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Ghost of LL

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Ghost of LL

  1. 1 hour ago, VonZipper said:

    Well it looks like we're spending about three days in Edinburgh.  We do like to hike and plan to visit some of the distilleries, at trip to the highlands is a definite possibility.  We're not big museum fans and would rather see some of the landscape.  We'll make our way to Aberdeen for a couple of days and then back to Glasgow for three more days before heading back to LHR.  We're certainly not the Ritz type, but the Mrs is not interested in sharing her bathroom sink with a stranger. Damnit, the monster was definitely on our radar.

    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.

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  2. 4 hours ago, VonZipper said:

    The Mrs and I are headed to London for a couple of weeks in June.  The first week is scheduled as my wife is singing a concert in Cambridge and that part of the trip is already scheduled, all the activities and lodging and such.  The second week we plan to spend in Scotland and most of that time is our time with nothing scheduled at this point.  We plan to purchase a Britrail pass and travel from Cambridge to Edinburgh.  I'm just looking for any insight or information we might need for this part of our trip.  Neither of us have traveled to the UK, so we're trying to get our bearings.  TIA

    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?

  3. Just now, Rockethorn1978 said:

    I swear Quinn is so slow to look for anyone and has zero pocket awareness 

    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.

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  4. 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

    More Bavaria:

    Yeah, we went to Neuschwanstein. And I would definitely recommend going this time of year, because holy shit, in the summer it most be a MADHOUSE.
    And the climb up is not a cakewalk. About a half hour steady uphill, then you climb the whole damned castle.
    So, let’s talk about King Ludwig. Dude was clearly queerer than a football bat (NTTAWWT….in fact, his life would have been much happier if he was just able to have sexy time with Wagner all the time).
    Ludwig was, as the kids say, quite “EXTRA.” Definitely not “basic.” Imagine how a gay Bavarian king would design and decorate everything, and you’ve got him figured out.
    We got lucky, had a mostly sunny day, really highlighted the local beauty. And while we’re glad to have seen Bavaria and it is indeed pretty, we didn’t feel any deep connection or anything like that (we’ve got literally zero German blood). It’s deep rural, conservative Germany. Culturally…no thanks. Give us libertine Berlin.

    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.

  5. 15 hours ago, Herbie Hancock said:

    I’m curious how much water it is that you think it takes to put out a single structure fire.

     

    As for the bolded, that’s a pretty strong assumption. Is there an ISO study or a fire suppression official that has come out and stated that is what they will do or have to do?

    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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 2 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

    That's interesting. I always thought it was like Baylor in that respect.

    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.

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  9. 20 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Well, the UMC has changed that policy since.  And notwithstanding that, the UMC is far left of the aforementioned axis of evil.  And there are other reasons for seeking the "divorce."

    And, we both know damn well that the power that be at SMU are bidness types that are right-leaning.  But more in the intelligently right-leaning, to the extent that exists anymore.

    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.

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  10. 11 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Interdasting. This may indicate that he's not exactly happy about being shoved to the right by the BOR.

    Assuredly, SMU's governance is right-leaning, but probably not completely in the thrall of Abbott-Paxton-Dunn-Wilks axis of evil.

    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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  11. 29 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

    We did Europecar in Italy. Everything was great in country and with the car. However, we turned in the car before the office opened to catch an early flight. There were some dings on the front bumper that were there when we picked up the car. Neither we, nor the agent worried about them because we bought the full coverage. A month or so later we got a charge on our card for the damage. I contacted customer service and they sent an email that said I wasn't responsible and we'd be refunded. That never happened. Got Citicard involved and they resolved it and reversed the charge. I wouldn't use them again because of that, but I've heard others really like them. 

    I used Europcar in Rome, but it was kind of on accident.

    I had reserved a car at Sixt (which is basically Budget) at Termini for 8:00 AM.  We got a slow start that morning and didn't get over there until around 10:00.  In the United States, no big deal.  Apparently in Italy, it's a big deal.  They had given my car away.

    So we went over to Europcar and got what they had left, which was a Fiat Panda.  Do you think "Panda" is what you really want to name a car?  I mean, it's not the quickest or most agile of creatures.  But in its case, it was perfectly suited for the car--that was the most underpowered piece of shit I've ever driven.  

     

     

    Anyway, on a separate topic--I am in Tyrol for a week this summer.  @texasdago, should I hop over to Bolzano for a day?  And if so, what should I see/eat/drink while there?

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  12. 1 minute ago, Captainant said:

    He's the incoming head of a brand new government agency that's a pet project of the incoming administration. Technically or not, he's trading on Trump's political name and capital

    It's not a government agency unless/until Congress makes it one and provides funding.  And I don't think anyone has proposed legislation to make it an agency.  As it is envisioned right now, it is going to be a presidential commission, which is not exactly part of the federal government.

    But honestly--who gives a fuck.

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  13. 20 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

    Does AA have the in-flight TV and wi-fi like Delta does?  Flying American home from NOLA in early February in the middle of an ISU game.  Flew Delta home from AZ this past Saturday and was able to watch the entire ISU/Baylor game on the plane.

    Yes.  AA prices its wifi on a per-hour and on an entire-flight basis.  I think it's $9.99 per hour, or you can get it for the entire flight for something like $14.99.  But you also get movies and some television series free along with limited live television.  You get the networks, ESPN & ESPN2, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and some other shit like HGTV or whatever that Mrs.LL would probably watch.

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  14. 4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


    That’s a very fair fucking point. An incoming MEMBER OF THE FUCKING PRESIDENTIAL administration just called for deposing the government of our closest ally.
    Call in the ambassador. Absent a formal apology from the offending official, decline to have any representative at the inauguration. Fuck this country. If we insist on acting like a child, the world should treat us like one.

    I don't think he's technically a member of the incoming administration.

    But whatever.

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  15. I just flipped past this game and I see the Titans in Oilers gear.  I’m a guy who fucking hates all Houston teams, and even I think that’s shitty. Fuck Tennessee—I hope you lose like 100-0. Or maybe I hope you win and get a mid draft pick. Whatever—fuck Tennessee.

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  16. 14 hours ago, Iceman said:

    Michael Irvin is revered for his on-field production, leadership, and work-ethic. He was mouthy as fuck.

    Off the field he was worse that Skattebo has remotely approached, at least what we know today,  That's just one example.  His name is on the facade at AT&T Stadium in the Ring of Honor.

    And Randy Fucking Moss is the best WR in the history of the game, not named Jerry Rice.  he makes his living today talking to the public, so what the fuck is your point?  That Skattebo is white?  Who fucking cares?

    And look at who you just compared Skattebo to. You completely make my point.

    Skattebo isn’t nearly as good as Irvin or Moss. He’s not. But he gets away shit that Irvin and Moss got away with only because they were HOFers.

    Cam Skattebo can be a shit-talking thin-skinned primadonna, and it’s fine because he’s a pretty good college back.  For a black player to get away with that amount of shit-talking primadonna behavior, he needs to be on a level with Michael Irvin and Randy Moss.

     

    And again—I’m not blaming Skattebo for any of that. I don’t think ill of him for what other people think. 

    But I’m telling you from personal knowledge that that’s what is behind at least some of the hostility you see online towards him.

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