58 thoughts on “April 28, 2020: Macabre”

    1. I bet he eats brianS, so I voted "yes."

      Actually, I don't know enough to speculate one way or the other, so am abstaining.

          2. Speaking of which, I made rice in the Instant Pot at lunch. Time from closing the lid to opening the lid: 19 minutes.

              1. microwave makes rice in 20 minutes.
                1 c rice
                1 3/4 c liquid
                dash of salt
                spray of olive oil

                cover and nuke on high for 5 minutes, keep covered and nuke on 30% power for 15 minutes. fluff with fork and serve.

                I guess that time is money, tho.

                1. I just made some Basmati rice on the stove top. Put the water and rice on the blaze at 7:02, brought it to a roiling boil, turned the heat to low and covered the pot. At 7:23 I was fluffing some perfectly cooked rice to go with my pollo and frijoles negros.

                  1. I like to throw in a scoop of chicken broth concentrate while boiling. My rice tastes good and I get to feel an unwarranted sense of competence.

                    1. Also tasty. Joy of Cooking has a recipe where you sauté onions, then add the rice and stir that all up before you add the chicken broth. Yum yum.

                    2. Joy of Cooking has a recipe where you sauté onions, then add the rice and stir that all up before you add the chicken broth

                      You can also quick risotto after the onions by subbing in cheap dry boxed white wine, and lots and lots and lots of cheese.

                  2. 21 minutes. So, not much different. Cooking with gas is an advantage. Next stove in my house is gonna have gas, for sure. The original post here was in response to a question on the Sunday night call as to how long it actually took. It is under pressure for only 5 minutes, but it's actually 19 minutes total.

                    1. I guess I might’ve misunderstood the purpose of the comment. Sorry, I thought you were saying that was fast. 🤷‍♂️

                      And yes, cooking with gas is the only way to fly.

  2. A friend of mine set up a virtual reading group for JoePos’ Top 100. We kicked things off and read 96–100 this week. I was looking for some Larry Walker highlights for my response and found this gem:

          1. JoePos is a wonderful writer when it comes to things like his daughters or to things that really don't matter, like the fluff of sports. He's sentimental and has a way with words, and even though he gets purple prosey at times, I usually dig it. But he's just not good at handling anything real, like racism (despite hanging out with Buck O'Neill for a year) or mental health or you know, Paterno.

          2. also, I listen to the PosCast because I like hanging out with Mike Schur and Brandon McCarthy and Nick Offerman, and Ellen Adair. But whenever JoePos had on other guests for more serious conversations I couldn't listen. He just doesn't pose interesting questions as an interviewer. He's good at developing relationships with people (Priest Holmes a famous example) but he's definitely not going to tackle the hard stuff.

            1. I'm in the same boat, the Paterno situation really dampened my enthusiasm for reading/following his work. But the PosCast is fun because the cast of characters is so good.

              Although at this point I'm having a hard time getting through more than a handful of podcasts in a week with a fully-occupied, busier house. The PosCast doesn't make that cut, along with about 25 others...

              1. Ha, we are indeed in the same boat. The podcasts I listen to are pumping out more content but I have less time because I'm not in my car anymore. I haven't listened to Effectively Wild in a month and I don't think I'll ever catch up. I don't really want to listen to "state of baseball" podcasts anyway, but I do miss Sam and Meg.

                1. My time in the car has decreased by about 7 hrs/week, so my podcasts are waaayyy backed up

                  1. And on top of that it is a lot easier to sit in my cube half-listening to what I deem my second tier podcasts than it is to listen around the house now, there's just no way I'm catching up at this point.

                2. I feel the same way. I'm bummed about the non-Twins state of baseball as it is, and consequently don't really have the heart to listen to banter about minor league contraction, quarantined seasons, or anything else.

                  The off-season can be fun when there's speculation about additions to the roster, or looking forward to players taking the next step in their development. Spring Training is the light at the end of the tunnel, and all you need is a calendar. Right now, there's no indication of where in the tunnel we are, or what's on the other side.

                3. I always listen at 1x so I don't have to focus 100% on the podcast, but had to bump up EW to 1.2x in order to get through my backlog faster.

  3. Anyone got a suggestion for a high-energy album to help me power through a lot of work on a rainy day?

    2. I literally cannot listen to music and work at the same time. I just want to sing along, if not out loud then in my head.

      1. At work, music helps me tune out my noisy radiator. At home, it helps me tune out noisy humans.

      2. i can't do music if i actually have to think about something (like crafting an email). however, if i'm doing some of my more menial, data-entry type tasks, crank it up.

        1. I can't listen to music when editing poetry. Because I need to be able to hear the rhythm of the language.

          I'm generally fine with music when writing emails, which is fortunate given how much of my time is spent on that...

        2. I can't read or write if I'm listening to music with vocals. They keep interlapping with one another. It's gotta be classical or jazz.

          Brian Eno's ambient music app Bloom, on the other hand, is marvelous for both. It also makes the most mundane tasks seem mysterious, almost fascinating. Cleaning my refrigerator while lost in one of those dreamscapes made me feel like I was fixing a lunar rover on Mars. You'll want a Bluetooth speaker, though as it's far more interesting at a higher volume. Well worth the 8 bucks(?) I paid for it.

        3. I can do just about any music while I'm working. I'm sure it helps that a lot of my work is solitary, with data, not with people and words.

          I can't listen to podcasts though. I can either listen and not get any work done, or get work done and have exactly zero clue what was said.

      3. I thought this was just me. I can not fathom how people do mental work with a TV or music (with lyrics) going. Words are meant to be attended to for comprehension.

        1. I've even tried classical or video game music while working. Can't do it. Just end up wanting to pay attention to it.

        1. "Nearer To The Wild Heart of Life" makes me want to start a band and hit the road, total lack of instrument or vocal talent be damned.

  4. On the subject of today's CoC… about a week ago my girls woke me up to say they found a dead baby bunny in the backyard. Today, they found another one, and while I was investigating, I found their hidey-hole... and ANOTHER dead baby bunny. I don't know if I did something when I last mowed, but sakes alive that's a lot of dead bunnies in our yard. It's like we became a dumping ground for the rabbit mafia.

  5. So my shower faucet was acting kinda freaky (partially clogged with who knows what), so I took it off, and used a cocktail of Bartender's Friend and Brasso to try to clean out the pores with an old toothbrush. Well, it's old now.

    I went to reinstall said unit (its a two-part deal with an elbow that lets you bend the faucet down where you want it). But water was shooting out of the sides after install - a disaster, and the threads seemed to have been stripped. Today I was thinking of going to Home Depot to get another unit and I thot - look at this again one more time.
    I sat at the breakfast table with all the pieces and kept reassembling them - finally voila. Plumbing #1 - make a drawing of your parts when you take things apart.

    1. I've enjoyed talking out how different broadcasts used to be to my oldest son--not having the score, count, pitch speed, etc. on the screen at all times is really weird to him.

      Looking at the introduction screen in the Tweet, I miss the more stylized approach to graphics.

  7. Pompeo hasn't seen him. On Monday, President Donald Trump said he had a "very good idea" about Mr Kim's condition, but added that "I can't talk about it".

    Fox says he might be getting a facial and treatments.

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