Sportsball Cliches for 200, Alex....

[captainsblog]

With the country still in pandemic panic and the stands here completely empty, I feel more like Charlie Brown than Jim Brown-



- but the Bills won on Sunday, which is nice. Even nicer was seeing this lovely new name on an online scoreboard:



Best of all, the Deadskins overcame that early deficit and scored one of the biggest upsets of Week One, giving their non-racist identity a perfect lifetime record!

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Weird shopping experiences of the past few days:

- Ran into this sight in the Alberta Drive Wegmans parking lot, giving new meaning to "wet cleanup in Aisle 3"-



There is no Danny, only Zuul.

Once inside, I went in search of some red peppers. Fortunately, there's a helpful chart up in produce to navigate the heat range; we changed it a bit:



Then, yesterday I needed a few things that Danny is known to be out of, so I ventured into the land of cheap plastic crap and permanent vertical smiles at the cash registers, aka the Amherst Walmart:



I’ve got to give them credit. They certainly captured how I feel about having to set foot in this dump.

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Then there are the usual problems with Ye Olde Technology around here.  I got this message trying to save a file over the weekend:



That would be funny, seeing how I haven't used a floppy drive on a regular basis in over 20 years, but making it less funny is that my most expensive and necessary pieces of software still prompts for backup and restore to floppy drives as the default location. At least it offers other more modern options.  Worse, though, is that their court connectivity functions, which I am being asked to pay (as of the end of next month) $900 a year to maintain access to, are still directed through Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Not their replacement browser Edge, which is bad enough, but the one that's been buried in Bill Gates's back shelf for at least five years, and for which all bug and security support will be ending- in phases beginning at the end of November.

"How much not to upgrade?" "You couldn't afford it."

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School's back in- sort of.  Kids on our side of the school district line go two days a week,  but the adjacent Williamsville schools have been a clusterfuck of COVID- first arranging for a similar mix of in-school and remote, then canceled the remote component at 5 p.m. on the Friday before school was supposed to start, then suspended the superintendent who pulled that off, next reversed course and switched all older kids to online only, and finally decided not to hire 20 extra teachers, after many of them had given their notice in other districts.

This kind of stupid is going to lead to all kinds of future problems to be found on Common Core exams: Johnny goes three days a week remote, two online, no wait all remote, when he is hit by a train going 100 miles an hour leaving from Chicago. Draw a grid to explain how to solve this problem. Show your work.

But the stupid is not limited to K-12. A friend was grading college papers, and came across a reference to the student's grandmother's advice: that you should always take things with “a grain assault.” I don’t know; there is a shortage on rye grain, so you never know what might break out in the baking product aisle.

But the story did bring back one of my favorite memories from early college. One of my freshman hall mates was named Dave, and he was brought into Cornell to play football. Within days, he had acquired his permanent nickname of “Link.” As in the missing one. He actually grew up around here, and told us about how much he loved his summer job working as a bouncer at a bar called Melanie's. “Legalized violence,“ he called it. So naturally Dave decided to go into social work.

Anyway, the point. He came home from class one day and reported that a fellow social work student had been reprimanded for some of their work. Specifically, it was called “inept.“ “Boy,” Dave said, “I’d be really upset if someone called ME an ept.”

It’s been over 40 years, I’ve completely lost touch, my wife has never even met him, but we use that line all the time.  And, thanks to the miracle of Google, I've found a link to the Link: he's a school administrator on the road I always travel between Binghamton and New York. 

I bet even he's doing a better job organizing his classes than they are around here.

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No new music to report, although I have made a reservation for a fundraiser next week at Sportsmens. It's a local bar that has hosted any number of friends and even more famous musicians I've seen there, from Kinky Friedman to the Flying Burrito Brothers. They've hosted fundraisers for other worthy causes, and now are in need of one themselves: 



If you've ever been to the Sportsmens Tavern, you've probably talked to this guy. And if you've talked to this guy, you know what a decent, helpful, straight shooter he is. I asked him a question a few weeks ago. Since profit margins in the bar and restaurant business can be slim under normal circumstances, I was wondering how in the world they were able to make a go of it with their capacity cut by two thirds right now. He took his glasses off, looked me straight in the eye, and said "we're not making a dime."

I am hosting a fundraiser at the club on Wednesday, September 23. Joe Bellanti, Jim Celeste and Ed Croft are co-hosting this event with me. Sue Kincaid will be our co-co-host. There is a suggested donation of $20/person , with 100% of proceeds going to the family that runs the club (although you should feel free to give as much as you like).

Wednesday, September 23, 7-10pm at Sportsmen's Tavern.

Call 716-874-7734 for reservations.

CAN'T MAKE IT? WANT TO HELP?

PayPal: paypal.me/daveruch
Venmo: @Dave-Ruch-2

I hope to be joined by other friends who have played there, or at least enjoyed the music there.

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One final entertainment recommendation: Avocado Toast, a Canadian series we binged over two nights on Amazon Prime Video. Each of its ten episodes is only around 10-15 minutes; the two female leads are awesome, and they, along with the rest of the cast members, were unknown to us- with one exception Eleanor immediately noticed:



That, on Elle's left, is Kristian Bruun, who we best know as the fabulous Donnie from Orphan Black but who has also popped up in many other Toronto-based shows from 11.22.63 to Handmaid's Tale.  The rest of the unknowns-to-us are also excellent, and the storyline goes from hugely funny to deeply sad in seconds.  The final episode ends on a cliffhanger, but Season 2 is apparently in the works.

And not a single mention of sportsing, unless you count ice fishing;)

Comments

[warriorsavant]

Will be posting about computer hassles soon.