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Ghost of LL

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. That Friday loss is all the more disappointing ow seeing what we did the rest of the weekend. But oh well—I guess I can’t be too pissed about a series win.
  2. Watching Dylan Disu shoot makes me sad in my emotions.
  3. So the Kate Truthers were right? Holy shit--you know what this means, right? It means their other conspiracy theories are right. Fuck--the Reptilians' secret base really is underneath Denver International Airport.
  4. I agree with HH at Duke's. The location with the view straight down Waikiki Beach with Diamond Head in the background is pretty iconic irrespective of anything else. But yeah--the drinks and calamari are both good. Elsewhere on Waikiki Beach, I'd recommend Furusato Sushi. It's a pretty nondescript location with just a handful of tables and like six seats at the sushi bar. But the sushi is fantastic. And the price is shockingly reasonable given the location.
  5. Oh, shit--don't ask me to go research the finer points of British nationality law. My memory is very vague on this, because it comes from a neighbor whose mother fell into this category. So my recitation on the details may be wildly wrong,. But yeah--there are still some people who are British subjects who are not British citizens. But I think it's limited to people who were from British India before independence. So my neighbor's mother weirdly held a British passport, but could not live in the UK.
  6. They've changed that. People of British nationality became "citizens" rather than "subjects" in 1949 (with some strange gaps that were largely resolved in 1983 relating to the Commonwealth and Overseas Territories). The Royal Family are all citizens, with the exception of the Sovereign, who is just the sovereign.
  7. Oh, shit--I completely missed that the Alaska cruise was over the summer. For some reason, I inferred that it was in the next couple weeks. If it's over the summer, then you ought to check out when the salmon are running. Ketchikan sucks generally, but there are plenty of good spots for salmon fishing around there. Both out of Ketchikan and out of Juneau you could charter three or four boats (that would be enough for a group your size) and spend a half-day out fishing. And the good/bad thing is that a day of salmon fishing can often turn into a few hours of orca watching (which sucks for catching salmon, because the fish aren't going to hit when they're running like hell from the orcas). And those orcas have absolutely no fear of a small fishing boat, but they're really very curious. You'll get really close to those bastards. The last time I was up there we went out with Chris Condor on Rum Runner and had a ridiculously good day--we caught so many we had Fish & Game waiting on the dock for us to make sure we didn't exceed our limit and check where they were all caught. But check in with any of those boats, and they'll round up a whole fleet for your group. If the salmon aren't running, then I'd definitely second whale watching out of Juneau (or Ketchikan, though I'm generally less familiar with Ketchikan). The same boats that run salmon fishing will also do whale watching tours, so you can talk with them about either.
  8. For a group that size, you are probably best served taking the cruises shore excursion list, seeing what everyone can agree on, and then running a Google search to set up your own private tours. The salmon aren't running right now, so that removes salmon fishing from the itinerary. So in Juneau, I might just rent a couple large vans and go out to the Mindenhall Glacier, where there are a few manageable hikes. There are also a few outfits that will take you out on kayaks on the glacier-fed lake, which should have plenty of icebergs this time of year. In Sitka, I think you can just take a walking tour of the town on your own with a little bit of Google research on what to see. In Skagway, that's where you can schedule yourself your helicopter rides over Glacier National Park.
  9. Yep--his blood is still on the fucking ice pick. They've got a few other murder weapons in there, including the umbrella used to kill Markov. But the ice pick is the showpiece of the collection.
  10. 1) Yeah--that entire justification for moving HQ was lipstick on the pig of seeking tax breaks. I'm not saying there's no lipstick there. There definitely is. But let's be real honest: it's not very attractive to local and state politicians (or their constituents) to say "we're considering moving to your town solely because you're giving us the biggest tax breaks." I mean, it's true. But you've got to dress that shit up some. 2) Keeping the 737 certification on the Max was all about Southwest's costs. Not Boeing's costs. Oliver indicates that it was due to the latter, when the reality is that it was due more primarily to the former. No. Boeing needed an update to compete with the NEO. But as to whether to build a new model or update the 737, that was a decision made entirely to appease Southwest. If Southwest would've signed on to being the launch customer for a 7X7 successor to the 737, Boeing would've gone that route irrespective of the timing. But it didn't. Southwest made clear that there would be a competition between the 7X7 and the A320, and Boeing didn't want that.
  11. So I'm just back from DC over Spring Break, because I suppose that as a citizen of the Republic it was required that I take my children to see the monuments and everything at least once. So just a few quick hits. Hotel: We looked at a variety of properties, but we ended up at the Mayflower for two reasons. First, the location is great, with the Farragut North Metro stop at the end of the block (and the Farragut West stop a block away). Second, we were able to get a two-room suite for a pretty decent rate. Not a lot of newer properties have two-bedroom suites anymore, but that's kind of a nice feature when you are traveling with the family. That being said, it's an old property that is maybe in need of a renovation. I mean, it's not that anything is bad. it's just that the furnishings and the bathroom seem a bit antiquated. But look--you're staying in a 100-year old hotel; maybe that's part of its deal. Restaurants: I'm going to tell you--the second happy hour at Old Ebbitt Grill from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM is hard to beat. Champagne, martinis, and oysters are all deeply discounted, and the people watching is pretty unparalleled. For Spanish, Taberna del Alabardero was really very good. I think the mains are maybe a bit pricey--a $75 roast suckling pig was great, but . . . it's still just pork. Perhaps the best plan would be to go there for tapas and then hit up OEG for late-night happy hour oysters. Out in Georgetown, we really liked the Sovereign for both drinks and Sunday brunch. That's a pretty cool place. Museums: The Udvar-Hazy Air & Space annex out at Dulles is really worth the trip. Goddamn, it's a pain in the ass to get out there. But it is really super-cool. It's really remarkable how many one-of-a-kind airplanes they have there. Otherwise, the Postal Museum right next to Union Station is worth an hour or two of your time. I'm not big into postage stamps and stuff, but they have some cool things, including a letter sent from the Titanic (offloaded at Cherbourg), a letter postmarked from the Moon, and a letter sent by an inmate at Auschwitz. Oh, and an actual British stamp issued under the 1765 Stamp Act that preceded the Revolutionary War. The International Spy Museum was a bit controversial. Mrs.LL and the kids loved it. I found it just so-so. It was a bit short on actual artefacts. Though it did have the ice pick Mercador used to kill Trotsky. So actually, . . . that was pretty fucking cool. But unlike other museums in town, it's not free. And at $30/head, I was a bit underwhelmed. It helped that we got free admission for two of us with the suite through the hotel.
  12. I'm typically a fan of John Oliver's, but there are a number of points in here that are just plain wrong or are really overexaggerated. To identify a few: 1) McDonnell Douglas wasn't a "deathtrap manufacturer." It's fair to say that the DC-10-10 had some real problems. But that was 25 years before the Boeing merger. The more recent models produced by McDonnell Douglas were both very safe and commercially successful. The MD-11, which was a revision to the DC-10, is kind of a wonky bird that requires some careful handling on takeoff and landing, but it's perfectly safe and has had relatively few incidents relative to its flight hours. And the MD-80 family was a great plane. In a lot of ways, I'd argue it was superior to the 737. 2) The HQ move wasn't aimed at getting away from the engineers; it was all about getting a tax break. Boeing basically put its headquarters out to bid, with the finalists being Chicago and Dallas. The primary determiner was which city/state was going to give it the most tax breaks. I'm not going to argue that getting away from the engineers wasn't a side benefit (from the b-school boys' perspective). But it wasn't the chief motivator. 3) It's just wrong to say that keeping the 737 certification on the new model was about costs. As I pointed out in a post some weeks ago, it was primarily about satisfying customers (chiefly, Southwest Airlines). Absolutely none of which is to say that there isn't a major culture problem at Boeing. But it is to say that when you get this many details wrong, it's hard for me not to find your conclusions to be suspect.
  13. No. What I'm saying is . . . Finkel is Einhorn . . . Einhorn is Finkel . . . Nicole is A MAN!
  14. So last night I learned from a friend that all of the victims were gay men. At least that's the story that is circulating in the Austin gay community. No idea whether that is the case. But if it is true, then I'm definitely off Team Accidental Drowning and looking to sign a long-term deal with Team Serial Killer.
  15. I don't know. On a scale of "I'm Totally Chill" to "Brisket-level hysteria," how much of an angsty teenage bitch are you acting like? If you're totally chill, then voting is probably enough. But if you're being an hysterical bitch like Brisket, then I'm going to suggest that you ought to channel your energy in a positive direction by working for a campaign, raising money, or severing the brakes on the cars of MAGA voters. Joking on that last one. Or maybe not. I'll let you decide.
  16. Ok. But let me just say for a minute that I didn't like how Hilary dealt with her emails. Anyone who has spent any time in public service understand that those documents belong to the government and are public information. And I don't like how Biden handled some of the material in his custody. That was just flat negligent. But elections are binary choices. And in that binary choice, there is no equivalency.
  17. But Buttigeig isn't in the field because Biden is sufficiently strong that he cleared the field of any challengers. George H.W. Bush wasn't weak because Pat Buchanan got 35% in New Hampshire in 1992. The fact that Pat Buchanan was in the race to begin with reflected Bush's underlying weakness. And it's a weakness that Trump shares but Biden does not. Democrats need to stop this fucking pity party. It's self-defeating. It's just going to cause people who would vote for Biden to stay home out of a sense of malaise and hopelessness. And the true fact is that Biden has huge built-in advantages and should win this election pretty easily. So stop feeling sorry for yourselves like a bunch of angsty teenage bitches and get ready for a fight. Because your fucking country depends on it.
  18. Yep--that is a nice fairy tale the oppressed tell themselves at night to make themselves feel better about their condition. But it's a lie. There isn't a moral-universe arc. There's just power and force and what you can do with it. The GQP gets that.
  19. I had a similar conversation with my son this morning, but probably for different reasons. It is damned near guaranteed that the 89th Legislature will get rid of tenure at state universities. And so I explained to him what that's going to mean for the quality of his education and the value of his degree, and he was like "oh, shit." And then he asked, "but our football team will still be good, right?" Yeah, son--because we're now basically Oklahoma.
  20. Ha--yeah, she's definitely not doing any sports. She's an arts kid. And look--nothing really affects her right now. When they pass vouchers, our school district will be about the last to be really impacted. When she needs contraceptives, we'll be able to get them from out of state. There's really no present reason to uproot the family because I can see what's coming (but not here yet). And I'd pay to go see that band.
  21. My friend, Mrs.LL and I will be joining you in NYC in just a few years. I have to get the youngest out of the house and safely into college (she's in 7th Grade now). But once that's done, I can get the fuck out of this shithole and never fucking look back. And by the way, I'm a 6th Generation Texan. Saying that pains me. But then I remember that one set of great-grandparents were Nth Generation Czechs; another set of ancestors were once Nth Generation English. But they all figured out at some point that they needed to leave the shithole they were in to seek their entertainment and fortunes elsewhere. And it won't take six more generations for my descendants to wonder "why the fuck did our family ever live in Texas?"
  22. The neighborhood is kind of unique in that it was fully built out decades before annexation. So the roads and utilities were already built out. Austin Water would continue to do the utilities; road maintenance would be done by the MUD through a contractor (road maintenance on neighborhood streets is really pretty cheap). Police would be through the sheriff; fire through West Lake Hills (as it functionally currently is). That being said, there is only a slight break on the taxes. Properties that are disannexed would still be on the hook for debt service on debt incurred while those properties were part of the City.
  23. Google "Letters of Last Resort." It's a very British way of dealing with this issue.
  24. Real talk here for a minute—there are a bunch of sports that are suddenly going to be competitive in the Big XII next year for the first time. Imagine: Baylor or Iowa State could actually win a conference championship in swimming or volleyball. That’s wild.
  25. Oh, and ok NYT—tell me more about how women have shifted 11 points to the right post-Dobbs.
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