I did have to laugh at all the fawning coverage of the security folks who "tackled" the streaker ... the dude slid feet first into the endzone (in a thong - ouch) and then got dogpiled. Whether or not he had it coming, he didn't get tackled by anyone.
Golf might work great. A lot of room to roam and security is spread pretty thin. On the downside, you wouldn't be able to interrupt all play, only play on a couple of holes. And that fact makes it much less likely you'd be on TV, if that's your goal.
Approaching the players was never a problem for Morganna the Kissing Bandit.
So it was a bullshit citation. He blew a 0.02. The justification was that he was riding his motorcycle on Sandy Hook, some fans waved him down and he did a shot of tequila while sitting on his bike. That is technically a DUI, since he consumed while operating a motor vehicle, but it’s a DUI in the same way I could have been issued one for pregaming a Nets game in north Jersey in December, sitting in the parking deck with the car running.
The officer's description of him as "glassy eyed" and some other things that seem like boilerplate lyin' cop spiel make me think he might have run into one of those law enforcement professionals who are more mad about "41 Shots", as opposed to one shot.
As the unofficial Central NJ correspondent (who grew up 5 minutes from where Bruce did), I can say that it goes both ways here with Bruce. There are plenty of people who absolutely LOVE him, but there are also plenty of weird deep red pockets in NJ (including where he currently lives) where the MAGAts have totally turned on him for being a commie lib. So no part of this story surprises me.
I got yelled at in 93 or so in dodger stadium for not standing. I remember my answer was "I'll stand when i get healthcare," the yeller called the usher over and the straw-hatted usher said loudly he agreed that it was disrespectful but they are told they can't do anything about it and he was a vet and on and on.
Now, I don't mind the anthem at the start of the game. I think its a good demarcation between before the game and after. I do not want the teams to chose a song or media presentation to replace the anthem, that would be ugly and terrible.
All that said, I think it works for baseball, because the homoe team can be on the field, or run out to take the field just after, and the visitors can come out of the dugout. It just looks better than basketball or american football or hokey. I only ever watch Association football and the pregame stuff in europe is different.
Point being, I am not an anthem lover, yet I like the anthem in baseball to mark the beginning of the game.
Sorry, I can't. I clicked on a link that promised to tell me how to lose my belly fat with out weird old trick that doctors hate, and now my cursor is shaped like a taco and I can't access my email any more.
If it pops up, click on it. Especially if it has CGI naked ladies, sketchy gambling sites, or anything promising computer security services from a popunder.
This is a more polite way of saying, they've become whores.
Once upon a time, when people would claim that football was the most popular sport in America, the (correct) rejoinder was "No, you're confusing football with gambling." However, what little moral ground baseball may have had has been ceded with the deals with DraftKings and BetMGM. All that's left is to debate which are the stirrups and which is the speculum.
Cuomo's decision goes with his decision to reopen restaurants (at one quarter capacity) for Valentine's Day. He wants to help the economy, which I get, but is cherry picking information, which is stupid. At least baseball is outdoors. Reopening for hockey and basketball is madness.
Speaking of Citi Field, the city opened a vaccination site there yesterday, and even though it was clear from what the mayor and the media said that you need to make an appointment, hundreds showed up thinking they didn't need one. Hardly the first time people have gone home from Citi Field disappointed.
Velma's origin: she met the others in school. But they just covered that in last year's Scoob. But if you are working with Mindy Kalling, shouldn't it be "Velma after the Scoobies?" Or better you, just create something new. I heard people used to do that.
What about people that are vaccinated? It seems like if you've had both of your shots you should be able to flash proof and go to a damn baseball game without counting against some arbitrary limit.
They're still saying the vaccinated are still a concern because they don't know for sure whether they can still transmit the virus. But it's a mixed message, because yesterday the CDC said vaccinated people don't need to quarantine after an exposure. If the former is true, then how can they say the latter, and vice-versa.
Telling already skeptical people that getting vaccinated changes absolutely nothing about how you go about day to day life is not going to sell those people on getting vaccinated.
My wife gets her 2nd shot on Tuesday - I'm hoping I'm getting a shot in April.
Cuomo's flip has been weird. Most of last year, the Covid numbers were far better than they are right now, and yet we had more restrictions. Now he's opening things back up on the flimsy basis of "Well, it was even worse right after Christmas".
He's gotten away from the science. (“When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts,” Cuomo said at a news conference on Friday, referring to scientific expertise at all levels of government during the pandemic. “Because I don’t. Because I don’t.”) I don't know if it's just following public opinion as Craig says, or he's getting so worried about the state budget deficit that he's going to reopen things to generate revenue, Covid be damned.
The whole thing is weird. It seems pretty evident that if you try to say anyone has made their decisions based solely on "the science" you have to exclude the entire U.S. of A.
I get wanting to help the economy but you can't be arbitrary. If restaurants (which have been particularly devastated) get a special exemption, why not nail salons? Or gyms? Or strip clubs? Who decides restaurants are more worthy? And not all baseball is outdoors. And the travel for baseball certainly isn't. The ones who will suffer are they guys who drive the bus and clean the floors.
It's too bad that Mark Cuban didn't continue not having the national anthem played, because it's really such a ridiculous thing to do before an entertainment event. I don't have to stand for the anthem before a movie, or a play, or a symphony concert. It's silly to have it before a sports event too.
After the last many years of performative patriotism being wielded as a cudgel I don't even like the sound of it anymore, no matter how well it is performed. When I used to go to minor league baseball games I'd try to make sure I was in the bathroom during the anthem so I didn't have to deal with it.
An interesting social experiment would be to just play it on loop before a game/event, and see how long people can last before giving up and sitting/complaining. Would they finally sit after the tenth rendition? Or stand at attention for 8 hours straight?
I love this. Demand FOX News and OAN and all those places play it before every new show. Before every podcast. Every right-wing website should have one of those popup ads that plays the full version of the song and you can't skip or mute it, in order to read any article or comment.
See how THEY like it. If they complain, they hate the troops.
I really liked the quiet attitude of, "not doing this, not making a big deal of it either." So refreshing in a society where everyone seems to need "CREDIT" for a performative act.
The Mavs need to be maliciously compliant here: give them Jimi Hendrix, and not the short version. Give America the full 6 plus minutes of psychedelic patriotism.
Why do we play the National Anthem so much? It’s so unnecessary and only a handful of people can sing it well. Cuban is a invested owner (which I like about him) and this was actually a good idea on his part.
My grandfather did a lot of racetrack gambling. He died completely broke at a VA hospital. I HATE sports gambling. Hate with the intensity of 1000 Kryptonion Suns.
It’s not, and everybody’s got their own personal demons, but sports betting was where I lost control and started lying to my friends, and to this day I avoid it like the plague, even if I can go sit down at a poker table with a pre-established limit and not violate it.
I think, like alcohol, and porn, we need to find a way to respect individual's rights to do something with negative outcomes, and also completely normalise refusing to do it, and getting treatment. It's a tough line to walk. Harmless (if stupid) for most, devastating for some.
It is funny that the current mood is to restrict unhealthy food, but go nuts on every other vice.
I live in a heavy military base area and work on one of the bases as a contractor. Everyday at 5pm on military bases the national anthem right after the retreat bugle call. All personnel outdoors are supposed to stop and face the flag or at least in the direction of the music. I know many folks that make sure they leave work so they are off base (if you are in your car you have to drop driving) before 5pm to avoid having to do that. I’ve heard stories of people ducking down in parked cars so they don’t have to.
There is also a chain BBQ semi-fast food restaurant that is military themed that plays the national anthem at noon every day and people eating there are expected to stop eating and stand. I know military personnel that have stopped going there because of it.
I did that for the first 17 years of my life. IIRC it was required once you turned 10. So we'd jump off our bikes and face the music, so to speak. They also played the anthem before movies at the base movie theater.
On the survey, and what we like about the content match what we hate about the content, I’m talking checking all four items in both questions? Also, liked the snark in some of them, at least we know you wrote them and not some marketing person.
To some extent you're competing against other gamblers, as well as the house. To use a football example (because I don't understand baseball gambling odds) if the betting on the Ravens game is balanced such that the house makes the spread 3 points to get an even amount of money on them to win and lose, but you have some inside information that tells you they are more than 50% likely to cover that spread, you have an edge on the average gambler.
Will the house know that too? Sure, but their motivation is to set the odds to keep equal money betting on both teams, not where the odds make it a 50/50 chance that each team will win. As long as the betting is split even, the house is guaranteed to make a profit via their rake. But if 75% of the money was on the Ravens, they could lose money if the Ravens win. (Or, granted, make more money than normal if the Ravens lose. But then they're the ones gambling. They want the sure money on other people doing the gambling, not gamble on the outcome themselves.)
One additional note about the Mavs/anthem story - more than 1/3 of the players on the Dallas roster are foreign born. I rarely see any discussion about the appropriateness of forcing a player to stand for an anthem that is not his own.
Any “discussion” would most likely be centered around “They should be happy to work in the US and show it respect”......until the conversation turned to whether Americans working abroad should stand for other country’s anthems, of course.
I did have to laugh at all the fawning coverage of the security folks who "tackled" the streaker ... the dude slid feet first into the endzone (in a thong - ouch) and then got dogpiled. Whether or not he had it coming, he didn't get tackled by anyone.
Golf might work great. A lot of room to roam and security is spread pretty thin. On the downside, you wouldn't be able to interrupt all play, only play on a couple of holes. And that fact makes it much less likely you'd be on TV, if that's your goal.
Approaching the players was never a problem for Morganna the Kissing Bandit.
https://twitter.com/e60/status/514854327937404928
So it was a bullshit citation. He blew a 0.02. The justification was that he was riding his motorcycle on Sandy Hook, some fans waved him down and he did a shot of tequila while sitting on his bike. That is technically a DUI, since he consumed while operating a motor vehicle, but it’s a DUI in the same way I could have been issued one for pregaming a Nets game in north Jersey in December, sitting in the parking deck with the car running.
The officer's description of him as "glassy eyed" and some other things that seem like boilerplate lyin' cop spiel make me think he might have run into one of those law enforcement professionals who are more mad about "41 Shots", as opposed to one shot.
Yes, but Springsteen. Middle-aged white guys love Springsteen, especially in NJ, I don't care what your job is.
As the unofficial Central NJ correspondent (who grew up 5 minutes from where Bruce did), I can say that it goes both ways here with Bruce. There are plenty of people who absolutely LOVE him, but there are also plenty of weird deep red pockets in NJ (including where he currently lives) where the MAGAts have totally turned on him for being a commie lib. So no part of this story surprises me.
You expect us to believe the coaches had no interest in pretty coeds in the stands?
I got yelled at in 93 or so in dodger stadium for not standing. I remember my answer was "I'll stand when i get healthcare," the yeller called the usher over and the straw-hatted usher said loudly he agreed that it was disrespectful but they are told they can't do anything about it and he was a vet and on and on.
Now, I don't mind the anthem at the start of the game. I think its a good demarcation between before the game and after. I do not want the teams to chose a song or media presentation to replace the anthem, that would be ugly and terrible.
All that said, I think it works for baseball, because the homoe team can be on the field, or run out to take the field just after, and the visitors can come out of the dugout. It just looks better than basketball or american football or hokey. I only ever watch Association football and the pregame stuff in europe is different.
Point being, I am not an anthem lover, yet I like the anthem in baseball to mark the beginning of the game.
Even better for Jays games. There has to be two and no one's ever sure what to do for the anthem that isn't YOUR anthem.
Just send me your bank account and routing number and I'll deposit $50 in directly.
Are you kidding? You're just gonna give us $50 in fun bucks from Chuck-E-Cheez!
Schrute Bucks for me, please.
Sorry, I can't. I clicked on a link that promised to tell me how to lose my belly fat with out weird old trick that doctors hate, and now my cursor is shaped like a taco and I can't access my email any more.
If it pops up, click on it. Especially if it has CGI naked ladies, sketchy gambling sites, or anything promising computer security services from a popunder.
Do this on your work computer!
This tweet was how I first found out about the Velma show: https://twitter.com/JarettSays/status/1359633936909959169?s=19
"It's unseemly business."
This is a more polite way of saying, they've become whores.
Once upon a time, when people would claim that football was the most popular sport in America, the (correct) rejoinder was "No, you're confusing football with gambling." However, what little moral ground baseball may have had has been ceded with the deals with DraftKings and BetMGM. All that's left is to debate which are the stirrups and which is the speculum.
"Whore" is not derogatory
I highly recommend going to a game in-person with a non-American adult who has never watched Baseball before.
My Russian friend was doing so well, until the 7th and it was popcorn song time. You forgot how weird baseball actually is after years of following.
The "pillows" reference was my absolute favorite. I giggled every time he said it.
The world definitely needs more Flula Borg. His descriptions are hilariously on-point.
Passing money down the aisle to get snacks passed back to us was also a joy
Cuomo's decision goes with his decision to reopen restaurants (at one quarter capacity) for Valentine's Day. He wants to help the economy, which I get, but is cherry picking information, which is stupid. At least baseball is outdoors. Reopening for hockey and basketball is madness.
Speaking of Citi Field, the city opened a vaccination site there yesterday, and even though it was clear from what the mayor and the media said that you need to make an appointment, hundreds showed up thinking they didn't need one. Hardly the first time people have gone home from Citi Field disappointed.
Velma's origin: she met the others in school. But they just covered that in last year's Scoob. But if you are working with Mindy Kalling, shouldn't it be "Velma after the Scoobies?" Or better you, just create something new. I heard people used to do that.
What about people that are vaccinated? It seems like if you've had both of your shots you should be able to flash proof and go to a damn baseball game without counting against some arbitrary limit.
They're still saying the vaccinated are still a concern because they don't know for sure whether they can still transmit the virus. But it's a mixed message, because yesterday the CDC said vaccinated people don't need to quarantine after an exposure. If the former is true, then how can they say the latter, and vice-versa.
Telling already skeptical people that getting vaccinated changes absolutely nothing about how you go about day to day life is not going to sell those people on getting vaccinated.
My wife gets her 2nd shot on Tuesday - I'm hoping I'm getting a shot in April.
Cuomo's flip has been weird. Most of last year, the Covid numbers were far better than they are right now, and yet we had more restrictions. Now he's opening things back up on the flimsy basis of "Well, it was even worse right after Christmas".
He's gotten away from the science. (“When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts,” Cuomo said at a news conference on Friday, referring to scientific expertise at all levels of government during the pandemic. “Because I don’t. Because I don’t.”) I don't know if it's just following public opinion as Craig says, or he's getting so worried about the state budget deficit that he's going to reopen things to generate revenue, Covid be damned.
The whole thing is weird. It seems pretty evident that if you try to say anyone has made their decisions based solely on "the science" you have to exclude the entire U.S. of A.
I get wanting to help the economy but you can't be arbitrary. If restaurants (which have been particularly devastated) get a special exemption, why not nail salons? Or gyms? Or strip clubs? Who decides restaurants are more worthy? And not all baseball is outdoors. And the travel for baseball certainly isn't. The ones who will suffer are they guys who drive the bus and clean the floors.
It's too bad that Mark Cuban didn't continue not having the national anthem played, because it's really such a ridiculous thing to do before an entertainment event. I don't have to stand for the anthem before a movie, or a play, or a symphony concert. It's silly to have it before a sports event too.
After the last many years of performative patriotism being wielded as a cudgel I don't even like the sound of it anymore, no matter how well it is performed. When I used to go to minor league baseball games I'd try to make sure I was in the bathroom during the anthem so I didn't have to deal with it.
An interesting social experiment would be to just play it on loop before a game/event, and see how long people can last before giving up and sitting/complaining. Would they finally sit after the tenth rendition? Or stand at attention for 8 hours straight?
I love this. Demand FOX News and OAN and all those places play it before every new show. Before every podcast. Every right-wing website should have one of those popup ads that plays the full version of the song and you can't skip or mute it, in order to read any article or comment.
See how THEY like it. If they complain, they hate the troops.
I really liked the quiet attitude of, "not doing this, not making a big deal of it either." So refreshing in a society where everyone seems to need "CREDIT" for a performative act.
So sad that the self-described rebel maverick billionaire folded like a lawn chair after a bit of pressure from doughy culture war yellers.
If I'm Mark Cuban, I will happily get a guest singer to perform the National Anthem before each game.
And that guest singer will be a Smurf. Every time.
How about Rosanne Barr? That would give the league second thoughts in a hurry. But it would drive attendance waaay down.
The Mavs need to be maliciously compliant here: give them Jimi Hendrix, and not the short version. Give America the full 6 plus minutes of psychedelic patriotism.
Do run of the mill games get the anthem broadcast?
Why do we play the National Anthem so much? It’s so unnecessary and only a handful of people can sing it well. Cuban is a invested owner (which I like about him) and this was actually a good idea on his part.
My grandfather did a lot of racetrack gambling. He died completely broke at a VA hospital. I HATE sports gambling. Hate with the intensity of 1000 Kryptonion Suns.
Non-sports gambling isn't so great either.
It’s not, and everybody’s got their own personal demons, but sports betting was where I lost control and started lying to my friends, and to this day I avoid it like the plague, even if I can go sit down at a poker table with a pre-established limit and not violate it.
I think, like alcohol, and porn, we need to find a way to respect individual's rights to do something with negative outcomes, and also completely normalise refusing to do it, and getting treatment. It's a tough line to walk. Harmless (if stupid) for most, devastating for some.
It is funny that the current mood is to restrict unhealthy food, but go nuts on every other vice.
I live in a heavy military base area and work on one of the bases as a contractor. Everyday at 5pm on military bases the national anthem right after the retreat bugle call. All personnel outdoors are supposed to stop and face the flag or at least in the direction of the music. I know many folks that make sure they leave work so they are off base (if you are in your car you have to drop driving) before 5pm to avoid having to do that. I’ve heard stories of people ducking down in parked cars so they don’t have to.
There is also a chain BBQ semi-fast food restaurant that is military themed that plays the national anthem at noon every day and people eating there are expected to stop eating and stand. I know military personnel that have stopped going there because of it.
Should have said duck down in their cars since you have to get out if you are parked in a lot and not driving.
If the brass realized how much this sounds like a certain religion's daily ritual, they'd probably drop it right quick.
I'm not so sure of this…
I did that for the first 17 years of my life. IIRC it was required once you turned 10. So we'd jump off our bikes and face the music, so to speak. They also played the anthem before movies at the base movie theater.
And it's not even good barbecue!
On the survey, and what we like about the content match what we hate about the content, I’m talking checking all four items in both questions? Also, liked the snark in some of them, at least we know you wrote them and not some marketing person.
Actually, Allison wrote them. The survey was her idea and she did it all.
She definitely knows your readers.
She gets a free subscription and posts under the name CB.
She forgot "which of the following is your favorite guest on Columbo?"
To some extent you're competing against other gamblers, as well as the house. To use a football example (because I don't understand baseball gambling odds) if the betting on the Ravens game is balanced such that the house makes the spread 3 points to get an even amount of money on them to win and lose, but you have some inside information that tells you they are more than 50% likely to cover that spread, you have an edge on the average gambler.
Will the house know that too? Sure, but their motivation is to set the odds to keep equal money betting on both teams, not where the odds make it a 50/50 chance that each team will win. As long as the betting is split even, the house is guaranteed to make a profit via their rake. But if 75% of the money was on the Ravens, they could lose money if the Ravens win. (Or, granted, make more money than normal if the Ravens lose. But then they're the ones gambling. They want the sure money on other people doing the gambling, not gamble on the outcome themselves.)
One additional note about the Mavs/anthem story - more than 1/3 of the players on the Dallas roster are foreign born. I rarely see any discussion about the appropriateness of forcing a player to stand for an anthem that is not his own.
Any “discussion” would most likely be centered around “They should be happy to work in the US and show it respect”......until the conversation turned to whether Americans working abroad should stand for other country’s anthems, of course.
International soccer games I assume? Plus US & North Korea?
Olympic award ceremonies always have anthems.
For the Jays, every player stands for an anthem that isn't his own.