There's a little less joy in the world today. I liked what Flip was doing with the club -- I thought he drafted well (Bazz! and Gorgui was a special draft given where they were) and I think he won the Kevin Love trade. But, all of that is not important of course. Flip is gone. Still hard to believe.
Setting all of the personal tragedy aside, I wonder what will happen with this club Post Flip. I see a dimmer future than what I saw a month or two ago.
I don't watch the show, but
Listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me yesterday (holy crap, between this LTE and my other one, I'm really revealing my radio preferences, huh?), and Neil deGrasse Tyson was on. He made the point that the worst people to see a movie with are:
I occasionally discuss Game of Thrones with a friend of mine who has read the books, and I can confirm this.
Yeah, we're awful like that. But we like seeing your reactions to stuff.
And I like discussing differences between the book and the show and discussing the worldbuilding, in general. What I don't like is not being able to get past the fact that there are differences in the first place.
I like seeing them as two different oral traditions being retold. All the major points are the same as are the majority of the minor points. We now get the pleasure of learning about it twice.
I like this.
There are two versions of Fullmetal Alchemist with the same characters starting at the same place, and early events are very close, but then things go different directions, and what's going on behind the scenes (which we later learn) is much different.
(Plus there's mangas!)
I once elbowed a guy in a movie theater because he kept telling his friend, and therefore me because he had a loud whisper, everything that was about to happen.
I was hanging out with a buddy by the fire on Saturday night and GoT came up (we were talking about the new Disclosure song** featuring Lorde and, knowing my, ahem, affinity for redheads, he brought up Ygritte).
This is a guy who'd picked up all of the paperbacks and then gave them to me because he enjoyed the show so much he wasn't going to invest any time reading 'em when he could just watch the show. I read them all and really enjoyed them, then my wife and I watched the show together and really enjoyed that too ... I thought he was up to speed.
At first I was sort of sorry to have spoiled it, and tried to backtrack/play it off, but then I thought about our discussions pertaining to spoilers. The HBO episode aired in June* and the book (Dance with Dragons) was published in 2011. What's the expiration date on keeping big things like that a secret? I told him about the discussions on spoilering around here (this one is the one I had in mind) and decided that I should have been more careful... Or maybe he shouldn't have been attempting to mock my predilections.
*Though the episodes are available in streaming format, the DVD's won't be out until March 2016.
He must not have watched the Emmy's this year either.
... it was only one of the more talked-about items of pop culture of this past year, but yeah, must not have.
Did Anyone?
What's the expiration date on keeping big things like that a secret?
A month and a half (or six weeks) after it's widely available on a medium you know the person has access to, though it depends on the person and the original source.
If the person doesn't go to the theater, and uses Redbox or the Library for DVDs, you obviously need to add more time.
If it's on Netflix and the person has that, six weeks is good. Maybe ask how far the person is?
This seems like good advice... well, all except that last sentence, which requires both:
a) foresight that a conversation is heading in a certain direction (in my case, it was not obvious),
b) an actual concern that I may spoil something for the person (in my case, that wasn't a concern).
What I'm getting really tired of is the endless, "I'm going to do this!" followed by, "No, I'm coming with you!" followed by "No, you're not, because X" conversations that happen every single episode, sometimes three or four times per episode.
Binge-watching The Walking Dead could have strange consequences.
I had the opportunity to go see a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion over the weekend. It's Garrison Keillor's last season of hosting the show, apparently, so getting to see it while he was still in charge was kind of a bucket-list type of thing for me.
I very much enjoy the sense of humor and the philosophy that show delivers. I had only listened to it maybe once or twice before I moved out to D.C., but while I was out there I became a somewhat regular listener, with the program having a deep connection to home. Since moving back to the state, we have often found ourselves driving on Saturday evening/Sunday morning, and it was always a nice listen in the car.
I also cannot recommend the movie A Prairie Home Companion highly enough. It's a movie about death, and things coming to their end, and it was fittingly the last film ever directed by Robert Altman. It's just this beautiful little journey. No brilliant plot, no big action, just lots of little, deep, segments that run together into a really moving experience.
I got to see his "Third Annual Farewell Performance of 'A Prairie Home Companion'" live back in '89 when I lived in LA, and some of his books came out when I was there as well; he definitely did provide that connection to "back home" for me, too. I wish you could have seen him when Tom Keith was his sound effects man.
We saw APHC last year on Dr. Chop's birthday. I sprung for really, really good seats that included a meet and greet after the show. When it was time for Dr. Chop to say something she was so out of sorts that I had to tell Mr. Keillor that she was an english major / professor, that it was her birthday, and that we were from Minnesota. He spent the next several minutes chatting about Tom Jones and 18th century lit with the good doctor. The people behind us were really, really, really upset that they weren't able to get in to shake hands and get a selfie, but he didn't seem to notice. Afterwords we hit bourbon street. A bit of the high, and a touch of the low. Seems to be the story of our lives.
Interesting.
My experience with him is one person removed. I shared a house with two other Carls the year after graduation. One was interning with The New Republic and wrote a piece on Keillor for the magazine. Keillor did not like the piece and apparently was pretty dickish about it.
The New Zealand-South Africa match on Saturday was a bit dull, punctuated by some very nice moments. It didn't help I was simultaneously fixing three different laptops whilst watching. I didn't get to see the Australia-Argentina match, but Adam Ashley-Cooper did score me a boatload of points in my fantasy league yesterday.
Final is Sunday at 11 Central, New Zealand v. Australia. This should be a fantastic game of rugby. And don't sleep on the third place game on Saturday morning, either.
New Zealand v. Australia you say?
An old friend is coming home.
Speak for yourself. I never liked that guy.
I thought this would be about Spooky moving to Big Buy HQ.
As I've mentioned, this has been a really cool past few months in space exploration. Now that I've been further informed on how our demographics skew, I'll be even less hesitant to post the cool stuff:
Cassini will make its closest approach to Enceladus yet (30 miles!), right through the plumes of the moon's cryovolcanos.
I'm holding off on movie review of The Martian until movie post...
Until it...what...cools down?
That popcorn's hot, yo.
Moves on from the more important evaluation of the depiction of supercomputers.
Oh, dude. Have you seen Tom Sachs' Mars Project ? Yeah, baby.
Twins are renovating the upper deck in center field at Target Field.
Your link blocked by Websense (SPORTS!). But KARE has coverage.
I don't get out a whole lot, but are other regions as hometown proud about food and local connections (hometown hero!) and other such things as we tend to be around here? I suppose they might slip by unobserved if you weren't familiar with local history, culture, commerce and personalities, but we sure do seem to love everything about ourselves.
SPAM sandwiches, jello salad, and hot dish on the menu?
I'm pretty sure you mean grape salad.
It turns out that local/regional ballpark fare is where it's at these days.
I'm just really disappointed that all vestiges of the center field evergreens have been wiped from the premises.
Yeah, that was one of my favorite little quirks in the beginning. It's just so... boring now.
Dinner tonight will be meat's Red Beans and Rice.* ** *** **** ***** ******
*instead of spicy, I'm going for mild, so my kids will eat it
** I only have green bell pepper, not red.
*** I don't have any celery
**** Or chicken stock, so it'll all be water
***** Also, I am using venison sausage
****** I admit, this is maybe nothing like meat's recipe.
Mmmm. There are zillions of ways to make red beans and rice. Own it, dude.
Also, venison sausage? Are you trying to kill your children with deliciousness? (Eff the WHO, I say; cured pork products make me happy, which raises my quality-adjusted life expectancy).
so much this.
I admit that I am extremely excited for dinner tonight. Plus, I gotta hurry up and finish off last year's meat before hunting.
What do you have against power chords?
Forced to watch too much CSI.
Just another example of tasty goodness ruined when overdone.
the doc is absolutely right, there are tons of ways to make red beans good. When in Northern Ireland I use Spanish chorizo and red wine. Pretty good if you ask me.
Beans are gross.
Heh, Sheenie and I are having red beans and rice tomorrow (I know it's a Monday dish, but oh well) but with her recipe rather than meat's. Definitely seemed like an appropriate fall dish when I suggested it the other day.
Even after soaking for >24 hours my beans took forever to get tender. I am just sitting down to eat now (fed the kids something else earlier). Slap Ya Mama seasoning added for my bowl and this is fantastic...
cover the beans when cooking, and they always take so much longer than you expect.
I don't bother to soak most times anymore. Bring to boil, lower to simmer and cover. Cook 30 minutes, add some seasoning, cover and cook for 30 more, and beans are almost always completely tender. Just don't add salt during the first half-hour.
Last time I made red beans, I made a ham stock with smoked hocks ( boiled/simmered for maybe 90 minutes, then strained and the meat picked) and added the stock as needed after the beans were mostly cooked.
Also, I think I was on vacation or summat when meat posted that recipe. Else I would been all over it.
Winnipeg Jets Player Scoffs At Penalty, Pipes Down After Seeing Replay
I saw the news of Flip's passing while on the golf course yesterday and didn't take time to comment on it last night. I met him only once - in a tailgating lot outside the Bank before a Gophers game maybe two years ago. He was wandering around with a beer in hand, trying to locate his daughter. He chatted with a group of us for just a few moments, but was really gracious and unassuming.
Per usual, Brit's article is on point.
Listened to Chad Hartman this afternoon.
1.) McHale opened up a vein and talked about how he and Flip never totally patched up everything after McHale fired him. Expressed regret that he never got to fully bury the hatchet.
2.) Glen Taylor was interesting. He sounded like he always sounds -- we decided things together, he didn't talk me into things -- but his love for Flip was evident. Also, he talked about how Flip got a fever and that was it. His health disintegrated over a weekend.
I'm still processing this. They gave my mother-in-law a year and she got 13 months. They said this was a treatable form of cancer and gave him a timeline that suggested he'd be back at work this season and he's gone like three months later. Cancer sucks.
It wasn't the cancer, at least not directly. He got pneumonia, probably because of the chemo, which really sucks. So, if he hadn't gotten pneumonia, he might have been able to beat it. But, no.
I clicked on HJ's name. Interesting.
errrrr
Well, I know what I'm doing the rest of the day.
Watching, or recreating?
The lines between the two, they blur.
heh. i've been waiting for someone to do that.
Torii Hunter is retiring.
It was a nice run.
Who will win best interview next year???
I'm hoping this means that Dick retires in short order. Not sure how he'll survive a Torii-less MLB.
Bert is lightening his broadcast load and now there's a clear successor.
Nightmare.
Could make for a very interesting year... I'd tune in.
There is zero chance he'd be worse than Bert.
Damning with faint praise, I see!
Honestly, I'm not sure why any former player in this era (with the megacontracts) would want to tie themselves down with a job like color analyst. When you have $50 million in the bank, why do that job? You have to call 162 games a year, travel for six months a year... and you don't need the money.
Some of them may just want to stay around the game in some way, maybe for love of the game or maybe because they hope to become managers someday. Some of them may want to keep themselves in the public eye. Some of them may just want something to do. There are probably other reasons, too.
Idle hands, and all that.
I'm with you there. Can't imagine wanting to do that if there was no financial reason. The travel schedule seems terrible to me, but I could also see how someone could enjoy it, or even just have gotten used to it after so many years. Or maybe if they don't really like being home, for whatever reason they may have.
Still Torii.
How many years does he stay on the HoF ballot? And what year does he get elected to the Twins HoF?
I'm guessing he'll stay on the ballot all 10 possible years.
Wouldn't be surprised if he goes in the Twins HoF next year (being unaware of their rules).
I'm guessing he'll have his number retired as well.
Torii saving Twins from themselves.
I note that it says "some" officials are crushed. We'll probably never know, but it would be interesting to find out which ones.
Could be the media considers themselves "officials"...
Good for him. He was a fine player for quite a while. I'm glad he was able to see when his time was up, rather than someone else having to tell him.
Wants to spend more time with his family.
heh.
I come here to bury i-i, not to praise him.
Good riddance to a guy who has said some of the most bigotted things uttered this century by a professional athlete, then was brought in as a positive clubhouse influence by a team he couldn't wait to leave eight years earlier. Good riddance to a guy who took every opportunity he could to throw a teammate under the media bus or burnish his own image in comparison. Good riddance to a guy who continued to pretend his body wasn't showing signs of age that interfered with his game or complicated the way he talked about his teammates' injuries.
My defining memory of i-i as a player isn't the catch in the All-Star Game. It's the Kotsay "homer" he dove for in the 2006 ALDS.
Hear, hear.
Deadspin has the best article on his retirement since they definitely address the less fun things about Hunter's legacy.
This fits my thoughts perfectly, in a much better written way than I could have managed.
I won't link to it but Souhan gave (figuratively) Torii a blow job in his most recent article.
At least he admitted what we all know is true: he loves Torii because Torii talks to him.
Agreed.
I am not on the Hate Torii bandwagon. He's overrated, self-serving, and ignorant, but I doubt he is an evil person.
I will add that I do hate the media and fan love for Torii and hatred for Mauer.