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Ghost of LL

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. In ordinary times, Joe Biden would go down as a very good president owing to the infrastructure act, the CHIPS Act, and the inflation-reduction act. But these were not ordinary times. Biden treated them as they they were ordinary times, but they weren't. Joe Biden never had the first clue what it was going to take to defend the Republic. So he nominated people like Merrick Garland. And in so doing, Biden failed in his foremost job duty: to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
  2. That is great. Good for him. My son got to do that when he was about that age. He got to take one adult down with him, and he chose his grandfather. So I missed out. But it's a great memory for my son doing something cool with his late grandfather, so that's probably a net-positive for me.
  3. Fuck--I'm going to be there next week to see us play Leicester, and it's starting to look more and more like a critical battle to avoid relegation.
  4. I mean, ok. But they still have tickets to all the good inaugural balls. Right?
  5. I only hope his pain is amplified by seeing just a small number of the millions of Democrats who are getting joy from his suffering. Mmmmmm--magat tears. Soooo yummy.
  6. I think there are a couple options: a 3-4 day trip to another area or 3 or four day trips. For the day trips, I might suggest: Rouen: Former capital of the Duchy of Normandy with the great Gothic cathedral that was the subject of the series by Monet that you'll see in d'Orsay. Chartres: Another Gothic cathedral--probably the single finest one in France. Fontainebleau: Big royal palace. Honestly--maybe preferable to Versailles (particularly given the crowds in August. Meaux: Ok--I know the wife is not a history buff, but the Musee de la Grande Guerre is amazing. Reims: Great Gothic cathedral, the Palace of Tau, and a bunch of Champagne houses in the area where you can do a tour & tasting. Barbizon: Little artist village that has been home to Monet and Renoir. The local museum is relatively small, but it's got an amazing collection of paintings.
  7. Fair enough. I mean, maybe it's worth breaking down some areas in Scotland that are kind of discrete in themselves. Edinburgh & Environs: Here you have the history and culture of the capital of Scotland. In the environs, there is Falkirk, Bannockburn, and Stirling for those with an eye toward Scottish history. If you like moody abandoned castles, there's Blackness Castle and Linlithgow Palace. And for those who are interested in engineering, there's the Forth Bridge and the Falkirk Wheel. Glasgow & Environs: As you note--a historically working-class city that is rapidly gentrifying. So there's really a good vibe there with some fun things to do. Kind of a Scottish Detroit. Just north of Glasgow is Loch Lomond National Park, which is absolutely stunning. Oban, Glencoe, & Islands: Past Loch Lomond is Oban, which has the distillery (one of the rare ones that is actually in a town) and is also the port for a bunch of ferries to the islands off the west coast of Scotland, including the Isle of Mull with its early Christian Iona Abbey and Islay for those of us who actually like whisky. An hour from Oban is Glencoe, which is kind of the hiking area you think of when you envision hiking in the Scottish Highlands. Skye: Further north is the Isle of Skye. It's a long way up there, but damned, it's beautiful. Cairngorns: Kind of in the middle is Cairngorns National Park, which is a nice area for hiking. But I have to tell you, I think it's kind of underwhelming. The one thing I really would recommend is a sheepdog demonstration--they're fucking amazing. I'm not going to really talk about Aberdeen or Inverness because . . . why would I? With a week, you probably have time for about two of those. Personally, I might do Edinburgh for a couple days and head over to Oban via Glencoe. But I could easily be persuaded to go to Glasgow and hoof it up to Skye via Loch Lomond.
  8. Sounds like you've got your itinerary: three days in Edinburgh, two in Aberdeen, and three in Glasgow. Note that Aberdeen is not close to either Edinburgh or Glasgow. It's a three-hour drive from Edinburgh/Glasgow to Aberdeen and 2.5 hours by train. And by the way--I'm not at all certain why you would want to go up to Aberdeen. Or Glasgow, for that matter. For what you're looking at, I might make a drive in a circle Edinburgh-Stirling-Glencoe-Oban-Glasgow. Note: I don't think there are any distilleries in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, or Glasgow cities. The distilleries tend to be more rural affairs. Though you will find plenty of shops in town that will offer tastings and sell you whisky.
  9. Well, what do you want to see in Scotland? You don't need a rail pass to get from Cambridge to Edinburgh--just buy a couple tickets. I personally think Edinburgh is worth a couple days. But after that, I think you'd be well served to rent a car to be-bop around. But from the standpoint of be-bopping, what would you want to see? How important are distilleries to you? Do you want to make it up to the Highlands? Are you a hiker, or are you more of a guy who wants to pull over at a scenic overlook and see shit from the reasonable proximity of your automobile? Are you more interested in nature or do you dig on history (e.g., Stirling Castle) or are you interested in feats of engineering (the Falkirk Wheel)? Where do you fall on a scale of a backpacker's hostel to the Ritz-Carlton? And you know the Loch Ness Monster is made up, right?
  10. Yeah—Ewers leads the team down the field with a flawless drive, but we find ourselves at 4th and goal from the 8 because of brain dead play calling, and then Cam Williams completely whiffs on a block … and it’s because Ewers is Charmin soft. Never change, surly.
  11. Yeah—let’s definitely not blame the coach with a dogshit second-down play all. And we should never blame the left tackle who just threw a look-out block. It’s always on Quinn, who, by the way, has accounted for some pretty fantastic play in this game. God, you people are exhausting.
  12. People get caught up in the whole "he was gay and built castles" thing with Ludwig II. They completely ignore the fact that he was King of Bavaria during the decade of German unification. Ludwig himself was not a proponent of German unification, but Bavaria wasn't itself strong enough to forestall it after it was defeated in the Austro-Prussian War. And the role that Ludwig's weakness played in Prussia's ascent to dominance over Bavaria and the other southern German countries is kinda unexplored.
  13. I don't have the first damned clue how much water it takes to put out one housefire. It's apparently about 1.5x whatever the storage capacity is in Lost Creek. And this is not a secret. I mean, maybe realtors don't make it a point of mentioning it to buyers who are looking at houses in the area. But it's not a secret. It has been a topic brought before the Limited District repeatedly. It's why the Dads' Club goes down once a year and clears out debris in the greenbelt (to the extent practicable). And I know several people in the neighborhood raised it to their city councilperson while Lost Creek was still a part of the City of Austin. Of course, that councilperson was Paige Ellis. So they may as well have been talking to a corpse. In any event, the fire department is well aware of the challenge, and that's why they don't put water on a house fire until they know it's not going to spread. I know that first hand, because I've seen it happen twice on my street. The second time--which happened 13 months ago--the fire department came out, made sure everyone was out of the house, and sat around for about a half-hour until they started putting water on the fire. I actually had time to ask them what was going on, since they seemed to be at some leisure. And that's exactly what they told me. Final point: Lost Creek is not unique. West Lake Hills has the same challenges, though not as great given that it is a larger community. But anywhere you have hills, you're limited in your firefighting capacity by what is in storage and the speed with which that storage can be replenished. And if you don't have electricity to run the pumps needed to refill that storage, which is the situation right now in parts of Los Angeles, you're really in a world of shit.
  14. To boil it down--water out of the hydrant has fuck-all to do with how much water is in the reservoir. California has plenty of water in its reservoirs. I mean, maybe not "plenty" for long-term planning purposes. But for purposes of combatting these fires, California has plenty of water in the reservoirs. But the water that comes out of the hydrants is treated city water. And treated city water has to get uphill to storage tanks. And once those storage tanks run dry, there's no water for the hydrants no matter how much water may be in the reservoirs, the ocean, or anywhere else. And by the way--this is not just an issue in California. This is an issue throughout the areas west of Austin. For instance, Lost Creek has enough water in its storage tanks for 1.5 house fires. Not two. And damned sure as shit not three. One-and-a-half. So if a fire ever came up from the greenbelt, that entire subdivision is right fucked. But even without a greenbelt wildfire, it also means that if you live in Lost Creek and your house catches fire, the fire department is just going to watch it burn and save their water to make sure it doesn't spread to neighboring houses.
  15. There are going to be so many Thanksgiving conversations this year of MAGAts complaining about various things and their smug Dem relatives sitting back and saying "huh--I wonder how we didn't see that coming." And the sarcasm is going to fly right over the MAGAts' heads. I mean, that's how it's going to go at my Thanksgiving with Mrs.LL's family. If her MAGAt cousin is even there. He might be recalled from active duty to go die on a fucking beach invading Greenland or some shit. So who the fuck knows.
  16. Ok, my man--you didn't tell me you were going to Muenchen. So while you're there, you need to head over to Nuernberger Bratwurst Gloeckl am Dom. It's right behind the Frauenkirche. They have several family plates of all the sausages (including the little Nuremberger bratwurstl, which are fucking delicious). And they pour Augustiner, which is to your very great benefit. And then post pictures to show that you haven't forgotten about us.
  17. Ha--definitely not. The only thing you notice by way of a religious affiliation is that there is a school of theology. And I will say that the Perkins Library at the theology school was a great place to study for the bar exam.
  18. Yeah--I'm not disagreeing with any of this. And I will definitely acknowledge that I am not the resident Surly expert on Methodist politics or the finer points of Protestant sectarianism in general. So I don't exactly know all the ins and outs and what-have-yous of the divorce between the University and the Church. But in any event--I agree with @Bozo_Casanova. This is hugely embarrassing for UT. But it's also really, really good for SMU.
  19. I'm not sure how "right-leaning" SMU's governance is. It is in protracted litigation against the Methodist Church in an effort to sever ties after the Methodists (or at least that branch of the Methodists) went all anti-gay. The case is set for oral argument before the Texas Supreme Court pretty soon (maybe later this month--I can't remember). But it doesn't reflect a university that is particularly right-leaning.
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