on the day is definitely CNN. I just can't wait to hear what Hulk Hogan thinks about the ruling on Piers Morgan tonight.

      1. I suppose that Fox News would be a loser, too, if you think that they had something to lose.

        1. Actually I think this is going to be great for their ratings. Rupert Murdoch is secretly smiling.

          On the subject, what's this I'm hearing about News Corp being split into two companies? One's specifically their newspaper holdings?

        1. Will it be a point-counterpoint cage match brawl with The Body?

          "I guess now I DO got time to bleed."

          2. I can't wait to hear what sort of super-clever names the Body can come up with to describe it. I mean, the genius came up with DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODicans for his latest book. He has a gift for political rhetoric.

        2. In total seriousness, the venue in DC where I used to work (where I encountered Chief Justice Roberts) also hosted an annual weekly conference for überconservative high school students with big-name guest speakers. One year, the Ultimate Warrior was one of their guests.

        2. I had never seen the photo like that: typically cropped tighter. Hadn't ever noticed that big piece of [airplane?] in front of him. Also, Thomas Dewey looked like my old man looked as a young man.

    1. speaking of twitter and the incompetence of CNN, people might want to check out the #CNNHeadlines jokes going on. I like the internet

    1. Yeah you can add a bit of water, but a fat source will help as well. I'd suggest bacon fat. (olive oil will do just fine, but then you don't get to have bacon)

    2. I'll echo and supplement meat. Did the beans themselves get cooked all the way through, so that it is smushed beans that are dry and crumbly, or are some of the beans hard in the middle? If the former, fat it up (or add water and be a gringo). If the latter, you let the beans get too dry while cooking, and they would benefit from another spell of cooking time with added water.

      I did the pinto bean post at the old basement. Here's the skinny: (1) soak; (2) simmer; (3) finish.
      (1) I generally soak my beans from morning (before leaving for work) until evening (when I get home from work). But an overnight soak is fine. Some authors claim soaking is not necessary, but I find that the beans cook faster and more evenly when soaked. You can also do a fast soak, which involves bringing the beans and water to a boil, turning off the heat, covering, and waiting an hour. Either way, drain and rinse the beans before cooking with fresh water. This removes some of the indigestible sugars and speeds the cooking process.

      (2) Generally, I cook my beans at a 3 cups dry beans: 5 cups water initial ratio. Bring to boil, lower to simmer and cook, covered, for at least half an hour before adding anything. At the 30 minute mark, I add about a teaspoon each of kosher salt, ground chile, granulated garlic, and ground cumin, and a couple of bay leaves and/or a big pinch of epazote (dried or fresh; with the dried you might need to crumble the stems, as they are quite woody), stir in the spices and re-cover to simmer for another 30 minutes or until the beans are tender. You may need to add a bit of water during this second 30 minutes, depending on how well your beans were soaked in advance. If you didn't soak your beans in advance, I'd guess they'd need more than 5 cups of water, and a longer cook time.

      (3) After the beans are nearly tender, chop one large onion. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot (I use a cast iron dutch oven), bring to heat 1/4 to 1/3 cup fat (I use extra-virgin olive oil, as the Girl is a vegan; but bacon fat or lard would be awesome) and add 1 tsp cumin seed. Wait 30 seconds or so for the cumin seeds to get hot, then add the chopped onion, lower heat to medium and saute the onions for 10 minutes or so to give them some color. At this point, you can add a chopped poblano or other medium/mild fresh chile and a couple of cloves of garlic, smushed and chopped. Saute for a minute. Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp (or to taste) each of ground cumin, ground chile, granulated garlic and, if desired, a half-tsp of ground cayenne or 1-2 canned chipotles in adobo sauce, roughly chopped. Saute for a minute until spices are fragrant, then add the liquid from the beans. Cook to reduce the bean liquid somewhat (depends on how tight you want the final product), then add the beans. You can use a potato masher to mash some of the beans at this stage, or leave the beans whole. Cook (partially covered or uncovered, depending on how wet you want the final product and how much liquid you are starting with) for 20-30 minutes on low to let the flavors meld.

      1. We're not far off in our pinto bean preparation, but I do take a slightly different route. Pork Post to follow (sometime).

  7. My daughter has been campaigning since last summer (!) to have a lemonade stand. Yesterday, she was given the option: go to the beach or have a lemonade stand. She chose the latter. She made a whopping $10.00 selling lemonade to passersby until she ran out.

    2. I'm guessing that ten bucks was pure profit for Miss SBG and you will not see a return on your venture capital investment.

    1. Germany looked woeful all game long. Reminded me of their effort against Spain in the semis of the World Cup - blazing through the early rounds only to peter out towards the end.

  10. From the Bureaucratic one-percenter file: I took the Boy out for lunch today at a French bistro. We had foie gras and duck pate appetizers, he had a salmon croque monsieur, and I had prawns over lentil salad. And we split two desserts: chocolate mousse and chocolate creme brulee.

    And bought a creme brulee for the missus. Possibly the best $64 I have ever spent on lunch for two. I will be shedding tears at midnight on Saturday when the foie gras ban goes into effect.

    I am going to be even more useless than usual this afternoon. Maybe I should do some personnel evaluations?

    1. Dude, there ain't no ban on fattened goose liver in the Crescent City. Also, I'm pretty sure that between this and the plastic bag ban in SoCal you live in a police state.

        1. And that would be why you should be taking the over on 10 lbs gained before next Saint Paddy's day.

  12. Hey gents -

    Looking forward to checking in with y'all more fully next week. First 1.5 days of SABR have been pretty awesome. Dave St. Peter was refreshingly honest this morning. It was the kind of thing that can make a fan of a losing team quite hopeful. Right. Well... back to it. Happy weekend.

    Oh, and FMD... I'm listening to a lot of Ray LaMontagne and Beach Boys lately. I recommend both to all.

      1. I just got back from seeing Greg Proops and he spent quite a bit of time discussing Chief Bender and Ray Dandridge. Afterwards, I went and asked him if he was attending the SABR convention and he said he was really bummed that he wasn't able to (having been in town today) but said he had been following through the tweets of several of his friends. He then name-dropped a few SABR nerds I have met during my past trips (including the ex-president of SABR), so he was pretty legit.

  13. Watching Twitchy trying to close out the A's. He's hitting 96 and throwing his spider at 89 and naaasty.

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