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I hadn't considered that the whole thing might be a sham manipulation of the legal system to delay delay delay, but I guess that's possible.

It's a problem for wackadoodle conspiracy people to get and keep legal representation because they don't understand why lawyers have to follow established legal ethics and procedures.

My buddy has a habit I think is a little strange, although maybe it's more common than I realize. He goes to a lot of games with me, and we generally arrive 15 to 30 minutes before first pitch, tipoff, puck drop, whatever. Whenever we do, he immediately gets his one hot dog and mows through it, finishing it well before game time. Me, I like to wait until the game starts to get a hot dog so I can enjoy it while the game is in progress. I'm not sure how I came around to that, but that's how I happen to enjoy food at an event. There's something about the experience where I like them to go together. If I was hungry and wanted to eat before the event started, I'd go to dinner before going to the stadium. This came up again because we went to see a movie recently. I bought a medium popcorn and he bought a small. I nibbled on my popcorn here and there during the previews but saved the vast majority of it for the main feature. He tore through his popcorn during the ads and previews and was done well before the movie started. When I saw what he'd done I chuckled and asked him why he always finishes his food before game or movie time. He shrugged and said it's because he's hungry, but also, he doesn't like to be distracted by eating while the event is in progress. OK, totally valid. You do you. So that got me wondering how people here enjoy food during a game or movie—is it before the game/movie and you're done, or do you wait until during?

If ERA were the only thing that mattered, that would be fine. But there are warning signs: dropping strikeout rate; BB/9 pushing five across those four years, including over six last year; and that his FIP, xFIP and SIERA all substantially underperformed his ERA during those four years. Then, of course, there's his advancing age. But, like I say, they must know something about him I don't that justifies paying him 3x the minimum, so hopefully he delivers like a guy worth 3x the minimum.

I guess, although if a warm body is all they wanted, they had other options on their 40 for a third of the price.

Going Down is definitely one of my top 50 songs of all time.

I trust that they know what they’re doing with this guy although I don’t see it.

I’ve read that Stevie wrote it for Jeff as a favor for Jeff’s playing on Talking Book.

I didn’t realize that Jeff Beck played on the song Hang on Sloopy. Also that Stevie Wonder wrote the song “Superstition” for Jeff Beck. Wow.

I will never forgive him and Jarrod Washburn for costing us the playoffs in 2009.

Voter signaling.

This really is an exercise in pushing the boundaries of gaslighting.

You gotta admit we were somewhat lucky it’s taken nearly a quarter of a millennium for the judiciary to put themselves in a position to take over the governing of the country.

All I did was share a link to an article showing that dozens of famous people apparently know the exact same person as you.

Here's the thing I never hear anyone talk about at all and it's just mind-boggling to me: the recent inflation trend is nothing like 6% or 7%! Every month when these numbers come out, we hear what inflation is versus 12 months ago. Half a year ago it was over +9%; as recently as September it was still over +8%; last month it was something like +7.1%; now this month it's +6.5%. But the numbers always get reported in this flat fact kind of way: "The new inflation numbers have just come out and inflation is now at 6.5%." It gives the impression that inflation is going up at an inexorable rate of +6.5% annually month after month after month, as though prices are rising roughly half a point each month. It's like, oh, man, will inflation ever stop? Damn you, Joe Biden! But what they never seem to highlight is how much inflation has changed just in the last few months. They might mention the month-over-month number in passing but they rarely highlight it with its own paragraph and, crucially, they never add it to the other recent single month numbers to create a 3-month or 6-month or similar inflation figure. Here what I mean: In December the CPI-U actually went down by -0.31%, Last month it was -0.10%. For the four months prior to that they were +0.41%, +0.22%, -0.04%, and +0.01%. It was +1.37% for just June, so June to July seems to have been some kind of turning point. When we look at the change in CPI for just the last six-month period, meaning December (296.8) versus June (296.3), the totally change was a little more than +0.16%. That projects out to a 12-month inflation rate of +0.33%. That's basically flat inflation for six months. That is decidedly less than the 6.5% for this December over last December. That +6.5% is a real number, sure, but it also misrepresents what the inflation trend has been for six solid months, which is also a real number of +0.3%. Why don't we see anything along those lines when we read inflation stories every second Thursday of a month? Who knows? Maybe it's some kind of political thing. Or maybe they think Joe and Jane Typical won't understand what that means. I'm not interested in contemplating that for this post. But the fact of the matter is that the trend of inflation over the past six months is basically flat, not +6.5%, and nothing in the near future suggests that it's going to shoot back up to that number. All indications are by the time we get to this June, the number will probably be two-something, or perhaps one-something, or maybe even sub-one. Folks can dismiss this whole idea and pretend inflation is still going up at an inexorable 6.5% annual rate month after month after month if they want to, but I have no interest in engaging anyone who's itching to gainsay me about this. I also don't want to debate the reported CPI versus the so-called shadow rate which, if we could look at those month by month, we would also find is lower June to December in the same way the CPI index is. All I will say at this point is that, to my way of thinking, those CDs that online banks are offering at 4+% right now are looking mighty tempting. If we want one, we better move fast, because at some point soon, those rates going back down fast.

Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds' Shapes of Things on the Springboard label was literally the first LP I ever bought with my own money. I had owned 45s before, but never my own LP. I was still at St. Anne Elementary, so this was probably sixth or seventh grade—so, maybe 1973, possibly early 1974? I bought the album at the Cunningham Drugs at Tech Plaza in Warren for, probably, $1.99 or $2.99, because it was a cheap cutout. They had a whole rack for cutout records there. (I also bought Grateful Dead's Wake of the Flood not long after that, for probably the same price.) I'm not sure exactly why I got that particular album for my first one. I didn't have much money because I had a relatively small Free Press route at the time (which I wasn't very good at anyway), so it was cheap was definitely a big reason. And I felt compelled to buy my own album for the first time, as an age-appropriate rite of passage. Why this album, though? I had never heard of either Jeff Beck or the Yardbirds before. Channeling my memory of how I was back then, I likely bought it because I thought Jeff Beck just looked so damn cool on the front of that album. Hey, man, like I said, it was 1973 or 4. I had never heard any of the songs from the album before, and in fact was steeped in the mix of pre-disco funk, soft rock hits, bubblegum pop, and the occasional three-minute 4/4 guitar rock hits that CKLW and Keener 13 and WDRQ were playing at the time, so I wasn't even listening to Yardbirds-type music, really. I was taking a complete flyer on the record. After getting through the initial shock of how different the music was from anything I'd heard before, I started playing the shit out of that album. None of my brothers cared for it, but I fell in love with it. My favorite song quickly became Mr. You're A Better Man Than I. So super cool, and just socially-conscious enough for an 11- or 12-year-old to get. There was nothing else like it for me. Nobody else I knew at school or around the neighborhood knew the album even existed. I was in my own club of one with it. It opened my eyes to a whole new type of pop/rock music, the heavy blues-influenced songs that, I later learned, came from the mid 1960s rather than 1973 or 4. I think it knocked down whatever barriers I might have experienced about trying other 60s and 70s blues rock, blues music by actual blues artists, and even traditional jazz music that I was exposed to later in life. Had I decided to buy some other record on that day—had I bought some Jim Croce or Seals & Crofts or other artist's cutout if they were available—I am convinced I would be listening to an entirely other type of music than I do today, and speaking only for myself, I would have been musically the lesser for it. You can find that album now on places like eBay and Etsy. That's where I got these images. You can't find this exact album with the songs in this exact order on any of the music streamers—because of course not, since it was a cheap cutout made and sold for a very short period of time—but I'm going to create a playlist on YouTube Music of this album. I only wish I could assign this album art to it. Thank you, Jeff Beck, for opening up my ears—and my mind—in 1973 or 4.

It’s a Rogan thing from a couple months ago. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/10/16/joe-rogan-claims-school-has-litter-box-for-girl-identifying-as-cat/?sh=10bcf9a0434b

Rod Stewart at his best. ”Let me love you, baby … you’re drivin’ my poor heart crazy …”

Kind of weird to see him playing with a pick. But then because of the nature of thos particular songs you definitely need to play them with a pick.

I mean, this is unbelievable, are you a Virgo?

“Robert Planet” landed with me just now …

A little late for this year's free agent class ... 😉

Hey @Biff Mayhem: I know you're a big fan of the white album with the pencil on the front, but have I ever shared this version of the Groupie Routine with you? Perhaps on the old site? I believe this version might have been done during the same show that Just Another Band was recorded. I know this is a mothercussin' site now—and thank god because we are all grownups here after all—but NSFW warning applies here:

Maybe not celebratory high fives, per se, but “attaboy” or “good job” would certainly be appropriate. Not just pretending it’s a big so what.