Cup of Coffee

July 23, 2012: Three-Peat

140 Comments

Daneeka's Ghost just won his third game of Survivor over at Casa de Leche (there have only ever been eleven). Plus, the WGOM has now won their sixth in a row...or, in other words, every one of them since I've been a visitor to the site. You guys are unstoppable.

140 thoughts on “July 23, 2012: Three-Peat”

  2. Somehow I posted this in Sunday's CoC:

    Wow. Penn State hit with 60MM fine and all wins from 1998 to 2011 vacated. Which means Paterno no longer winningest coach in D-1 history. (Bobby Bowden step up to the podium to receive your tarnished crown).

    Also the NYT has a good article on JoePos' JoePa book. Basically they've not marketing it like they would normally and Posnanski isn't doing a lot of interviews for the book.

      1. I feel bad for Poz. There's no way anyone could have seen this coming and the timing could not have been worse.

    2. How does vacating the wins actually punish anyone? Paterno is dead, and his reputation along with the reputation of his football program is forever blemished. Where does the 60 million dollars go?

      2. How does vacating the wins actually punish anyone? Paterno is dead

        This is something I considered, but then I remember that this isn't about punishment, it's about making sure that the "winningest coach evar" award isn't given to someone who puts a black mark on the NCAA.

        Not punishment....whitewashing.

          1. Let's just decide to care about "all of college football" instead of just D1.

              1. Oh, I'm not asking you to. Surely the man is bigger than the institution, right?

                  1. OK, because if you said St. John the Evangelist is bigger than any football org, I might have had to correct you with strong but pointless words usually reserved for Spookymilk.

          2. Oh, rest assured, pretty much anyone who has been in any system as corrupt as college football for any length of time has plenty of awful to their name. The NCAA can let Bowden's sins fade away. Paterno's are just harder to ignore.

                1. Probably the same effect as removing some games played against Div II or FCS or whatever.

        2. I disagree with the whitewashing comment Nibs.

          Paterno may be dead but his legacy lives on, forever basically. Time rubs away the rough edges and in 20 years we may lose sight of Paterno's outragous behavior, especially those who aren't alive now or too young to understand it all. If in the future someone mentions Paterno, a response from someone who isn't alive today may be "The guy won more games than anyone else, he must not have been that bad." The wiping out of wins assures that at least in the record books, the Paterno name won't stand for anything positive.

          Also it's suppose to act as a deterrent to other coaches/programs. Hopefully the next time a coach is confronted with protecting his institution or protecting young boys/girls/whatever, they make the right choice knowing that the punishment will be much much tougher than the hits it would take by doing the right thing.

          1. It'll probably play out like taking the hits record away from Pete Rose. Many still admire the way he played, but can't get too excited about him thanks to the gambling.

            1. If only JoePa had survived longer to sign footballs "I'm sorry I facilitated Child Rape."

          2. Hopefully the next time a coach is confronted with protecting his institution or protecting young boys/girls/whatever, they make the right choice knowing that the punishment will be much much tougher than the hits it would take by doing the right thing.

            I do hope you're right. I just feel like it's more of a punishment for sullying the NCAA than it is any sort of preemptive moral guard.

          3. I get that they don't want Paterno to have the wins record, but I really don't see how taking away the wins accomplishes anything. The games were played, and Joe Paterno's team won them. It seems to me that to pretend that they weren't and they didn't is to deny reality.

            2. I don't look at it as pretending the wins didn't happen, but rather not giving him credit for them. I don't think that it's really much of a punishment, though.

      3. From the AP:

        The NCAA said the $60 million is equivalent to the annual gross revenue of the football program. The money must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims, and may not be used to fund such programs at Penn State.

    3. Considering their crime, I was really hoping they would withhold more scholarships. The Gophers lost 5 scholarships out of 13 for three years after the Clem Haskins scandal. Penn State loses less than 25% of their football scholarships for a massive, system-wide cover-up of multiple felonies? Fantastic perspective on the issue, NCAA, fantastic.

      1. Sounded like they were losing 40% (10 out of 25) of their scholarships for each of four seasons.

        1. The story I found:

          The scholarship reductions mean that Penn State's roster will be capped at 65 scholarship players within a couple of seasons. The normal scholarship limit for major college football programs is 85. Playing with 20 less is crippling to a program that tries to compete at the highest level of the sport.

      2. I doubt it matters much. With players being able to transfer immediately and the four-year bowl ban, I doubt many players good enough to start at another major DI school will stick around. Plus, the vast majority of the current players were recruited by Paterno, so they won't have any emotional ties to the new coach.

        1. It'll make a difference in how soon they'll be competitive again. I'm not convinced that they'll be at any more of a reputational disadvantage than schools that haven't been competitive for decades.

          1. I'm not convinced that they'll be at any more of a reputational disadvantage than the Gophers have.
            (Simplified that for you.)

            1. What I want to know is how this changes the line on Penn State winning the conference title before Minnesota. How bad do the degenerate gamblers think this penalty is?

    4. Joe Paterno was murdered!

      He paid the ultimate price for his culpability in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. When they took away his job, they killed him. You can point to the official cause of death as being lung cancer. But when the Penn State administrators sent him into exile in a state of national disgrace, Paterno withdrew and died very quickly.

      Spoiler SelectShow

      2. When I heard that Penn State fired Paterno, I told my wife that he'd be dead within the year. Doesn't mean that Penn State killed him.

  3. Interesting issue on the homefront to discuss.

    Wife got a FB message from a college friend she hasn't seen or spoken to in years. It says "call me." Wife calls and hears that friend had colon cancer, multiple surgeries, lost job, family abandoned her, broke - basically worst case scenario. Said she wasn't asking for any money but just wanted to talk.

    Next day, calls for money. Says she needs it for groceries. The more we discuss, the more likely it is that she is fabricating most of the story. She says her parents think she is on drugs and now I do too.

    What should we do? Give her a grocery store gift card? Do nothing? I don't know much about addiction but it sure doesn't sound like she is ready to try to change.

    1. I once had someone say to me something along the lines of "if you aren't ever being scammed, then you're not generous enough."

      Of course, that's totally different than "run directly into what you suspect is a scam!"

      I'm not real helpful today.

    2. If the friend is in the area, I'd suggest a trip to the grocery store with her. She gets groceries and you get a look at her in person - might help to determine what the situation really is.
      If she's not in the area, I'd call her parents or family to see what their perspective on her is.
      Don't "do nothing", but I'd avoid sending money or gift cards...especially if you suspect addiction.

    3. Somewhat related: yesterday a relatively clean-cut guy at the gas station driving an old van said he needed some cash for gas to make it home a few miles up the road. I bit and gave him $10. He did immediately use it for gas, but one thing I hate about big cities is that you don't know people and you can never really tell if you're getting scammed. I'd like to think that if I was in a similar situation and forgot my wallet or something, someone would help me out, but I also don't appreciate being taken advantage of, so hopefully he really did need the money.

      As to your situation, if you're right and drugs have cost this woman her relationship with her family, she probably needs more help than you can give her. A grocery gift card might be better than cash, but she'll probably see immediately that you don't trust her with cash, for better or worse. It's hard to say what the end game is, too.

      1. In May, I had a young woman (12ish) come to our front door selling cheesecake as a fundraiser for a "Jr ROTC summer camp". Something about it seemed a bit off, but she had what appeared to be a legitimate order form and a little boy with her. I didn't have cash and asked if she'd take a check. She said that her sergeant told her not to take checks. I asked her to come back tomorrow and I'd have $15. She came back the next day, I signed up and handed her the cash. I asked for a receipt and she said she didn't have one with her. I didn't want to be rude and ask for the money back so I let it slide. I figured, if this is a scam, she has to live with knowing that she stole from me and I can afford (barely) a $15 chance at things being other than they seemed.

        Needless to say, I didn't get any cheesecake. I knew that when I'd supported things like this in the past, I usually paid when the items arrived or they'd handed them over on the spot. I felt like a doofus because I've been taken by these guys in the past...always hoping that my faith in humanity or at least my faith in the goodness and honesty of people will be vindicated. I've since decided that cash handouts, whether to pan handlers or solicitors, are a bad idea and I'll be directing my charitable propensities elsewhere.

          1. It was a close thing...weighing the disappointment of no cheesecake with the disappointment in my fellow-man.

            1. The only other person I know who doesn't like cheesecake shares your first name. I'm going to extrapolate from that and assume that everyone with your name dislikes cheesecake. The soundest of logic.

            2. I despised cheesecake for about ten years, after an incident when I was about 7 where I ate cheesecake and ended up throwing up (probably had more to do with spinning in circles on a swing immediately after eating, but I blamed the cheesecake). Luckily I eventually got over that, since life without cheesecake is pretty dull.

            3. I'm there with you. Childhood surgery on my palate forced me to eat soft foods only for a month or two.

              Thanks to that, I no longer eat cottage cheese, cheesecake, or pizza that's been put in a blender.

              1. While I have not had surgery on my palate, I, too, do not eat pizza that's been put in a blender.

              2. I also don't eat cottage cheese and would probably refuse to eat pizza in a blender if it was offered to me. I do have a weird texture thing with a few foods.

                1. I've got a texture thing too. I find I have to be pretty selective with Indian food. Either that or shut up and just eat it, but that option isn't my favorite.

                  1. remind of that the next time we go out for dinner. I'll push for an Indian restaurant and eat all of your food too!

                    Or you could just stick with biryani and tandoori chicken.

                    1. Chicken is usually what I go for. Though to be honest, I haven't had Indian in probably 5 years, so it's hard to say any more.

                  2. I also have textural issues. Indian definitely triggers that for me; unidentifiable chunks in an opaque sauce. I have no idea what to expect with a lot of dishes, so I kind of just stick to the dishes I know I like. I absolutely love those dishes, but it does keep me from broadening my horizons.

                    1. unidentifiable chunks in an opaque sauce

                      my wife's description of french food, from her post-college european trip: "bad meat, heavy sauce."

                    2. I've never ate French food, but this is the impression I get. It just doesn't interest me in the least.

                    3. what, you've never had french fries?

                      I've never been to France, but I've eaten some mighty tasty, frenchified food, much of which is accessible to the home cook. Niçoise salad is a beautiful thing and one of my favorites for summer dinners. Vichyssoise is awesome, and also a nice one for summer. Bouillabaisse, awesome. Cassoulet, awesome. I could go on, but it would just make me hungry.

                    5. I thought the food in France was great when I was there last September. If anything, I'd say the meat dishes were "good meat, good sauce." Not everything was impressive, but I certainly wouldn't make any negative generalities. I will say that I'm generally not a big fan of pastries, but the croissants in Paris and Lyon were amazing. In some of the smaller cities, they were not as amazing.

        2. I always say no thanks to anyone of any age coming to my door for those types of "fundraisers". (around here, its usually a kid 13,14,15 years old selling newspaper subscriptions.) That might make me a cynical ass, but I feel that, if I want to donate money to something, be it a charity, college education, what have you, I will seek it out on my own terms because of the risk of scams. Its sort of sad that scams are so prevalent.

            1. dido.

              School fundraising is one big circle of obligations. We buy from them, they buy from us.

              1. I've gotten to where I just give them a cash donation rather than buying something. Usually what they're selling is something I don't really want anyway, and I figure they'll get more money from the donation than they would the selling.

    4. As a pastor I have people who claim to be needy hit me up for money occasionally (although I don't think it's ever been anyone I knew). I generally rely on my instincts. Sometimes I give to them, sometimes I don't. Have I refused some legitimately needy people at times? Probably. Have I given to some people who either didn't truly need it or just wasted it? Probably. I don't know that there is a really good solution to this.

      1. Philosofette is currently serving as a parish secretary and deals with similar calls quite frequently. Many of her coworkers frequently complain about the people who come to the church for help, dismissing them as "scamming" the church and such. But if you can't go to a church for help, where can you go? I think the "trust your gut" thing is the best approach. It sure beats general cynicism.

        1. My wife also works at the church. Where can you go? Well, the city and county run shelters and food pantries, etc., and have record keeping that ensures (to the best it can) that people with legitimate needs get help. Typically, those shelters and pantries are run by churches, and the local officials send people there.

          1. Working for an organization that serves low-income persons, I'm fairly aware of the range of resources available. Mine was more of a rhetorical question suggesting that a certain amount of obligation attaches with the Christian identity.

    5. Her parents should be able to corroborate her story. If you have a contact there, a call to them might give you all you need to know.

      1. I don't know the whole story but it sounds like she had a pretty bad home life. She says that her parents cut her off because they think she is on drugs but that she is really sick. Based on her story, her parents are going to say she is on drugs.

        She lives in St Louis but my wife might try to see her in a couple weeks.

    6. Regardless of whether she is doing drugs or not, she probably needs the money for basic needs. Just because someone mismanages their funds doesn't mean they're not deserving of help.

      Give a man a fish, right? If she really is in dire straits, especially if it's because of a drug problem, getting her hooked up with a case manager of some sort is best. Depends on where she lives, though, how accessible that stuff is. If you want to chat with me privately about it, let me know.

  5. Twenty-five years ago today, my parents let me celebrate my fifth birthday (about 6 months late) with a trip to Valleyfair. My mom brought me, my two cousins visiting from Omaha, and my neighbor. Around 8pm, the sirens went off, so my mom got us out of there. We crossed over the Bloomington Ferry Bridge but the rain was coming down ridiculously fast, so my mom pulled over into a Taco Bell on Old Shakopee Road because the roads were flooded. We went inside along with a bunch of others who were trying to wait out the storm. Soon, the parking lot had flooded to about seven feet deep and water was seeping in under the doors of the building. Someone was out in the parking lot for fun in scuba gear. One of my cousins began panicking because she couldn't swim.

    In this pre-cell phone era, my mom used the restaurant phone to call home (South Minneapolis) and learned that 35W and Diamond Lake was completely under water. She also explained that there was no way the station wagon was making it out of the parking lot tonight. Eventually, my father connected with some good friends of ours whose brother lived in West Bloomington. He came to the Taco Bell and they broke a window in the restaurant. We climbed out through the window and he caravaned a bunch of us stranded people to his home were we stayed for the night until the rain passed. Just a crazy, crazy night.

    IIRC, wasn't someone else here also at Valleyfair that day?

    1. Yeah, that was me. Crazy! My sister and I were there with a bunch of youth from our church. Valley Fair kicked everyone out, but then herded a bunch of us to bathrooms near the entrance. After waiting in there for a while, they told us that there was a break in the storms, but more were coming, so if we were going to leave, do so now. We left and got on the freeway going north back to the church in Osseo (we lived in Maple Grove). We had to get off because a section of the freeway was closed for flooding. Our car literally was flooded out just a hundred feet or so from the house of the man in charge of youth for our denomination in Minnesota. We ended up staying the night at his house and somehow got all the rest of our youth group to his house (I think it was two other carloads). The tornadoes missed our house by about a mile that night.

    2. Nothing as exciting as all that, but I do remember that night vividly. My dad and I stood on the front steps and watched the water rise as it flowed down 41st Street.

  6. I just saw at CH that the Wolves got the Russian Rubio. I have no complaints about this off-season so far.

    1. I am so excited for Shved. He could easily bump Pekovic as my favorite player. I saw someone say somewhere that there's a chance that signing Shved could lead to the Wolves getting Andrei Kirilenko too, which almost certainly won't happen but if it did would be my all-time dream come true.

        1. Wait, scratch that, further research indicates he has not signed with anyone but was talking to the Nets.

  7. We got an email today reminding us that a bunch of terms referring to the Quadrennial Sporting Event are trademarked. We get them about The Sizeable Football Contest and the Springtime Basketball-Related Crazytime as well.

    Be careful out there, guys.

      2. I knew a guy in college who wanted to have "international playboy" tattooed around the bunny logo near his junk to inform partners that he was an international playboy. The tattooist convinced him to change the location to the tramp stamp area, and then promptly misspelled international. He was know as the "interational" playboy from that day forward. Funniest tattoo I've ever seen.

              1. oh, no, it's so much worse than you think (though i could see either KW having that tattoo).

    2. Sounds like a Super sized Bowl of Madness that folks can't March through the Olympic forests anymore.

  9. I had a dream on Saturday evening that the Twins traded Liriano to the Seattle Mariners for Manny Banuelos (a Yankees prospect). In my dream I was furious when I heard this, as there was a story (again, in my dream) of Banuelos being accused of sexual assault. I was mad they traded Liriano for a scumbag. Unbeknownst to me, Mr. Banuelos was in the same establishment that I was, and overheard me. He then threatened to kick my ass, and I had to run away from him. I ended up hiding out in a Chili's with a friend of mine who was way too excited over their appetizer menu.

    I hope that my dream is inaccurate.

      1. I was going to say that the Chili's part might be the most frightening thing in that dream.

  10. I just saw Abrigal and Brittany Hensel on campus today over lunch. I was familiar with their situation but it's a whole other thing to actually stand next to them at a street corner. Got to give them a ton of credit for trying to live their lives as normal as possible.

    1. I saw them at a mall a few years ago. I'm hoping that this doesn't sound insensitive, but seeing them in person is initially rather alarming. I tried my hardest to not be a callow gawker, but their appearance is so unique that I couldn't resist looking twice. I can't even imagine the amount of curious scrutiny they deal with from strangers each day. It must be very frustrating. I too have a lot of respect for them for embracing their extraordinary situation.

      1. I'm glad you said that because I had the same exact reaction. My first thought was it was a couple of girls wearing one shirt for some goofy reason (it is a college campus after all). Then you notice one set of legs, one set of arms, etc and you can't help but to do a double and triple take to confirm what you are obviously seeing.

    2. I actually have a strange story about them. My daughter was asking bout conjoined twins a couple years ago and said she would scream if she ever saw one. We talked about the science of it, people being different, etc. I don't know that I totally enlightened her but I tried. Then I found a youtube clip from some news program the Hensels did. I showed that to her to but told her that it was very rare and she would likely never see conjoined twins. I didn't realize that they only lived 20 miles from me!

      The next summer, we advertised for a summer nanny at the local college near us. The Hensels were the first to apply. They ended up finding another position while we were still gathering resumes but they definitely would have been in the running.

      Small world.

    1. Eh, doing alright today. I've got a few essay subjects that I'm still not super confident in, so I'm hoping that if any of those are asked it is in my wheelhouse. I tried opening one of the review books a little while ago, and it is not sticking at all so I watched a bunch of the Larry Sanders Show to try and clear my head. From my practice stuff, I think the essays will be my weakest link, but I have a lot of confidence in quite of a few of those subjects.

      1. Yeah, the day before, I recommend getting your mind as off of it as you can and getting a good night's sleep. Best of luck. And just remember, as the lead examiner told our group when I took it in Virginia, "all we're looking for is minimally competent."

    1. I just take it as further evidence that our wives rule our lives whether we like it or not.

  13. Hi, citizens! I'm happy to report that I'm home and feeling fine. Thank you all for the outpouring of kindness. I got great news from the cardiologist today. The echocardiogram they did this morning showed no significant damage to the heart muscle and as long as I follow doctor's orders he expects a complete recovery. I do have a stent in one of my coronary arteries now so Plavix is on the daily menu for a year or two, but I can live with the meds and exercise. It's life without cheesecake that's going to be hard.

    Now, I'm not going to preach or nag, but I hope my experience can serve as a wake up call for any of you who may have risk factors for heart disease. I ignored my own for too long. I hope nobody else here will.

    3. Glad to see you on the up-and-up, pally.

      I took real steps on the hyperlipidemia front when I turned forty. Numbers have improved dramatically.

    5. Trust me, Twayn, we are not ignoring your risk factors anymore.

      Plus, glad you are home.

    6. I haven't spoken up. 95% of the time lately, I'm reading this site 8+ hours after things have been written.
      Glad to hear that you're repairing well.

      If giving up cheesecake is a problem, it sounds like Can of Corn can hook you up with a great cheesecake-avoidance program run by the junior ROTC.

      1. Puke.

        I don't understand this at all. The Mariners are getting marginal-at-best prospects back from the Yankees and they're sending cash to pay part of his salary. There always seems to be one trade a year where a player gets traded to the Yankees for pennies on the dollar. The only thing I can imagine is if Ichiro asked to be traded there, but good god.

        1. Who else would be interested in him? It's the last year on his contract and I don't think the Mariners were interested in bringing him back. There have been some frustrating talent dumps to the Yankees in the past (Bobby Abreu stands out in my mind--damn, that was a long time ago), but Ichiro has been more of a name than a talent these days.

      2. I'm not sure Ichiro's worth a lot. (Though I certainly don't buy the argument that gets thrown around sometimes that he's the Mariners' biggest problem.) I guess this is the last year on his current contract, though, so he doesn't have much negative value, anyway. He's probably owed $7-$8M for the balance of the season. fWAR likes his performance this year, but that's almost all based on fielding, and I'm not convinced he's been worth 1.5 wins in right field over half a season--that's a hell of a fielding streak if he has been worth that much. This is his third straight year with a declining wOBA, and his current wOBA is so low that it sits below both Nick Punto's career wOBA and his '12 wOBA. Situationally, I think he still has some value, but I'm not convinced he has much left in the tank.

    2. My wife is really not going to be happy about this. She got a Mariners gift card from her friends two years ago and she really wanted to use it to buy an Ichiro t-shirt, but didn't get around to it until three or four weeks ago.

      I'm actually going to be at the Mariners game tonight, it will be interesting to see how the crowd reacts if Ichiro gets in the game for the Yankees. There has been a lot of practically anti-Ichiro sentiment around Seattle lately, I doubt this will cut down on it, but at least I won't have to hear about how Ichiro is a huge problem for the Mariners.

        1. Good question--he must, he's been in the league for 10+ years all on the same team.

  15. I have a bad feeling James Holmes is going to get off on an insanity plea.

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