This aged quickly and poorly, LOL. Sorry, Horns.

I’m rooting for nine overtimes!

Also for Georgia to lose, because FUCKEM, that’s why!

A Boxing Day Story: Revenge of the Bumpas Hounds.

(Yes, I know about It Runs in the Family. It’s not bad, but it’s not the same. Haven’t seen the others.)

Being the most overrated player of his generation due to playing in NYC and the Colts thinking they could cakewalk through Super Bowl III? Definitely.

Also yes, he does look a bit hobbitty. The hair helps a lot.

The hair and the mud help too, but until I saw which comm this was in, I was hunting for random weirdness and not finding it.

I took one for the team and went to Fox News to read the user comments on the first story I could find about this. It's pretty telling that even there, the overwhelming sense I got -- in between the "Obamacare is why healthcare is so bad!" and the "where's Hunter's cocaine, Mister FBI?" and the "our so-called nation is secretly run by acolytes of a shady transnational world government" -- is that they don't understand why this is getting any more attention than any other random street crime in the big bad city.

Even MAGA doesn't care; wrong kind of billionaire, I guess.

Wordle 1,266 5/6*

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You just made an enemy for life.

Vegetius's De re militari seems to be somewhat on point, and though in a brief skim and search I couldn't find specific instruction to lean into an attack, this was interesting:

THE POST EXERCISE

We are informed by the writings of the ancients that, among their other exercises, they had that of the post. They gave their recruits round bucklers woven with willows, twice as heavy as those used on real service, and wooden swords double the weight of the common ones. They exercised them with these at the post both morning and afternoon.

This is an invention of the greatest use, not only to soldiers, but also to gladiators. No man of either profession ever distinguished himself in the circus or field of battle, who was not perfect in this kind of exercise. Every soldier, therefore, fixed a post firmly in the ground, about the height of six feet. Against this, as against a real enemy, the recruit was exercised with the above mentioned arms, as it were with the common shield and sword, sometimes aiming At the head or face, sometimes at the sides, at others endeavoring to strike at the thighs or legs. He was instructed in what manner to advance and retire, and in short how to take every advantage of his adversary; but was thus above all particularly cautioned not to lay himself open to his antagonist while aiming his stroke at him.

NOT TO CUT, BUT TO THRUST WITH THE SWORD

They were likewise taught not to cut but to thrust with their swords. For the Romans not only made a jest of those who fought with the edge of that weapon, but always found them an easy conquest. A stroke with the edges, though made with ever so much force, seldom kills, as the vital parts of the body are defended both by the bones and armor. On the contrary, a stab, though it penetrates but two inches, is generally fatal. Besides in the attitude of striking, it is impossible to avoid exposing the right arm and side; but on the other hand, the body is covered while a thrust is given, and the adversary receives the point before he sees the sword. This was the method of fighting principally used by the Romans, and their reason for exercising recruits with arms of such a weight at first was, that when they came to carry the common ones so much lighter, the greater difference might enable them to act with greater security and alacrity in time of action.

It may not be a direct reference to the book, but I would just about bet that the author didn't come up with the bon mot from scratch.

"Depose" in particular is interesting. It could certainly be a broader social comment about a perceived ruling class, but it also has a specific meaning in the context of civil litigation. I would imagine that some glib corporate attorneys have used those exact three words in sequence, in connection with UHC and others: Deny the claim, defend the lawsuit, depose the patients, where "depose" means conduct a lengthy and expensive and stressful set of questions, done outside the courtroom and with very little off limits because it's expected the judge will rule on admissibility later. All of it wears out the claimant, who clearly needed the coverage and will almost by definition lack the same resources to pursue the lawsuit.

Damn.

Bill S. Preston, Esquire is going hard.

What a sad situation. I googled around and went through some reddit threads and found my way to the final email. It was lengthy and one sided, and got off in the weeds towards the end, but the "ethics" complaints he felt it worthwhile to share were mostly centered around "lying, incompetence, hypocrisy, information hiding, etc."

They boil down to, "They are taking my meeting space to give to a new professor and they waited until the last minute to tell me and fed me some BS about it," and "the MechE department won't be recommending my course for a certain requirement any more, and they didn't tell me until long after they'd decided." There were other grievances about the university not making lasting change after George Floyd, not taking his concerns about imminent environmental collapse (or the university's role in preventing it) seriously, and a last-minute cancellation of a monorail proof of concept he wanted to do between two parking garages.

Honestly, it sounds like he was struggling and felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, and was no longer psychologically equipped to handle intense, but likely common, levels of office politics, academic fiefdoms, and baroque bureaucracy. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear his workplace saw the signs, and simply treated him as difficult but ensconced, an inconvenience to be avoided.