Cup of Coffee

November 30, 2015: Failure to Communicate

34 Comments

I got an email about how my grandpa's doing in his new assisted living home, as well as an update on his failing health and how things are now.

I didn't know that his health was failing, nor that he had moved out of his lifelong home. My dad...could be better at dealing with bad news.

34 thoughts on “November 30, 2015: Failure to Communicate”

  2. There's a massive Kindle sale on today. 800+ books are up to 85% off. I haven't finished combing through it yet, but it appears there are actually a few good ones.

  3. Heh.

    Indiana led the Lakers by three with ten seconds left at Staples Center. On the night Kobe Bryant announced his retirement, there was no question which player would take the game-tying shot to force overtime.

    He didn’t disappoint. Kobe airballed the attempt, and the Lakers lost. Kobe went 4-20 from the field.

      1. Also, saw this on front page of 4ltr.com this AM:

        Kobe was the bridge from the Jordan era to the likes of LeBron, Durant and Curry, imparting the lessons of His Airness to the next generation of stars.

        What nonsense. Who sees any of Kobe's game in any of these guys? LeBron is the most unselfish superstar maybe in the history of the league. Durant is a smooth assassin, willingly playing along side Westbrook (who is more like Kobe than any of these guys), and Curry is a hyper efficient shooter with a tremendous (best ever!?!) perimeter game. None of them are like Kobe.

        1. Kobe actually falls short in scoring against those guys except for Curry and scoring is supposed to be the one thing that Kobe is supposed to be great at. And Curry is much better at shooting. His career FG percentage overall is better than any one season for Kobe. The one thing Kobe was great at was being a star player for the Lakers while they teamed him with Hall of Famers (Shaq, Malone) and other great players (Gasol, Howard, the guy that changed his name). Kobe is the only player I've known that ran a great player out of town for being too good. If he's truly all about the rings, then he would want to just surround himself with great players. Instead, Kobe is all about his own legacy. He wants to be known as the "next" Michael Jordan and he's now even as good as Durant or Curry let alone LeBron.

          1. Jordan is the right comp. Both were great scorers who also were great defenders.

            The difference is that Jordan learned how to work with Pippen (a legit top-50 all-timer) as his sidekick, whereas Kobe was sidekick to Shaq and could not deal very well. But let''s not forget that he came back to win two more titles with Pau and others (Bynum and Odom and Fisher and, for the second one, World Peace).

            I never liked Kobe, but he was a great, two-way player for a long time.

              1. Win shares per 48 minutes, he's 49th, between Chauncey Billups and Bobby Jones.

                I'm not buying that story.

                I think Kobe is a top 15 player in NBA history and maybe a top ten player.

                I think you have Kareem, Wilt, Russell, and maybe Shaq ahead of him. Duncan. Bird. Magic. Jordan. Big O. LeBron. Hakeem. McGinnis.

                1. How about guys like Malone, Dr. J., or David Robinson? I'm not being argumentative--I don't follow basketball anywhere near as closely as you do. I'm just curious how you'd rank them compared to Kobe.

                  1. I think Kobe had a better career than all of those guys. Karl Malone is one of the best five PFs ever, I don't think there's much doubt about that. But, he was primarily a devastating scorer, I don't think he was much of a defender. Robinson has to get in line behind Hakeem, who was clearly better than him. Great, great player, not at Kobe's level. Dr. J was not nearly the shooter that KB is, a fantastic player, not as good as Kobe.

                    'Spoiler' SelectShow

            2. Yep, he was a great player. He's also, I think, a very, very smart dude. But, I think a pretty good argument can be made that the hero ball that both he and Jordan played, Kobe even moreso (especially when he had SHAQ fer chrissakes), was not exactly the best thing that ever happened to the NBA. Players like the three mentioned are all, in their own way, an antidote for these guys, as are Duncan and KG.

              I loved Jordan as much as the next guy, but it's damned hard to be Be Like Mike. Much better to be like KG (minus the crazy), or Duncan, or LeBron, or Durant, or Curry (although I see Curry, while not exactly selfish because efficiency! as less the team first guy that these other guys are -- that's not a knock on Steph, I can't really say that he should do anything other than what he is doing, which is shoot the effing lights out all the time).

              1. So in other words, the idea that these guys are somehow learning some secrets from MJ via Kobe is hard to take. They don't play like those guys did.

            3. Yeah, Kobe needs to send Pau Gasol a dozen fresh roses every day for the rest of his life for that last one.

  4. I drove up to ND last night a day and a half early to avoid the snow. My dad, who turns 73 tomorrow, drove home from Lexington, KY (1200 miles!) yesterday to do the same. I beat him to his house, but when he got in, he was in pretty good shape. This morning, he got up at 6:30. I was amazed -- thought he'd sleep in. Nope.

    #tough

      2. I figured someone must be able to get that one, with such a distinctive sign, but I sure didn't know what it was.

          2. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least parts of it before, but long ago, and it evidently wasn't too memorable for me.

    3. #8 is making me think of Foul Play, but that's not right. Something from that era looks like it might work though?

    1. I think Patton Oswalt fits the show's tenor quite well.

      I'm no fan of Felicia Day, but MST3K is MST3K, and I'm not sure I could come up with a good enough reason to skip it.

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