70 thoughts on “November 30, 2011: “Talent””

    2. Nice. My first reaction was to make a joke along those lines, too. Took me a few seconds to figure it out, though.

    1. Welcome back, Benjamin. It's been far too long since you brought both your nonexistent skills and malingering attitude to our establishment. God bless you, sir.

      1. A few years ago, the thought of Benny Sapp being a member of the Minnesota Vikings roster sent me into a blind rage. Now that I prefer the Vikings to be a big bowl of suck, I welcome his incredible stupidity for its entertainment value. The Vikings are far more fun with dysfunction.

          1. This. I can't even muster enough interest to care. I have some Packer fans in my extended family...I've decided Kernel will not be subjected to Viking's fandom.

            1. I think you'd be better off exposing him to Viking fandom, then he won't want to play and scramble his brains.

              1. I think you'd be better off exposing him her to Viking fandom, then he she won't want to play and scramble his her brains.
                ftfy 🙂
                Not sure she'll want to play, but if she keeps putting on weight at the rate she has been, she may end up playing football!

                1. Sorry, lack of sleep is causing me to mess things up. I've been calling the trinket by the cat's name all week.

                  1. It's okay. We've been pretty spoiled as far as sleep goes and I know it's not par for the course for other new parents.

              2. Viking fandom builds character, and not in the overdramatic sense of pre-2004 Bosox fandom, but in the real sense of this team takes away the magic we believe in as youth, and leaves only sour adults quoting Ecclesiates.

                Letting her be a Vikings fan isn't much different than telling her the truth about Santa from day one. It's a respectable choice, but I don't know that I'd make it.

      1. about 3 years ago, I passed a couple of overturned semis on I-5 on my way to work. They'd been blown over by some bad-@ss winds. Luckily, my Saturn wagon is like a ninja.

        1. Ninja. Awesome. I loved my little Saturn wagon. This brood has multiplied to the point where I'm contemplating seriously a Suburban. That's gross.

          1. That is an awfully large vehicle. I get intimidated by those things when I'm in my VW. We were dangerously close to needed to look at them, though, since my wife has a crazy aversion to mini-vans. (I was really coming around to a Town and Country, even though that's seen as something to taunt others with when you are from the north side of Chicago.)

            1. I completely agree, ct, but we just spent ten hours in our Odyssey with two grown ups, four kids, a dog and luggage packed like sardines. My son already claims he doesn't fit in the third row and the others aren't getting any smaller. And I've driven my parents' Burban. It's a tank.

              If it helps, my wife says once you go minivan you'll never go back.

              1. I could have used your wife to talk to my wife when we were looking. We made a nice compromise in the end, but I still think the minivan would have been more practical.

                But hey, no, I wasn't poo-poo-ing your Suburban talk. I'm not one to doubt someone's need for immense vehicles. We're not planning on gaining brood status (two kids, tops), although we already have two dogs and a cat, so we're close.

                1. No worries. I always drove small cars before kids and I hated big trucks riding my ass. Now I have a pack.

                  Tried to sell the conversion van to the wife. That didn't go very far...

                  1. My dad loves his conversion vans. It was a great help when I was 14 and we drove from MN to Virginia Beach with two adults and four kids of a wide range of ages. The fold down seat in the back was the best part, allowing us to sleep. He still has one, and for some reason they drive that down to Madison when they visit instead of the Impala, then complain about the gas mileage. I don't really understand that.

              2. If it helps, my wife says once you go minivan you'll never go back.

                au contraire. We are inching closer and closer to de-minivaning. I can't wait.

                but for now, it is a people mover impressed into service by the poverty of California public schools (we have no money for buses for extra-curriculars, such as sports and band trips).

                1. Much as my wife's minivan did the job for us, I was glad it (barely) qualified as a cash-for-clunker. The Mariner is a great step down, and the 32.5+ mileage is nice compared to the minivan's 18- mpg.

                  I'll take a minivan over a Texas limousine Suburban ANY day of the week.

      2. Only an area of about 3 million people in SoCal. It includes southwest San Bernardino County and northern Riverside County and possibly the eastern end of L.A. County, depending on who you talk to. The former California Speedway (I've forgotten what its current title sponsor is) is pretty much right in the middle of it. I actually moved from another Inland Empire in northeastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle to this Inland Empire.

          1. It was... something else alright. I tend to prefer Lynch's work that's more... lucid, I guess? I really enjoyed this though. I went to it in this dingy little theatre in Winnipeg with J. There was only a handful of people there, and we went to it in the middle of a summer afternoon. J sat with a pretty horrified look on her face for about the last half, completely overwhelmed. I just smiled the entire time since I didn't know what else to do. I enjoyed the ride, but I haven't gone back to dig through the film more. I have not been in the right frame of mind for that at all.

    1. I understand I was looking at pictures of extreme ironing, but I still found myself getting angry at the jungle gym guy, bunk bed guy, and train tracks guy. That's not extreme, that's just ironing outside!

    3. Those idiots underwater are going to electrocute themselves as soon as they plug in the irons.

      1. weak indeed. Here's a partial list of the position players higher than Bernie Williams on the career rWAR list who are not in the HOF:

        Ellis Burks, Tony Phillips, Gene Tenace, Vada Pinson, Brian Downing, Chet Lemon, Fred McGriff, Ron Cey, Jose Cruz, Cesar Cedeno, Minnie Minoso, Norm Cash, Stan Hack, Jack Clark, Robin Ventura, Joe Torre, John Olerud, Willie Davis, Darrel Evans, Will Clark, Ken Boyer, Jeff Kent, Jimmy Wynn, Buddy Bell, Keith Hernandez, Dick Allen, Graig Nettles, Dwight Evans, Tim Raines, Barry Larkin, Lou Whitaker.

        I know that rWAR isn't the be-all and end-all, but that is a pretty compelling list. Bernie Williams does not belong in the HOF, whereas a couple of those guys do.

      2. For some reason, the article did not discuss the Hall of Fame chances of the other ex-Twins on the ballot.

  8. If this match was already covered here, I missed it. Apologies if it's a retread topic. Video NSFW...expletives - minor but present.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW9AscpECR8

    That first swing of the cane took the glasses right off Joe's face...I'd probably have lashed out with a right cross too.

    I vaguely knew Joe Kapp was the Vikings QB for at least one Super Bowl appearance well before my parents had even met. I did not know that he had such an interesting story.

    1. I love the crowd reaction:

      clap...clap...clap...hahahahaha....HAHAHAHAHA...Oooooh.........oh..........................

  9. Nooooo! My life is crashing around me. Chad Coleman, my avatar and the actor who played Cuddy on The Wire is in the new crappy Fox "comedy" I Hate My Teenage Daughter. Dude's gotta eat I know but isn't there anything out there he could have done instead? Spooky can't you hire him into your new TV series?

    1. I will raise one point in reaction to that piece.

      POINT THREE: The cost of law school is, in economic terms, arbitrary. ... For more than twenty years now, the demand for the services of American law school graduates has been declining relative to the demand for other economic goods (not constantly, of course, but the overall trend is clearly negative). For much if not all of that same time, the output of American law schools has far exceeded the demand for that output, and now appears to be in a roughly two to one ratio. Yet since 1985, tuition at private law schools has increased by 2.5 times in real terms, while resident tuition at public law schools has increased more than fivefold, again in real terms.

      "Arbitrary" is not the term I would use. What this data says is that the price elasticity of demand for law school education is exceedingly low. Apparently, a law degree is seen as useful in many endeavors beyond lawyering, strictly speaking. That, or law students are extraordinarily stupid. Or both.

      1. That, or law students are extraordinarily stupid.

        Or they've been mislead by college placement offices.

  11. that was a crazy ending to the Gophers/Va Tech game. Va Tech's leading scorer slid off the raised court and looked like he broke his shoulder or something. Then the Gophs take the lead. Then Va Tech commits an over-and-back on a pass in. Then the injured dude comes back in the game and almost sends it to OT.

    1. Impressive win for the Gophers, especially with Sampson still hurt and Virginia totally outshot them from outside. The Gophers are going to have to start making more 3s to stay with the better teams in the Big Ten, but it was nice to see them not have to make them in a win. I think the concern for the Gophers' 3-point defense is overblown since Virginia shot very well from outside and they were still held to 55 points. Obviously, the Gophers will occasionally give up open looks, but if they shut down the interior and limit the number of 3-point attempts, they'll do well on defense. At least this year's team can play man defense, unlike the end of last season. They'll be smaller now, but they should be fun to watch at least.

      1. ...but they should be fun to watch at least.
        It was fun watching the young guys run-and-gun. I just hope that youthful enthusiasm continues unabated.

  12. Self-imposed insomnia is a weird trip. I was barely verbally functional at points today, but wrote my project for my actuarial education reasonably well because all the editors in my brain laid down to sleep. Well, that project's done, beer's drunk*, and I'm about to go to bed for almost half a night, and get as much sleep as the previous two nights together.

    Tomorrow night, I will lie down at a normal-person hour.

    If the effects of insomnia were a drug, how popular would it be on the blackmarket? My head isn't straight, and music sounds like someone went in and messed up all the levels. Some things sound fantastic, others are losing punch.

    *Schell's Snowstorm 2011: Wee Heavy Ale, notes TK.

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