Confucius says in the game of life it is better to play chess than checkers…he also said something about light beer not being real beer and that we needed a new lounge.
407 thoughts on “The Lounge where plenty of good seats are still available.”
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Happy Columbus Day!…Wait, does anybody still celebrate that?
Banks do!
dia de la raza.
Court holiday. Exploritorium was empty
So courts, banks, and I’ll just assume the Post Office were off. I’m pretty sure the Post Office takes Burl Ives birthday off.
I missed my first Raiders game in decades yesterday…I took a one hour nap that lasted six hours.
Too bad, it was the most watchable Raiders game in quite a while, though I know you don’t go in much for moral victories.
I feel bad that I missed it. Miss Hawaii tried to wake me but I was dead to the world. You’re right about me not being a big fan of moral victories in professional sports. I see that as more of an amateur sports thing. My main hope for the rest of the season is for Derek Carr to get as many reps as possible.
I like my apologies to be both disingenuous and condescending.
Now, do you use vegetable oil or castor oil for cupcakes?
10W40
Thanks for the tip…my office party is going to love these things.
If the Raiders really want to win they’ll hire Dayton Moore as their next GM.
I remember reading an article on Kenny Williams when he was GM of the White Sox that said if the Raiders offered him a GM job, he would have quit the White Sox gig the next day. Regardless of if he was successful or not, I think that would have been fascinating.
Well, he should give the bowl cut a call…that GM position is going to be open real soon.
Raiders started six or seven McKenzie draft picks on Sunday, and they played well.
8-29…thank you and goodnight
bob or doug?
A Strange Brew reference…Ed wins the lounge.
I feel like I need to go off for a good Jimmy Swaggart cry.
You have sinned against the Raiders.
Yes, yes I have. That temptress nap made me forsake my beloved.
So, I’m making 18 pumpkin spice cupcakes and 18 carrot cake ones…all with vanilla frosting. I don’t do much baking so we’ll see how big of a disaster this is.
Pumpkin spice? So no actual pumpkin in it?
No actual pumpkins were harmed in the making of these cupcakes.
This pumpkin spice thing is beyond out of control.
Agreed, though Mrs. N made pumpkin cookies over the weekend (with actual pumpkin in them!) and… well… I understand why a lot of this stuff doesn’t use pumpkin.
I just thought it would Autumny…well, that and the mix was on sale at Walmart.
Here’s where I admit that I usually like the taste of pumpkin spice varieties (with the full awareness that there is no pumpkin involved)
Me too. It’s definitely gone way overboard, but that doesn’t mean some aren’t pretty good, albeit entirely unhealthy.
I think pumpkin spice was the most underrated Spice girl.
Agreed…that orange hair was hot.
Would you rather go on a date with Courtney Love or have The Hulk give you a prostate exam?
WHATCHA GONNA DO?????
When Courney Love goes down on you, brother.
Well, I won’t be sleeping tonight.
Me neither.
Dude. We did sooo many rectal exams today. My new ER doc, who I’m not used to working with, asked me for Jiffy Lube.
Me: da fuck? Jiffy Lube?
Her: you know, for rectals.
Me: Surgi Lube, dear. Jiffy Lube changes your oil.
At least he didnt call it dinner and a movie.
Moon River
bend over mr babar.
J-Lube is the veterinary version.
It’s safe for humans. Trust me, I know.
I would have assumed it was a Kosher version.
People are getting a lot more conscious about changing their oil regularly these days. Why do you think there’s been such an explosion of fitbits and other mile-tracking tech?
and all this “detox” bullshit too.
Ugh. I’m in real need of that. But not the foo foo bullshit, the real kind where you actually eat foods that are good for you to allow the bad shit to leave your body in a entirely natural and healthy way.
the juicing detox bullshit works surprisingly well.
It’s kind of amazing how little veggies most people consume, and how much better they feel when their body gets a bunch of vitamins and nutrients instead of overprocessed corn syrup laden junk.
Thanks, and go As.
what do people eat for, say, dinner at home, that is processed? honest question.
blows my mind that there’s this processed foods issue because when i think of food i always think of something that when i take out of the fridge it looks kinda like what it did when it was alive, that i cook, and then eat. i don’t know any other way.
or are we talking about food outside of the home?
TV dinners (or other frozen prepared foods)
Almost anything that is packaged and/or in a box you have to open, basically.
I’d say that you are in the minority when it comes to that.
Thanks, and go As.
I suspect even some of the stuff that looks whole has been in some way “processed.” All it takes is an injection of some sort of additive or preservative into the meat or produce itself. “Processed” in and of itself is a bit of misnomer, or probably more accurately isn’t a true catch all to the problem.
i mean like, an onion. a bell pepper. not so much “ham.” i like to find a place that makes their own and make a pilgrimage for that special. like magnani’s ham. oh shit.
but i think i’m busted when it comes to condiments. don’t really like the natural mayos. well, there’s one that’s OK. but it’s usually best foods.
I despise mayo so it’s not a problem for me, but as I understand it’s actually really simple to make yourself.
Thanks, and go As.
truth.
Also, self made is actually pretty good for you.
better perhaps, but calling it good for you is a strech
I found this one: http://nomnompaleo.com/post/3440774534/paleo-mayonnaise
Not sure what’s really considered bad for you there
Thanks, and go As.
lots of healthy fats and protein.
pasta?
It’s amazing how difficult it can be to find pasta that hasn’t been fucked with at the store.
i realize i’m out of step. i’m trying to imagine what being in step looks like. last night we had pork chops, fried eggs, rice, tomato/lettuce salad dressed with olive oil, vinegar, salt. and that’s not from being some kind of foodie purist. it’s just the image i get when i close my eyes and think of dinner. we eat a lot of [meat item] + [leafy item] + [starch item, usually more on the roasted tuber side but last night i wanted rice]. it’s not even like going out of the way for us. 23 minutes cooking time last night (the rice mainly). maybe 30 to roast some yam slices.
wife’s been waiting for a cold snap to make soup, and tomorrow we’re making chicken soup (without the cold we’d just roast one). so we bought a chicken. it doesn’t eve occur to me to buy a can of stock (let alone packaged soup).
“i mean,” we don’t purposely shun prepared food. we do have two cans of soup in the cupboard. they’re for the eventual emergency when we’re sick and too knocked out to cook anything. some frozen TJ’s tamales in the freezer in case we have a busy week and get caught without time to go to the store on any particular day. but when we eat those, it’s like, bummer day, plan B, too bad we couldn’t get it together to eat something good instead. hard to fathom that it’s plan A for the majority.
confession, we do have super easy access to decent groceries and we buy kind of in a 2-day cycle for fresh, 1 weekish for dry staples.
lol. “the cold.”
IT’S 67 OUTSIDE AND I”M WORRIED BECAUSE I FORGOT MY SWEATSHIRT AND I GOTTA RIDE MY BIKE HOME.
We try to eat healthy most nights…I admit after the second kid this has gotten harder as we’re both worn out. One of my main tricks to add healthy to the diet is to have a side salad at dinner almost every night. NO CREAM DRESSINGS TOO…vinaigrette’s only. Very little frozen or fast foods and for snacks we go with nuts more than chips. The main thing is moderation. Eat decently and exercise a few days a week and life will often treat you well.
definitely. moderation always. and in huge doses.
I would imagine your rice was in some way processed. Not horribad processed, but processed.
what do they do to rice? we talking additives?
It’s milled, but that procedure is thousands of years old. I’m not sure that they do much else, though the breeds of rice have obviously changed a lot over the years.
Everything sold by trader joes.
yes. hate them. the stuff i used to like there has become really untasty. especially the salsa.
and yet, i’m still buying cheese, jam, coffee, half/half*, beer, wine, and my office supply of pellegrino there. and those emergency frozen tamales.
* supposedly their dairy is repackaged strauss up here in our norcal stores?
http://whereismymilkfrom.com/
Cows. Duh.
Thanks, and go As.
Boobs.
It looks like I might need glasses so I’m thinking about going with a monocle.
Go for the pair.
Really enhances your shocked face
Sentences you never want to hear…”Will you look at this rash I have on my ass?”
Sentences you never want to hear…”Now batting, Nick Punto.”
“And the A’s take the field for this elimination Playoff game”
And the A’s are just one victory away from advancing…
Maybe to be a real A’s fan, one must boycott the playoffs.
“I don’t shoot craps or watch baseball past September, thank you very much!”
Anytime I hear Hungry Like The Wolf I change the words to Hungry Like Lew Wolff in my head. I just thought I’d share that with you.
I hate you. Not that I listen to that much when I am in a Duran squared mood, but when it comes on I am now doomed.
Heh heh…my work here is done.
I’m on part 23 of Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts…in this episode we dig deep into that time FDR ate a chicken salad sandwich despite the fact that he wanted a tuna sandwich.
In my next life I’m going to be a billionaire hermit who invents time travel but doesn’t tell anyone.
Maybe you already did.
Thanks, and go As.
MIND. BLOWN.
Don’t kill Hitler.
Instead, send him to an LGBTQ Crystal Meth recovery program in the future, then send him back.
What if someone actually did that for our timeline??
Depends. If they went back to March 1945 and did it I dont know if we end up that different.
If that’s the case, Betty Ford owes us all one hell of an explanation!
Things I don’t understand…quantum physics, Lars von Trier movies, and what mayonnaise is made of.
Mayons, obviously
Sentences you never want to hear…”Ladies and Gentleman the President of the United States Sarah Palin.
Sentences you never want to hear…”Tonight’s opening act…Winger.”
Microsoft Math…Windows 8 to Windows 10….XBox 360 to XBox One.
I have to say the new Equalizer movie is a lot of fun…it’s two hours of Denzel Washington going around balancing out teeter totters.
Damn. I thought it was about using a mixing board.
All romantic comedies are lies…anytime I’ve had an argument with a beautiful woman I barely know it’s never ended up with us falling in love 90 minutes later.
Every time I stand outside someone’s house with a boombox over my head, the police come and take me away. It would probably help if I actually knew the person living inside the house, but come on, how romantic is that?
Every time I break into government servers to create the perfect woman NSA agents show up. And I still can’t get her to be wearing underware as tiny as Kelly LeBrock’s.
Kelly LeBrock is a Top 10 80’s babe.
Thigh gap is overrated.
don’t worry. she seems to have that problem solved.
Yeah..I of course went to google and hit the name and the image search was the most depressing thing since the 9th inning of the WC game.
Vegas has the over/under on how many times I mention Wilford Brimley in this lounge at one and a half.
Our band was kind of like a one hit wonder band that never got a song on the radio.
Pardon me while I throw up.
Thanks, and go As.
Well, at least it was for superficial reasons.
Not easy access to bar fights?
He only did that when he was young, stupid and playing for the A’s.
And that’s why I don’t like him anymore. He CHOOSE to go there. Fuck that. He can go lick Zito or something.
I realize he’s just pandering, but really? Huddy, you’re making it easier for me to root against you.
we offered him less money
Matters not to me.
its his last chance to earn money in his life.
He’s in his late 30s and has made over $100M in his baseball career. I’d actually be pretty surprised if he was worried about a few million more dollars. I put more trust into him saying he wanted to stay in the NL and hit.
Thanks, and go As.
he spelled pander wrong. excrement too, for that matter.
Chip Hale is a D-Bag…uh, I mean he’s a D-Back. Good luck to him as the new Arizona manager. Don’t piss Stew off.
Your choices are white, off-white, and Ed Begley Jr.
I’m on part 38 of Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts…in this episode we take a look at the time Eleanor had a hangnail, FDR discovers the joys of flavored seltzer water, and Teddy’s ghost does battle with the Scooby-Doo Gang.
And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for those meddling Whigs!
Hey – they were true ‘merkins.
asvd
I expect the Niners to end up winning this game by at least 17 points.
The Rams are the wink link of that division.
Cupcakes done. Everyone still alive.
Check out Bed with the updates about Joe Blanton..Mr Sports talk here.
Here on the Bed Sports Network we talk about all the things people care about…the NFL, MLB, and Wilford Brimley.
One of the things I like about the Bourdain show is it shows me places I never want to go.
Well, I had one of my pumpkin spice cupcakes…I’m not sure what it tasted like but pumpkin doesn’t come to mind.
A sentence you never want to hear…”I’m afraid the parasite crawled up your urethra.”
—”a parasite crawled up your urethra.”
—”what… i… candiru?”
—”I SAID A PARASITE CRAWLED UP YOUR URETRHA!”
The football team ripped up the ground
I’m on the hunt for San Jose
Smell like a hound, I’m alone in the crowd
Hungry Like Lew Wolff
At some point don’t the Eagles have to take it to the limit one more time?
I think they do, but honestly i cant tell you why…
However they leave us I imagine a girl in a flatbed Ford will be involved.
Dear Snickers…you say you satisfy…make sure you aren’t making promises you can’t keep.
So what’s on the activities docket for http://www.freekraut.net this off-season? I assume the beauty pageant is still on. My skill this year will be synchronized sock puppets.
I see there’s a 30 For 30 about the 1989 World Series on tomorrow. Most of those 30 For 30 docs have been pretty good.
It’s nice that so many are on youtube.
The Raiders at 11 consecutive losses…two more and they win a free hot chocolate when they order a Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast.
Pop Quiz, Hotshots
Would you rather…
A. Eat at Denny’s
B. Watch my synchronized sock puppet act
C. Go on a date with Courtney Love
D. Have a parasite go up your urethra.
E. Watch the Giants win their third World Series Championship in five years.
pfft. B. easy.
it’ll remind me of many friday nights during high school.
wait. you do mean love act, right?
I’m flexible on the subject…hmm…that might not be the best word to use here.
it’s better than crusty.
What are you favorite things to put on a hot dog?
Oh, now I get it…he’s a robbing hood named Robin Hood.
To impress people I like to tell them that I’ve read the collected works of Dean Koontz.
I tell people I’m a fan of Rusty Kuntz. I sure get some strange looks.
That’s a good way to get tetanus.
Never look Neil Diamond directly in the eyes and always remember he can smell fear.
Don’t worry…it’s a kosher pickle.
Without the comma his name would be Bond James Bond or Bond Bond…this fact was brought to you by your local state college English Department. Find out more exciting things you’ll learn as an English Major at out website http://www.youllneverfindajob.edu.
oh. i always thought it was like smith, john, and his name was actually james bond bond.
now i want something small and chocolatey.
H. Louz & tha NEWZ
I’m taking what they’re giving cause I’m twerking for a livin’
Originally their name was Earth, Wind, Fire, Jacoby & Associates.
These people going around in the middle of the night dressed as clowns make me proud to be an American. Home of the Free, Land of the Crazy.
Down with the clown?
The clown must go down and he must go down hard.
I don’t care what Vera Wang says…tube socks are dead sexy.
Don’t worry…it’s a kosher hot dog.
Coals of Fire Department:
Wow. Endorsing Kaplan drove them right our of business.
LOL
who are you throwing your support behind… I was trying to talk about the OAK mayors race before realizing i knew very little about it.
Kaplan= no position on anything cheerleader
schaaf= brown cronie
siegel= the guy you want to win and rule the world but will take away something you don’t like at some point because its bad for you anyway and he won’t win so its ok to dream
quan= the incumbent, or as voters say “isn’t she the mayor already?”
parker= the black guy. but he is OK with cops.
…Coming this fall on Fox.
So basically pray for someone else to step up in the next few years and run and that when they do, whoever on the list who ends up as mayor doesn’t fk things up too much more?
Wait, your lack of knowledge stopped you from opining? You’re not going to get very far in politics with that approach.
Ed’s synopsis is pretty accurate. I would also add Joe Tuman if you believe that everyone with Oakland government associations is incurably tainted, and that Dan Siegel is a dick.
I’m genuinely unsure who my top 3 ranked choices would be if I lived in Oakland. Kaplan’s finger-to-the-wind, intellectually dishonest approach pisses me off regularly, yet she might be an effective executive. She’s certainly very smart. Also she’s probably the choice for people who only care about Oakland A’s issues. Quan is disliked more than she deserves, partly because Occupy got so fucked up, and partly with criticisms and invective I do not believe a white candidate would receive. She’s been a reasonably good Mayor, especially on economic development, and maybe on improving the crime rate (if you can give any Mayor credit for that). But she’s not a great public presence, and Occupy may be unforgivable to many voters. Schaaf is politically astute and could also be good at governing. She’s tapped in to younger, tech savvy voter issues like Open Government quite well. She’s also legitimately Oakland, born and raised. OTOH, you don’t get more product-of-the-system than Libby. Also she’s more skeptical of stadium proposals than either of the other two front runners (a good or bad thing depending on your perspective). Brian Parker is an empty suit.
Is the Public Ethics Commission really going to get teeth?
The mayor’s wife (the real power) in Sacramento is trying to dismantle what little of an ethics commission Sacramento has and replace it with a handpicked group of yes men.
Yes, the Ethics Teeth measure will pass overwhelmingly.
Brown doesn’t have a machine in Oak to be a real cronie does he?
ask Mayor perata
Friedman -> Dodgers
Wow.
Thanks, and go As.
He’s got some money to play with now.
Just a little bit.
Eff Tim Hudson.
Tim Hudson and Miguel Tejada are the last baseball players I actually cared about. I hope Huddy does well…you can all throw tomatoes at me now.
A sentence you never want to hear…”Congratulations you’re having octuplets.”
Don’t worry…it’s a kosher salami.
First rule is
the laws of germany
Second rule is
Be nice to mommy
third rule is rule is
Don’t talk to commies
You got the 4th covered.
If Obama wants to remembered as a great President he’ll find a way to make teal popular again.
teal party slogan, don’t red on me.
Now…I kinda want to start this party for real…or for teal I guess.
[Futile attempt to make Florida Marlins joke]
Peach and seafoam green.
Replaced soon after by Maroon and Hunter Green. Blergh
Anytime I walk into an auditorium and see they only have metal folding chairs I think to myself…I’m too old for this sit.
My posts in this lounge make more sense if you read them in the voice of Steve Landesberg.
A couple of throwback posts there…it might be time for a Bridget the Midget update soon.
How do you know when you’re in love? When you still kiss your significant other even after they just had something with onions on it.
The best thing to ever happen to TV political ads? The fast forward button on my DVR remote control.
ugh.
I see my Giants won…(Bed was soon banned from FK and his body was found dumped near Jack London Square.)
These damn kids today…they have no idea how to tell a good Richard Gere joke involving Gerbils. I weep for our country.
Speaking of Gerbils and eating healthy…I once drove a 1997 Mazda 626 on a trip from Lawrence to Topeka. No other information is currently available about the trip.
I’m on part 53 of Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts…in this episode we take a closer look at the time Eleanor went to a Melissa Etheridge concert. FDR discovers he can bend time with his mind, and Teddy arm wrestles the King of Spain in Purgatory.
I’ll leave you with this bit of advice…always take time to floss.
wow. the royals fans did not sound excited after that sac fly
I’m coming down to the Bay Area for UCLA-Cal and decided to add Cardinals-Raiders to the mix, since I’m not out any money this year for A’s postseason tickets. Probably a couple of 38-10 losses for the home teams, but what the hell, it will be fun and should sate my appetite for live football for quite some time.
I’m going to miss this Raiders game for other commitments, otherwise I’d invite you to join me for pregame beers. But I think the Raiders will keep this one close like last week, and could even win.
What’s the best way to get super cheap Raiders tickets? Show up at the stadium? Stubhub?
Since I have season tix I haven’t gone that route, but I’d think that Stubhub is your best bet. Since the Raiders ostensibly have enough season tix sold to avoid blackouts, yet there are still lots of empty seats in the stadium, I am inferring that the ticket re-sellers have found it to be a buyer’s market.
Actually the guy who sat next to me Sunday (Sec 209, Row 10, in the shade which is nice) identified himself as a guy who owns those seats but usually resells them, and he was there because he couldn’t find a buyer.
OK good to know. I’m thinking of making my first off-season foray into the Coliseum since the Raiders/Broncos game is the day before my birthday. I will be wearing A’s gear and will cheer for the Broncos in my mind.
You should be safe at the Coliseum, even if you overtly root for the Donkeys. Now, if the game was at The Big Blue Jean, you’d have to worry about the chance of getting beaten to the point of permanent paralysis.
About 15-16 years ago, I heard the reverse story from a Raider fan talking about a Bronco fan at the Coli.
The Bears were entertaining and competitive against a non-shitty team, more than I’ve gotten from a Cal football experience in several years. We’ll see if the Raiders can match that. You’re on notice, though, Sonny, that next year I expect the winning score on that final drive rather than the interception.
They almost stole a game against a clearly superior opponent. Cal still has a long way to go.
But Goff took the rap for that last interception (that probably shouldn’t have been called an interception). Plus, I was reminded again of one of the things I am increasingly having trouble with about football: scary injuries.
i’m watching portugal-denmark, mrs AV comes in the room.
who’s playing?
i tell her.
who’s got the cuter guys?
i go, overall probably denmark, but technically portugal because ronaldo, if you can get past his attitude.
she goes, ronaldo? i thought he was from argentina?
i start signing divorce papers in my head.
My wife doesn’t like baseball.
Which, at the moment, seems like a wise choice.
one thing is not liking it. another is saying, alex rodriguez? i thought he played for the A’s.
Ouch.
My wife remembers “Dreadlocks Guy” (Manny Ramirez) and “PoooooooHooooooles” (Albert Pujols) and “That tall lady’s husband” (Bob Melvin)
based on the middle one, i’m guessing future ed is your dad.
If I had to answer the question
“If your dad was on Free Kraut, who would he be?”
he would be the perfect cross between FutureEd and 5Aces.
put your dishes in the sink!
see? palmolive.
You’re soaking in it.
funny thing is you wrote wife and i read dad.
but i do see the genetics you’re adding there.
if i had to answer the question whose avatar you miss the most, i’d answer, you’re soaking in it.
I should have read further.
hook line and sinker!
“Am I going to have to turn this car around?”
is that the guy who came to fame with the st louis cardinals?
the very one.
good thing i scrolled past the fold twice on sfgate, otherwise i never woulda known there were news today.
just kidding. by the time i avoided clicking on the photo list of local “low”-cost/hi-brow nonmexican restaurants and the photo list of mid-cost/mid-brow mexican restaurants, i was already enraged via NYT/wapo about the chasm between PR language and the truth, this time: “proper protocols” and “don’t know where the breakdown occurred.”
followed quickly apace by: the aircraft “received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures.†(IOW, the underpaid cleanup crew went through every seat pocket to see if anybody had left an ipod behind.)
OTOH, the rabbit hole on gamergate was vastly entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking.
That and deeply fucked up.
absolutely.
Good article placing gamergate in context of other uprisings by angry privileged people.
This is my favorite headline right now on SFGate.
i must have missed that while constantly looking slightly up and right to lessen my irritability.
I must have missed that while completely avoiding that fucking website.
Excellent
Quakes fired Watson. Dom Kinnear taking over next season.
So the old SJ coach who left with the team when they became Houston is coming back to coach the new SJ
Thanks, and go As.
so the crespo thing was just a rumor?
It would appear so.
I’m not sure how I feel about Kinnear coming back, although his coaching reputation is the type that works with what he has instead of forcing his players to play a certain style.
Honestly I’m just hoping upon hope that somehow they can find a way to bring in Mix Diskerud to play center mid. He tried to come to MLS a couple times already.
Thanks, and go As.
you’re focused on mix. is there anything actually linking him to SJ?
He’s tried to come to MLS twice — most recently this year to Columbus Crew and apparently it died at the 11th hour for some unknown reason.
He’s young, he’s pretty good, he’s a USMNT player, he’s likely available to come to MLS, and he’s a creative attacking mid which is exactly what SJ needs.
Plus, Wondo is 32. He’s got a few years left in MLS, but the Quakes open the Epicenter next year so having a new face of the franchise would be pretty awesome (along with the Tommy Thompson Hype Train)
Thanks, and go As.
OK, round peg round hole. seems a long way from lew’s ears though (or whoever makes these decisions).
Dave Kaval is the club president and John Doyle is the GM.
Frankly they both need to go. Kaval was supposedly brought in to run things and get the new stadium built — it was a full year late.
Thanks, and go As.
Apparently Don Garber is in the middle of a hastily called press conference right now putting Klinsi on blast for badmouthing the effect playing in MLS has had on Michael Bradley. Maybe Mix should stay in Europe for a while and stay away from a developing toxic situation.
Yeah I saw a couple quotes from it.
Bringing in more better players can’t hurt MLS, but I kinda agree about Bradley, but I’d also say that Klinns is screwing with Bradley by trying to play him as a 10 or an attacking mid, but he is obviously a CDM.
That’s why he looked so bad in the world cup, he was forced to push forward.
Thanks, and go As.
i like this cuckoo’s egg comment and his follow up. last SBN link for today, i swear.
It’s an interesting situation. I don’t really think Klinsmann has been all that hard on MLS. For one thing, he has called up and used several MLS lifers in big spots who the previous regime had written off or ignored (Brad Davis, Kyle Beckerman, Graham Zusi, Wondo to some extent, though I don’t know how Bradley would have used him post-Gold Cup 2011). He also brought in a raw MLS talent in DeAndre Yedlin who no one else thought was ready for a World Cup, and he turned out to be a revelation. He could have picked equivalent Euro-based guys for all of those those spots, but he chose to put those MLS players at the center of his squad. That’s good for the league and the national team.
And he hasn’t rhetorically ripped the league either. He clearly values it as a place for talented young American players who can’t be in Europe (either because of work rules or being overlooked) to get their first professional experience, a place for late-bloomers and talent short of the top level to ply their trade, and a place for guys on the back end of their careers to extend their usefulness. He just doesn’t think it is yet good enough, or perhaps “tough” enough, for the best American players to choose for the primes of their careers. He holds guys like Dempsey and Bradley (and of course Donovan) to a higher standard, and thinks that if they can be playing at for a top-ish team in England, Italy or Germany, they should because they would be better players for it.
And that’s where the conflict lies. Klinsmann (correctly) thinks the national team would be better off if guys like Bradley, Dempsey, and Donovan were pushing themselves at the highest level. Garber (correctly) thinks that MLS is better and more popular if the best Americans play there in their primes, and he doesn’t want Klinsmann scaring future returnees like, say, Jozy Altidore, from coming home when a big payday is offered. I see this as an inevitable tension caused by a transitional period in MLS, where the league is flexing it’s muscle a little bit financially but hasn’t yet developed the infrastructure to completely support a top national team without outsourcing the training of its best players to Europe.
Hell, he just called up a kid from the NASL.
Thanks, and go As.
Which may have been the final thumb in Garber’s eye, really.
i don’t disagree. that thread also adds to the appraisal the amount of playing time at a top foreign team and an MLS team for these players.
i find it interesting though that nobody there mentions other exporter countries, they’re only viewing it from importer countries’ POV. (germany is strong because it has youth and lots of nationals in the bundes… england lets in too many foreigners…) i wonder if closer comparisons can’t be drawn with brazil and argentina or any other latin american country. brazil tends to keep its talent a bit longer (i’m thinking neymar actually playing 4 years for santos), argentina bleeds talent (as soon as it’s offered, they go). of course they’re all post this transition period you’re ID’ing. but the tension is similar, even with the distinction of the MLS offering money that competes with european pay, stay and develop a national style or leave and face a different level of competition.
it just. doesn’t. end. with. these. entitled. shits.
“SFGiants are wrong if indeed they claimed that they are 1st”
Oh AV, don’t you know the gnats invented baseball and winning and Ailuropoda melanoleuca and the organic movement and garlic fries and the world series?
the giants didn’t have to look up ailuropoda melanoleuca in the internet they invented, like i just did. that’s how great they are.
wife hears a couple explosions in the neighborhood. gives me a call, i’m at work trying to find out WTF. twitter’s not all that telling. could be an armed standoff with cops, flashbangs. abc7news says it has breaking news. i click. THIS JUST IN. MUNI WILL NOT BE USING ELECTRICAL BUSSES TODAY JUST IN CASE FANS WANT TO JUMP ON TOP OF PUBLIC VEHICLES TO CELEBRATE POSSIBLE NONLOSS HANDED TO THEM BY CARDINALS.
armed standoff. hard to see, but there are armored cop cars in front of a house on 16th and brush.
a twitter.
Did anyone else listen to the Caboose Pistol today? Oof, as if mental images of George Brett’s hemorrhoids weren’t bad enough.
there goes my 10-year standing gig.
just wondering. does this guy sound insincere at all to the public, or does that only come from knowing him?
I was wondering about that – from the rationale I’ve heard, it would seem they’re doing it to actually expand the number/type of offerings they’re doing, so if successful I was thinking you might have more work from them. Not so?
And I don’t read it as insincere, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak so it might come across more so in an interview.
all around cost-cutting (unpaid interns. they’re not mentioned in the handful of staffers and part timers line.). and the BLVR is going to 6 issues a year.
Oh man, sorry to hear that, I’m sure that will be a tough loss.
frankly, i was never seen as a huge part of them and thus, they never became a huge part of my work. BLVR cover aside, but i was at about my stopping point anyway, with a personal goal of 100 covers, which i think i surpassed by 2 or 3. otherwise, i was kinda the flunky. the guy they called when something was late already and none of the interns had time to work on it.
but if you are willing to read between the lines (and forgive the hat), this kinda shows who exactly has a tough and irreplaceable loss on their hands (and i don’t mean brian).
as long as 826 keeps going I am ok with whatever
i give to streetside stories…
We have Ebola PPE training tomorrow.
Good.
I hope it never reaches you and it likely never will.
I’m still glad to see you’re getting trained, tho.
I am sick and fucking tired of baseball. All I can say is the Royals had damn well better win the World Series.
Yep.
They won’t though.
Yep.
My only hope is that the Royals seem less likely to beat themselves and have a better bullpen.
But I’m kidding myself. I know that.
The commute on parade day… gawd.
Take a sick day. Seriously. Schedule it now.
I don’t know when it would be. Hard to plan. It has crossed my mind.
Two years ago, it was very unpleasant.
yeah… im just so tired of this crap.
It feels inevitable
i have resigned myself to it
I’m not planning to actually watch any of this series, but I think my order of preferred outcomes is Royals in 4 > Royals in 5 > Giants in 4 > Royals in 6> Giants in 5 > Royals in 7 > Giants in 6 > Giants in 7.
In other words, I very much want it to end quickly and forgettably, ideally with Royals celebrating in SF. A dramatic 7-game loss by the Giants would almost be as bad as their winning in 6 or 7, because the woe-is-me shit their fans would spout might send me over the edge. I’d almost rather they win again and become completely insufferable to the rest of the country than endure their having a glorious defeat to whine about.
Almost.
Royals in 4, 5, 6, or 7. All other results are terrible. I would much rather get angry at pouty giants fans for complaining about losing after winning twice so recently than have to deal with smug “can’t stop us on even years” pattern spouting
This so much this.
Agreed. A Giants sweep would not be “forgettable” it would be “insufferably smug”
If I have spend the rest of my professional life explaining why three WS in five years with a pretty week roster does not make a “dynasty” I’m going to go crazy. And if they do it AGAIN in 2016….
Baseball is over, period, if they win.
We’re at the point now in which real fans who respect the game need to boycott the playoffs, because playoffs disrespect the game.
I am happy for Huddy.
If only Jairo Garcia were still alive to enjoy it.
someone randomly called me jairo in an email the other day.
Fuck him.
yeah
Hey FSU, your boy J.M. McAdoo went for 20 and 7 tonight.
Awesome! I’ve been concerned about his low minutes and numbers.
I’ve been working five 12 hour shifts a week. I’m slowly dying.
I think I may need to leave my headphones in my ears and music turned to the max at all times when I’m out of my house until this thing blows over. I can’t take listening to these conversations.
i don’t know. i thought the proper lack of connection would protect me last night. went to yoga. then went to a beer garden with no TVs. came out at the exact wrong moment and this bro tried to hi-five me on the street as he was coming out of a bar with TVs. if his sweatshirt hadn’t fallen open and i hadn’t caught a glimpse of the orange/white candy skull shirt (that the giants invented), i might not have been able to tell him “fuck that” in time. all of which coulda been averted if one of you had texted me to stay at my bench and have another deschutes.
Last night was a perfect night to go to the Y, so that’s nice. As I was leaving I thought about lingering a bit in the empty downtown for a bite to eat, and then I heard the fireworks and ran to the Muni station to get ahead of the drunk assholes.
I don’t know what was worse last night: Chipping one of my front teeth or finding out that those fuckers lucked into another WS.
Funny, I’ve heard nearly no excitement around me, even at a very Gnat-centric office. It’s nice in that I don’t have to listen to it, but it’s disgusting in the likely reason for it.
Yesterday I met my first Raiders/Giants fan. These people exist? Fuck them.
(Nothing against being a Raiders fan, of course. It’s the combination that sickens me.)
I have found a couple of those recently and they just confuse me. I understand all the other permutations, but Raiders/Gnats I cant think of any logical reason for.
I have at least one friend who is in that category. He grew up here in Berkeley and is (just) old enough to have formed his baseball loyalties before the A’s arrived, so he roots for the A’s too but the Giants remain his #1 team.
I never thought of that. I guess there is a sweet spot you could hit growing up just as the Raiders got better and the A’s were not here.
Now the people I know like that are mostly younger so they have no such excuse. I think it is unfortunately caused by the stereoype “Mexican-black hole-gangster” LA Raider idea. But I will say they were cute so having something in common was better than not having it…
Those people should be Dodgers fans.
Yes, they should be. But I think with the Giants presence in Fresno (A ball until mid 80’s and then the Grizz) we have always been more orange than blue here.
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, I just cannot imagine looking at the Giants and Dodgers gear and choosing to wear the former.
i should be dodgers/rams.
I have several friends who are Dodgers/Rams fans even after the Rams left for St. Louis. I hope the Rams move back to LA…it’s a better fit and it would breath some life back into their rivalry with the 49ers.
there is one in my office.
One of my best college friends too (but he doesn’t really care about baseball, so he’s in that 70% of giants fans category)
So Roomrevens?
Did Ken Burns do an endless documentary on them too?
When I was growing up, back in 1920’s in Sacramento, you were either rooted for the Raiders/A’s or 49ers/Giants but I know a lot of you folks are 49ers/A’s fans so Raiders/Giants isn’t that big of a surprise.
I know I’d be happier and have more hair if I was a 49ers/Giants fan…that’s ship that’s already sailed though.
49ers/A’s makes sense because of the period of Raider absence that coincided with great A’s and 49ers teams.
Maybe Giants/Raiders fans like the color black. People should root for whoever they like no matter the reason.
NOT IF THEY PICK THE WRONG TEAMS!
nevermoor wins today’s part of the lounge.
Black’s not a color!
(I think? Sort of?)
I guess technically it’s an absence of color.
I guess technically with the third nipple I’m a mutant.
I guess technically she was Abe Vigoda.
I guess technically McDonald’s hamburgers have beef in them.
I guess technically I’m a rhinestone cowboy.
I guess technically I know the way to San Jose.
I guess technically I know how to run things into the ground.
I guess technically I’m done.
Black is the color of my true love’s hair.
maybe you were born under a bad sign
Black is the color, and none is the number.
a New jersey friend said that about jet/mets ginats/yankees (i think)
The two Yankees fan friends I have are both Jets guys. I have no idea what the ratio is?
it could be jets/yankees giants/mets.
I don’t remember and he moved to sacramento
A person from NY would enjoy life more if they were a Giants/Yankees fan. Rooting for the Jets/Mets would be rough.
Let’s set bets on Jets/Mets/Nets!
New York fans are the worst front-runners in the country, ready to leap on the bandwagon of whatever team happens to find success. They posture like loyal fans but might as well have split Yankees/Mets logo hats tattooed on their foreheads.
:/
maybe NY expats?
or maybe i got lucky and saw a deep divisive split during the 2000 WS.
That hasn’t been my experience with the New Yorkers I know. Of course it should be said I’ve never been bothered by the bandwagon thing. It reminds me of people who are fans of a band before they are famous and then they get pissed that the band gets more fans when it becomes popular. It’s entertainment and people enjoy entertainment in different ways and with different levels of passion.
hi
The vast majority of Mets fans I know are real dyed in the wool types. But it’s fully possible that if the Mets ever did well, a whole bunch of new Mets fans would mysteriously crop up
I certainly know some (now) hardcore Yankees fans who supported the Mets in 1986. I think that in general Mets/Yankees antagonism didn’t really start until interleague play, which basically coincided with the Yankees becoming a dynasty and then the World Series matchup. Before that, I think there was a lot of crossover. The Yankees were more popular, obviously, but with the Mets good years coming during bad Yankee periods, support flowed back and forth more freely, even if the Mets’ core fans probably disliked the Yankees from the Dodgers days.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Tina, three words: Subway Series. Am I right, New York? Come on! (audience responds by wild cheers and applause) The Yankees just won 5-nothing, okay? The magic number is three, and it’s out of control – the whole city is going crazy! For once, Tina, New York City is divided. The guys in the Bronx are all like, “Yo yo yo, El Duque, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” and the people in Queens are like, “Eduardo Alfonso, Piazza, yo yo yo, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” and the rest of New York is like, “Yo yo yo, Mets, Yankees, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” People are just going nuts in the streets. Roll the footage…
Isn’t it kind of like our Giants/A’s fan dynamics (with A’s = Mets. Sigh.)?
it might have been once, back in some idyllic past. yankees/mets, cubs/white sox, giants/A’s, lions/lambs living together.
but then…. TERRITORIAL RIGHTS.
Meh. REAL Sacramentans rooted for the Solons and gambled their entire disposable income on the Pig Bowl.
So the KC/SF thing has now permeated my work email. Thankfully I think we have more people in our KC office than our Novato one.
People only care about college sports where I am…I don’t think the baseball playoffs have even come up despite the fact that KC isn’t that far away.
If the A’s and Raiders disappeared tomorrow I’m not sure which teams I’d adopt. I haven’t lived in California in over 20 years and there aren’t any pro teams where I live so I’d be a total free agent. I’d find a new NFL team but I might just drop having an MLB team and focus more on KU hoops.
If the A’s and Warriors disappeared I wouldn’t take on new teams. I’d follow MLB and the NBA the way I follow soccer: let my allegiance flow as it may from game to game and minute to minute, while retaining a few necessary hatreds. It’s a much more pleasurable way to experience sports, in many ways.
I actually think my experience of baseball might become a purely intellectual experience. More than any other sport, any non-analytical impulse I have toward baseball is filtered through the question of Is it Good for the
JewsA’s.The way I enjoy baseball the most is having a game on the radio while I do something else. It’s a nice background distraction. To just watch a game on TV by myself though…heck, I don’t remember the last time I watched an entire regular season game on TV.
opening day 2008
Well, I joined AN before the beginning of the 2009 season so that sounds about right.
yup… i would root for teams to be punished for bad trades and managerial blunders and signing Nick Punto
I can only get into sports if I have a rooting interest…I’m the same with politics. To be honest I enjoy watching college basketball more than a middle of the season MLB game.
I’d probably have very little interest in baseball. They are my team. Non A’s baseball and baseball in general that has no real meaning towards a championship mean very little to me.
It’s a pretty slow game if you’re just looking for some action. I really haven’t watched much non-A’s baseball since I moved to Arkansas. I used to follow the Royals a bit when I lived up there. I did enjoy going to the K.
I’m not really sure why we’re even having the World Series. CNN has me quite convinced we’ll all be dead from Ebola by the end of the weekend.
If the Raiders disappeared the teams I’d consider would be the Packers, Saints, Dolphins, Falcons, Panthers, Chargers, Rams, Titans, and Giants.
Just in case Reggie McKenzie gets a contract extension I should probably narrow this list down so I have a plan.
Up next on CNN…does ISIS have a plan to use an Ebola bomb in the United States? Wolf Blitzer with the answer coming up.
Although the story presents it as a direct quote, I’m pretty sure this is not exactly what Billy Beane told the Guardian:
pfft…Billy Beane…he’s no Dayton Moore.
Separated by a common language.
Despite Dick van Dyke’s best efforts.
i just tripped over the ottoman.
I just destroyed the Ottoman Empire…not sure if that helps?
Huh. So Percy Harvin to the Jets.
Well, that’s out of left field…I guess the Jets are starting their playoff push from 1-6.
And the Seahawks are throwing in the towel. I guess a win against St. Louis by the 49ers sealed their fate. A half game out with so few games left to play and only two games against one another to play. It’s insurmountable.
It’s the right thing to do. Let Russell Wilson get some experience and then try and build a winner in 2020.
Let’s play count the coaches, and hall of famers
andeux bait.
Funny that the writer would include up-to-date ideas on the Higgs in reference to line 1, but not Dark Energy in reference to line 3.
Those mathematicians who try to bluff their way through cosmology are sooooooo phony.
Cool stuff.
I knew (slightly) Stew Burns who isn’t mentioned in that article but was another Harvard->Berkeley->Futurama/Simpsons writer a little bit after David Cohen.
They used the same gag with near-solutions to Fermat’s last theorem even earlier, in the (probably Cohen-written) 1995 Homer³ episode. Professor Frink also mentions hyperbolic topology. One of my favorites.
NERDS!!
Is that last line supposed to be read “O, O.Co”?
So far, ND-FSU has lived up to the hype.
Yep. That was a helluva game. And as a ND hater I was disappointed to see how legit they are.
Whoever decided it was a good idea to have the AC transit buses flash “GO GIANTS” needs to get a stern talking to.
You need some eggs. Preferably eggs that have been left out for a few weeks.
That’s just gross.
So that Rams punt return was pretty awesome.
Play of the weekend, especially since it requires so many different things to all go right (corner punt, gunner paying attention, return man selling the fake)
Wow, that really was great. The punter must have felt so helpless/confused watching the other 10 guys on his team run the wrong way.
without comment
Next time they play the Niners, I hope they lose by five TDs.
When Arizona Cardinals are mocking you something has gone horribly wrong.
0-6
12 loses in a row
8-30 under Reggie McKenzie
I might start golfing on Sundays.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals may well win the West this season. Seahawks look to have real issues and Niners look to be half-practice squad for the next stretch. Thank god for our bye week.
Yeah the laundry list of injured (or suspended) guys is crazy right now
Thanks, and go As.
It’s hard to judge a team when they’re playing the Raiders but Arizona has some good wins this year. It’ll be interesting to see how the NFC West plays out.
The Broncos look like a machine right now…very impressive.
It’s like a preseason game where one team has already taken out its starters.
Completely and utterly predictable, but still depressing
When the Raiders play Denver it might be an all time blow out or perhaps the Broncos will be bored and just cruise after taking a 21 point lead.
Both.
This comment makes more sense when read in the voice of batgirl.
No Chili for you…Davis off to become Red Sox hitting coach. I wonder if he asked Curt Young if the grass is always greener on the Boston side?
Look at you dropping deep A’s coaching staff knowledge.
I like to think of myself as the A’s coaching staff insider here on Free Kraut. I also like to think of myself as Lord of the Dance here on Free Kraut.
You ever spend twenty three bucks on asparagus and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
Then I cried myself to sleep on my asparagus bed.
And the tears had this odd odor.
You ever find yourself in an opium den in Thailand and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You ever find yourself making a homemade pair of shag carpet underwear and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You ever find yourself in a leather gladiator outfit in Reno and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You ever spend the rent money to get a massage from a pair of spider monkeys and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You ever find yourself working tricks to get that rent money back at a Michael Buble’ concert and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You ever find yourself making a life size statue of Dennis Quaid out of paper mache and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You ever find yourself writing the definitive biography on the life and work of William Conrad and think to yourself…life isn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You either poach an egg or you don’t…there is no fry.
This guy begs to differ.
So, something came out saying Boston might deal Cespedes AND he switched agents and is with Jay-Z now.
WAIT FOR THE NARRATIVE TO CHANGE.
Thanks, and go As.