Devers gets a big extension, why most products suck these days, big USMNT drama, Southwest tries to make amends, Great Moments in Capitalism, predictions for 2023, COVID, and my Coast-to-Coast walk
I’m wearing a leather belt from Structure I got in the late 80s, have two in fact. It still amazes me they fit, though I’m now on the 2nd to last hole, was on #4 when I was 19.
I certainly have shirts older than my teenage sons. Many of my clothes have stains oozing with nostalgia like my bleach speckled USA soccer shirt. The bleach stains are from when I cleaned the pool I haven’t owned in 6 years. I call it my tie-dye shirt. My wife can’t stand my fashion sense and will often pretend she doesn’t know me in public.
If I had a dollar for every older shirt that just vanished without a trace I'd have a nice fistful of dollars. My wife, at least, doesn't deny it when I ask her if she trashed the shirt.
When she was pregnant with out first child I tried to help out by doing the laundry, and shrunk her favorite sweater to Barbie sized. It shrunk so much it almost disappeared.
And that was the last time I was allowed to do the laundry unsupervised. I'm not really upset about how that worked out :)
My wife went on a long vacation over the holidays, and I surprised her by decimating my closet. I went from about 40 dress shirts (used to live a different
business life) to 6, similar for slacks, hoodies, etc. I had to put myself in sort of a tunnel vision mode where I had to be able to explain to myself why I'd want to keep it versus sending it to the second hand store that raises money for an abuse shelter. She was very happy. Now, it's the 'boat policy' where because of limited space, nothing is taken aboard unless something is removed.
Historically the main driver for my buying clothes was a need for things to wear to the office. Even in a casual environment, I still wanted to freshen up my wardrobe on a regular basis, especially above the waist.
I've been telecommuting for nearly thirteen years now, however, and even though that meant periodic trips to the office, my need to buy new clothes dropped dramatically over that time, and most of what's "new" in my wardrobe now are t-shirts and hoodies collected from vendors or employers
I have stopped collecting t-shirts at conferences. I could probably go a month without doing laundry while wearing something different referencing Drupal every day.
I think I'm probably at that point, with various vendor wear and "X Conference in Y Town" shirts, I see them as akin to souvenir tour shirts for various bands, so I'll keep on collecting until I run out of room to store them.
I have t shirts that old. Problem is, I am not quite as slim as I was. (The main driver for me to get new clothes has been my middle aged spread spreading.)
My wife and I became minimalists during the pandemic. My favorite going out shirt is a Polo collared short sleeve. It has worn extremely well and I have kept it stain free (the hardest thing for me to do). I think I got it about 12 years ago for about $45 which is a lot for me to pay for a shirt. I went over the summer to the mall to look at another polo. I found the same shirt but it was $120. I know with inflation and that it is a quality product in the sea of crap, it should be that price, but I still didn't pay it.
I was on a video call with this young guy I'm working with, and he commented that he liked the pullover I was wearing. I got it my freshman year of college (~30 years ago), and he graduated in 2018 I think. "Thanks - if I calculate right this is older than you are." His response: "I like vintage." I don't like him anymore.
I have at least a couple of T-shirts from 1993, one from when I visited Lehigh in the spring before I started attending in the fall, and one from the summer mission trip I took to Japan. Those are probably the oldest things I own, and even though I weigh a hundred pounds more now than when I bought them, they still fit. But I'm sure I own several items of clothing that are at least 20+ years old as well, including at least one pair of boots that I have probably had since the late 1990s. So no, you're not alone.
In my case, though, unlike Craig's noble aspirations, I just buy the cheaper stuff for myself and keep it forever. If someone gives me a shirt or whatever for a gift, and I like it, I just never get rid of it, even if it's not ideal. The sleeves on many of my shirts don't go all the way to my wrists, but then that has been true since I was a kid. I'm about 6'5", and have been over 6' tall since at least my sophomore year in HS. I grew up poor - like on-welfare poor - and my tallest male cousin is about 5'9', so none of their hand-me-downs fit properly, forcing me to roll/fold/push up the sleeves, which I've been doing ever since, even on shirts that ostensibly do fit.
Style is not that important to me, and obviously neither is fit. Most of my clothes are loose because I'm chubby. I'm content with comfortable jeans, flannel shirts and a T-shirt that won't come untucked due to my beer belly, so obviously I don't require trips to the store very often. I have a collection of formerly-white T-shirts I bought maybe 15-20 years ago that could, at this point, best be described as "translucent". They're not going anywhere. Besides, my wife uses them to dry her hair!
My wife does not have anything that old because she somehow has it in her head that you just buy new things for the sake of having new things, and, you know, looking nice. That, and/or she cooks or does laundry wearing a new article of clothing and gets olive oil or bleach on it within weeks of having purchased it, thereby requiring its prompt replacement, lest she should have to wear something out of the house with an obvious stain.
With that said, I am trying to get some better quality stuff - Duluth Trading seems right up my alley - and hold onto it, but even their clearance sale shirts are like $50 sometimes so that's tough to stomach when I've already got a closet full of "good enough".
Bryse Wilson signs with the Brewers. What’s weird about his year in Pittsburgh was that he was bombed off the mound in the bigs, was sent to AAA Indianapolis for remedial work, and was unhitable for 4 starts there. But, once back in the show, got clobbered again.
He was a top 100 prospect not too long ago, so could still put it together and be a decent starter. Though it looks like he's lost some of the fastball velocity, so there's work to do to be more than an emergency guy.
I'm surprised to see him struggling so much. He was a big prospect for the Braves and he had showed some signs of being really good in limited big league action before he got traded to Pittsburgh. Hope he can figure it out.
Well the Red Sox surprised me yesterday. Maybe John Henry getting booed at Fenway during the NHL Winter Classic gave him a change of heart....nah. I’m sure season ticket sales will tick up now. Be interesting to see the details and if it will be like the other mega deals, as in no trade clause and player/team options.
Yeah, they don’t lock him up long term they don’t have a chance for decades, still not enough pitching. Their bullpen improved over last year, but that wasn’t a difficult thing to achieve. If they are relying on Sale and Paxton to be their starting workhorses, well, <insert Big Oof GIF>
Devers is a lot younger and better than Bogaerts, so I understand prioritizing him. But with their resources and also their best prospects being years away, it's weird that they aren't going after other top free agents (Story is likely a 3 win player at this point, so doesn't really count as "top"). And Betts is still awesome, so not blowing him away with an offer while getting little value back in trade is looking really awful.
Their decision making is just weird too. Yes, their payroll should be at least $50M higher per year to at least match the Padres. But what they do spend money on is just off. Kenley Jensen and Justin Turner at a combined $24M is an overpay that's okay for a team putting on the finishing touches for a contender, but that's not this team. And the consensus is that Yoshida was a huge overpay. There doesn't seem to be any consistent philosophy on team building.
I had to look it up. All of those 0.9 WAR came from a 10-game hot streak during a September call-up. That has to be up there for the worst WAR/$ contract in history.
Henry being booed is a nothingburger. Negotiations were already underway, as Raffy signed a pre-arbitration deal the day after the WC. While fans/media were screaming, this time the Sox got it done.
I think the Berhalter/Reyna saga is straight up mama bear protecting her cub … unless I have the timeline wrong, the Reynas did not make their calls until it was clear that Berhalter had slagged their son “anonymously” at a leadership retreat. To me, I can tell it’s payback because of her quote protesting that she shared the information about the domestic violence incident “in confidence” and was shocked, SHOCKED that it would lead to an investigation.
Mary used to have a couple of T-shirts that said “if you have ever done me wrong, my mother knows, and she doesn’t like you.” Those things are best sellers for a reason.
I think he may not get called up soon, but I would bet he is there in 2026. I would worry more about his European career. He is already shown to be immature, and will get absolutely roasted on and off the pitch. He has shown signs of being good, great for an American, but If I am an English side, am I going in on him until the character issues are sorted?
Timeline is kinda wrong. Claudio started with texts to insiders during the World Cup, but after the retreat thing, they went full out to smear him.
There are two distinct events here, first is the intimate partner violence. Second is the Real housewives stuff in in late December 2022.
The DV stuff is bad, for sure. I wouldn’t doubt a pubic facing employee would need to be investigated for issues like that. If we focus on Gregg here, he seems to be incident free since then. That can be checked out and corroborated. If what he says, the counseling, the openness about it to family and friends and the no subsequent incidents pan out, great. That is what we want from Domestic Violence perpetrators. We want growth, we want change. Not for nothing, human brains still need growing around 18 years of age, latest stuff I see says until 25 you can’t be sure the prefrontal cortex is completely developed. The incident that undisputedly happened should be remembered and those around him should be far less forgiving should even signs of it reappear.
Second is the disclosure of the information. This is going to negatively impact Gio’s career in Europe until he is actually a star. Such bad instincts from his parents. Always think things through. Gregg was not necessarily going to get the job, I’d say the odds were 50/50, and only that high in favor of Gregg because there is no obvious candidate to replace him. USA soccer is not going to be where Gio makes his money, though, I just don’t understand this level of bad decision making.
As for Gregg’s speech, yeah, he goofed by being so specific. But Gio can’t complain much because it was all true. One of the things Grant Wahl said on one of his last podcasts was that Gio was not interacting with anyone during the celebration of the Iran win, or maybe it was the England draw, but anyway he was pouty. Grant said it would be interesting to follow up. So if Gio’s mom thinks it would remain private, she is wrong. very wrong. Gio is 20, and his prefrontal cortex is not necessarily developed either, so cut him some slack for being terrible at training camp, but he hasn’t seemed to fully own it, so I will wait to judge that. Maybe 30 yeas.
Just to be clear, I am not defending what the Reynas did… Just saying that I think it was less about playing time and more about slagging their kid in public.
I also sincerely doubt that it will hurt the kid’s professional chances as long as he continues to play well. If I am advising him, I have him wait a day or two and then distance himself, and make it clear that he fully intends to earn his place on the field and not off of it.
Kind of thinking that Berhalter is just too tainted by now for him to stay. (Note: this is not a judgement of what he did in 1991. I am thinking strictly in terms of "does he have the authority and good will need to coach the team?") In some weird way, it's kind of like McCarthy. Even if he ultimately gets his speakership, he's lost a lot of his ability to say "I am the boss, you are going to respect me."
Speaking of which, as much as I find the whole thing hysterical - my wife and I have named the Republican half of the House the "College of Turkeys" since this feels like a bizarro version of picking a new pope - it is nuts that technically speaking the House does not exist now. If some emergency arose today, God forbid, the House can do nothing because everything is predicated on having a speaker. That seems like an incredibly dumb rule. Why can't they swear everyone in, have the majority leader serve as temporary Speaker, and then vote? I am sure someone had a reason for this, but it eludes me. And what's more, there is a chance that no one is getting paid till they fix things. I don't care much about the representatives not being paid but what did all the staffers do to deserve this? (Prediction: McCarthy wears everyone down eventually and gets to be Speaker, but has set the stage for being a one term Speaker no matter who controls Congress in two years.)
Does anybody else have the support to win the job though? It's clear that the ultra conservatives won't shift away from anyone short of a crazy extremist Jim Jordan type, so I guess the question is will the more mainstream Republicans (who still aren't moderate) go along with a crazy Jim Jordan type?
I don't think Jim Jordan wants it. He can't go on TV and complain about/be the victim of the machine if he is in charge. He also won't be able to launch /be in charge of all the planned investigations. I mean that is his whole stickt.
I'm wondering if enough - half a dozen or so - "moderate" Republicans get fed up with it all and vote "Present", thereby giving Rep. Jeffries of the solidly united Democrats the Speakership.
The USA Mens Soccer Team was always called 'The Yanks" when I was growing up. I think that nickname got deleted from history because too many Americans who hate the New York Yankees subconsciously realized how the Yankees have come to represent America perfectly: a vapid, bloated, arrogant monolith that is religiously slaved to its history and aspires a return to its previous success which was derived from the basis of its vast financial resources all the while happy to enormously profit while continuously diverting the wealth from the people that produce it. And I'm a Yankees fan....
On the product quality subject, while I agree cars fit in under the the desire for the new, the different, and the next-cool-thing, they don't fit as being bad quality. The quality of cars has never been better. It used to be a car with 100K on it was shot. Now it's only in midlife.
And the safety and creature comforts of old cars can't begin to compare with those on new cars. Automatic emergency braking used to mean you saw your wife tromping down on an imaginary brake pedal from the passenger seat.
Well, yes and no. My father, who was a mechanic, often said the best thing that came from influx of Japanese cars in the 1970s was that American cars got better. A lot better.
Yet at the same time he complained that he could no longer fix his cars because almost everything now required a lift.
Funny (OK, fine: coincidentally) when I made that observation to the service manager (while getting my 2000 Camry fixed) he told me that just about any car newer than a 2015 requires a machine that costs about $10K, meaning even if you knew how to do brakes you couldn't DIY.
That really is the worst part about modern cars. I don't do much of my own wrenching anymore but I couldn't even replace the battery on my Volvo myself because it requires one of those $10k machines to reset the computer that runs everything.
The reduction in quality most noticeable to me is actually in kids/family board games, specifically Hasbro. My toddler son has the newest iterations of Trouble and Hungry Hungry Hippos, both of which I remember as big hulking behemoths but are now made of roughly the same plastic they use for blueberry containers.
We own a few board games made from indie producers and the quality difference is staggering. Real wood playing pieces (not balsa wood!), thick and heavy playing boards, and even a sturdy box that will still be in good shape on your shelf 10+ years from now.
I was reading recently that now is a new golden age for board games. Lots of excellent indie produced games. My daughter plays a lot of them. They're big among the geeky crowd in particular.
Same, I got some games for my niblings when they were little from the little gift shop at a local nature center. Definitely more expensive than a mass-market game but the cardboard pieces were THICK. Held up to multiple children and now that they are older they will likely get donated to the local preschool.
I'm sad to hear that Hungry Hungry Hippos is cheap now, that was one of my favorites when I was a kid.
YES I remember my mom did not anticipate small glass marbles rolling on a hollow plastic base while hippo heads frantically tried to eat as many as possible would be as loud as it was - because of course the commercials didn't have any sounds of game play just the Hungry Hippos theme song. Lol.
Body parts: the demand for “fresh” cadavers and body parts started to develop around 1450 or so: artists, doctors and scientists all had their various uses for this material. It’s amazing that, six centuries later, the supply/demand relationship is still so out of whack that some people are still tempted to go the Burke & Hare route. Cultural taboo vs capitalism: usually capitalism wins, but not this time, at least not yet. Soylent Green is not quite here yet.
Fast fashion: throughout the ‘90s, on average I probably bought about two suits per year. Once business casual really started to kick in at the turn of the century, that just stopped. I probably haven’t bought a new suit in at least fifteen years, and, now that I’m retired, I probably never will again. I’m virtually certain that my grandfathers wore the clothes they owned ca. 1960 for the rest of their lives. They say you turn into your parents in middle age. After that, it seems that you start to turn into your grandparents. And so the wheel turns . . . .
The only use I have for suits now is weddings and funerals. Which includes my own eventual funeral I guess. But that's enough that I don't rule out someday needing a new suit. I'd guess my current suit (I only have one) is from the 90s.
Same. I'm at that in-between stage of life where all of my friends are married but none of our kids are old enough to be getting married yet. In a few more years I'll be back to attending weddings. Any time I've needed to attend a funeral it's always a game of Which Suit Still Fits Me. I think I have three different black suits reflecting the ups and downs of my weight over the past couple of decades.
Berhalter’s contract ended Dec 31 so it’s a question of whether he gets hired again. When he he got the job it was after the team didn’t have a coach for over a year after not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. And he was hired without a proper search. Related, his brother, Jay is the COO of US Soccer, and presumedly he would have also known about the 1991 incident as a family member.
A final nugget: Gregg Berhalter’s godfather is Carl Yastrzemski
If you're booking further ahead for Southwest flights, as I almost always do, 25,000 points gets you a lot more. For example, the Columbus to Houston round trip that Craig said was just over 25,000 points in late January is only 11,434 points in May. So you could make 2 trips to Houston with that amount.
They gave me 50k points and I have companion pass, so that’s likely enough for a trip to Hawaii (20k pts) with plenty left over to visit the family in Texas.
The Red Sox gave Mookie Betts a series of contract offers every year when he was arbitration eligible. Mookie told the Sox he only wanted one year deals, as he intended to test FA. The final offer from the Sox was the same as the Dodgers except Mookie received an insane $65M signing bonus. He never gave the Sox last
From what I've read, the signing bonus is spread out over the length of the deal, so $5 million per year including the year before the extension kicked in (not an insane $65M up front). From Betts' perspective is $300M/10years really the same as $365M/12years? He's not getting $30M a year in his age 39 and 40 seasons if he signs the Sox' offer.
Edited to add: Found an article where Betts claims that he would have stayed in Boston if he was offered the same deal that he got from the Dodgers. Betts' counter to the Sox' 300M/10yr offer was $420M/12. Interesting that $365M/12 is a little more than half the difference. I'm betting that if the Sox were willing to meet Betts half way, he would have signed.
I found “war will be wireless” to be an odd phrase too.
A quick google Ngram search reveals a sharp uptick in the use of the word in the early 1920’s which seems to correlate roughly as a replacement for, or in reference to, “radio”.
Which makes sense, and now the phrase doesn’t seem so weird and it seems there was no point in typing any of that.
I suppose I should have just said, “Good morning!”
During my drive around Lake Erie over the last couple days, I stopped at the Fairport Harbour Lighthouse and discovered something called the Buckeye Trail? Which is apparently a 1400 mile trail entirely within Ohio. Think of the money you could save! Who needs England?!
I’m wearing a leather belt from Structure I got in the late 80s, have two in fact. It still amazes me they fit, though I’m now on the 2nd to last hole, was on #4 when I was 19.
I certainly have shirts older than my teenage sons. Many of my clothes have stains oozing with nostalgia like my bleach speckled USA soccer shirt. The bleach stains are from when I cleaned the pool I haven’t owned in 6 years. I call it my tie-dye shirt. My wife can’t stand my fashion sense and will often pretend she doesn’t know me in public.
If I had a dollar for every older shirt that just vanished without a trace I'd have a nice fistful of dollars. My wife, at least, doesn't deny it when I ask her if she trashed the shirt.
Do you "disappear" her clothing that you don't like? Fair is fair after all.
(I sound like a divorce lawyer trying to drum up business)
When she was pregnant with out first child I tried to help out by doing the laundry, and shrunk her favorite sweater to Barbie sized. It shrunk so much it almost disappeared.
And that was the last time I was allowed to do the laundry unsupervised. I'm not really upset about how that worked out :)
As a great philosopher once said, do a job poorly enough the first time and you'll never get asked to do it again.
My wife went on a long vacation over the holidays, and I surprised her by decimating my closet. I went from about 40 dress shirts (used to live a different
business life) to 6, similar for slacks, hoodies, etc. I had to put myself in sort of a tunnel vision mode where I had to be able to explain to myself why I'd want to keep it versus sending it to the second hand store that raises money for an abuse shelter. She was very happy. Now, it's the 'boat policy' where because of limited space, nothing is taken aboard unless something is removed.
Historically the main driver for my buying clothes was a need for things to wear to the office. Even in a casual environment, I still wanted to freshen up my wardrobe on a regular basis, especially above the waist.
I've been telecommuting for nearly thirteen years now, however, and even though that meant periodic trips to the office, my need to buy new clothes dropped dramatically over that time, and most of what's "new" in my wardrobe now are t-shirts and hoodies collected from vendors or employers
I have stopped collecting t-shirts at conferences. I could probably go a month without doing laundry while wearing something different referencing Drupal every day.
I think I'm probably at that point, with various vendor wear and "X Conference in Y Town" shirts, I see them as akin to souvenir tour shirts for various bands, so I'll keep on collecting until I run out of room to store them.
I have t shirts that old. Problem is, I am not quite as slim as I was. (The main driver for me to get new clothes has been my middle aged spread spreading.)
My wife and I became minimalists during the pandemic. My favorite going out shirt is a Polo collared short sleeve. It has worn extremely well and I have kept it stain free (the hardest thing for me to do). I think I got it about 12 years ago for about $45 which is a lot for me to pay for a shirt. I went over the summer to the mall to look at another polo. I found the same shirt but it was $120. I know with inflation and that it is a quality product in the sea of crap, it should be that price, but I still didn't pay it.
I was on a video call with this young guy I'm working with, and he commented that he liked the pullover I was wearing. I got it my freshman year of college (~30 years ago), and he graduated in 2018 I think. "Thanks - if I calculate right this is older than you are." His response: "I like vintage." I don't like him anymore.
I have at least a couple of T-shirts from 1993, one from when I visited Lehigh in the spring before I started attending in the fall, and one from the summer mission trip I took to Japan. Those are probably the oldest things I own, and even though I weigh a hundred pounds more now than when I bought them, they still fit. But I'm sure I own several items of clothing that are at least 20+ years old as well, including at least one pair of boots that I have probably had since the late 1990s. So no, you're not alone.
In my case, though, unlike Craig's noble aspirations, I just buy the cheaper stuff for myself and keep it forever. If someone gives me a shirt or whatever for a gift, and I like it, I just never get rid of it, even if it's not ideal. The sleeves on many of my shirts don't go all the way to my wrists, but then that has been true since I was a kid. I'm about 6'5", and have been over 6' tall since at least my sophomore year in HS. I grew up poor - like on-welfare poor - and my tallest male cousin is about 5'9', so none of their hand-me-downs fit properly, forcing me to roll/fold/push up the sleeves, which I've been doing ever since, even on shirts that ostensibly do fit.
Style is not that important to me, and obviously neither is fit. Most of my clothes are loose because I'm chubby. I'm content with comfortable jeans, flannel shirts and a T-shirt that won't come untucked due to my beer belly, so obviously I don't require trips to the store very often. I have a collection of formerly-white T-shirts I bought maybe 15-20 years ago that could, at this point, best be described as "translucent". They're not going anywhere. Besides, my wife uses them to dry her hair!
My wife does not have anything that old because she somehow has it in her head that you just buy new things for the sake of having new things, and, you know, looking nice. That, and/or she cooks or does laundry wearing a new article of clothing and gets olive oil or bleach on it within weeks of having purchased it, thereby requiring its prompt replacement, lest she should have to wear something out of the house with an obvious stain.
With that said, I am trying to get some better quality stuff - Duluth Trading seems right up my alley - and hold onto it, but even their clearance sale shirts are like $50 sometimes so that's tough to stomach when I've already got a closet full of "good enough".
My teenagers steal my flannels and concert Ts with wild abandon….missing so many.
In some cases. At least kids grow out of the ‘helping them poop’ stage eventually.
I don’t care if my kids steal my clothes….beats the half shirts they’d like to wear every day.
Bryse Wilson signs with the Brewers. What’s weird about his year in Pittsburgh was that he was bombed off the mound in the bigs, was sent to AAA Indianapolis for remedial work, and was unhitable for 4 starts there. But, once back in the show, got clobbered again.
He was a top 100 prospect not too long ago, so could still put it together and be a decent starter. Though it looks like he's lost some of the fastball velocity, so there's work to do to be more than an emergency guy.
I'm surprised to see him struggling so much. He was a big prospect for the Braves and he had showed some signs of being really good in limited big league action before he got traded to Pittsburgh. Hope he can figure it out.
Well the Red Sox surprised me yesterday. Maybe John Henry getting booed at Fenway during the NHL Winter Classic gave him a change of heart....nah. I’m sure season ticket sales will tick up now. Be interesting to see the details and if it will be like the other mega deals, as in no trade clause and player/team options.
Yeah, they don’t lock him up long term they don’t have a chance for decades, still not enough pitching. Their bullpen improved over last year, but that wasn’t a difficult thing to achieve. If they are relying on Sale and Paxton to be their starting workhorses, well, <insert Big Oof GIF>
Devers is a lot younger and better than Bogaerts, so I understand prioritizing him. But with their resources and also their best prospects being years away, it's weird that they aren't going after other top free agents (Story is likely a 3 win player at this point, so doesn't really count as "top"). And Betts is still awesome, so not blowing him away with an offer while getting little value back in trade is looking really awful.
Their decision making is just weird too. Yes, their payroll should be at least $50M higher per year to at least match the Padres. But what they do spend money on is just off. Kenley Jensen and Justin Turner at a combined $24M is an overpay that's okay for a team putting on the finishing touches for a contender, but that's not this team. And the consensus is that Yoshida was a huge overpay. There doesn't seem to be any consistent philosophy on team building.
I had to look it up. All of those 0.9 WAR came from a 10-game hot streak during a September call-up. That has to be up there for the worst WAR/$ contract in history.
Henry being booed is a nothingburger. Negotiations were already underway, as Raffy signed a pre-arbitration deal the day after the WC. While fans/media were screaming, this time the Sox got it done.
I think the Berhalter/Reyna saga is straight up mama bear protecting her cub … unless I have the timeline wrong, the Reynas did not make their calls until it was clear that Berhalter had slagged their son “anonymously” at a leadership retreat. To me, I can tell it’s payback because of her quote protesting that she shared the information about the domestic violence incident “in confidence” and was shocked, SHOCKED that it would lead to an investigation.
Mary used to have a couple of T-shirts that said “if you have ever done me wrong, my mother knows, and she doesn’t like you.” Those things are best sellers for a reason.
I think he may not get called up soon, but I would bet he is there in 2026. I would worry more about his European career. He is already shown to be immature, and will get absolutely roasted on and off the pitch. He has shown signs of being good, great for an American, but If I am an English side, am I going in on him until the character issues are sorted?
The signing of Dom Smith inspired a new avatar I see DMCj. Didn't you previously just have a generic one?
I did - switched to Nats in distress about two weeks ago 😎
Timeline is kinda wrong. Claudio started with texts to insiders during the World Cup, but after the retreat thing, they went full out to smear him.
There are two distinct events here, first is the intimate partner violence. Second is the Real housewives stuff in in late December 2022.
The DV stuff is bad, for sure. I wouldn’t doubt a pubic facing employee would need to be investigated for issues like that. If we focus on Gregg here, he seems to be incident free since then. That can be checked out and corroborated. If what he says, the counseling, the openness about it to family and friends and the no subsequent incidents pan out, great. That is what we want from Domestic Violence perpetrators. We want growth, we want change. Not for nothing, human brains still need growing around 18 years of age, latest stuff I see says until 25 you can’t be sure the prefrontal cortex is completely developed. The incident that undisputedly happened should be remembered and those around him should be far less forgiving should even signs of it reappear.
Second is the disclosure of the information. This is going to negatively impact Gio’s career in Europe until he is actually a star. Such bad instincts from his parents. Always think things through. Gregg was not necessarily going to get the job, I’d say the odds were 50/50, and only that high in favor of Gregg because there is no obvious candidate to replace him. USA soccer is not going to be where Gio makes his money, though, I just don’t understand this level of bad decision making.
As for Gregg’s speech, yeah, he goofed by being so specific. But Gio can’t complain much because it was all true. One of the things Grant Wahl said on one of his last podcasts was that Gio was not interacting with anyone during the celebration of the Iran win, or maybe it was the England draw, but anyway he was pouty. Grant said it would be interesting to follow up. So if Gio’s mom thinks it would remain private, she is wrong. very wrong. Gio is 20, and his prefrontal cortex is not necessarily developed either, so cut him some slack for being terrible at training camp, but he hasn’t seemed to fully own it, so I will wait to judge that. Maybe 30 yeas.
Just to be clear, I am not defending what the Reynas did… Just saying that I think it was less about playing time and more about slagging their kid in public.
I also sincerely doubt that it will hurt the kid’s professional chances as long as he continues to play well. If I am advising him, I have him wait a day or two and then distance himself, and make it clear that he fully intends to earn his place on the field and not off of it.
Absolutely. I think he’s good enough - from the neck down at least. Here’s hoping he can get it right.
Kind of thinking that Berhalter is just too tainted by now for him to stay. (Note: this is not a judgement of what he did in 1991. I am thinking strictly in terms of "does he have the authority and good will need to coach the team?") In some weird way, it's kind of like McCarthy. Even if he ultimately gets his speakership, he's lost a lot of his ability to say "I am the boss, you are going to respect me."
Speaking of which, as much as I find the whole thing hysterical - my wife and I have named the Republican half of the House the "College of Turkeys" since this feels like a bizarro version of picking a new pope - it is nuts that technically speaking the House does not exist now. If some emergency arose today, God forbid, the House can do nothing because everything is predicated on having a speaker. That seems like an incredibly dumb rule. Why can't they swear everyone in, have the majority leader serve as temporary Speaker, and then vote? I am sure someone had a reason for this, but it eludes me. And what's more, there is a chance that no one is getting paid till they fix things. I don't care much about the representatives not being paid but what did all the staffers do to deserve this? (Prediction: McCarthy wears everyone down eventually and gets to be Speaker, but has set the stage for being a one term Speaker no matter who controls Congress in two years.)
If McCarthy doesn’t wear the holdouts down, I can’t imagine he can serve out his full term. Even if he ends up prevailing he probably doesn’t run in 2024. Though to tie to to baseball, Timothy Burke summed it up great - https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1610767900587003909?s=46&t=smVDGWIj_-1YKAYCrU9rmg
Does anybody else have the support to win the job though? It's clear that the ultra conservatives won't shift away from anyone short of a crazy extremist Jim Jordan type, so I guess the question is will the more mainstream Republicans (who still aren't moderate) go along with a crazy Jim Jordan type?
Don't these repeated speaker votes meet the "Do the same thing expect different results" definition of insanity?
Sadly, I figure it will be Jim Jordan.
I don't think Jim Jordan wants it. He can't go on TV and complain about/be the victim of the machine if he is in charge. He also won't be able to launch /be in charge of all the planned investigations. I mean that is his whole stickt.
Exactly. I think Scalise is more likely, and is just as bad if not worse.
Steve "David Duke without the baggage" Scalise?
BARF-O-RAMA.
I'm wondering if enough - half a dozen or so - "moderate" Republicans get fed up with it all and vote "Present", thereby giving Rep. Jeffries of the solidly united Democrats the Speakership.
The USA Mens Soccer Team was always called 'The Yanks" when I was growing up. I think that nickname got deleted from history because too many Americans who hate the New York Yankees subconsciously realized how the Yankees have come to represent America perfectly: a vapid, bloated, arrogant monolith that is religiously slaved to its history and aspires a return to its previous success which was derived from the basis of its vast financial resources all the while happy to enormously profit while continuously diverting the wealth from the people that produce it. And I'm a Yankees fan....
On the product quality subject, while I agree cars fit in under the the desire for the new, the different, and the next-cool-thing, they don't fit as being bad quality. The quality of cars has never been better. It used to be a car with 100K on it was shot. Now it's only in midlife.
And the safety and creature comforts of old cars can't begin to compare with those on new cars. Automatic emergency braking used to mean you saw your wife tromping down on an imaginary brake pedal from the passenger seat.
Well, yes and no. My father, who was a mechanic, often said the best thing that came from influx of Japanese cars in the 1970s was that American cars got better. A lot better.
Yet at the same time he complained that he could no longer fix his cars because almost everything now required a lift.
Funny (OK, fine: coincidentally) when I made that observation to the service manager (while getting my 2000 Camry fixed) he told me that just about any car newer than a 2015 requires a machine that costs about $10K, meaning even if you knew how to do brakes you couldn't DIY.
That really is the worst part about modern cars. I don't do much of my own wrenching anymore but I couldn't even replace the battery on my Volvo myself because it requires one of those $10k machines to reset the computer that runs everything.
Before I sold my truck, I’d go to a place called My Dream Garage where you could rent a lift bay and a full set of pneumatic tools for like $30/hr.
Saved myself a decent amount of money that way.
The reduction in quality most noticeable to me is actually in kids/family board games, specifically Hasbro. My toddler son has the newest iterations of Trouble and Hungry Hungry Hippos, both of which I remember as big hulking behemoths but are now made of roughly the same plastic they use for blueberry containers.
We own a few board games made from indie producers and the quality difference is staggering. Real wood playing pieces (not balsa wood!), thick and heavy playing boards, and even a sturdy box that will still be in good shape on your shelf 10+ years from now.
I was reading recently that now is a new golden age for board games. Lots of excellent indie produced games. My daughter plays a lot of them. They're big among the geeky crowd in particular.
Same, I got some games for my niblings when they were little from the little gift shop at a local nature center. Definitely more expensive than a mass-market game but the cardboard pieces were THICK. Held up to multiple children and now that they are older they will likely get donated to the local preschool.
I'm sad to hear that Hungry Hungry Hippos is cheap now, that was one of my favorites when I was a kid.
The whole point of Hungry Hungry Hippos is to smash the lever as hard as a 6 year old can. Making the game cheap ruins the experience.
Now I want to know if my dad still has our 1980s version. Playing it while doing shots with my brother would be awesome the next time we get together.
YES I remember my mom did not anticipate small glass marbles rolling on a hollow plastic base while hippo heads frantically tried to eat as many as possible would be as loud as it was - because of course the commercials didn't have any sounds of game play just the Hungry Hippos theme song. Lol.
Body parts: the demand for “fresh” cadavers and body parts started to develop around 1450 or so: artists, doctors and scientists all had their various uses for this material. It’s amazing that, six centuries later, the supply/demand relationship is still so out of whack that some people are still tempted to go the Burke & Hare route. Cultural taboo vs capitalism: usually capitalism wins, but not this time, at least not yet. Soylent Green is not quite here yet.
Fast fashion: throughout the ‘90s, on average I probably bought about two suits per year. Once business casual really started to kick in at the turn of the century, that just stopped. I probably haven’t bought a new suit in at least fifteen years, and, now that I’m retired, I probably never will again. I’m virtually certain that my grandfathers wore the clothes they owned ca. 1960 for the rest of their lives. They say you turn into your parents in middle age. After that, it seems that you start to turn into your grandparents. And so the wheel turns . . . .
The only use I have for suits now is weddings and funerals. Which includes my own eventual funeral I guess. But that's enough that I don't rule out someday needing a new suit. I'd guess my current suit (I only have one) is from the 90s.
Same. I'm at that in-between stage of life where all of my friends are married but none of our kids are old enough to be getting married yet. In a few more years I'll be back to attending weddings. Any time I've needed to attend a funeral it's always a game of Which Suit Still Fits Me. I think I have three different black suits reflecting the ups and downs of my weight over the past couple of decades.
My jacket at our wedding was a dark red palm leaf print. Might be a fun look for being interred if it still fits.
Simon Pegg did a movie about Burke and Hare that was hilarious.
I did not know that. Sounds funny.
Berhalter’s contract ended Dec 31 so it’s a question of whether he gets hired again. When he he got the job it was after the team didn’t have a coach for over a year after not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. And he was hired without a proper search. Related, his brother, Jay is the COO of US Soccer, and presumedly he would have also known about the 1991 incident as a family member.
A final nugget: Gregg Berhalter’s godfather is Carl Yastrzemski
Carlos freakin’ Baerga > Jon Heyman
Me throwing darts > Jon Heyman
Jon Heyman throwing darts > Jon Heyman
Darts not being thrown > Jon Heyman
Darts being thrown at Jon Heyman = Jon Heyman. 🎤⬇️
If you're booking further ahead for Southwest flights, as I almost always do, 25,000 points gets you a lot more. For example, the Columbus to Houston round trip that Craig said was just over 25,000 points in late January is only 11,434 points in May. So you could make 2 trips to Houston with that amount.
But then you'd be in Houston...twice. :)
They gave me 50k points and I have companion pass, so that’s likely enough for a trip to Hawaii (20k pts) with plenty left over to visit the family in Texas.
I rock the curls, so I give that prediction a solid A.
The Red Sox gave Mookie Betts a series of contract offers every year when he was arbitration eligible. Mookie told the Sox he only wanted one year deals, as he intended to test FA. The final offer from the Sox was the same as the Dodgers except Mookie received an insane $65M signing bonus. He never gave the Sox last
look. Neither did Bogaerts.
From what I've read, the signing bonus is spread out over the length of the deal, so $5 million per year including the year before the extension kicked in (not an insane $65M up front). From Betts' perspective is $300M/10years really the same as $365M/12years? He's not getting $30M a year in his age 39 and 40 seasons if he signs the Sox' offer.
Edited to add: Found an article where Betts claims that he would have stayed in Boston if he was offered the same deal that he got from the Dodgers. Betts' counter to the Sox' 300M/10yr offer was $420M/12. Interesting that $365M/12 is a little more than half the difference. I'm betting that if the Sox were willing to meet Betts half way, he would have signed.
https://www.boston.com/sports/morning-sports-update/2022/07/19/mookie-betts-red-sox-contract-dodgers-quote/
I found “war will be wireless” to be an odd phrase too.
A quick google Ngram search reveals a sharp uptick in the use of the word in the early 1920’s which seems to correlate roughly as a replacement for, or in reference to, “radio”.
Which makes sense, and now the phrase doesn’t seem so weird and it seems there was no point in typing any of that.
I suppose I should have just said, “Good morning!”
I took “radio” there to mean something like electricity
During my drive around Lake Erie over the last couple days, I stopped at the Fairport Harbour Lighthouse and discovered something called the Buckeye Trail? Which is apparently a 1400 mile trail entirely within Ohio. Think of the money you could save! Who needs England?!
Yeah, tough call!