Great ad, or greatest ad?
You Never Know When You’ll Need That…
I’ll give our English cousins this: they don’t throw stuff out, and they know where to find it when the occasion demands it.
In case you thought Cambridge ceremonies were just for the tourists: the porters in my college have been delivering food to self-isolating students & announcing their arrival with an actual plague bell pic.twitter.com/YbF5cOngWA
— Nicholas Guyatt (@NicholasGuyatt) October 30, 2020
In a nod to modernity they have fitted the plague bell to a golf buggy which is kinda weird
— Nicholas Guyatt (@NicholasGuyatt) October 30, 2020
In other news from bizarro land–this time from the much less tradition-soaked environs of the left coast bjmkkj [leaving that in as an example of Champ’s typing skills],* Nathan Fenino and David Wharton in the LA Times report on the UCLA football team’s dining habits. The food bill for the currently mediocre wearers of the light-blue and gold ran to $5.4 million in 2019–during which the athletic department as a whole ran a deficit of $18.9 million.
I do love this article, mostly because it is devastating without ever overtly saying what the writers clearly mean.
The culprit, or, if you prefer, the mastermind behind UCLA’s fine football dining is formerly wunderkind-ish coach Chip Kelly, who did well at Oregon, badly in Philadelphia, worse in SF, and is now struggling to achieve mediocrity in the Pac 12:
Kelly started providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for his players, using UCLA Catering & Conference Services most often. During four months starting in July 2018, for example, the program spent $2.2 million on meals. The price per head ranged from $40 to $53 a meal, according to invoices reviewed by The Times, plus occasional late-evening snacks at $29 a person.
What lay behind such a generous food budget?
Science!
The coach was focused on “body composition,” wanting his athletes to possess more fat-free mass, a higher ratio of lean muscle. The team often worked with UCLA caterers, Kavarsky said, “to source the right type of proteins, carbohydrates.”
Menus featuring ostrich burgers, wild boar and venison offered different amino acid profiles. All of this came at a cost.
Brilliant, I’m sure. But strangely, UCLA’s competition manages (most of them) to feed their guys for much less:
By comparison, other Pac-12 schools spent from $399,000 to $1.2 million on non-travel football meals in 2019, according to financial disclosures filed with the NCAA. That doesn’t include Stanford and USC, which don’t have to provide the information because they are private.
Powerhouses such as Ohio State ($3.4 million) and defending national champion Louisiana State ($381,000) didn’t come close to the Bruins’ total.
(A UCLA response noted that some schools have football or athlete only dining halls, which the Bruins do not, and that a lot of spending gets tucked in there, and off the athletic department’s books. Still–the sample is big enough to give a sense of the scale of demented spending in Westwood.
But hey, the proof is in the pudding, amirite? Better nutrition and happy players must lead to gridiron success, right?
Ummm:
The increased spending at UCLA has not translated into success on the field so far, with the Bruins going 7-17 under Kelly. Average game attendance at the Rose Bowl has declined steadily, hitting a low of 43,849 in 2019. At the same time, ticket revenue dipped from $19.8 million in 2014 to $12.5 million last season.
If I were a CA taxpayer, I’d be pissed.
And with that, I hear there’s some drama going on in more consequential corners of the polity. But there are plenty of places on this blog to discuss that. Let’s treat this as an absurdity-themed open thread?
*Bonus Champ pix:
1: This morning’s portrait. Tres chic!
2. We know how this ends…
a:
b:
I once could see, and now I’m blind…
Over to y’all….
Post Debate Open Thread: Good News Everybody, We Never Have To See or Hear the President Debate Ever Again!!!!
Thank someone’s, anyone’s Deity or Deities, or if you’re an atheist, no one’s Deity or Deities, that that is over!!!
And now for your post debate enjoyment, I give you the most specialist operator to ever operate operationally!!!!
Dummy here used up the entire 2nd Amendment. pic.twitter.com/jPEa5SLlZ0
— ?????? ???? (@Sundae_Gurl) October 17, 2020
Here’s the full pic:
This must be the world’s most dangerous Subway! Honestly, I used to go to the Subway on FOB Hammer, which is where my Brigade Combat Team was based out of in Iraq, a couple of times a week and get a sub. Sure, we were on the forward operating base, so inside the wire, but it was still a Subway in a war zone during a war albeit one that was in the Phase IV conventional/Phase VII unconventional phase of war, so post major combat operations. I don’t remember ever having more than my M9 (Beretta 92) and two extra magazines with me. Most of the time my sidearm staid in the armory and I checked it out for when I was operating off the FOB, which was about 50 to 60 percent of my deployed time. And even then, depending on what type of Engagements I was doing, I left my sidearm in the armory rather than carry it because of what not carrying it conveyed to the Iraqis I was interacting with.
The specialist operator to ever operate operationally here, however, is just WOW!!!!
This guy is carrying 4 full size SIG P320s, though the desert tan ones in the drop holsters appear to be an attempt to make it look like he’s carrying the military version, which is known as the M17.
He’s got two fill size mags in the black P320s, so that’s 17 rounds in each. 18 in each if he’s got one in the chamber in each gun. It looks like he’s got the 21 round extended mags for the desert tan ones. Let’s stipulate he’s got one in the pipe in all four guns. So that’s 80 rounds in the guns and he’s got two more full size and two more extended mags in the mag carriers in the small of his back. That’s 72 more rounds. Provided he doesn’t have more rounds or even more guns around front set up for cross draw or appendix carry or in his pockets, he’s got 152 rounds to get a $5 footlong!
Each of this pistols, brand new, out the door, is between $440 to $650 depending on what he’s actually bought. They all look to be the X grip configuration, so those are bit more expensive. The spare mags are $49.99 apiece. At the going rate of ammunition, if you can even find it right now, provided he’s got quality self defense ammo in the guns and the back up magazines, he’s got between $152 (Speer Gold Dots) to $228 (Federal HST) worth of ammunition on his waist and hips. Throw in another $200 to $250 for the drop holsters, the belt holsters, the gun belt, and the magazine carriers. So he’s spent between $3,000 and $4,000 to feel safe getting a $5 sandwich!
Personally I’d just go to a sandwich shop in a better neighborhood. Like Iraq.
Open thread!
Referring to Fox & Friends As A Blonde With Two Boobs On a Sofa Was Not Meant To Be Taken Literally!
Life imitates snark!
"can we lift that please?" pic.twitter.com/JIgl91XxrW
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 23, 2020
But does it separate?
My work here is done…
Open thread!
The Elders Have Authorized a Reply To Levenson’s Bucket List
The Elders have authorized me to make the following reply to Levenson’s bucket list desire to hike a very long way:
We’re watching you Professor Levenson…
Finally, I am not authorized at this time to disclose whether this post is paid for with Sorosbucks!
Open Thread!
The Elders Have Authorized a Reply To Levenson’s Bucket ListPost + Comments (91)
Post Democratic National Convention Night II Open Thread: Vicente Fox Trolls the President
This is great!
OMG!! Former Mexican President @VicenteFoxQue made this ad trolling Trump so hard. I cant stop laughing. ???? This type of content would have caused a diplomatic incident in the past, but wow. Just wow. Watch this video. Its AMAZING.
pic.twitter.com/khlhCkQFfI— Greg, Esq ??? (@GSarafan) August 16, 2020
Open thread!
So About That Third Party Spoilers Thing… The Libertarian Presidential Candidate And A Possibly Rabid Bat Edition
The 2020 Libertarian Party presidential nominee has been bitten by a possibly rabid bat.
— Jim Antle (@jimantle) August 8, 2020
I will not be able to attend the campaign rally tomorrow morning. I will be getting a rabies vaccine as a precaution after having been bitten by a bat near the start of this campaign tour! I have every intention of participating in the FLAME march and I will deliver remarks at…
— Jo Jorgensen (@Jorgensen4POTUS) August 8, 2020
What effect might his have on Ms. Jorgenson’s views on the US healthcare system? Well let’s just say kvetching was involved!
Not with the health care system we have now!
And I'm not stopped…I'm just pausing for a few hours.
— Jo Jorgensen (@Jorgensen4POTUS) August 8, 2020
Or maybe we should have a free market in which doctors could travel to the patient outside of a hospital or their offices.
— Jo Jorgensen (@Jorgensen4POTUS) August 8, 2020
There is, as of 11:10 PM EDT, no word on the condition of the bat and whether it has contracted anything serious or life threatening from coming into contact with Ms. Jorgenson.
Open thread!
Obligatory: