21 thoughts on “1 June 2016: Sanope”

  1. Kepler back up to replace him. The roster of centerfielders holds steady for a bit longer.

    1. I hope he plays regularly this time. An OF with Kepler, Buxton, and Robbie Baseball is a big defensive improvement over some of the lineups used this season.

      1. Well, he's starting today in RF. Mauer with the day off and Sano on DL, so Dozier and Plouffe batting 3-4 vs. LHP. Nunez and Grossman batting 1-2 to battle for All-Star votes.

        1. Molitor, on the radio pregame, said there's a "good chance" that Kepler will get a "fair amount" of playing time. You'd think Molitor could be a little more definite than that, as he's the one who makes out the lineup card, but maybe there's a reason he doesn't want to say at this point.

  2. I missed the latest movie day, but I want to mention one thing:

    The latest BBC Nature (Attenborough) series to make it to Netflix, Africa.
    Episode 1: "Kalahari".
    The last "scene" is fighting giraffes. I think it's the greatest nature footage I've ever watched. It's like the first time I saw the Great White Sharks taking a seal in super slow-mo (on Planet Earth Episode 9: "Shallow Seas"), only with plot.
    Maybe like a sports film's climactic battle (is Rocky the gold standard?), but with giraffes.

    It could be even better: there's a brief close-up cut in the middle that's obviously from a different shot. It doesn't effect the story, but it's visually jarring. (It's obvious if they would have had that angle for the rest of the fight, they would have shown it.)
    Also: it's unmentioned what exactly happened to the defeated giraffe.

      1. I started in a funky order: Savannah first.
        Because once I saw the Carmine Beeeaters and Lilac-breasted Rollers, I had to start there.

          1. We go in the order I decide because this is what I'm watching and if you don't want to watch it you can go outside or go read a book in a different room, but no TV or Minecraft. Is your room clean?

            I've already watched all but the second half of "Sahara" by myself. I timed it right so that the little girls went to bed right before the amorous rhinos.
            It was difficult enough to explain to HPR that while he acted like he was mating, he was not actually doing anything.

  3. Once per year my company hosts a full-day lunch/seminar where we invite an expert in the field to talk about a relevant topic. Today's event was to talk about self-awareness when it comes to issues of race and discrimination. 90 minutes into a full-day presentation our speaker was asked to leave. We counted about 30 things she said that were pejorative, paternalistic, demeaning, inaccurate, or otherwise racist about the people we work with. Her work is still based off Freud's theories and her studies she cites were from the 1970s. Just a disaster.

    The awesome thing was that senior leadership profusely apologized and the 100 or so people in the room spent 2 hours talking openly with each other about self-awareness, privilege, and our own discomfort challenging those in power positions who perpetuate racism. We had one African-American staff who cried, thanking our leadership for asking the woman to leave. And then we had a good discussion about how we focus less on demonizing the presenter and more time looking inward. All in all, we still got what we came for today. Plus some amazing chocolate mousse.

      1. There are a lot of doctors and other clinicians out there that are woefully behind the times, and that's just Minnesota, which has one of the most progressive health care and mental health care systems in the country.

    1. Glad to hear the senior leaders step up there.

      Not quite on point, but it reminds me of my previous employer (the one you know and love), which purports to be an "anti-racist" organization. When it was pointed out by a national group that they were failing in living up to that standard, they held a day-long meeting to discuss race issues, and then promptly shot down literally all recommendations on how we could address the issues as an institution, because "it's really just food for thought," or somesuch. It quickly became clear that the whole day was a charade, not an honest attempt at improving ourselves.

      I like hearing about your organization.

      1. One of our staff (also African-American) stood up and openly disagreed with the decision to send her home. Not because she liked the presenter, but because she wanted to engage the presenter herself in educating her. Our executive director thanked her for speaking up and told the group that that was their plan A until the presenter made it clear she had zero interest in engaging with our staff; they then sent her home. The whole idea of today was that this was a safe place to share one's thoughts and I think that really came through.

    2. So, the speaker was effective in spurring a good discussion?
      Disaster like a fox?

      1. We actually discussed that had she just been professional but boring and uninspiring it wouldn't have been nearly as effective a day as we had. I joked with the training coordinator that this seemed like a long con on her part.

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