96 thoughts on “October 17, 2014: Double Sleepovers”

      1. also, was it just my feed, or did you all miss Adams' HR last night because effin' Fox One hadn't gotten back from commercial break yet? All I saw was Adams rounding the bases, and they didn't bother to show a "replay" of the HR until halfway through the next AB. WTF, people? Somebody in the booth should have been made aware and apologized for the eff-up.

    2. I'm glad to see that this piece at least raises the "what was Matheny thinking?" point about using a rusty Michael Wacha in the 9th to protect the tie rather than going with Rosenthal. Stupid managerial norms. Ain't no game to save if you don't get past the 9th, Mike.

        1. My wife has been saying the same thing about her Facebook feed. How are St Louis and the rest of the country so disconnected?

  3. I had never considered the possibility that I would be thankful for the American League winning the All-Star Game for any reason other than home field advantage for the Twins in the World Series. But since I'll be in Kansas for my brother's wedding next weekend, I'm thankful the Royals will be playing on the road in San Francisco.

    Any KC eating or drinking recommendations are appreciated. We'll probably have some free time on Friday and Sunday. I'm thinking we'll also do the WWI museum (and hopefully the Negro Leagues museum) while we're there.

    2. I went there a month ago. Loved Antons for steaks and Jack Stack for bbq.

      Antons is half butcher shop, half steak house. Housed in old warehouse.

      Jack Stack is fancy bbq. Lamb ribs and beans were awesome. My traditionalist friends prefer Gates.

      Neither were cheap but were reasonable for the quality.

          1. HUGE. I've since stepped back from outright theft of him as my own style has developed, but he is still one of my favorite painters.

            True story: Saw the Hopper Retrospective at the Whitney Museum back in '97(?). 60 paintings--including all of the above plus Nighthawks. Amazing show. Returned the following day to again jostle with the crowds. Still blown away--this time, so much so that I was going to give up painting. I couldn't compete with the big boys, so why bother. Decided to see the show one more time before leaving NYC and focused on the 5 or 6 pictures I really didn't like. Viola! I decided he did bad paintings from time to time, too! "He's no different than me," I cried! (He was, I know, I just needed to give myself a pep talk.)

            1. Those 5 or 6 paintings had the same effect on you as DeNiro in Rocky in Bullwinkle and Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever had on me (those movies had problems all around, of course, but the point is made). Going further up the ladder, I can't think of a poor Daniel Day-Lewis performance, but I take what I can get.

        1. I would argue that Hitchcock's Rear Window is one big homage to Hopper's stuff like New York Room or Night Windows.

          1. You'd get no argument from me. It's said that the house from Psycho was modeled after Hopper's House by the Rail Road Tracks.

    2. Love the original, can't stand the endless reworkings featuring Bogie, James Dean, Marilyn, etc.

      1. I'm not usually one for recreations of Nighthawks either, but I'll make an exception for this one:

        httpv://youtu.be/L3MJy9xAtOo

        It just needs a Tom Waits song playing softly in the background at some point.

    3. I love it so much, I ran it as a Survivor challenge a couple of seasons ago (the remaining players had to tell the story of the characters in the painting).

      I almost used Richard Dadd's The Fairy-Feller's Master-stroke, but that would have been way too difficult. Ahem.

    1. The errata alone are pretty awesome.

      For the article, “How much damage can a 6 year-old possibly do? An analysis of the cost of raising a child like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes,” by Matt J. Michel, which appeared in Volume 1, September 12, 2014, of Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science-SOFD (Volume 1, Paper 1; first published September 12, 2014, and available online here), reddit user zeinshver pointed out that the estimation of $50 to replace a coffee table into which Calvin had hammered eight nails (click here for comic) lacked an estimation of the cost needed to replace the eight aforementioned nails. The author concedes this point and apologizes for the mistake. On page 2, the first sentence of the “Results and Discussion” section should read, “In total, Calvin caused an estimated $15,955.58 worth of damage...” and not “In total, Calvin caused an estimated $15,955.50” worth of damage....” The author also notes that the entry for “December” in Table 1 should read “672.58” and not “672.50.” In addition, the author notes that Figure 1 should be changed but that the author is too lazy to make a new graph.

      These errors do not alter the conclusion of the article that Calvin was a very destructive child.

          1. PNIS is a part-serious, part-satirical journal publishing science-related articles. There are three types of PNIS articles: SOFD, HARD, and Editorial. ... PNIS-HARD (Honest and Real Data) will publish papers that use actual data that have been either generated or gathered by the authors themselves, much like most of the hard sciences. In contrast, PNIS-SOFD (Satirical or Fake Data) will use fake data to satirize and make fun of anything and everything dealing with the occupation of being a scientist.

              1. there is also the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It is straight science, as it were.

        2. The 12-year-old in me may have also commented too quickly after first glance - before considering that the acronym was intentional.

          It was much funnier at first glance.

          1. If it makes you feel any better, the 12-year-old in me is still laughing, especially with bS's double Antandres.

      1. What he said. This is my current one.

        FWIW, I much prefer the flavor of loose tea. If you're in the Cities, stop by Tea Source--it's a great place to find out about different kinds of tea and find out what kinds you like best.

    3. It's the end of the week and I'm out of coffee in my office desk, so I'll be drinking some roobois I have stashed for the rest of the day. I like Harney & Sons' African Autumn. I'm also a fan of dragon pearl jasmine, Russian black tea blends, and North African/Middle Eastern mint teas. The last is the only one I take with sugar, because that's the only way you'll get it.

    5. Chamomile, with honey.
      I don't mind chai with all the cream and sugar they give you.
      I'll drink green with honey, mint with honey, several varieties of black with cream and sugar.
      I've tried rooibos and did not find it much to my liking.

      Tea for me is a lot like Jane Austen movies. Not my absolute favorite, but I enjoy them enough.

    8. Living in SoCal, I drink more iced tea than anything. For that, I go with Tejava, which is a premium brewed iced tea that comes in glass bottles. Amazingly good. I add a rounded 1/2 cup of sugar for each 1 liter bottle. It's also brewed too strong for me, so I do 2 or 3 parts water to 1 part tea depending on how much caffeine I want. I also will occasionally heat it up and drink it hot (same amount of sugar and usually 2 to 1 water to tea). If I want to avoid caffeine, I also like Green Leaf's mint green tea with honey. It is sweetened, but not it is not too much like most sweet teas. I recently gave up soda all together, so I've been drinking both teas with meals (don't like water with meals).

      As for hot tea, my favorite is herbal cinnamon or apple cinnamon tea. If I want a caffeine pick-me-up, I usually just go with a general orange pekoe black tea (Lipton or a generic). I add 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar depending on the size of the cup. Sometimes I'll add cinnamon or honey. Honey is good if you have a sore throat or cough.

    9. I like strong black teas like English Breakfast or Darjeeling or Ceylon varieties, with two lumps. In the winter I keep a box of Bigelow Plantation Mint in the cupboard, it's a comforting libation after coming in from the cold.

    10. Black pekoe, Darjeeling, or Ceylon - cold - no sugar. Fill one of the two bottles on my bike w/ cold tea.

  7. On the way home from work last night I saw this license plate on a Chevy Volt "EFOPEC".

    Not sure how he slipped that one by the Nebraska dmv.

    1. Pulled up to our new home to see a Ford F-650 in the driveway, and a Cadillac with custom plates "2FNFAST".
      Guy seems alright, though. He was the first to greet us.

      2. I had to look up the F-650. I don't see how anyone who owns one of those, even if for work purposes, is not an asshole.

        1. Wow. I thought the F650 was just a sticker he put on there. I didn't realize it was a real thing. He's a single guy who, apparently, has too much money.

  8. So I sold my Buffalo house that I bought at the height of the housing bubble. Only lost $31,000, and I was able to live in a house.

    1. Nice work. I'm still living in my house that I bought at the height of the housing bubble, but I think the value is finally coming back up to where it was, maybe $15,000 shy as of the last "estimate" I got from the city. (no one has been inside the house for that purpose in three years.) I might not even be upside-down pretty soon!

      2. Funny, now that we're basically empty nesters we've started talking about selling our house (or renting it) and getting a condo (I'm pushing for the Nordeast). I'm tired of the suburbs -- the commutes, the maintenance, the homogeneity. We've been here 20 years and our house has approximately doubled in value. The only money we ever took out of it went right back in as new siding and windows, and we got a gift from above when a hailstorm totaled our roof that was in sore need of replacement and the insurance company picked up the tab. We've put in a fair amount of sweat equity and it's been our only family home, but I'm ready to downsize and move on to the next adventure.

        1. We are rapidly approaching that downsizing time too. Gonna have to get floors done and probably an at-least-partial remodel of the kitchen. Ugh.

          1. Younger daughter is a freshman so we probably won't move while she's still in school. That gives me 4 years to get ready. I'll need to do a deck renovation and a bathroom refresh and replace all the carpet (incontinent dog), but our kitchen needs a complete update - floors, cabinets, counters, and appliances. Doubleplusugh.

            1. Aye. The Girl is a h.s. senior, so we are on about the same time path. We just did the bathroom refresh last year. Whole house has wall-to-wall that is now almost 20 years old (Developer POC original install), and kitchen has crappy vinyl with a small-but-growing mold problem (we are on a slab). Will need to do counters, overhead microwave (broken and unused; who the frack would want a microwave in place of a proper ventilation hood?) and sink, but I'm hoping to avoid replacing the fridge (a big-ass side-by-side), as we've already replaced both stove and dishwasher.

        2. It would be so awesome if that sort of scenario were possible for people like me these days. The only way I'll make a profit on this place if I start 20 years is because I would have paid most of the mortgage.

  9. While Runner daughter is visiting a friend in Chicago, I'm going to move "her" couch out of upstairs and to her apartment. If I don't reply back here anymore, it's because the heavy b@st@rd finally killed me.

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