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flatdawgs

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Posts posted by flatdawgs

  1. 29 minutes ago, locodos said:

    Don't know if it's true, but a friend of mine has a Hungarian fiancé (who has been in the US for 20+ yrs as a student and then researcher).  Her parents are still in Hungry and according to my friend there is no love lost between the Hungarians and Ukrainians.  Border disputes and old timey bad blood.  When the war started he had asked her parents about the conflict and their response was along the lines of "I hope the Russians and Ukrainians kill each other off"  Not what he expected.

    This is true, and true throughout the entire region (@956 Worldwide would be much better informed than I am). Just between 1918 and 1945 borders throughout Eastern Europe moved substantially, sometimes hundreds of kilometers, and nearly all Central and Eastern European countries have some form of irredentist movement and/or dormant (or not so dormant) land claims - often with several of their neighbors. While Hungary and Ukraine do have this issue, the one between Hungary and Romania is worse.

    All that said, Poland probably has the greatest issue with Ukraine in this regard - the entire nation of Poland was moved west a couple of hundred kilometers in 1945; nearly all of western Ukraine was Polish prior to that date - and yet Poland is one of Ukraine's staunchest allies. What Russia did in that part of the world for centuries is far more important in most countries' minds than these land issues.

    Hungary, on the other hand, is just being a dick.

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  2. Hungary has historically had the unerring ability to choose the wrong side in any major conflict. Clearly this hasn't changed.

    It's still a little shocking to me that the lessons of 1956 have already been forgotten there (save, perhaps, for the unfortunate lesson that the West abandoned them to their fate). Wanting a Russia with clearly imperial tendencies, same as then, to crawl back in bed with them after 50 years of previous abuse seems, um, unwise.

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  3. Very, very happy to be the final conference champion and have eternal conference scoreboard on every single team except UCLA (damn you, @Sbbruin!)

    But this is a bittersweet moment too, because this conference was a hell of a lot of fun. Goofy, crazy, siblings beating the hell out of each other, best road trips of any conference, some fun rivalries and the unfortunate habit of eating our own nearly every season. I loved it, knew all the conference teams and their fans (normally great with a couple of exceptions), went to games at every other school. It was ours, way out here on the West Coast/Best Coast, and although the fan bases were smaller than elsewhere, they loved the game, the rivalries, and the pageantry no less than anyone else. It filled my fall Saturdays for many years. I will miss it every season going forward.

    The conference only had one blueblood; perhaps that was part of its eventual demise. Tonight's UW win broke a tie for conference titles with UCLA - but still far behind USC. Now the enshittification of CFB brings my team to a conference we are very familiar with but that we will never fully be a part of. I will miss the Arizonas and Utahs and Oregon States and Cals. College football in this part of the country will never be the same. RIP, Pac-12. You'll be missed.

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  4. 21 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

    A little over an hour ago in the far flung reaches of the Pacific, 80 years have now passed since the Marines declared the Tarawa Atoll securely in American hands and thus ending major hostilities in the Battle of Tarawa. It was the first time a major amphibious assault had taken place and the Marines paid dearly for that square mile of land with an airstrip on Betio. 
     

    This was part of the learning curve for American war planners where all the best laid plans can go sideways once the battle starts. I don’t need to go into all the details of why since it should be all pretty well known by most everyone here. The carnage and death to get that atoll paid huge dividends in how future amphibious assaults were conducted like D-Day in Normandy seven months later. From this we had UDT put together to blast out paths on future barrier reefs so the soldiers had clear lanes to get through to the beaches on the island hopping campaign. A whole lots of really brave young men never got to fulfill their dreams because of those 76 hours. Eddie Albert was there on the beaches getting wounded Marines back to the ships. I think he was quoted many times about that battle being the seminal moment of his life. He was more proud to be able to serve his country than any acting job he ever had.
     

    I want to visit Tarawa one day. I am sure others here probably do as well. 

    Tarawa and Peleliu are the two battles that really struck me when as a kid I started getting into history and the war, particularly in the Pacific. Many years later, when I moved into my first house, I discovered that the elderly man across the street had been a radio operator on the Essex, and he told me harrowing stories of being patched into the Marine tankers' radios ashore on Betio and listening to the battle live.

    Betio today is one of the most densely populated places on Earth - the atoll is nearly completely covered with buildings - and, while standing on the beaches looking out at the infamous reefs is certainly moving, you'll likely be quite disappointed in the rest of it. Peleliu is much closer to what it was back then, and Palau in general is a lovely place. 

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  5. 5 hours ago, miguelito said:

    Awesome videos.  I've been at games like that - last second FG attempt - and the first people to react are the ones behind the end zone with the best view if the kick is off line.  Then the joy spreads around the bend as the refs signal the call.  Goosebumps. 

    Our seats are at the other end of the stadium (he was kicking directly into the student section) - I immediately lost the ball in the crowd when it was kicked and watched the students' reaction to see what had happened. Unreal. The videos capture the complete change from deafeningly loud to almost dead silence - then an explosion.

    UW's last kicker barely missed a similar kick to win the game in Eugene a few years ago as a freshman; we Iost in OT. He redeemed himself last year in Eugene as a senior with the game winning kick. Not that I want the UO guy to do that to us, just that these things are possible.

    Epic game, and if we make the CCG I hope the Ducks aren't there. That is a solid, tough team.

    Finally, following the game we walked through campus and it was great to see the students really into it again. It reminded me of my days there and I'm sure there was a hell of a lot of fun being had last night. I love CFB.

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  6. Interesting topic. Out here in the PNW we would use "Texas" and everyone would know what it meant (in context of course). So: "Did you see the Texas - Texas A&M game? They've gotta fire Jimbo after that shitshow." (As college football fans, "A&M" would also get that point across; with our group "aggy" is understood.)

    Washington is nearly always "UDub." More formally, Washington works; on CVs, etc. "University of Washington". For other system schools it's UDub-Tacoma, etc.  WSU is Wazzu. (One of their former presidents tried to put a stop to that, saying it wasn't dignified; one of the few things to bring Huskies and Cougs together was laughing him out of the state.) UC-Berkeley is Cal. I don't know what the grads there use, but here Arizona is usually "Zona", sometimes UA.

    The old Big-8 was messed up. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me CU, NU, MU, KU, OU.

    Also interesting was the comment on Wisconsin - I've always just said "Wisconsin" but with a system that size, UW-Madison makes sense.

    I suppose most places other than P12 or B12 country, OSU = Ohio State; here OSU means Oregon State and the others are "Ohio State" and "Oklahoma State". I'd imagine it works the same way down there for OSU = Oklahoma State. 

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  7. 10 hours ago, wood said:

    I think the Euros have been saying it's a 6am start for them. I forgot Vegas is Pacific time, so 7pm is actually 3am in Europe and 10pm is actually 6am in Europe. They don't love the 6am start but they're notoriously spoiled about start times. They do generally like it better than very late at night though.

    10pm Pacific = 6am UK, Ireland, Portugal; 7am nearly all the rest of Europe, 8am far eastern Europe, South Africa.

    (source: me, about an hour from Portimão)

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