Ghost of LL

Thank god for that false start

I’m just going to keep shit-talking this team. You’re welcome.

So we’re just going to play like shit tonight and that’s just going to be the deal, huh? Great. Cool.

And it was completely foreseeable, which is why the fine people at MGM are going to be paying me some $$$.

Not at the Texas Honey Ham in West Lake Hills, my friend. The Yoga-Pant Mafia remains firmly in control in those parts.

Nope. So I guess we're left with the conclusion that Tuesday probably doesn't tell us too much about what is going to happen in 2024.

Jesus--you're just like a Bad-Take Machine, aren't you?

I think that's quite apparent. But that's only going to last so long. I don't think you can pull off a front-porch campaign in the 21st Century. I mean, yes and no. Did we really see anything Tuesday that is inconsistent with a national R+2 environment in 2024? I'm not sure that we did.

The concern I have is that none of these races really reflect a polling "miss." The polls pretty accurately reflected that ol' Tate was going to win a tight race in Mississippi and that Bashear would win in KY. And I don't think any reputable pollster had the Ohio referenda being terribly close. All of which is to say that the resulting implication is that the polls on Biden's low popularity may be uncomfortably accurate. Now, I don't think that's reason to panic. Polls of a presidential election a year ahead of time have very little (no?) predictive value. For one thing, there's a year's worth of events that are going to occur, none of which can be predicted. And this coming year, those events are going to include criminal trials of one of the leading contenders. But beyond that, there's no campaigning going on. And campaigning is effective. Obviously. I mean, there's a multi-billion dollar industry built on the presumption that campaigns have an effect on voters' decisionmaking. But still--I'd probably prefer to have Biden be comfortably up on Trump in every poll.

Egypt and Pakistan (and to a somewhat lesser degree, Brazil) are major American allies that get a ton of military aid, including technical assistance with things like maintenance. It would not at all surprise me if the equipment in those countries is in significantly better shape than the stuff that stayed in Russia.

. . . and I don't think I'm alone on this. Talking this weekend with @Brisketexan and @Pescado_Rojo, I made the observation that whenever I hear about something from the '80s, my internal timeline is that "Oh, yeah--that was like 20 years ago." But then I heard this past weekend that Saturday was the 15th anniversary of the election of Barack Obama. And my reaction was, "that was only 15 years ago? It seems like it was closer to 50." And both Brisket and Fish agreed. So what the fuck is going on with us old men that we think 1983 was 20 years ago and 2008 was 40? Is it a symptom of just being old and nostalgic? Or is there something deeper about all the shit we've been through over the past 5-10 years?

“That’s one less thing to worry about.”

That's some quality secondary explosions right there.

Or more of a make-a-wish-while-holding-the-monkey's-paw kind of thing.

For good pussy? I think we all know the answer to this.

It's the handwritten "today's my birthday' that kills it.

Oh, they did.

I heard that. He said he could now go back and watch Game 6 of the 2011 Series. Said he's never seen that play since it happened. Maybe Eric can do that, but I'll never be able to. That wound is scarred over pretty good now, but I see no need ever to pick at it.

By the way, @Orale, what's the budget we're talking about here?

I really enjoyed this game, because I hate both these teams and got great satisfaction over the fact that one of them was going to lose. And at the same time, they're so irrelevant that the fact that one of them would win didn't really bother me.

Yeah--we had that experience. We were supposed to fly from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to Livingston, Zambia, on Kenya Airways. But when we got to the airport, we just waited while a very confused-looking ticket-counter agent typed on the computer. Eventually she figured out that the airline had moved the Wednesday flight from Nairobi to Livingston to Tuesday, which is to say that we had missed our connecting flight by around 24 hours. And let's just say that customer service is generally not a strength when it comes to African transportation companies. Her suggestion was to wait three days for the next flight; that seemed like a reasonable outcome to her. This is where having a good travel agent is pretty critical. We called the travel agent, who was in Cape Town, and she worked out a connection out of Nairobi to Lusaka, where we then had a six-hour layover until catching a puddle-jumper to Livingstone. By the way, the bar at the old terminal at Lusaka is great--the beers are $0.75, as I recall.

In 2021, we did five days at the Masai Mara in Kenya, four days in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, three days at Kilimanjaro, and then we flew down to Victoria Falls for four days and finished in Cape Town (which was cut short because of a covid lockdown). Let me tell you--that was a lot. Traveling from Nairobi to Cape Town is akin to New York to Los Angeles. But I have a lot of thoughts and recommendations if you want to go that route. I also did Egypt back in 2008. I'm not sure I would do it right now, with the war in Israel. But I'm not sure I wouldn't. It's not like there's every a real good time to do Egypt. I've stopped in Tunisia and Morocco on a cruise back in the mid-naughts, so my experience in those countries is pretty limited. Morocco was really cool. Tunisia has the ruins of Roman Carthage (they did a really good job of destroying Carthaginian Carthage--there's not much to see from before the Third Punic War). But I'm not sure I'd go out of my way for that unless you're just a huge Roman history buff. As to real highlights, I'd say the African selection of cities is somewhat lacking. Cairo and Cape Town are pretty great. Otherwise, . . . meh. Natural wonders--Victoria Falls was amazing. Kilimanjaro is somewhat disappointing in that the summit is typically in the clouds; but at the same time it's easy to go up. On the safari end, I'd do the Masai Mara over Serengeti. On the cultural front, if you're at a safari lodge, they'll always offer a trek over to a nearby village, which is pretty interesting. So anyway--I'm happy to answer any questions you have as you get to a more refined thought on an itinerary. Also, I would strongly recommend a travel agent. Africa is the only place I'd use a travel agent, but I think there it's almost essential. I have a good recommendation if you get down to needing one.

As Nadel referenced, I do feel like I’m dreaming. I spent more summer evenings in Arlington than I can recount. From the time we moved to Dallas in 1986 until my dad died four years ago, he had season tickets. He would’ve really enjoyed this night.

Right back at you, Sausage King!