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GhostOfTomJoad

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by GhostOfTomJoad

  1. It's out and an excellent read. The author does a fantastic job detailing the history of Great Lakes shipping & what made it so dangerous. The Big Fitz was THE freighter, and her exploits were legendary. As the book details, it's almost never one singular event that causes a ship to founder. It's a series of dominoes that get out of control in a hurry. In the end, the "how" will never be known. But the greatest legacy is that there hasn't been a commercial vessel sinking on the Great Lakes since. I was almost 6 when she went down & living in Newport, a port town on the Mississippi just outside of Saint Paul. My grandmother was from Eveleth, MN, and most of her brothers spent their lives working in the mines or supporting the industry of the Mesabi Range. None were sailors. They were more fearful of the storms on Superior than the earth caving in on them. I distinctly remember listening to the reports on the AM radio that day. It was the only thing the adults talked about over the coming days. The pastor at our Lutheran church led a very somber service the following Sunday. We all sang Amazing Grace. Lots of tough, blue collar men who worked in the local steel mill, stockyards, ports & train depot were misty eyed that day. The sinking of the Mighty Fitz was a transformative moment in my life.
  2. So Mackenzie must think she's gonna get on that sweet grift by publishing a book & expecting the Texas GQP to buy up a half million copies to hand out at rallies. Does a single-term city councilmember's story really resonate? I mean, it will be a puff piece of fiction where she claims to be a survivor of unspecified trauma from her first marriage, got her calcium lump by heroically saving a volunteer firefigher's life in a made up incident, overcame obstacles that only a white, single mom (w/o custody) in liberal Austin could endure, then triumphantly ran an underdog campaign on her way to glory. The book signing party should be epic. I plan on bringing my own Sharpies and ask her to autograph a Cam Girl Faith poster.
  3. Looking like OT in Berlin.
  4. Unbelievable catch.
  5. Ummm, what? Please share the medical reports detailing how CTE can only be obtained by playing in Power 4 conferences or the NFL.
  6. If you're referring to the Warren Zanes biography on TP, it is excellent. Campbell's is better, given to the first person accounting of the events. Another key part about the whole Boys of Summer incident, Campbell had pulled up to TP's house one morning expecting to have their usual recording work session. Tom was loading his guitar and bass into his car. Campbell asked where he was going and Tom kinda sheepishly told him he was off to do a session w/ Dave Stewart. Campbell deftly explains his passive aggressive response to Tom sneaking off behind the rest of the band's back to record with someone else. Tom kept EXTREMELY tight control over what members of the band could do--particularly Benmont and Stan--so the hypocrisy wasn't lost on Mike. All in all, Tom being too disconnected (or coked up; they were all heavy into their drug days) to hear the potential of Boys was probably the best for everyone. Henley wrote an all timer. Campbell knew he could write great songs for other people. And Tom would have to come to the terms with the fact that as much as he liked to control tense band situations by asserting simply "I'm Tom Petty," Mike Campbell was indeed Mike Fuckin' Campbell.
  7. Just found out the BIL has decided to treat us,his 2 adult kids, and the MIL to a Christmas concert at the Cedar Park Center by someone I've never heard of (Lindsey Stirling). It's something called choreographed violin music. It's a Thursday night show, but we're gonna play hosts earlier in the day while people come in from out of town. Which means I'm gonna burn a couple of days of vacation (while still working, aka Fake-cation) to be given the gift of going to a concert I wouldn't walk across the street to hear.
  8. On my kindle right now due to this recommendation. It's a fantastic read. Just finished the chapter where Mike & Marcie almost lost their house to foreclosure because Tom & the team were heavy into the booger sugar & the Southern Accents sessions were going nowhere. Petty dismissed one of Mike's songs as "too jazzy." Weeks later Don Henley makes it one of the biggest songs of his or anyone else's careers. Mike gets to keep his house. And Tom broke his hand punching a wall because he let that 'jazzy' song--The Boys of Summer--get away.
  9. Get a life. Hug your friends. Breathe. Life ain't that bad.
  10. Motto worthy right there.
  11. As a childless adult with no travel commitments, I'm just here to support those in the coming weeks. Those who drop a couple grand on airfare. Hoping the wearher/TSA/random fuckery doesn't impact their travel. I witnessed a kid meltdown at Costco this morning when their mom didn't buy the huge Lego display.
  12. It's November 1st. Thanksgiving is 26 days away. Christmas is 53. Are y'all ready to get yer holiday cheer? Alright den, let's get our roll on! The Longhorns are meh. AI slop is everywhere. You might need to take out a personal loan if you're planning on serving prime rib for the big feast. This is where we share the pain in hopes of surviving the insanity. Bring it, people.
  13. REAL men don't get breast cancer, you stupid libtard. Yet another policy decision brought to you by DOGE using AI and Stephen Miller being a walking scrotum.
  14. Yep. And especially problematic when it's forced into an R&D environment. Try to force brilliant lab guys to make concepts fit into C&E matrices.
  15. Fuck Jack Welch and the "leaders" he spread like a cancer across the globe in the aughts. When one of his lackeys took over my former company Six Sigma became mandatory for everyone. It was really just a way to reduce headcount by putting the "right" people on the black belt path, but everyone had to complete green belt training & sit on at least 3 project charters that closed within 12 months or you'd be ranked low & job eliminated. Paranoid yes men were launching charters left & right to show how much they'd "embraced our new culture" which was bullshit because the company already had a century's worth of process improvement baked into its DNA. The black belts & master black belts would search out the high achievers & fight over the high profile charters that looked awesome on PowerPoint, but the yield was rarely more than 15% of what was advertised due to the bullshit math & fake numbers they were pushing. I had a colleague who ended up on a two month long project charter that amounted to eight people 5S'ing a reception area desk because their boss was in danger of not closing the minimum number of charters that year. [emoji2959]
  16. Just wandering off in a daze, randomly saluting Japanese soldiers, and having to be coralled by PM Takaichi. But the way he attacked those two whole steps to climb up on the dais...he's the most fit POTUS ever!!!
  17. thread police/ This should just be a Christmas thread. November 1st is when someone posts the "Official Bitch About Your Families at the Holidays, 202x" edition.
  18. Duh. The stated $250mm price tag --which is already ridiculously overpriced--will easily balloon by 50% at least. With all of those overruns going directly into the projects of Trump Co.
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