Cup of Coffee

November 23, 2016: No Lines

78 Comments

People don't line up a week in advance in Minnesota. That's kind of cool.

Less cool is the fact that we've been hurting for coverage for the last few days, because corporate apparently didn't foresee us having a single customer between Monday and Wednesday.

78 thoughts on “November 23, 2016: No Lines”

  1. All right, guys. I've got a house to clean, groceries to buy, and a pie and some dinner rolls to make. If anyone has any albums to recommend, let me know; I need me a soundtrack for today.

    And if anyone has an apple pie recipe they love, please tell me that too. I don't have enough time to spend making my favorite one this year.

      1. Was at a wedding recently where, after the ceremony, the organist played a classical-ified version of this. It was pretty cool.

        1. Reminds me, after our wedding, while guests were waiting to come out to the receiving line, we had our pianist play "Linus & Lucy".

    2. It's raining here in the People's Republic this morning, and I'm playing Charlie Haden & the Liberation Orchestra's Time/Life (Songs for Whales & Other Beings). If you're more in the mood for some soul, Lee Fields & the Expressions' Special Night is fantastic. I've also been enjoying Kadhja Bonet's The Visitor & Van Morrison's Keep Me Singing.

    3. Gray* and misty here too. For something to fit the scene, but not be all droopy and mopey, I'd probably go with the self-titled debut from Hundred Waters. Their next would be fine too. You know, if you don't care about the order of things.

      * For some reason, "gray" felt more appropriate than "grey" there. I'm not sure why. I'm also not sure of the difference anyway.

        1. Yeah. I know this because of the official bird nomenclature from the American or British Ornithologists' Unions.
          AOU: Gray Jay, Gray Catbird
          BOU: Grey Plover, Grey Phalarope*

          *These birds to the AOU are "Black-bellied Plover" and "Red Phalarope", respectively.

          I don't know how ANZ and Canada fall.

    7. You guys are the best! My pie crust is chillin' in the fridge and I've been sampling from all the suggestions. I may type up a few notes later.

      The only hitch so far--the top of the vodka bottle has become detached from the stopper. So . . . anybody thirsty?

      2. Music notes:

        “She Drives Me Crazy”
        -I’ll confess it’s not a favorite of mine, but I do see how the strong beat is useful when trying to get motivated to clean

        Special Night by Lee Fields & the Expressions
        -Fun stuff. Can’t believe this is a 2016 album—it sounds a lot older that that.

        The Visitor by Kadhja Bonet
        -I wasn’t sure about this one at first, but it was all right

        Time/Life by Charlie Haden & the Liberation Orchestra
        -Fantastic

        Hundred Waters 2102 self-titled album
        -I got hints of Sufjan Stevens, The Antlers, and tUnE-yArDs at various points
        -Also, is this the reason you were talking in Morse Code the other week?

        MTPITD1: Red Birds Will Fly Out of the East and Destroy Paris in a Night
        -Good for recipe reading, measuring, and other stuff where I need to concentrate and lyrics might be a distraction

        Turn Into by Jay Som
        -Was peeling/slicing apples forever while listening to this; it felt maybe a little too mellow, but the song “SLOW” is definitely something I’d go back to

  2. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday and some family obligations, "Winter Wonderland" will be taking about a week off. It will be back sometime around the middle of next week. If anyone wants to fill in and do some winter baseball reportage, you are more than welcome to do so.

    If all goes well, "Happy Birthday" and "1987 Rewind" will continue on their normal schedule.

    1. I mentioned to spooky recently that I kind of like shopping in the middle of the night, though I feel bad for the people having to work. I'm usually up until 1-2am at least if I don't have to work the next day anyway, and it's a trip to engage in proper commerce at that hour.

      1. It wasn't middle of the night, but I took a trip to Wal-Mart after 9 p.m. the other day and... whoa.

        2. I have been to Walmart after midnight. Somehow the line to check out was, like, ten deep and moving sloooowly. I threw the toilet paper I needed to buy on the discount DVD bin and went somewhere else.

          1. Alex: Midnight toilet paper runs to WalMart.
            SBG: What is the third circle of Hell, Alex.
            Alex: That's correct
            SBG: I'll take Eternal Damnation for $600, Alex.

          2. Yeah, I remarked to Philosofette that the lines were long the other night. 4 cashiers open after 9 p.m. and I had to wait in line.

          3. The one in Winona was 24hrs and the only thing open after 10pm. Well, other than the bars, that is. The fun nights were the ones you ended up there after the bars.

            1. I'm old enough to remember when the only big box stores in Winona were Wards, Penney's, K-Mart, Fleet Farm, & Pamida. Fleet Farm is the only one left, I'm guessing. The big grocery stores, Randall's & Red Owl, are both long gone.

              1. K-Mart was there when I was, but I think that's gone now too. Midtown and Hyvee are the grocery games in town last I checked.

                I always thought Red Owl had a cool logo as a kid.

                1. My first serious (and three-time) girlfriend worked at that K-Mart. Pops Hayes worked at both K-Mart (& Wards) back in the day. I have some warm memories of that place, which feels strange to say about a big box.

                  I found a Daily Snooze retrospective from 2002 that claimed there were sixty grocery stores in Winona in 1952, twenty-two of which were east of Bloedow's. By 1971 that number had dropped to twenty-two grocery stores total.

                2. I always thought Red Owl had a cool logo as a kid.

                  Me too. There was a store not far from our house, and in the middle of the week my dad would bike there to get more milk. He'd strap the gallon jug into the child's seat on the back of the bike.

              2. I worked at the NU Randall's.
                I loved that store even before I worked there because it was everything. Music Store (The only place you could get Old-Time cassettes -- not that I bought any), Hunting Licenses, Firearms, Other hunting gear, Auto Parts, Paint, Local T-shirts, Meat Shop (IMO better Sausage recipe than the more-renowned place in Nicollet), "Deli" restaurant. Garden Center in the Parking Lot that sold Oversized Christmas Yard Ornaments Nov-Dec. No Carts in the parking lot: We sent orders out in plastic bins on a conveyor belt and you drove up to pick them up.
                On break, I'd get two Persian Rolls for $0.35 each and a can of Mountain Dew for $0.30 from the employees-only machine: breakfast for $1.

                Randall's had the same parent as Cub, but then they were sold to Coburn's, which owned the Ca$h Wi$e in town. They merged the staffs and moved into the newer Cash Wise building. Except for the meat, everything else that made Randall's great was gone.

        3. you guys live in MN -- why the heck aren't you shopping at Target?!? even in MO we'll eschew WalMart for Target*

          *I choose to ignore that fact that the two recently built WalMart Neighborhood Markets are part of the Walton empire

    2. It would actually be the best week, since I can BS with someone while essentially taking a break. All the while, the GM thinks you're a regular customer.

        1. ...

          That is now one of my very favorite Wiki pages.

          Also, fiction has come up with some horrible (read: crazy boring and unrealistic) sports team names.

        1. Foley's original preferred name for the proposed team was the "Las Vegas Black Knights"—in tribute to the Army Black Knights, his alma mater.

          Sort of, in the sense the owner attended the school.

            1. The local HS's mascot is The Rabbits. I've been wishing for a while that they'd draw from this source material, but they never do.

      1. Statcorner has him 5th best in the Majors last year in pitch framing RAA (runs saved above average) at 12.8 in 8154 pitches caught (Posey, 26.8, Grandal, 24.1, Montero, 16.1, Flowers, 13.3, then Castro; Juan Centeno was an incredible -16.9 in only 3801 pitches, Suzuki -5.0 in 7352).

        Incredibly, all four catchers for the Astros had positive RAAs from pitch framing last year (Castro, Gattis, Erik Kratz, and Max Stassi). That's some serious juju in Houston.

    1. We stopped at the local boulangerie this morning to pick up sourdough loaves for apple, sausage, & parsnip stuffing. I'm toasting the cubes in my mother-in-law's oven so they're nice and dry for the chicken stock & butter treatment tomorrow.

        1. Found my premix jar of this in the back of my fridge - sipping as I prep a White Chicken Chili for the second meal tomorrow.

          Also, that stuffing sounds appetizing! Wouldn't mind hearing more. /hint, hint/

    3. It's been known for years that Hunter and Hawkins wanted to join the club in some capacity once their playing careers ended, and both won't be shy about expressing their opinions about how players are performing on the major league level as well as how prospects are being developed.

      I hope i-i is contractually obligated to express his opinions in interpretive dance only.

    4. I remember that one of Bill Veeck's techniques was to have a lot of his team's popular former stars be employed by the team in one capacity or another. He thought it was good public relations. At this point, though, I'm still pretty confident that it will be Falvey and Levine who are making the important decisions.

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