BSR

When the quad axel was only being talked about, long before anyone did one in competition, I thought it was just a pie-in-the-sky fantasy.  Now that I've seen Malinin nail the jump, I still can't believe it even after rewinding and rewatching it a half-dozen times.  And it's not like the other five quads are like falling off a log.  Even the last series, the triple lutz step into a triple axel, boggles my mind.  Congratulations to Ilia and family for his first world championship!

6 hours ago, Andy768 said:

I think it's possible to question the fairness of trans-women competing in sports (and possibly other arenas) against cis-women without crossing the line into ridiculing transgender people - which unfortunately I think Navratilova has done.

How did Navratilova ridicule trans people?  I'm not seeing it.

On 3/22/2024 at 7:30 PM, TonyDown said:

Chris Evert discussed Rene Richard's unfair advantage in women's tennis when Richard's transitioned M - F. You can Google it if interested.  This does seem like a sports ethics question.

One might ask why these athletes choose to compete when they have this advantage.  Perhaps the sports ethics folks can address it.

I don't know the answer.

In 1977 Renee Richards sued for and won the right to compete on the WTA Tour but has since changed her stance:  

"Having lived for the past 30 years, I know if I’d had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me. And so I’ve reconsidered my opinion.  There is one thing that a transsexual woman unfortunately cannot expect to be allowed to do, and that is to play professional sports in her chosen field. She can get married, live as woman, do all of those other things, and no one should ever be allowed to take them away from her. But this limitation—that’s just life. I know because I lived it."

9 hours ago, samhexum said:

my sister & brother-in-law are seeing Tony Orlando's farewell show tonight.

My initial reaction, can't imagine I'm alone in this, was an eye-popping "wow, he's still alive?!"

I love how this guy doesn't bother hiking his shorts back up after being exposed ...

6 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

Are they measuring all these penises or are they asking ?

That's what I was wondering.  If they're just asking, then the Stanford study is as reliable as a Grindr profile.  If they're measuring, how da heck do you get that job??

Most Filipinos are circumcised, but I couldn't give a percentage.  I assumed it was the American influence but apparently circumcision is a Filipino tradition that predates the arrival of the Spanish.

On 12/27/2023 at 7:50 PM, nate_sf said:

Really wonderful series, very poignant and moving. The last scene (I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it) brought tears to my eyes. 

I really needed that final scene after all the ugliness of Cohn & Co.  I won't spoil it either, but the ending was beautiful in its sadness.

Thanks to @MikeThomas for starting this thread.  Since I watch so little English-language TV & movies, I probably would have missed Fellow Travelers otherwise.  As tough to take as the series was at times, I really enjoyed it.

10 hours ago, Bokomaru said:

By the way in answer to what she has given away, about 20% ($400M)  of her net worth.

Like @BOZO T CLOWN, I question the $400 million total given (net worth $2.8 billion, btw).  In any case, whenever Oprah gives even a dime to charity, she makes sure the whole damn world knows it, which reaps great financial benefits for her production company in general as well as each individual project.  Plus each & every donation sparks the entire entertainment industry as well as the so-called news media into an orgy of Oprah-worship.  No matter how much the sh*t-for-brains sheep worship their Saint Oprah, I will always see her as just another Hollywood narcissist.

As for Ozempic, it's incredibly expensive, has some scary side effects, and once you go off it, you gain all the weight back.  But all Saint Oprah cares about is another fat check.

On 3/2/2024 at 3:50 PM, nycman said:

Solo. 

Less competition.

Maybe others are better at striking a balance, but when I've gone to strip clubs with a friend, I spent most of my time talking to my buddy and too little chatting up the talent.  If I want to hang out with friends, I go to a regular bar.  If I want to "play" with strippers, I go to a strip club by myself.

My only other advice is to measure your alcohol intake.  The fastest way to empty your wallet, no matter how much cash you bring, is to get too tipsy.  At least that's what a friend told me *guiltylook*

Does Borna Coric intentionally buy shorts one size too small?  Not that I'm complaining, of course.

Interesting ... an Australian news outlet did a comparison of an electric vs. ICE BMW 7-series, the cost of driving Melbourne to Sydney, and it cost more in the electric, not to mention the trip took longer because of time to recharge.  They concluded that electric is cheaper if you're charging up at home and just driving locally, but more expensive for road trips that require recharging at public charging spots.

Marcos Giron in his Wimbledon whites ...

Every once in a great while, I buy a box of Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter which I have for dessert, a guilty pleasure that takes me back to childhood.  But I have no desire to have it, nor any other cereal, as my dinner.

I haven't bought Peanut Butter Crunch in a long time because the price jumped so much -- eek!

We had a very typical winter here in Las Vegas, neither warmer nor colder than average.  That probably means we'll also have a typical summer, i.e., 110° every single day from Memorial Day to Labor Day ... ugh! 

I love the weather in Las Vegas for 9 months of the year, almost perfect.  But the summers are H-E-double hockey sticks.

12 minutes ago, purplekow said:

This surgery while essentially cosmetic has economic gains attached to it.  Taller people are viewed as more deserving of promotions especially in some Asian cultures.  It seems ridiculous to undergo painful surgery to add a few inches to one's height, but there are many people who will try to advance their career in any way they can.

Or you could put the $75,000 toward getting an MBA and see how that advances your career.

Marcos Giron has been playing great recently and reached a career-high ranking of #44.  As a player climbs the rankings, tennis broadcasters start showing more of his matches.  Watching Giron's matches are worth your while just for the shirt changes ...

Thanks, @maninsoma, the guy's got some mad skillz ... and a nice chest.

On 1/2/2024 at 9:40 AM, d.anders said:

Cohn was drowning in hate, being a vain gay and Jewish in the 50's, with an ugly scar running down his nose. A Shakespearean character of his own making, especially after he was awarded power and fame from the Rosenberg trial at the age of 24. The self-hatred among gays in the 50's is what struck me in this story. The closet was a very ugly, Hell-ish place to live. The fact that Joe McCarthy and his ilk were mostly Catholic was the second most disturbing truth from the series. Unforgivable cruelty and evil, all for the sake of power and fame.

Most young gays today have no clue that our government behaved the way it did in the 50's. Do they teach this stuff in red state schools? Absolutely not. I doubt much of this gets taught in blue state schools. The suicide rate during the McCarthy era was staggering.

As for acting, Jonathan Bailey stood out for me. His character was incredibly layered and complex. Given how he speaks in real life, I thought his acting was amazing.

As good as Fellow Travelers is in so many ways, I'm struggling to get through the series because of all the ugliness.  I love Jonathan Bailey, both for his performance and his nerdy sex appeal, I love the whole cast really, love the script, direction, and production quality, but as someone posted previously, forget how awful McCarthy et al were to gays (as if that weren't bad enough) -- how could we be so awful to each other??

I'm almost done with Ep 5, 3 more to go, but it's been the most difficult series I've ever watched.

1 hour ago, EZEtoGRU said:

I wish Jamie Dimon would end his interviews saying "Since I'm consistently wrong with my economic predictions...who really knows?"

The guys who started predicting a recession back in 2003 weren't "consistently wrong" throughout the aughts.  It just took a while for the gigatons of sh*t to hit the fan.

3 hours ago, EZEtoGRU said:

My issue with Mr. Dimon has nothing to do with politics.  I don't even know what his political leanings are.  It has everything to do with him predicting the US is imminently going to fall into a recession since November of 2020.  So he's been wrong for over three years with his prediction.   To me, he has zero credibility anymore.  How he manages to hold the top job at JP Morgan/Chase is beyond me.

'imminently"?  I'd like to see the quotes of Dimon's predictions of an imminent recession. 

Warning signs abound that our economy is headed for a bad recession:  unprecedented government debt at a record-high percentage of GDP, a huge number of commercial real estate foreclosures, an alarming rate of personal bankruptcies, car repossessions, and mortgage delinquencies.  The bankruptcies, repos, and late mortgage payments in isolation wouldn't worry me that much.  But those factors in our current economic environment of record-high debt-to-GDP and the commercial lending collapse make me fear a perfect storm is brewing.

Those in the aughts who warned a bad recession loomed were the first to admit they had no idea when it would hit.  That's why I question the "imminently" aspect of Dimon's prediction(s).

On 1/12/2024 at 10:14 AM, EZEtoGRU said:

😂😂😂. The prior post is laughable. Jamie Dimon has been predicting a recession since November 2020.  Citing him as evidence of anything is such a joke. 

Recessions are a long time in the making.  Some investors started sounding alarms about the economy way back in 2003, 5 long years before the Sep 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. 

Dimon argues that recession is likely because "the consumer is in good shape. But the extra money that they got during COVID, trillions of dollars, that's kind of running out… It runs out this year.  The government has a huge deficit which will affect the markets."  Some disagree with Dimon because they don't see the government debt as that dire and are confident that the Fed can manage a soft landing.

On 2/11/2024 at 3:52 PM, sync said:

I was disappointed to read so many pannings of the movie Red White and Royal Blue.  It should not be surprising that a fantasy love story would not have the preciseness of a documentary nor the explicitness of a pornographic oriented work.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching good people being good to each other in contrast to the more common storylines of today.

It was refreshing to see expressions of intimacy born of true romance with warmth and tenderness rather than the typical farm-animal-like rooting and snorting gilded with feigned moans and sighs punctuated with juvenile outbursts of expletives. 

My other disappointment is that the possibility of a sequel appears uncertain, I was hoping it might blossom into a short series. 

Did we see the same movie??

7 hours ago, Charlie said:

I agree about the ads. I'd say pretty much the same thing for the entertainment. And those turnovers?! The most interesting part of the entire broadcast was the overtime.

Re: the ads, what happened to all the humor, creativity, and innovation we used to see in Super Bowl ads?  I can't believe companies forked over $7 million(!) a pop to show that boring, forgettable dreck.

Until the Chiefs' final drive, in which Mahomes showed how a master gets it done, I thought the quality of play was fairly mediocre, like both teams were simultaneously choking.  But that nail-biter overtime redeemed the previous 4 quarters.  There was a beautiful sense of inevitability in that final drive:  the Chiefs feeling a sense of destiny whereas the 49ers a sense of doom.

I understand the need for the padding, helmets, and all, but the NFL really needs to figure put how to showcase this kind of *ahem* talent ...

Since I don't follow the NFL any more, I chose to root for San Francisco just 'cuz I think Brock Purdy is cute.  If I were a bona fide 49ers fan, I'd be devastated.  How the f*ck do you miss an extra point?!  That never happens! 

Or so I thought.  Google says it happens more often than most people think, teams miss 5.35% of extra point opportunities.  Nonetheless, I doubt die-hard Niners fans are in a particularly forgiving mood.

But who knows?  KC played it safe, going for the much easier field goal to get into overtime.  If SF made that extra point & KC had to go for a touchdown, they might have done it.  I would never underestimate Patrick Mahomes.

PS:  the ads this year sucked.