I don't know for sure if the break is ending today for some teams because of the lockout, but we have two doubleheaders and two stand-alone games. The doubleheaders include what could be a pair of great games between Houston and the Yankees. I feel for the players whose break was cut short, but given that there were almost no team sports at the professional level in the US yesterday, I can't complain too much.
Can't believe I'm rooting for the Yankees today, but we hope they bother Houston enough that the Mariners can run past the Astros tomorrow for their 15th in a row.
I'm a cynic about lots of things, but I'm willing to be trusting here; given that Alison is celiac (as opposed to GF by dietary choice), I think she'd know if they were being dishonest - which would suck.
We ate there when we went in 2018 and she didn't get sick, so it was known to be safe!
I don't know the specific breading process they use but you can do anything with a gluten free flour mixture that you can do with regular flour, more or less. It's just more expensive and more time consuming. All you need for a safe food experience is to find a restaurant that will do it and which has a deep fryer dedicated to only gluten free things. This place has separate GF fryers for GF fish and chips, so it's all good.
For fish I would guess millet. Baked goods tend to call for a mixture with almond and rice flours with various other things in them like xanthan gum and psyllium husk, etc. It's a little complicated but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy.
I'm sure Keuchel will get picked up, because guys who have had the career he's had will always have teams willing to take a flyer on them, so long as they're willing to pitch in the minors for a while.
I would advise any AL team with playoff aspirations to take a decent look, because as not great as his lines are this year, he never seems to be anything less than vintage Keuchel against the Yankees.
While I'd like that, I actually think it would be more like Randy Johnson in 05-06, where half the league knows that, if you face him with your right shoe double-knotted, he's guaranteed to hang a curveball at least once during the at-bat.
History: I'm 65. I am a heart transplant recipient.
At 3am Tuesday morning I woke up with a slight sore throat and a mild cough. No fever. I did what any sane person would do, I took a rapid Covid test. The fucker was positive. With, and I'm quoting my RN daughter in law, the darkest positive line she's seen. (The line can be very light to the darkest she's ever seen, indicating the viral load,)
I double masked, ordered Uber, talked to the driver about it and he said get in, roll your window down and let's get you to the ER.
I was immediately admitted, after the obligatory 2.5 hour wait of course.
Here it is 4am Thursday morning and I'm better. Cough lessened, appetite is back (Craig's pictures made me hungry), still no fever. Just now the nurse said I may go home today. How's that you may ask?
Well, they began remdesivir, a 5 day course by IV, as well as plasma that has Covid antibodies from previously ill patients to boost my immune system.
Now just two remdesivir courses in, my third one has been moved to later this morning instead of 8pm so that I can possibly be released later today depending on the talks between the infectious disease doctors and my transplant team. To recap: instead of five rounds of remdesivir just 3 and possibly going home.
Why? Because I'm vaccinated with one booster. That's why me, a heart transplant patient, hit by a deadly virus... I'm old, I'm immunocompromised...got only a slight sore throat and mild cough with no fever. The doctors here at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center who are the best, I trust them with my life, told me the vaccine is what made the difference. No equivocation.
Vaccinated and boosted! Though they are thankfully not giving this to anyone via the buttcheeks. God, that would have made mass vaccinations ever more insane.
Glad you are doing well., Surprised they used plasma since the latest thing I read suggested that it hasn't really worked, but maybe that is by itself and not as part of a broader regimen. Either way, hooray for medical science, which clearly saves your life all the time.
Speaking of Bruce Springsteen, yesterday I bought 2 (two) tickets to see him and E Street Band at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on Feb. 7, 2023.
It's a small-ish venue (seats about 7K) so I figured tickets would be high-ish priced, but I wasn't really expecting what I saw when I finally got through the pre-sale queue to purchase tickets. I ended up with two seats in the front row of the second balcony, which were $681 each plus the fee for the exclusively wonderful "service" of Ticketmaster at a mere $122 per ticket, plus the actual "processing fee" of $4.95, plus tax, for a total of $1,706.65 for two (2) tickets.
I've never seen Springsteen and would go ahead and spend a thousand bucks for my share of the evening, but I don't know if I can get anyone else to buy the other seat so I may end up selling both.
I bought them to surprise a friend of mine who loves concerts and spends big money to travel to exotic locales like Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks and the UK to see U2, knowing he did not get a pre-sale invitation with a secret code to access tickets as early as possible. Well, another of his friends did the same but bought lower level seats at twice the price, so I'm on the hook for now.
The thing about the minor league salaries is that even if you throw out the ethics of it, it’s not in the teams’s best interest to have players struggling just to stay fed. It amazes me that no team has apparently realized that.
Also, the way players move around so much with trades/promotions, the logistics of housing can be as bad as the money. I don’t know why teams don’t maintain a dorm/apartment complex of their own for players to live in. That would mitigate issues with breaking leases and also help justify the lower pay if the players were at least getting housing.
Not that I necessarily support this idea, but I think MLB wants to throw guys into the fire (low salaries, no team housing) to see who survives and fails. This ain't school; MLB wants to find the 18-22 year olds who can mature quickly and adapt to the cutthroat world of pro ball.
(Of course, MLB wanting to save money is the driving force for this, too.)
Hey, remember when teams of players would "barnstorm" in the off season? I believe MLB should do that instead these occasional series. See, for example, the trip to Japan in 1934, which is credited with kickstarting pro baseball in Japan. ("Banzai Babe Ruth" by Robert K. Fitts)
Put together a team of recently retired superstars, players at the end of their careers (e.g. Keuchel and Romo), fan favorites who can be trusted to represent both MLB and the US (Pete Alonso?), and can be allowed by their contracts / teams to play a couple of exhibition games in the off-season.... Send them off to France or Australia or wherever for two weeks, where they'll take on "all comers" and do some coaching and skills exhibitions....
It's been like 6 or 7 years since I was in London (excluding Heathrow layovers) and I still regularly think about the meal I had at Dishoom on that trip. A really incredible restaurant.
Craig used the word evil a couple days ago, so I have a question in case CoCers want a chat topic for the day:
Do you believe in evil and/or think it exists?
Short answer- I do not. Given the vastness and randomness of the universe I pretty much think there's enough variability that truly awful things happen and awful humans are born. That's it.
I'll bite. I believe we all have the capacity to act evilly, but that some people - either due to nature or circumstance or both - act on that capacity... some more than others.
I'm sure that's the position of one or more classic and/or modern philosophers but I took that class pass/fail ;)
I think all humans have the capacity to do evil or good, and horrible people choose more of the first because they are just selfish assholes and that's what they do, but I don't think there is some external force of evil that acts on us like gravity.
Edit to add: I think when people start attributing good or evil to some external force or supernatural being, it lets them off the hook for their own behavior. In either direction. No, your God didn't move you to do something kind and generous, it was your own impulse, take proper credit for it and encourage others to do the same thing because after all, if you have that capacity for good than so does any other human. Likewise no, the devil didn't make you do something awful, that was all you being a jerk, or criminal, or just a selfish and horrible person. You could have chosen not to but you didn't and any consequences are all your own fault.
Any individual has the capacity to act according to the devils or better angels of their own nature, I think it's a matter of both effort and imagination that contributes to what a person chooses to do. So yes, evil exists, but it springs from the blackness of a human heart moved to hurt and cause pain instead of spread kindness.
When you mentioned yesterday that you were excited to get Indian for lunch, I was going to ask if you were going to Dishoom! And then thought, don't be the guy who only knows the name of one Indian food place in the entire country and thinks everyone should go there.
Just looking at the MLB app to see what the free game of the day is and they all are free except LA/SF. I didn't renew this year for the first time after being a customer since inception but pleased for today. have to get the dual tv's going for the two 1:10 games. Obviously, blackout restrictions apply.
A baseball writer commented that Manfred appears to be the first commissioner who actively dislikes baseball. I mean, Bud Lite IS a big fan, at least. But as Bud Lite reminds us, Manfred isn't the first commissioner who says stupid things openly and doubles down on them.
Ironically, I think that probably makes John Smoltz popular with the commissioner's office. I don't think he much likes baseball, either.
Re: Amtrak. My main criticism of Amtrak is that they don't really care about providing a good customer experience. Airlines don't either, really, but they put on a show of caring, whereas Amtrak doesn't. I've lived in the northeast US for eight years now and it's better here, to the extent that the customer service is impersonal and dismissive, as if you don't matter. In the midwest, the staff is blatantly contemptuous and hostile, as if by riding Amtrak you're somehow putting them out. Once Amtrak figures out how to treat their customers in such a way as to induce them to, y'know, want to choose to come back, they'll be on the way toward solving their other problems.
I don't know for sure if the break is ending today for some teams because of the lockout, but we have two doubleheaders and two stand-alone games. The doubleheaders include what could be a pair of great games between Houston and the Yankees. I feel for the players whose break was cut short, but given that there were almost no team sports at the professional level in the US yesterday, I can't complain too much.
Can't believe I'm rooting for the Yankees today, but we hope they bother Houston enough that the Mariners can run past the Astros tomorrow for their 15th in a row.
I have enjoyed my kids at every age - and I wouldn’t go back to any of them. Asked and answered, if you will.
Also, I’m gonna need more detailed descriptions of all that food (and ale) for my notes. How did they bread that fish gluten-free?
No longer. We have infected the entire planet with it.
I'm a cynic about lots of things, but I'm willing to be trusting here; given that Alison is celiac (as opposed to GF by dietary choice), I think she'd know if they were being dishonest - which would suck.
We ate there when we went in 2018 and she didn't get sick, so it was known to be safe!
I don't know the specific breading process they use but you can do anything with a gluten free flour mixture that you can do with regular flour, more or less. It's just more expensive and more time consuming. All you need for a safe food experience is to find a restaurant that will do it and which has a deep fryer dedicated to only gluten free things. This place has separate GF fryers for GF fish and chips, so it's all good.
Seriously. We finally get some great food photos from Craig, and we don’t even get captions/descriptions/reviews?
How else is Paper Lions supposed to recreate these dishes in the CoC Test Kitchen?
Millet flour, most likely. I use it extensively.
For fish I would guess millet. Baked goods tend to call for a mixture with almond and rice flours with various other things in them like xanthan gum and psyllium husk, etc. It's a little complicated but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy.
Hot millet cereal for breakfast is great. I add French or Italian butter (low casein), honey and cinnamon.
I'm sure Keuchel will get picked up, because guys who have had the career he's had will always have teams willing to take a flyer on them, so long as they're willing to pitch in the minors for a while.
I would advise any AL team with playoff aspirations to take a decent look, because as not great as his lines are this year, he never seems to be anything less than vintage Keuchel against the Yankees.
That would also prevent him from going TO the Yankees and instantly turning into 1978 Ron Guidry for 3 months
While I'd like that, I actually think it would be more like Randy Johnson in 05-06, where half the league knows that, if you face him with your right shoe double-knotted, he's guaranteed to hang a curveball at least once during the at-bat.
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but here goes:
History: I'm 65. I am a heart transplant recipient.
At 3am Tuesday morning I woke up with a slight sore throat and a mild cough. No fever. I did what any sane person would do, I took a rapid Covid test. The fucker was positive. With, and I'm quoting my RN daughter in law, the darkest positive line she's seen. (The line can be very light to the darkest she's ever seen, indicating the viral load,)
I double masked, ordered Uber, talked to the driver about it and he said get in, roll your window down and let's get you to the ER.
I was immediately admitted, after the obligatory 2.5 hour wait of course.
Here it is 4am Thursday morning and I'm better. Cough lessened, appetite is back (Craig's pictures made me hungry), still no fever. Just now the nurse said I may go home today. How's that you may ask?
Well, they began remdesivir, a 5 day course by IV, as well as plasma that has Covid antibodies from previously ill patients to boost my immune system.
Now just two remdesivir courses in, my third one has been moved to later this morning instead of 8pm so that I can possibly be released later today depending on the talks between the infectious disease doctors and my transplant team. To recap: instead of five rounds of remdesivir just 3 and possibly going home.
Why? Because I'm vaccinated with one booster. That's why me, a heart transplant patient, hit by a deadly virus... I'm old, I'm immunocompromised...got only a slight sore throat and mild cough with no fever. The doctors here at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center who are the best, I trust them with my life, told me the vaccine is what made the difference. No equivocation.
In closing:
GET YOUR ASS VACCINATED!
I think you're OK unless you're a tax-dodging Tory.
Vaccinated and boosted! Though they are thankfully not giving this to anyone via the buttcheeks. God, that would have made mass vaccinations ever more insane.
Glad you are doing well., Surprised they used plasma since the latest thing I read suggested that it hasn't really worked, but maybe that is by itself and not as part of a broader regimen. Either way, hooray for medical science, which clearly saves your life all the time.
Hope they send you on your way home today!
This is great news that you're seeing such improvements! Hope they let you go home soon.
You could field 47 AAA rosters for a season with Manfred's salary
Speaking of Bruce Springsteen, yesterday I bought 2 (two) tickets to see him and E Street Band at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on Feb. 7, 2023.
It's a small-ish venue (seats about 7K) so I figured tickets would be high-ish priced, but I wasn't really expecting what I saw when I finally got through the pre-sale queue to purchase tickets. I ended up with two seats in the front row of the second balcony, which were $681 each plus the fee for the exclusively wonderful "service" of Ticketmaster at a mere $122 per ticket, plus the actual "processing fee" of $4.95, plus tax, for a total of $1,706.65 for two (2) tickets.
I've never seen Springsteen and would go ahead and spend a thousand bucks for my share of the evening, but I don't know if I can get anyone else to buy the other seat so I may end up selling both.
I bought them to surprise a friend of mine who loves concerts and spends big money to travel to exotic locales like Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks and the UK to see U2, knowing he did not get a pre-sale invitation with a secret code to access tickets as early as possible. Well, another of his friends did the same but bought lower level seats at twice the price, so I'm on the hook for now.
When I attended a Springsteen concert, in December 1984 in Murfreesboro, the ticket cost was $16.00. Even back then it was very affordable.
Enjoy the tower, Craigster. And thanks for not subjecting us to any backandforthandbackandforthandbackandforthball reports.
Yet.
I keep thinking you're describing Pickleball...
Which, whatever it is, would still be more interesting than futbol. Hell, curling is more interesting.
The thing about the minor league salaries is that even if you throw out the ethics of it, it’s not in the teams’s best interest to have players struggling just to stay fed. It amazes me that no team has apparently realized that.
Also, the way players move around so much with trades/promotions, the logistics of housing can be as bad as the money. I don’t know why teams don’t maintain a dorm/apartment complex of their own for players to live in. That would mitigate issues with breaking leases and also help justify the lower pay if the players were at least getting housing.
Not that I necessarily support this idea, but I think MLB wants to throw guys into the fire (low salaries, no team housing) to see who survives and fails. This ain't school; MLB wants to find the 18-22 year olds who can mature quickly and adapt to the cutthroat world of pro ball.
(Of course, MLB wanting to save money is the driving force for this, too.)
Hey, remember when teams of players would "barnstorm" in the off season? I believe MLB should do that instead these occasional series. See, for example, the trip to Japan in 1934, which is credited with kickstarting pro baseball in Japan. ("Banzai Babe Ruth" by Robert K. Fitts)
Put together a team of recently retired superstars, players at the end of their careers (e.g. Keuchel and Romo), fan favorites who can be trusted to represent both MLB and the US (Pete Alonso?), and can be allowed by their contracts / teams to play a couple of exhibition games in the off-season.... Send them off to France or Australia or wherever for two weeks, where they'll take on "all comers" and do some coaching and skills exhibitions....
It's been like 6 or 7 years since I was in London (excluding Heathrow layovers) and I still regularly think about the meal I had at Dishoom on that trip. A really incredible restaurant.
Craig used the word evil a couple days ago, so I have a question in case CoCers want a chat topic for the day:
Do you believe in evil and/or think it exists?
Short answer- I do not. Given the vastness and randomness of the universe I pretty much think there's enough variability that truly awful things happen and awful humans are born. That's it.
I'll bite. I believe we all have the capacity to act evilly, but that some people - either due to nature or circumstance or both - act on that capacity... some more than others.
I'm sure that's the position of one or more classic and/or modern philosophers but I took that class pass/fail ;)
In other words, You’re postulating that evil is only an adjective and not a noun. I can go with that.
I think all humans have the capacity to do evil or good, and horrible people choose more of the first because they are just selfish assholes and that's what they do, but I don't think there is some external force of evil that acts on us like gravity.
Edit to add: I think when people start attributing good or evil to some external force or supernatural being, it lets them off the hook for their own behavior. In either direction. No, your God didn't move you to do something kind and generous, it was your own impulse, take proper credit for it and encourage others to do the same thing because after all, if you have that capacity for good than so does any other human. Likewise no, the devil didn't make you do something awful, that was all you being a jerk, or criminal, or just a selfish and horrible person. You could have chosen not to but you didn't and any consequences are all your own fault.
Any individual has the capacity to act according to the devils or better angels of their own nature, I think it's a matter of both effort and imagination that contributes to what a person chooses to do. So yes, evil exists, but it springs from the blackness of a human heart moved to hurt and cause pain instead of spread kindness.
When you mentioned yesterday that you were excited to get Indian for lunch, I was going to ask if you were going to Dishoom! And then thought, don't be the guy who only knows the name of one Indian food place in the entire country and thinks everyone should go there.
Seriously though, that place is fantastic.
Craig, check out the Churchill War Room. Not to be missed when in London, particularly if you and your family have any interest in WW II.
Just looking at the MLB app to see what the free game of the day is and they all are free except LA/SF. I didn't renew this year for the first time after being a customer since inception but pleased for today. have to get the dual tv's going for the two 1:10 games. Obviously, blackout restrictions apply.
I renewed at half price last week. I need to watch someone other than the Nats all the time ;)
A baseball writer commented that Manfred appears to be the first commissioner who actively dislikes baseball. I mean, Bud Lite IS a big fan, at least. But as Bud Lite reminds us, Manfred isn't the first commissioner who says stupid things openly and doubles down on them.
Ironically, I think that probably makes John Smoltz popular with the commissioner's office. I don't think he much likes baseball, either.
Curling is great fun to watch.
Pickle ball is a cross between ping pong and tennis. But at least things happen!
Re: Amtrak. My main criticism of Amtrak is that they don't really care about providing a good customer experience. Airlines don't either, really, but they put on a show of caring, whereas Amtrak doesn't. I've lived in the northeast US for eight years now and it's better here, to the extent that the customer service is impersonal and dismissive, as if you don't matter. In the midwest, the staff is blatantly contemptuous and hostile, as if by riding Amtrak you're somehow putting them out. Once Amtrak figures out how to treat their customers in such a way as to induce them to, y'know, want to choose to come back, they'll be on the way toward solving their other problems.