Ghost of LL

Oh, my god. I can’t believe this is happening!

Here we go, boys!

Nate looks like he could go three more innings. I mean, it’s WS Game 5–fuck the pitch count.

We’re just not going to make this guy throw any pitches. He could throw a CG with a pitch count below 60.

This is the first game for which I also am nervous. Against Tampa Bay, I was still so disappointed by the last week of the season that I didn't have time/didn't bother to get enthusiastic. I was exactly like the groundskeepers: "they're still shitty." I assumed they'd lose, and two games wasn't enough to really adjust that outlook. Ever since, we've just been playing with house money. If we'd have gotten bounced by Baltimore, I really would've been okay with it. I hadn't thought the team was playing well enough for a deep playoff run, and everything was just a very happy surprise. The third inning last night was really the first time I had really internalized the fact that the Rangers could win the World Series. And now, . . . fuck--it's so close, we can almost touch it. And at the same time, I remember That of Which We Shall Not Speak. I remember the pain. A win tonight would be a balm on that wound, but I don't think it'll ever heal. And being this close has me really nervous. I was a kid when we moved to Dallas in 1986. My dad bought season tickets for the first time that year. I spent my summer evenings leaving my parents' good seats behind home plate to try to catch a foul ball down the third base line, where entire sections were empty unless the Yankees were in town. And yeah--I was Gen X, so my parents didn't mind me leaving their sight for a couple hours. We had those season tickets for more than 30 years. We saw a lot of bad baseball, and some good. But we never saw a championship.

Ok--so I'm really very puzzled by this plan. You want to spend 6-8 weeks in 7-10 countries? And you think that is going to give you some sense of the continent? What you're proposing is roughly one week in each country. And actually less when you consider that each trip is going to be a full day's travel if you fly. How much insight into a country's geography, scenery, and culture do you think you're going to get in one week? I think you're underappreciating how big Africa is and how diverse it is. People get fooled by the Mercator Projection, thinking it's like Europe and you can just bounce between tiny countries easily. It's not. With eight weeks, you can see maybe one region of Africa. You could do North Africa (Morocco & Tunisia), West Africa (Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone), East Africa (Kenya & Tanzania), Lacustrine Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi), or Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia). Don't fucking go to Madagascar, man. Traveling overland is do-able from Zambia down to South Africa. Not particularly desirable, but do-able. But otherwise, it's really challenging and you're vastly better off flying. I have no experience with West Africa, but can give some thoughts elsewhere. Oh, and for the record, I think a safari in South Africa and a safari in Kenya is plenty different. But what are you interested in? Are you in for the wildlife/safari deal? In which case you want to hit up the Masai Mara in Kenya and the mountains of Uganda to see the gorillas? Or are you more interested in the cities, in which case maybe you want to do Casablanca and Cape Town? Or do you just want to see natural wonders, like Victoria Falls and the Skeleton Coast?

I will never understand why anybody who is not a network executive would ever give a fuck about the television ratings. Is there some asterisk that would go down in the record books? Like "*Had low television ratings"? No? Then I don't give a fuck.

I love Wash. I mean, I don't think he's a great in-game manager. But neither was Dusty Baker, and Dusty has a few more World Series rings than I do. So what do I know? Managers should be entertaining. Billy Martin, Lou Pinella, Sparky Anderson--they were all entertaining. Tony LaRussa was entertaining; I hated him, but he entertained me in my hatred of him. The game lacks entertaining managers these days. And Washington is always entertaining.

Yeah. The voters are really going to be unimpressed. We’ll probably drop a spot or two in next week’s polls.

So they have a deal on vouchers? This seems like it sucks.

I'm not married to anything (I mean, apart from Mrs.LL; and even that's a bit day-to-day). My thought, though, was that since the Billy Joel concert is the point of the trip, we probably want to be close by for it. And in particular, it'd be nice after the show to be able to have a short walk back to the hotel rather than waiting on a cab or having to fight the Subway with 20,000 other people. But if I've misapprehended the situation, I'm all ears on other suggestions. I mean, I know she's going to want to go to a show on another night. But other than that, I don't think we have any real plans. And I'd appreciate any suggestions on that, too. It's January, so the weather is liable to suck.

What the fuck possessed Castro to throw that pitch anywhere close to the plate. I mean, I’m glad he did. But goddamn.

There is a nice big cell that looks like it's just going to park over Fredericksburg for a little while, which will be really nice for the Perd.

Go up to the line at the top of your browser where it has the actual site address. Elon changed the name, but he has never actually changed the web address away from "twitter.com." So click on the post you want to link, then copy and paste the actual web address from your browser--i.e., the one that has a "twitter.com" address.

Yeah--I noticed that. He's always been a big guy, but it's reached worrying proportions.

This guy is going to be the gift who keeps on giving in 2024.

This is correct.

Yeah--the "we'll take it to the voters" isn't a particularly dire threat to these House members. Their constituents are with them on this. Vouchers may be real fucking popular in Euless, but nobody wants them in Matador.

It is meant to suck the oxygen. But it's also meant to undermine the next Special. Abbott has said he's going to call one more Special, after which he's done. And realistically, he'd have to be, because you're then running into election season. So the House plan is (I think) to clear the decks so that vouchers can really be the only thing on the call. The House can then pass their plan and adjourn sine die. They've run that play before, and it's actually a pretty good play.

Glad to hear it. I thought of you immediately when I heard "Lewiston" last night, so it's a relief to hear that your folks are all safe.

Oh, shit--I don't think that's terribly insightful analysis. I think it's been pretty damned clear that the House is insanely pissed at the Senate over the Paxton acquittal. And that particular hostage was always likely to be a casualty. I mean vouchers were always going to be a heavy lift in the House. But the House's anger with the Senate probably makes it completely impossible.

Oh, and by the way--we're coming close to the end of the Special, and I just don't see how they get anything done on vouchers. The Special ends November 7, and the House isn't doing shit with the Senate's voucher bill. They have their own plan, but the Senate is never going to sign off on that.

And let's be real honest--that's where it's targeted and will be enforced. Absolutely nobody is going to arrest a white guy like @bluto or me for having an illegal mow his lawn. That's not happening. We're in the class that is protected by the law, but not necessarily bound by it. This is 100% going to be enforced against Hispanic citizens who let their cousins stay over a night or give them some money to get on their feet. They're in the class that is bound by the law but not protected by it. Oh, and by the way--there's an interesting RFRA claim to come out of this. I mean, if you arrest me for meeting my Christian obligation to shelter migrants, that's a real interesting RFRA challenge.

Jesus--they're getting really good with the aiming on those things. That first one explodes right in the guy's face.

Checking in on @Bateshorn--I hope all of your Maine peeps are ok.