I’m addicted to the Shannon Sharpe Styleometer. It has surpassed Ron Borges’ Tuesday report card (for the Patriots) as my favorite football-related web feature.
Also too, I hope to tear myself away from the internets and work long enough to read James Wolcott’s new book.
That’s all I’ve got.
Open thread.
cleek
you gotta be fresh
Calouste
Ex-Goldman Sachs topman Rajat Gupta has been arrested. One down, a few more thousand to go.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
As if I needed any more reason to hate that shitstain Mitch McConnell, it now seems like he was behind a push to admit Louisville into the Big 12 over WVU.
Joel
You read Ron Borges? I think Mike Reiss surpassed him years ago, even at his current station on ESPN.
cathyx
I think a pink shirt on a man is sexy. Dare to be teased, go for it. A man who will wear it isn’t afraid of what other men think or say. Love that. Corduroy, not so much.
burnspbesq
If you’re a serious jazz fan and you haven’t yet grabbed a copy of the “bootleg” collection of live Miles Davis performances from 1967, what the heck are you waiting for?
catclub
@cathyx: Don’t watch David Brooks much, huh? Good for you. Keep your pink shirt images unstained by that face above a pink collar.
redshirt
I would not have admitted any of that Doug. You’ll now need to drink a 30 cube of Miller Lite in order to “Man up”.
trollhattan
SF politics–different from politics where you be at.
“Fear the mustache”
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/10/hammer.html
schrodinger's cat
@cathyx: Baby pink is a good color for an Oxford shirt I think. I have a great pink shirt with French cuffs from Talbots, goes great with my boot cut 515 Levis.
DougJ@top
So did you finally wear seersucker in NY?
Also Happy Diwali!
Loneoak
DougJ, you might want to post this one on the front page as part of the Occupy video efforts: Oakland police deliberately throwing flash bangs and tear gas at protestors trying to help injured comrade..
My friends from Occupy Oakland are saying this about it: “KPFA [local Pacifica Network news/talk radio] is reporting that Scott Olson, the ex-Marine who was shot in the head last night, presumably with a teargas canister, is unable to answer basic questions about who or where he is. He is awaiting surgery for a fractured skull at Highland. He’s a member of Iraq Vets Against the War. He is in critical but stable condition.”
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: Bobo and sexy do not belong in the same paragraph let alone the same sentence.
burnspbesq
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
This thing is close to its denouement. Sometime soon, someone at Notre Dame is going to get his or her hands on a working calculator, and compare what ND would get under the ACC’s contract with ESPN to what it will get under its exclusive football deal with NBC plus whatever can be cobbled together for basketball after the Big Least implodes. As soon as that happens, Notre Dame will join the ACC, and since neither Georgetown nor Villanova play FBS football, we’ll end up having to take Rutgers to get to 16.
WVU and UConn fucked by the same rusty pitchfork: what’s not to love?
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: Are you following India’s current cricket series with England?
Southern Beale
Still more problems with Tennessee’s voter ID law requirement! This time it wasn’t someone denied their ID. Instead we have an 86-year-old WWII veteran told he had to pay $8 for his photo ID (senior citizens don’t have photos on their drivers licenses here).
Which is basically a poll tax and TOTALLY ILLEGAL.
cathyx
@catclub: Alright, I guess I should have qualified what I said about pink shirts. If the man who is wearing it was dressed by his wife, then it’s pathetic. If he buys his own clothes and wears it, then it’s sexy.
DougJ
@schrodinger’s cat:
No, I went with a tie, no jacket.
burnspbesq
@cathyx:
Medium gray pinstripe suit, pink shirt, maroon pindot tie.
Even I am irresistible when so attired.
Just don’t fuck it up by wearing brown shoes, fellas.
cathyx
@schrodinger’s cat: Are you a man?
me
I wouldn’t wear it but I dig the jacket on him. The shirt though, wow.
DougJ
@Joel:
Borges doesn’t pull his punches, so he’s great at the post-game analyses. He’s not as encyclopedic as the real beat guys though.
schrodinger's cat
@cathyx: Not in this Universe.
DougJ
@burnspbesq:
I like wearing suits but it’s not appropriate for me to do so professionally. Kind of a shame.
burnspbesq
@schrodinger’s cat:
And laughing all the way. What a disaster for England. How the heck do you go from 129-0 to 176 all out?
Did you see this when it came out during the World Cup? One of the best things ever written about cricket by an American.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=110329/Cricket
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@burnspbesq:
The whole realignment thing pisses me off the same way politics is pissing me off. It’s not meritocracy, or WVU would be the biggest name on the radar out of the Big East for consistency in the two money sports (many more teams more consistence in basketball, but not in football). It’s all about the $. Who lines your pockets more and who is willing to help wring just a few more cents out of everyone else’s pockets.
It may be the bitter ‘Eer fan talking now, but I’m starting to get sick of the whole conference structure anyhow, especially how much of a fucking kludge it’s becoming.
The only upside is that if McConnell and Louisville do screw WVU over, it might be insult enough to turn WV blue again. Maybe. I hope. :/
schrodinger's cat
@DougJ: You should try moonlighting as a Punditubbie, don’t most of them wear suits?
redshirt
Also, are Sterling and Shannon actually related? It doesn’t seem possible.
DougJ
@schrodinger’s cat:
That would be fun. I would dress like Roger Sterling, who I look more and more like each day.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Wow, Cricket? Seriously, that’s an even more arcane subject than College Conference Realignment, or tax code. XP
handsmile
Sometime this month, the 7,000,000,000th inhabitant of our planet will appear (poor bastard; both probably true).
To celebrate (?) this occasion, both the BBC and the Guardian are presenting extensive and interactive articles on the subject of population growth.
One of the least depressing, in fact rather cool, featured stories is from the Guardian, “How big was the world’s population when you were born.” You type in your birth date, click on the prompt, and….
I learned that more than 4,250,000,000 fellow humans have joined me since I emerged bloody and bawling into this world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/oct/24/how-big-worlds-population-born
reflectionephemeral
Greg Bedard, who I think just joined the Globe last year, does a fantastic job breaking down Pats games.
I was surprised to discover that Sterling Sharpe on the NFL Network’s “Playbook” show is 1,000 times the commentator that his brother is. Unfortunately, the pick that sticks in my mind is when he was the sole panelist to see the Bills beating the Patriots. But you gotta have no illusions…
burnspbesq
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
You say “arcane” like it’s a bad thing.
Read the article I linked to at 24. The only way to understand India is to understand cricket.
The last hour of the World Cup final was the most exciting hour of sports TV I’ve seen this year. Every bit as good as the last night of the regular season in baseball.
Legalize
I’ve got no quibble with the way Shannon dresses, but hasn’t he dressed the same way since he’s been on CBS? Nothing new.
redshirt
@reflectionephemeral: Indeed! Sterling is great. Shannon in undecipherable. They don’t look very similar either.
eemom
@back to regular old DougJ
surprised you didn’t go with ZZ Top for this post.
@handsmile:
I am pleased to inform you that I have added Guardian to my daily reads based on your rec.
Also too: want to tell us how old you are or are you gonna make us do the math?
Cat Lady
Ron Borges was once called a vomit-smelling sleaze. That’s probably one of the nicer things he’s been called around these parts after he trashed Belichick for getting rid of Borges’ binkie, Bledsoe. He’s kind of a dick.
redshirt
I know the girl Borges married! She’s a player!
catclub
@burnspbesq: “The only way to understand India is to understand cricket.”
The only way to understand intergalactic genocide is to understand cricket.
h/t Douglas Adams
DougJ
@eemom:
I heard a Joe Jackson song while shopping the other day, so I went with him instead.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
Yes, they’re brothers. I don’t see why this is so hard to believe.
burnspbesq
We closed on our refi this morning. Took 187.5 bps off the rate, and cut the monthly payment almost in half.
There has to be some way to do this for everybody out there who is upside down and struggling to keep up with their payments.
Maude
@DougJ:
#28
I’d go for the Mr. Rogers casual look.
Moonbatman
Butthurt from Fox Noise.
Free Persecuted Political Prisoners and Social Justice Warriors Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky who just occupied the home of rich 1% Fatcat Petit family.
Maude
@burnspbesq:
I think that DFH president Obama is about to try and help with mortgages that are drowning people.
This is important and I hope people get help.
Svensker
I loves me some Shannon. He’s one of those people who makes me laugh before he even starts talking, so by the time he does start talking, I’m howling. When he delivers one of his trademark friendly insults accompanied by the shark grin, I’m helpless.
As far as style goes, it’s tough for guys that big to look good with clothes on. The ones he does wear are usually a little loud for my taste.
reflectionephemeral
@redshirt: Yeah, I think of Shannon– who in all fairness I haven’t watched in a few years, maybe he’s improved as did, say, Ron Darling– as kind of your typical noise-over-substance broadcaster. Sterling is consistently insightful and funny as the ringmaster on “Playbook.”
Maybe that’s in part because “Playbook” is supposed to be more substantive than the gametime desk stuff that Shannon does.
The Moar You Know
Shannon was looking good.
@burnspbesq: I’d love it if it could be done. But here’s the rub – a bank would have to be utterly insane to lend you more more than your house is worth with the aim being to keep you in said house. Not that this stopped them last time, but that’s how we got into this mess in the first place.
I think the only workable solution is that banks and the people that bought the mortgage backed securities are going to have to volunteer to take a BIG fucking haircut and look at principal cramdowns. This will, of course, render most mortgage-backed securities worth a lot less than they were originally. Because of that and the sheer number of other parties who have a huge vested interest in keeping just how rotten those investments are a closely-held secret, I frankly expect that this will never happen, and that we’ll instead allow the American economy to slowly bleed to death.
General Stuck
@cathyx:
Are you a mouse?
FFrank
Sir Terry Pratchett has a new book out “Snuff”
schrodinger's cat
@DougJ: If you are Roger Sterling then who is Don Draper?
pragmatism
is this because of the “red phone” incident when shannon was playing for the donkeys, i mean broncos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjnZXSFOXCw
burnspbesq
@Svensker:
Talk to your over-6’0″ women friends about that subject some time. You will get an earful. My former boss played D3 basketball. She’s 6’2″ and about 180. Going clothes shopping with her was an all-day exercise in frustration.
geg6
@Loneoak:
Good lord, that’s awful. I hope he recovers, but it doesn’t look very good.
As for Doug’s stuff, I, too, am dying to read Wolcott’s book. As a real life down and dirty 70s era punk who actually went to CBGB’s (best show I saw there was the Ramones, though Blondie and Talking Heads were a close second), I relish the thought of reliving it through his excellent prose. So does Tbogg: http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2011/10/25/portrait-of-an-young-man-among-artists/
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
Not necessarily. A loan that wouldn’t be underwritten today, but is performing, looks better on a bank’s balance sheet than an increase to REO.
handsmile
@eemom: (#35)
Welcome aboard, comrade! Yet another BJ regular falls under the sway of lefty Brit journalism. [Raises fist holding teacup.]
1956. Yes, do the math.
@burnspbesq:
On the subject of Manchester, any trenchant observations of last weekend’s derby. (“I’d 6-1 to be a ManU fan”) I do miss Randinho’s posts.
PurpleGirl
@burnspbesq: No, no, no… That lower rate should only be available to people who deserve it, who aren’t under/unemployed, or who made bad decisions in buying too expensive a house to begin with. We can’t reward irresponsible people, you know.
/snark
Chat Noir
@DougJ: Roger Sterling is my fav “Mad Men” character (John Slattery is a fine-looking man, BTW). I finished re-watching the entire series last week and can’t wait for season #5 to start in January.
burnspbesq
@handsmile:
Wasn’t their day. I’m hesitant to say that they mailed it in, but it did seem like the intensity that we normally see in derbies wasn’t quite there.
A five-point deficit in October is meaningless. City still has to prove they can do it over 38 league matches plus all the other competitions.
khead
I suspect it’s gonna be WVU and Rutgers taking the pitchfork, not UConn.
schrodinger's cat
@General Stuck: Are you asking me or Cathyx? I have to go and chase dark matter winds.
burnspbesq
@PurpleGirl:
I would normally agree with that, but there comes a time when the problem is so big that you have to put a clothespin on your nose and just fucking fix it.
burnspbesq
@khead:
No way UConn gets into the ACC while BC and Duke have any say in the matter. Calhoun has cheated too much, nobody likes Luigi, it adds nothing to football, and it doesn’t compare well academically to ND or Rutgers.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: Thanks for the article, I have bookmarked it. I will read it later. If you like cricket you should see Lagaan, it is a good yarn, with the backdrop of a cricket match.
catclub
@PurpleGirl: Burnsy took you seriously.
The qualification is: We can’t give money to poor people who are irresponsible. Incredibly rich bankers? Not a problem.
people who foolishly loaned money to incredibly rich, lying bankers, also not a problem.
burnspbesq
@catclub:
I knew PG was snarking, but that sentiment is widely held, and you have to take it seriously in trying to design and sell a relief plan.
That’s why it’s easier to sell a plan that based on refi than it is to sell a plan that’s based on cramdowns. You can sell it as the lenders getting back 100 percent of what they loaned, and still making a spread on their cost of funds (which has gone down significantly).
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
I’m not sure about that. Remember that the alternative to refinancing the loan probably isn’t keeping the old loan; it’s foreclosing on the property, which means the bank takes a huge loss. The advantage of doing it by refinancing instead of a cramdown is that it looks like an existing process rather than a special exception being made to bail out a loser. Also, too, the principal value is unchanged, so if the buyer sells the house, the bank is still owed the full amount.
Yutsano
Nice tickle for Burnsy: first call today was CNC who wanted to dispute us charging interest. It was all I could do to not laugh at him. Darn my professionalism. :)
pragmatism
need moar grime/dubstep around here so my post title vote is “Fix Up Look Sharp”. Dizzee Rascal is jus’ a rascal.
Scott P.
Wait, Ron Borges? The hack who wrote in 2001 “The Patriots aren’t going to win a Super Bowl any time soon, let alone two”?
catclub
@burnspbesq: Of course, the way the payoff to the bankers worked was you scream that the world will end if we do not do something NOW! No rational argument needs to be made. Then do even more in secret.
When you do NOT want to get money into the hands of underwater mortgage holders, you make sure that the process is ‘rational, transparent and agreed to by all parties’, so the fifth of never.
handsmile
@burnspbesq: (#58)
I agree with everything you wrote. [shudders…]
United’s defense was shambolic (forget Evans, Ferdinand and Evra were badly exposed); their midfield consistently porous. Fletcher’s goal was a thing of beauty though. And that David Silva could make one forget Lionel Messi (well, perhaps for ninety minutes).
Also, Carlos Tevez is considering suing Roberto Mancini now that his 1Mp fine has been levied. Ah, the EPL!
On cricket, there is a fine novel, “Netherland” (2008) by Irish writer Joseph O’Neill in which the sport features prominently. Its protagonist is a Dutch expatriate financier living in NYC during the September 11 attacks who joins a cricket club. Might be of interest to you.
burnspbesq
@catclub:
I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that there is something vaguely rational lurking in your comment 70, but I’m having a hard time finding it. Care to try again?
The Moar You Know
@Roger Moore: @burnspbesq:
I agree with both of your points about how a loan that is current is worth more to a bank than a default. But that wasn’t what I was talking about – I was not very clear.
It’s not single loans that are a problem, it’s those loans as an aggregate – mortgage-backed securities. It is better for banks to pretend that a bundle of mortgage-backed securities are worth their face value, even though we all know they are not, because if they are proven not to be worth their face value then the issuer and the owner of that security suddenly find themselves in a world of hurt.
And really, it’s that uncertainty, where no one can say what anything is truly worth right now, that is the cause of the current depression.
Jon O.
Wow, look at how the Washington Post presented the aftermath of the Occupy Oakland protest last night. Teargassing? Assault? Nope, just a police officer petting a cat left behind by those lousy hippies.
Joel
@redshirt: Brothers.
Corner Stone
@burnspbesq:
This explains much.
Corner Stone
@schrodinger’s cat:
Neither do “sexy” and “baguette” but one man’s French bread…
scav
@Jon O.: Ooooh, so cute, they’re going all Hello Kitty as a strategic business move. Guard’s the only one I’ve seen so far keeping up with the medical status of the Iraq war veteran wounded in the pre-Kitty event police clashes (a fractured skull and brain swelling after allegedly being hit by a police projectile, critical but stable). LiveBlog has more, plus some links to and discussion of analysis of the various videos of the event. Still, that poor poor kitty, no?
@Corner Stone: Dans tes rêves. C’est une ficelle.
catclub
@The Moar You Know: Of course, that uncertainty is the only thing that allows the insolvent banks to continue as if they are solvent. So the uncertainty works both ways. Japan has had how many years of zombie banks? It would be rude to try the Swedish approach, shut them down, zero out the shareholders, and start again.
Morzer
Just a little something to get Cole’s happy juices flowing:
http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/33265/why-tom-brady-owns-the-steelers
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
I’m utterly certain that I have no interest in knowing what you think that explains.
AA+ Bonds
Hello ladies and gents,
The current Fox News line of attack is that OWS is really ACORN in disguise.
Sounds pretty tired, I know, but it took breathtaking defiance of reality for them to turn ACORN from rented office space and weekend hires to fight inner-city poverty into a vast Red conspiracy.
So I’d look out for this one.
Also,
READ FUCKING FOX FUCKING NEWS EVERY FUCKING DAY
AA+ Bonds
@burnspbesq:
Whoa and is she single
The Moar You Know
@catclub: Exactly my point.
Pearls would be clutched so hard they’d turn to diamonds.
AA+ Bonds
I am really interested in meeting all these 6’+ women friends that burnspbesq has, no lie, living in basketball towns hasn’t even helped me there
burnspbesq
@AA+ Bonds:
No. And if you are packing a Y chromosome, you are SOL.