52 thoughts on “December 1, 2017: Best Of”

    1. Hmmm . . . August 2018 seems like a long time to wait to find out what your best of 2017 song is.

    2. yep, we'll do 2018 DJ sign up a little later. for now, just this month.

      in case anyone doesn't remember, this is just for one day to highlight your favorite new music of 2017. we'll go in order of your volunteering LTE's timestamp. there are no guarantees that someone before you won't play the same thing, so get your name in the hat quick.

      also, just sign up, you, whoever you are . don't annoy me and speak up after i set up the schedule.

    3. Sure, I'll do it. Also:

      there are no guarantees that someone before you won't play the same thing

      Yes, I think I can guarantee that it won't happen to me.

  1. Someone got his seasonally rare sparrow on the MOU's splash page...
    Permalink
    By the MOU's definition, it wasn't "rare" until this morning, as December 1 is the start of "Winter", making this the second county record for the season.

    1. Cool. Is inter-species flocking a common thing with sparrows? (Or other bird families?) If the other species were to move on to new territories (or migrate?) would the Clay-colored move along as well?

      1. It's pretty common in a lot of birds outside of breeding season. Migrating warblers (several species) will hang out with the local Chickadees for a day, which also means they're hanging out with nuthatches and woodpeckers.
        Many species of blackbirds (plus Starlings) will be in those big, late-summer flocks. (Another example similar where an introduced non-native hangs out with its native equivalents... House Sparrows are in a separate family than the natives, and our New World Blackbirds fill the same ecological niche as Starlings do in the old world, more or less.)
        Snow Buntings, Longspurs, and Horned Larks...
        Gulls and Terns
        Ducks and Geese
        Doves and Pigeons
        Shorebirds
        etc.

      2. I think that if the CCSP woke up one day to find the other Sparrows gone, it wouldn't hang around much longer, but it would find another place it felt safe.
        A lot of these birds that aren't where they should be rely on "local information".
        It won't migrate with them, but migration is a bit of an instinctual thing in these species (happening overnight). And the House Sparrows are nonmigratory and the White-throats are probably done migrating.
        If the bird disappears before spring, the most likely reason will be that it perished rather than that it moved on.
        Wintering range for this species is pretty much Mexico.

    2. The Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union seems like it should be the title of the next coen brothers movie

    3. Nice.

      I thought I heard (but didn't see) some white-throated's when I was in Minny last week.

  2. I mentioned on Monday the sudden death of a young, incredibly talented colleague. His funeral was in Stevens Point yesterday; I counted at least thirty colleagues in attendance, including a vice provost. Here’s a piece that captures just a sliver of how incredible & wonderful Colin was , not only as a colleague, but as a person in the world. As one of his longest-standing colleagues observed in a eulogy yesterday, Colin truly embodied the values of a liberal education.

  3. Not meaning to get into the substance, because FZ, but is anyone else going bonkers today reading about Flynn and wondering what is next?

    1. I'm 35, so obviously I've lived through history. But I've never felt more like I'm living through a historical event than right now.

      1. I grew up in the Sixties and paid attention. Environmental disasters. Racial injustice and unrest. A corrupt administration with an authoritarian bent. Interminable military entanglements. Political polarization. Economic volatility. Social upheaval. For me, it all seems like a rerun.

    2. Assuming you mean this from a lawyerly perspective? As in ~ what a plea deal portends for others?

      'Spoiler?' SelectShow
        1. My thought on this was that Flynn wasn't just another person though? There's only so many people above him... Maybe I'm too naively optimistic, but I'm still watching the news closely the past few days.

    3. i've had work to do tonight, so live coverage of the senate has been the perfect background spectacle. all the voting time for amendments and droning calls of roll (not going to be many surprises) are sufficient and benign background noise. plus, there's the occasional parliamentary procedure and argument/retort(/sometimes a little more argument) to provide a brief mental break.

      that, and, you know, how crazy this all is.

  4. You may have heard that the World Cup draw was today. I have even bigger news for you here, though, I have conducted the draw for the National International Invitational Tournament in my super-official Excel spreadsheet. Here are the results

    Pot 1 — Italy (10 Elo rank), Netherlands (11), Chile (15), Wales (25)
    Pot 2 — Paraguay (26), United States (26), Ecuador (29), Slovakia (30)
    Pot 3 — Venezuela (32), Ukraine (34), Ireland (35), Bosnia and Herzegovina (36)
    Pot 4 — Scotland (38), Czechia (39), Turkey (40), Austria (42)

    Group A: Chile, Slovakia, Ukraine, Czechia
    Group B: Wales, EnglandEcuador, Ireland, Scotland (I swear I didn't do this on purpose)
    Group C: Netherlands, Paraguay, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria
    Group D: Italy, United States, Venezuela, Turkey

    If you elect me as the next president of the USSF, I pledge to arrange for this NIT of soccer—this IIT—to become reality! Maybe not more fun than Copa America, but more fun than the Gold Cup.

  5. Tyus Jones goes back to the bench and been blown out by double digits most of the game. HMMMMMM

  6. The Yankee hired ESPN yakker Aaron Boone as their manager.

    I am going to go on record and say this will not work out.

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