Cup of Coffee

September 2, 2020: Reader Lashes Out At Editor, Destroys Them

86 Comments

If the headline to an article contains a verb like "slams" or "blasts" or something similar, I know it's an article I don't have to read.

86 thoughts on “September 2, 2020: Reader Lashes Out At Editor, Destroys Them”

  1. You might as well throw in any article about asteriods heading towards Earth. They're always well below any dangerous meteor size, or, they're like the several other asteroids that pass within one lunar distance each and every year. Just stop reporting on them, please? Oh, and also "supermoons"

    1. When did supermoons become a thing? I'm pretty sure we've had the same moon phases for eons.

      1. From the Repository.

        The term supermoon is attributed to astrologer Richard Nolle while reading “Strategic Role Of Perigean Spring Tides in Nautical History and Coastal Flooding” published in 1976 by NOAA Hydrologist Fergus Wood. In practice, there is no official or even consistent definition of how near perigee the full Moon must occur to receive the supermoon label, and new moons rarely receive a supermoon label.

        Nolle described the concept in a 1979 edition of Dell Horoscope including both full and new moons, but has never outlined why he chose 90% nor has provided a definitive formula for determining if a given full or new moon is "super".

  4. Gotta be honest, I wouldn't mind an FZ box on this, or just this discussion somewhere else. These next few months are going to make the "pristine" nature of the site a necessity for mental health.

    1. I can second that. Though I appreciate the general thoughtfulness of this place, which would make it a good place to discuss politics, having a safe place for everyone is even more important.

      Especially as the Twins march to the World Series!

      1. Yeah. I think this is an important place to talk about racial equity and social justice and we can try not to give oxygen to every awful thing.

      1. This whole discussion got me inspired to make my favorite lunch of quarantine: Korean noodle soup with a soft boiled egg.

        1. We did black bean and sweet potato tacos with an avacado/cilantro sauce. It was really good!

          I don't mind vegetarian meals not I don't usually go multiple days without meat.

          One thing I don't really like is fake meat. I'm all in or all out.

          3. We try to eat meatless more, but summer = grilling is hard to break. Especially on the days it's hot as hell and there's no way we're turning on the stove.

            We definitely eat less meat in the winter.

              2. I'd say our balance is about the same in summer and winter. More grilling in summer, but less fresh produce.

          4. Agreed on fake meat--I'm not interested in approximating the thing I didn't want to eat anyway.

            I think it's particularly important to find dishes that are well seasoned and to try to plan in lots of variety. This week we've had store-bought tortellini with homemade pesto and carrot sticks on the side (because the boys always eat carrots) and garlic-rosemary roasted potatoes with cheese omelettes and green beans. There's often some sort of tofu dish in the rotation (either garlic-ginger tofu with brown rice and broccoli or this yakisoba).

            If you are worried about protein and making meals substantial enough, you may want to check out The High-Protein Vegetarian Cookbook.

            1. I've never made yakisoba from scratch. I should try that sometime. I'm trying to remember if I made Japanese curry from scratch once, or if I was just thinking I wanted to. I think that Marc guy has a recipe for it.

          5. 100% agree on this. There are all sorts of really tasty non-meat foods in the world--I'm really not interested in imitating meat if I'm not going to actually eat meat.

            I try to bump up the fat content when I am cooking non-meat meals, as I find it helps keep me feeling full for longer.

            1. I can see why non-meat people don't want fake meats, but I am still all for their development and marketing if only for the environmental effects.

              1. fwiw, when we were in NYC a few years ago to visit The Boy (and do the East Coast college tour with The Girl), we hit up a couple of vegetarian restaurants. One featured a bunch of seitan dishes (mock chicken, mock duck, mock beef, etc.) that were fantastic.

                I have not yet had Impossible Burgers or the like, but I know people who rave about them.

                So, while I lean toward agreement in general on just doing vegetarian if you are gonna avoid meat, there are some very good options out there that contribute texture and umami for certain applications.

                1. Seitan is still sort of its own thing, though, not really trying to be exactly like chicken, duck, beef, etc. I'd put it in the same category as tofu, in that it's replacing the meat that would often be in the dish, but not trying to match the taste.

                  I occasionally buy the Morningstar fake chicken patties, and I like them more than the ones that actually have meat in them. It's not like the meat ones are that much like real chicken, anyway.

        1. I saw a thing on PBS one time about one of the only places that grows it in America. It's in Half Moon Bay in California.

  6. On the end of the NBA game last night:

    I say go for the layup. Up 2 with 5 seconds left. An NBA should make that layup 95% of the time. An 80% free throw shooter will make both free throws 64% of the time, one free throw 32% of the time, and miss both 4% of the time.

    Plus, a fast break is just more fun than two foul shots.

    1. yea, I didn't have a problem with the layup (just the miss). But the 80 pct FT shooter making at least one to put you up by 3 with seconds to go is also a pretty damn good option.

    1. I want others to weigh in here. Should I restore SBG's other LTE to also restore the replies? The original LTE had its content cleared and I will not (and cannot) restore that.

        1. You can see the replies on the sidebar. Also the LTE count does not match the number of letters shown.

          1. can you restore and FZ spoiler? That's supposed to have been our practice, not that I've always adhered to it.

            1. I think the point is less "FZ Tags" and, more to Beau's point, that there's a difference between talking about the big issues of our time and mentioning every last awful thing that this awful president does.

              2. This. It is probably wise to be gracious with FZ exceptions for big issues, spoken of in thoughtful terms. But I think the more FZ coverage there is here, the more that cuts against the ability to extend that grace.

            1. My read was that they’d already been planning it - setting up a 2-month run (9/2-11/2) to line their pockets through some great eat-outside weather in MN, and then close it up until next year. I believe their numbers on lost revenue comparable year-over-year were something like 80%(my buddy owned his own spot and was only able to make it through June).

              I also wonder about the decision to pursue collective bargaining in the current COVID-impacted service industry environment, though I had heard grumblings about the situation from labor’s perspectives as it relates that very reality.

              What I do know is I better get over there and use the $50 gift card I received for Christmas ... in 2018.

  9. If I can make a modest proposal, in light of the now-deleted outburst and thread.

    This is a kind of family space -- a family of choice. Let's strive to acknowledge and honor our angers, frustrations, and fears about the Forbidden Zone, without letting it overtake our joy. I don't want us to do the white privilege thing of whistling past the shitstorms. But, as others have reinforced, if we allow all of our anger to pour out, we will kill what we cherish.

    Maybe it would be enough to allow some acknowledgment to the anger and fear on the regular, while mostly redirecting the specifics to elsewhere?

    1. What's the purpose of discussing those areas? Venting? Honest discussion? Getting approval from others?

      This place is better than most but I still feel a little uncomfortable disagreeing with people on here.

      1. I wasn't suggesting discussing at all. I was suggesting some allowance for/acknowledgment of reality outside our bubble. I agree that we need to redirect those discussions (mostly) elsewhere.

        1. I know. I was just asking the question to all/any. I probably should have put it under Sean's post above.

      2. I have no idea what was being discussed that got deleted, but I do think there are things that are vitally important right now that are good to discuss (healthcare, climate change, student loan debt, housing, etc.) and that are mostly relatively safe to discuss in setting like this, and the reason to do so would be to get a better understanding of the actual issue. It seems to me the discussions that turn problematic are about specific candidates/parties. The latter is what made me permanently ban myself from canishoopus, anyway.

        That said, I thought the usage of the FZ spoiler had been working plenty good for the past few years.

        1. I've had some time to think about what happened this morning and I want to address it here and then I'm going to think about whether I should comment at all anymore. I get the value of having a place that is a safe haven from politics. I felt a tremendous amount of outrage about the article that I linked to and I frankly cannot believe that this is the country that we now live in. I posted it out of sense of desperation, rage, and sadness. I shouldn't have. It's obvious that several of you took exception. If you want to know what I posted about, look in the spoiler. If not, don't look.

          Edit: I did not FZ it. I felt like this wasn't politics. If Zigi Wylf, for example, had been the subject of this story, I would have felt similar outrage, but in retrospect, I should have.

          Spoiler SelectShow

          1. part of the beauty of this place is that it is like a virtual basement or bar, where everyone pretty much knows everyone else, including their online faults and tendencies. I think we have a robust enough community to (a) tolerate the occasional outburst and (b) police each other and ourselves when things go too far.

            I am guiltier than most about riding the edge some times on politics and other sensitive topics, and I've had my hand slapped once or twice. One time I even felt aggrieved and took my ball and went home to sulk for a while. Eventually I and the brother involved kissed and made up.

            But I get the sensitivity. Online communities can unravel via acrimonious infighting over stuff large and small. None of us wants to see that happen here.

            At the same time, I don't want us to turn a blind eye to the Real World, because most of us agree that a lot of awful stuff has been happening lately for *cough* several *cough cough* years.

            I dunno. I don't want Stick to withdraw. He built this city.
            At the same time, he built something that was bigger than just his own personal platform.

            I kind of wish we had a primal scream channel that was hidden from the sidebar but available to all of us who wanted to explicitly jump into that particular post space to yell and scream until we get it out of our systems.

          2. It's real tricky, yeah. Everything is painfully ugly right now, and outrage is fully justified. I agree with what others said that no one should bury themselves in the sand, but I don't think anyone really does that here as they keep themselves informed. I wouldn't say I took exception, especially as I'm completely on your side, but that was definitely a raw and naked statement (heh, you might even say it was "blasting" them 😉 ). At least to the point that I thought it should have been in an FZ box*. Ugliness is all around us now. If we don't see it personally, we see it in the news, on FB, the Tweeter, on Nextdoor (omg Nextdoor...). I don't mind that this place is a bit of a safe haven. That policy came from the old to the new basement, and I believe there's a reason it's had staying power. I guess I also don't see it as ignoring anything as it's literally figuratively every single other place around us.

            All this said, I don't want to be responsible for censoring anyone or stifling conversation. I'm sure you remember I was against discussing Sandy Hook here. However, I feel we handled it well by giving ourselves a break out room of sorts. I softened my stance on the day and participated in the discussion. But, as others have said, I think we can and do discuss the big matters of the day in a thoughtful manner, but we also don't have to bring up every awful thing. We're friends outside of this place too and we can dive deeper there if we'd like.

            Maybe this is all naive, I don't know. I hope you don't feel like you shouldn't come here or that people are against you, but I do feel that this should be a little bit of a safe haven, even if it's a half-baked one.

            *I do think the FZ boxes are a nice way of having our cake and eating it too, and I agree they've been well and not over utilized around here.

          3. Boss - Appreciate the follow-up/recap. As with most things here over the last 4 months, I missed it earlier.

            My request is that (going forward) you liberally use the FZ if it means you’ll continue to participate.

    2. Being a guilty party to a previous outburst, I’ll just say that experience impressed upon me that the long relationships I have with people here are more precious than my need to hotly contest something I disagree with (or might, in the heat of the moment, view without the charity due that relationship). I’ve learned (am still learning) that I need to respect the bounds of some relationships to best enjoy those relationships. As long as they don’t compel me to live in some kind of Pleasantville-style denial of the reality around me, I can do that.

    1. The suddenness strikes me as odd.

      Heck of a run for Bert, wish him well, and am glad for new voices on the broadcast.

          1. I feel I remember when it was first announced a few years back that his games were being cut that either reporting or Bert himself said it wasn't his decision. As he's been less and less visible, I've assumed he's being pushed out from the top.

    2. After he was no longer the only color analyst for the team, I found myself much less annoyed with him.

      He's not as good as Morneau/Smalley, far superior to Morris/Hunter and much more polished than Hawkins/Kelly.

      I'll echo what Razor said. Great run, hope he enjoys all of his future endeavors, and fresh voices are a blessing.

  13. In the middle of a meeting, the laptop crapped out today, and wouldn't reboot. I'm going to MN this weekend for a 2-week stint, so kinda freaked out. Called in a ticket with the helpdesk, and got a ticket number (at least they can do that).

    I decided to go into the Corporate HQ (10 min drive) to see if hooking up to my docking station would matter. Dude at the front desk asked me if I was on the list of 200 essential workers. I said no. Got in anyways, the docking station didn't help.

    Some I.T. dude was wandering around, and I accosted him for help. He looked at it a while, inserted a push pin into the reset pin-hole back of my laptop, and Voila! It booted up nicely.

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