LCHorn

I’ve already gotten far enough away from the book that the fx series encourages doubt on my interpretation of things, but I took away (from the book, mind you) that Toranaga saw Mariko and Anjin as subordinates but capable of understanding him and his plans, basically how he saw the world. Everyone else was held captive to tradition and custom. He’s not amused by Anjin, rather he appreciates his insight, his expertise as a navigator, and because he’s a foreigner (and not welcome anywhere in Japan), he’s basically the only person he can have a heart to heart with and not feel like it’s at risk of being used against him. Plus, he knows about Mariko’s affection for him and that’s confirmation of his judgment. The book doesn’t make him a heel; he’s the only one capable of imposing order in Japan and he’s willing to sacrifice his loyalists if it furthers that goal. In the book’s world he’s just holding Mariko back from dying so that her death can serve a greater purpose and she seems to understand this. I don’t recall a bargain with the Portuguese to burn the boat (I may just be misremembering it), rather, he burned it because Anjin’s friendship was important to him and it was the only way to keep him from leaving (in the subtle, Japanese elite way of navigating conflict).

I’m not a documentary fan but watched this on Hulu the other day. It’s about Punky Brewster and a bunch of celebrity kid actors reminiscing on the rougher parts of growing up in the industry. One thing that comes through is they all appeared to really like Soleil Moon Frye in a sincere “we just loved hanging out with you” kind of way (who shot it and I guess could have easily shaped it that way).

I’m presuming Sarkisian promised him a chance to earn it in the spring but with an understanding they’d need him at nickel if he didn’t win CB outright. That said, if those suggesting Brooks are right, perhaps that’s partially due to Brooks being told he’s going to lose some snaps to Barron. Either way, both would be looking at ‘24 as a contract year.

I’m not a hat guy but I have to admit it’s pretty sharp.

My guess is Jahdae Barron and it’s because he needs to start at corner to maximize his draft prospects.

I could be wrong but I suspect Abreu is injured, anyway. Otherwise, whoever observed him coming off the spring (coaches/Brown/scouts) and didn't raise the red flag should be fired. Someone should rename a .100 batting average the Abreu line.

Aside from just terrible, terrible luck, I think the main issues are: 1. We are still in the Abreu experimentation stage. Singleton was retained as a cheap back-up option (cheaper than Belt) with Cabbage as a candidate if his 2023 performance had carryover. They are trying to ready Loperfido, I.e., they have options and they are working though them. 2. Relying on Hunter Brown and JP France to be core members of the rotation hasn’t worked out. Brown looks like he’s on the failed starter track and and France is basically a sixth or seventh starter on a good team. I think #2 is more ripe for criticism and a total organizational break-down, i.e., they needed a veteran starter BEFORE Valdez and Javier showed poor health. The pitching coaches shouldn’t be shielded from blame on this, either, if they were communicating to the front office that they would be fine without adding a starter. Can you imagine how shitty our record would be without Blanco selling his soul to the devil?

Nimona is good and I’m all for normalizing same gender relationships in children’s entertainment, but it’s almost as bad as Wish in how it plays like a checklist of “wokeness”.

If I might rebut, if I was hiring a manager with no previous experience, and he was replacing a seasoned and somewhat independently minded employee, I’d want someone who made very plain he would work as part of a collaborative team and would follow best practices as set by the general manager’s office. I also would think that some messiness is just a by-product of it being April and wanting/needing to experiment. What’s unfortunate is that they are losing and that’s not giving them much cover. TL:DR It ain’t Joe, it’s Dana (or just the front office).

Well, Georgia has to elect someone and it’s clearly not going to be Stacey Abrams.

I liked Buck Showalter 20 years ago when he was an early analytics adopter and his peers were playing catch-up or getting fired. He also seems like an asshole and maybe that’s what THIS version of the Astros needs.

I think it was Will Carroll who used to write about injuries for Baseball Prospectus and described “staying healthy” as the sixth tool for ballplayers. His position was that it was the next frontier in analytics-a lot of the low hanging fruit in terms of tactics and strategy has been discovered and disseminated. Minimizing injury (and selecting players who avoid) still has lots of proprietary benefit.

If you believe the polls, a certain slice of the electorate is feeling wistful about economic conditions before Covid and crediting those to Trump. Every day that Great Leader’s in court and on the raw end of embarrassing testimony is another step toward reminding them just how tiring it is to have the news cycle revolve around Trump. That’s a real consequence and has far more civic value than a fine and a class E felony conviction.

I would have thought someone with his background would be in favor of killing Russians however it’s done, weird.

Jesus, 112 against?

@UpperWestsidehas been making the same claims about Israel and Iran on that thread, with the same misunderstanding of history.

I guess…if they transfer here I don’t think it’ll be because of Kenny Baker but I guess we can credit him for not scaring them off, either.

I’ve disgreed with the thread commenters saying this in the first couple of episodes, but in hindsight I was wrong. Mariko is 100% badass and I have no idea what she sees in Blackthorne. Probably the biggest weak spot in an otherwise excellent adaptation.

I’ve said this at least twice previously on the thread but l’ll repeat it again here-everyone thinks “oh, realtors don’t do anything, maybe I can be cheap” or “lenders are just a conduit for money, maybe I’ll go with the online lender who’s cheap.” Do not cheap out on getting a pro to do photos-it’s a huge difference and I continue to see high value houses (even $1m plus) with inadequate cell phone photos.

Junior’s was my go-to for kegs when I was 18 and buying on a fake ID.

Thanks for sharing this; I love the Damon Lindelof anecdotes.

I did a loan a couple of years ago for a traveling nurse that was doing this specifically (this is when it was cheaper to finance a purchase as a second home). Three bedrooms and the math made it the two that were occupied by other traveling nurses meant she’d live for free, and that saved her from paying apartment rent on a one bedroom she’d only need 2 weeks out of four. I thought it was a terrific idea, personally. This is kind of stealing from Warren Buffett, but I’ve seen so many people get into real estate presuming it’s easy and find out there’s a lot the “you can retire on passive income!” wealth coaches don’t tell you. If you have, however, specific knowledge about an area (because you live there) and your customer (because you are employed in the same profession) it can really help mitigate that risk.

I’m sure they are telling them that Murphy is going top 20 as a first year starter playing 35 snaps per game and that with their offense there’s another 35 back-up snaps available. All positions are open but if they can’t seize it in year five on campus, four in this defense then it’s not the coaches’ job to protect their feelings.

It's an economic loss in the sense that's treated water, but isn't that just helping recharge underground aquifers and preventing more subsidence loss?

@Brisketexan This might be several years old but didn’t you post something about visiting with a tax protest attorney and they explained process a bit, or maybe said something about land value vs improvement value not important? I feel like the post made the point that for value purposes, TCAD didn’t really distinguish between land or improvements and kind of moved around the values of each in a way that didn’t always make sense (but also that protesting based on those changes didn’t appear effective).