97 thoughts on “May 29, 2014: The Nothing”

    1. I'm heading downtown early today and I work a block from their missed encounters. I think I may swing by to try to act as a conduit.

      2. It would be funnier if you would hang out where they won't notice you and try to get a picture of how close they are to meeting.

        1. That's funny because I was actually thinking of doing that. I'm more like 10 blocks away but on my bike, it's only a few minutes. I might try this on Friday.

    2. Project Encounter AMR, day 4: partial success. I saw my quarry from the window as the bus pulled up to the stop. I got off and turned to see what was on the back of his backpack. I'd say we missed each other by about 20 seconds.

      Bonus: I did in fact encounter DPWY at the corner of Marq/3rd and have the opportunity to talk with him for several minutes. Nice seeing you, Pirate!

      1. I saw Pirate as well. I was not expecting there to be third-party involvement.
        If I had chatted longer with Pirate, we could have met.
        Now we have an imbalance of information, you know what I look like but I don't know what you look like.

        To be honest, I don't want this meeting to be arranged. I liked that we'd have to figure things out. I made long eye contact with some woman on a cell phone closer to Nicollet, before she got spooked and I decided she wasn't you.

        1. To be honest, I don't want this meeting to be arranged.

          This. I feel like it's inevitable that our paths will naturally cross at some point. It's just a matter of time.

          Further clues SelectShow

          1. I'd be surprised if there are more than an handful of commuters that meet that description. The encounter should be wrapped up pretty quick now, unless you wish to continue the staring contest.

            I spotted AMR this weekend, but didn't have the guts for the unsolicited re-introduction.

            Good for you on the no-phone.

            1. Good for you on the no-phone.

              Ooo, is that like a no-ship or no-chamber? The NSA would be displeased.

        2. I made long eye contact with some woman on a cell phone closer to Nicollet, before she got spooked and I decided she wasn't you.

          I didn't creep out any ladies in particular, but this is exactly what happened when I came to meet up for the Survivor finale. I arrived first and stared unrelentingly at each passerby trying to figure out if I knew them until each of them awkwardly exited. It's better that way.

          1. This was similar to the experience I had scanning First Avenue for Can of Corn the first time I met him.

          2. I've been closely studying the men I see on my walk to work every morning. I don't know what they think of it, but it has certainly amused me.

            1. Are you kidding? EVERY guy is flattered by being "checked out" by females. Even gay guys (I would guess).

              1. Most of the time, yes. I guess it would depend if Pepper looked like trailer trash and how evil the glare looked.

  2. I wasn't outside last night because I was pretty tired, having gotten up at 3AM and all, but I understand that the mosquitoes were out in full force in ND last night. Good Lord.

    It has been pretty wet here this spring and there's water standing all around, so I guess it's not surprising that they are out. But, still.

    1. You don't need to go to NoDak for that. I'm thinking about spraying myself just to catch the bus.

    2. I had just been talking with Linds on Monday how lucky we were to have a mosquito-free Memorial Day.

      Sure enough, on Tuesday, the golf course was nearly unbearable, and planting the vegetable garden yesterday night was even worse.

      1. That's weird, I was working on the yard all day today and didn't feel a single one... of course I was only in partial shade for bits and pieces of the day. On another note nebbish, where do you golf up here? I am approximately one massive slice off of Geneva Golf Course.

    3. Our home is within 50 yards of a wetland with nearly constant standing water and ~30 acres of undeveloped woods and grassland . Coupled with the serious rainfall we've received, I bit the bullet last summer and bought a mosquito fogger. It works great for when we're having people over, but only lasts ~5 hours and does nothing for wood ticks (which are also out in force). This year, I went even further and hired Mosquito Squad to have our property sprayed for mosquito's & ticks. Even with a Groupon, the service cost me a C-note, but my Sister-in-Law had the service last year and it kept the bugs at bay for basically the entire summer. I'm generally not a fan of pesticides & herbicides, but I can't walk from my garage to my front door without being assaulted.

      1. In 6+ summers, I have almost never been bitten by a mosquito in my yard. But, we are in a high spot, well away from any water.

        1. I wish. I love our location, geographically speaking, but elevation-wise we're in a low spot, close to the aforementioned wetland and within half-a-mile of the lake it connects to. The soil is predominantly clay, so water just hangs out (or ends up in my basement). Last summer, the screen porch generally saw more use than the deck.

            1. Off-topic, but I loved having a screened porch as a kid (attached to the garage, not the house, too!). It was perfect for the portable radio, listening to Twins games, reading, and sleepovers.

              1. I can't picture that now -- too freakin' humid here.

                When people here complain of mosquitoes, I tell them I've been vaccinated: grew up in NW MN.

                1. Mosquitoes and black flies are the two reasons why I'll never move to Northern Minnesota (year-'round, anyway).

                  1. Got bit twice by black flies from the car to the office building this morning.

                2. When I read Pirate's note about listening to Twins game on the porch, I actually thought of a book I read in which the lead character (a young boy) sat on his porch in Missouri and listened to the Cardinal games, idolizing Stan the Man. So... your comment made me chuckle Rhu Ru.

                  1. The book was A Painted House by John Grisham, and it was Arkansas not Missouri, yet he was still a Cards fan. I actually liked the book, even though I am not a big Grisham fan. It reminded me of A Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon.

    4. That's one thing I definitely don't miss. I have an allergy to mosquito bites, although it isn't as bad as it was as a child. In general, I just get bigger welts that last longer than most, but if I'm not careful, I can have one really swell up on me. I also seem to have a big target on me when mosquitoes are around because I'll get bit when others aren't. I occasionally get insect bites here, but it has been a long time since I've actually confirmed a mosquito was the culprit. When I visit my parents, I make sure to have repellant and Benadryl handy.

  3. Oy. My grandmother was placed in hospice over the weekend. My dad is hanging in, but this is the last of a generation in our family.

  4. dismayingly sad story out of LAX today. The man in question was one of my graduate advisors. He's a brilliant, brilliant scholar and, in my experience, a really good guy. Which just goes to show that even brilliant people can do really stupid things.

    1. My wife's uncle was Gary Cox from California. Unfortunately he died very young in the 60's and didn't have a chance to bring a grenade into an airport.

  5. Andrew Sullivan, talking about a certain former president:

    'Spoiler' SelectShow

  6. On the Clippers' sale:

    One group involved is led by music mogul David Geffen and includes Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Oprah Winfrey. This group has added Guggenheim executives Todd Boehly and Mark Walter, Steve Jobs widow Laurene Jobs, Steve Wynn ex-wife Elaine Wynn, and Beats by Dre co-founder Jimmy Iovine, ESPN has learned.

    Sources with knowledge of the process told ESPN's Marc Stein that a group led by former NBA All-Star Grant Hill and billionaire investors Tony Ressler and Bruce Karsh also formally submitted a bid.

    In addition, billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is said to be involved in the bidding.

    OMG. If Larry Ellison loses the Clips to Ballmer, he may never recover.

    1. My father-in-law got a bad case of West Nile last summer. Is recovered now. It took a long time though.

    1. I think you stole something I posted a while back. I may return the favor with this...

  10. This is silly:

    Donald Sterling isn't just disliked, he's the most hated man in America.

    That's according to the results of a poll by E-Poll Market Research released Thursday.

    The company said that, out of the people who were familiar with the Los Angeles Clippers owner, 92 percent said they disliked him. In the impressionable 13- to 24-year-old male demographic, 97 percent disliked him, according to the poll.

    Rank Name Percent
    1 Donald Sterling 92
    2 Bernie Madoff 90
    T3 O.J. Simpson 88
    T3 Conrad Murray 88
    5 Justin Bieber 86
    6 Phil Spector 83
    7 Aaron Hernandez 81
    8 Michael Lohan 76
    9 Eliot Spitzer 73
    10 Jon Gosselin 71

    A higher percentage of people hate Donald Sterling than O.J. who brutally murdered his ex-wife and the dude she was with*. Or Bernie Madoff. And poor Jon Gosselin. He ex-wife seems to be a little off-kilter.

    *Allegedly

    1. I love that Bieber made the list...and who are the 19 percent who are familiar with Aaron Hernandez but don't dislike?

    2. I don't think this supports "most hated man in America. More like "largest consensus on a particular day that someone is dislikable." 10 years from now, the question will be "Donald who?" A slugging-average-like stat would probably more firmly support most-hated status. On a scale of 1-10, Sterling may rate a 6-7 for many respondents, which puts him into the dislike category, but someone like OJ might register more 8-9s.

      1. the question will be "Donald who?"

        I would have thought that would already be the case with some of the names on this list, so who knows?

      2. It's "most hated man in America by people who know who Donald Sterling is", fwiw (which is very little)

        I imagine that others on that list are more hated by more people, regardless of their knowledge of Donald Sterling or not

        1. the more-credible way to ask these questions is with feeling thermometers, not with categorical like/dislike statements. But to ubes' general point, yea, SQUIRREL!!!!!11ONE111!!!

          He will be forgotten soon. Not soon enough, but soon.

          1. also, while we are on the "most hated" meme, I wish to nominate TNT's advertising department for shoving so damned many ads for Michael Bay's forthcoming TV atrocity down my throat during NBA broadcasts. I. CANNOT. WAIT. for that series to be over. And it hasn't even started yet.

  11. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but it should be batting percentage and slugging average and not the other way around.

    2. If you represent it as .300 rather than 30.0%, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to refer to it as batting average (after all, the hitter is averaging .300 hits per at-bat.) Calling it slugging percentage is definitely silly, though.

  12. I've gotten to the point where I pretty much ignore sportswriters these days, but this one, I just have to post. What self-styled NBA expert wrote the following:

    Imagine a Martian landed in your backyard just before Game 1 of this year's Western Conference finals and you invited him in to watch. Imagine this Martian had an IQ far beyond yours, but he knew nothing about our NBA.

    Imagine he enjoyed Game 1 so much, he returned to watch Games 2, 3 and 4 in your living room. When San Antonio fell behind by 27 points in Game 4 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, this is what the Martian would've said: "I thought you told me this Kevin Durant won the Most Valuable Player award?"

    Yes, he won what we call the MVP.

    Martian: "This makes no sense to me. Clearly, this Serge Ibaka is more valuable than Durant. To paraphrase these Mi0 water enhancer commercials: He changes everything. When Ibaka was injured, this Durant and this Westbrook had no chance in Games 1 and 2. With Ibaka back, now San Antonio has no chance. I would rather have Ibaka join my Framily."

    The Martian would be right.

    [snip]

    I'm now convinced Ibaka is the Thunder's most important -- and sometimes most underutilized -- player. And I still consider Westbrook's intangibles -- his fearless clutch guts -- superior to Durant's. (See Durant's four straight late failures in playoff losses last season to Memphis without Westbrook.) So yes, I consider the new MVP the Thunder's third-most important player.

    'Spoiler' SelectShow

    1. because if it had been Durant who'd been injured, then returned, NOTHING WOULD HAVE CHANGED, amiright?!

    3. I wouldn't be surprised if the expert responsible does actually talk to Martians and those Martians do have IQ's far beyond his.

  13. My old man sent me a text with a selfie including tony o from this afternoon's ballgame. He said that Tony is a pretty nice dude.

      1. It seems insane. It's twice what the NBA on made on their national TV package this year. Man, did the owners ever screw the players on that last contract renegotiation.

    2. With Ballmer out of the picture, it's hard for me to see the NBA coming back to Seattle any time soon.

        1. Maybe Seattle will just end up playing the L.A. role for the NBA. NFL teams have milked the L.A. market to get the past ten stadiums built.

  15. Watching OKC, my dad just said that Reggie Jackson went from Mr. October to Mr. May.

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