Friday links before another busy weekend.

by | Sep 27, 2024 | Cocktails, Daily Links | 136 comments

This time of year, my weekends always seem to fill up with activities. It’s the story of my life that I have to be careful, or I’ll wind up double booked. Like tomorrow, when the girlfriend and I are going to a Mac and Cheese crawl in the afternoon, and then off to see Social Distortion that night (they have a second show here on Sunday after the Saturday one sold out).

In local news… I have no issue with this announcement. This specific brewery doesn’t really have food options (and definitely no kids menu), limited seating, is dark and old inside, but does have a very nice patio. If you’re in that area with kids, there’s plenty of other more appropriate locations to take them (and they also ban kids after a certain time).

Finally, someone using technology for a task that seems appropriate for it.

It’s a good thing no one on this site would consider giving humorous middle names.

Not to horn in on R.J.’s turf, but at the Cleveland Gaming Classic, we saw a sign with Stormy Daniels’s name on it. Intrigued, we checked out the booth, which turned out to be a guy promoting a documentary he had made that had a Stormy cameo in it. Still haven’t gotten around to watching the documentary yet.

I would think joining the league would be a prime example of brain injury.

If you’re in the hurricane path, please check in with your local Waffle House to see how bad it is.

I can’t really remember the last time I was excited for an Ubisoft game, but I’ll say that this article gives me some hope they may be learning.

Sharing this just because I’ve learned there are people who have never read it, and they need to correct that.

You could have probably negotiated them down to a case of beer.

I think to really hit peak on this, we need someone to attempt to replicate the rigorous study.

Let’s get a bit out of the comfort zone with cocktails, and go with one that’s a rare find on a cocktail list.

Poet’s Dream

  • 8 parts London dry gin (2 ounces) [this is a more modern variation, the original recipe can call for as little as 3 parts gin]
  • 3 parts dry vermouth (0.75 ounces)
  • 1 part Benedictine (0.25 ounces)

This is all spirit, so those that remember should know, this is not going to get shaken. Instead, pour everything over ice into a shaker or a pitcher and stir until well chilled. Then strain into a chilled Nick and Nora or coupe glass, and garnish with a lemon twist (express it over the drink and rub around the rim if you want to accentuate the lemon notes more).

That’s all I’ve got for you today, so let’s get this weekend started and reach for the sky.

About The Author

Nephilium

Nephilium

Nephilium is a geek of multiple types living in the vast suburban forests of Cleveland.

136 Comments

  1. Tundra

    Hi Neph!

    Raymond Chandler and Social D in the same post – perfect!

    And speaking of perfect

    Enjoy the show!

    • Nephilium

      Thanks! I’ll do my best. It’s going to be a long day though. Eleven stops on the mac and cheese crawl. The standard tradition is to get a drink at each place. I will be bowing out of that this year to be able to MAKE it to the show. 🙂

      • The Other Kevin

        The carbs alone would put me in a coma. Good luck and godspeed!

      • Tundra

        I just checked and they won’t be here. Fucking Tulsa but not Denver?!?

      • Nephilium

        Sorry Tundra, I think there’s still tickets available for the Sunday show here. 🙂

      • UnCivilServant

        Tulsa has air. Denver is too high an altitude.

      • Ted S.

        Tundra needs to be more stoic.

      • Tundra

        Definitely, but c’mon. Tulsa?

      • SDF-7

        Fuck off, Tulsa?

    • Tonio

      Indeed. Thanks for the Chandler. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never read that.

      • Tundra

        I have The Long Goodbye and a few others in a box downstairs. May be time for a re-read.

  2. pistoffnick (370HSSV)

    I sometimes like to watch those documentaries, too!

  3. The Late P Brooks

    Today, in People Are Goofy-

    The yellow mini from this morning, a complete straight (apparently) solid running driveable car, was bid to $10,250. Reserve not met, unsurprisingly.

    Not long afterward, a rusty Mini “project” which I would classify as a no-shit three hundred dollar car sold for over $13k. Cherry on top- it was an 850cc, lowest of the low.

    Willing buyers, willing sellers. Value is subjective.

  4. UnCivilServant

    For background noise I’ve been watching artists redesign Concord characters.

    I’m still gobsmacked at how bad the original designs managed to be. Half a billion dollars for that?

  5. The Other Kevin

    “is dark and old inside”

    Sounds like half my hockey team. We’re feeling the “old” part, I think 4 of us are struggling with injuries and we haven’t yet played a game this season.

    • kinnath

      old is relative

    • Tundra

      I’ve had too many injuries lately. My season doesn’t start until January, but I need to get my shit together.

      • The Other Kevin

        I am officially on the roster for Dallas in October. Next Friday my PT will re-evaluate and see if I can skate and return to my full lifting routine. Fingers crossed.

      • Tundra

        Excellent! I hope you get the all-clear.

      • The Other Kevin

        Me too. I have rotator cuff exercises, and I’m using my TENS unit at home, both have been helpful.

      • EvilSheldon

        Heh. My PT guy suggested a TENS unit for home use after I tore my MCL last year. So of course I looked them up on the internet. That was an interesting trip out to the fringes…

      • kinnath

        We have had good luck with the TENS unit.

      • R C Dean

        Mrs. Dean got a TENS unit for her back issues. It seems very helpful. I’ve started using it on my right arm/shoulder (dysfunctional due to decades of driving a mouse). I like it – it seems to help.

      • Tundra

        TENS is great. A friend of mine is a high level athlete and swears by this red light product.

        Spendy, but if you are in chronic pain it might be something to consider.

  6. Tundra

    You could have probably negotiated them down to a case of beer.

    And then a trip through a wood chipper.

  7. Sensei

    Finally, someone using technology for a task that seems appropriate for it.

    There has been some awful anime subtitles that make me feel like they were AI translated.

    I know the streaming services really want AI subtitles to work so as to broaden the markets the release at the absolute lowest cost.

    If I were a content creator I’d be quite wary, but I don’t think it’s stoppable.

    • Nephilium

      This appears to just be captioning, instead of translating. Admittedly, I am not a user of TTS (Text To Speech) because it takes longer, has more errors, and is an order of magnitude ruder in public than just typing in the text. But I feel that the LLM’s are probably up to the task of transcribing shows at this point.

      • Tundra

        I use TTS on occasion but it fucking asterisks all my important goddamn curses.

      • Sensei

        The current crop of LLM do a much better translation than the old machine translation of old with Japanese. It’s notably better, but still far from perfect.

        In something like fiction they really struggle as compared to something more factual like the news. My expectation is partially because they likely train heavily on news. There are multiple reference to the same thing that the AI can use to to train create its weights.

        OTH, for fiction there is only the original work itself and possibly commentary, criticism and cultural references.

  8. kinnath

    https://www.politico.eu/article/just-stop-oil-protesters-jailed-throwing-soup-van-gogh-sunflowers-climate-activists/

    Two Just Stop Oil climate protesters who threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” were sentenced to prison Friday, the latest in a series of hefty punishments for activists in the U.K.

    On October 14, 2022, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland threw two cans of Heinz tomato soup over the masterpiece in the National Gallery in London.

    Plummer, who faces several other criminal cases for protest actions, was given two years behind bars. Holland was handed 20 months.

    Fuck’em all, good and hard.

    • Sean

      Fuck’em all, good and hard.

      Agreed.

    • Tundra

      That’s actually pretty surprising. Both that they got an actual punishment and that the painting wasn’t behind glass.

      • kinnath

        The painting was behind glass. The antique frame was damaged and repaired.

        The judge issued a punishment based on the damage they could have done if the painting was not behind glass. The defense is arguing no harm, no foul.

    • Gender Traitor

      Should have thrown it at Warhol’s “masterpiece.”

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Is Nico still alive?

      • SarumanTheGreat

        Would be a significant improvement. Also if thrown on anything made by Pollock.

    • SarumanTheGreat

      Go after Hallam, the Gates Foundation, and the other bastards who are financing their ‘hi-jinks’. This article names some names.

      https://thecritic.co.uk/just-stop/

      A good beating in a dark alley might also send a message.

  9. Dr Mossy Lawn

    I did not make it to Tampa.. as the storm canceled commercial airline services and affected the presenters and hotels, the event was postponed to future date.. So I stayed in Wilmington NC.

    • Tundra

      Sounds like western NC is getting pounded pretty good. Decent there?

      • Dr Mossy Lawn

        Coastal NC had winds gusting to 40kts.. and a couple of bouts of heavy rain… Nothing much. Sunny now. Minor high tide flooding this morning but that isn’t special.

    • The Other Kevin

      Looks like Mojeaux is getting hit too. We’ve got some wind, and will have rain at about 11pm all the way up here. It’s all coming from the East which just seems wrong.

      • Mojeaux

        Um … no? I mean, we got a pounding with sheets and hail a couple of nights ago, but that lasted all of 10 minutes. It’s been unbelievably beautiful here for the last week. It’s like fall arrived precisely on Sept 21 and said, “I heard all you white bitches were looking for me.”

      • Mojeaux

        Okay, maybe 30 minutes.

      • trshmnstr

        It’s like fall arrived precisely on Sept 21 and said, “I heard all you white bitches were looking for me.”

        Yep. A switch flipped and it went from highs around 88 to highs around 75. There’s a bit of a chill today with the brisk northerly wind. I almost had to go put long pants on.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, TOK, just saw our local weather. I’m in Kansas City, not St Louis.

  10. EvilSheldon

    Not only does that cocktail sound good, but I’m pretty sure I have every ingredient for it. I’m a sucker for Benedictine. Might have to stop and get fresh dry Vermouth though.

    As a legitimate combat sports fan and participant, slap fighting is an insult to everything I love about it. I’m not exactly calling for it to be banned, but I’d probably just shrug if it were. I’ll turn in my libertarian badge this evening.

    • Nephilium

      Well, I hope you enjoy the cocktail. Glad to be able to introduce you to something new.

      • EvilSheldon

        Really really good. This might end up as my new martini variation…

    • R.J.

      Slap fighting is ridiculous.
      It was better when attractive people took turns spanking each other on the ass.
      You are not allowed to turn in your card.

    • R C Dean

      The Tech Lords probably aren’t super-excited about the possibility of being held vicariously responsible.

      • Sensei

        Good theory.

  11. The Other Kevin

    I have an update on Mrs. TOK’s phone importing other people’s photos. When she connects it to the Mac, it asks what she wants to transfer. She had “all files” checked. When she changed that to “photos” she no longer saw the mystery photos. I haven’t looked yet but it appears those photos were possibly shared at some point and put into a folder, which is why she didn’t see them in her photo collection.

    • Nephilium

      It could have also been pulling in cached images from other applications/websites and the like.

  12. R.J.

    If I may rant; four times now, people have shown up to buy my wife’s gigantic treadmill. It’s 62 inches tall, it’s 4 feet wide, and it’s 6 feet long. These motherfuckers show up in tiny little compact station wagons and want me to take it downstairs and try and help them fit it in their car. This last time, I said the thing isn’t coming downstairs till you go get a pick up. The ad says: Only come here with a pickup. Dude showed up an a Toyota compact wagon. Jeez! The guy even asked for help to get it downstairs, and would I knock money off the price.
    I decided I am going to totally disassemble the thing and bury it in the backyard to provide amusement for the next people who live here.

    • The Other Kevin

      * Gets back into Honda Civic, drives away *

      • R.J.

        I could still duct-tape it to your roof, perhaps…

      • Nephilium

        /pulls up in a Mini Cooper

    • trshmnstr

      I totally resonate with that. We had a commercial treadmill (as in we got it from a gym and it had a 20A plug on it). It was advertised as such and had “It will not fit in your station wagon and your small SUV” in big bold letters.

      It took 4 people before somebody came with a big enough vehicle.

      • R.J.

        What is hilarious is when the people want to measure it, like that somehow will show them a way to fit an object which is almost the size of their vehicle into the vehicle. Can these incompetents even fit on pants by themselves in the morning?

    • Tonio

      Dude…

      • R.J.

        Bro…

        Good to see you.

        Look, once I move, there will be room for you, boyfriend and animals to come visit. Mar A Lago will seem small. Until then I want to set fire to extraneous personal belongings.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Last time I had to get rid of something like that, I called the Restore and they came and hauled it away while I did absolutely nothing.

    • Aloysious

      They’re obviously hearing impaired. Type louder.

  13. Suthenboy

    If the ‘Stop Oil’ people really did not give a shit about the environment and were simply commies bent on destroying western civilization, what would they do differently?

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Tundra-

    That’s a nice 2002. Too nice for me. A ’76 driver beater was also on today. More my speed. Failed to hit reserve at ~$6500.

    Perfect example of prissy douchebag BaT commenter: “It has [bullshit complaint] and [bullshit complaint] and it has a reserve?”

    Gosh, Shirley, maybe the guy has a number in his head of what it’s worth to him not to have it around anymore.

    The car is in Boise. Maybe I should try to get ahold of him, because if there is anything I need, it’s another car.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Or, maybe there aren’t any $300 2002’s around anymore.

    • Tundra

      I hate read the comments. Prissy car guys are more tedious than prissy gun guys.

    • The Other Kevin

      I thought I saw everything, but that takes the cake.

      • bacon-magic

        Butter not piss off the locals, they will get Shiva involved.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    As a legitimate combat sports fan and participant, slap fighting is an insult to everything I love about it. I’m not exactly calling for it to be banned, but I’d probably just shrug if it were. I’ll turn in my libertarian badge this evening.

    What about purse-to-purse combat?

      • Suthenboy

        TOK gets it.

    • Sensei

      It’s not a purse, it’s a European carry all!

  16. tarran

    Attended a somewhat interesting training session led by HR today. We are interviewing interns and I was volunteered to be an interviewer.

    So things are motoring along nicely when we get to the diversity slide. It’s had some jargon that is totally non-obvious which from the presenters tone clearly represented an unwanted situation. So I asked what one of the terms meant.

    She explained, and the bottom half of the slide suddenly made sense. If you are a human being who is not (white and male and heterosexual), you are a diverse individual. Let’s say that the candidates invited to interview are composed of x non-diverse individuals and y diverse individuals. Let’s say that the candidates to whom positions are offered are p non diverse individuals and q diverse individuals. The problem is that last year the ratio of y:x was higher than the ratio of q:p.

    Here’s the kicker: we were told to try to keep the q:p closer to the y:x but without asking about gender, sexuality or ethnicity, and without compromising on our standards related to technical knowledge etc. It’s basically the fucking Deming Red Bead experiment all over again.

    I did not laugh at the 26 year old girl at the bottom of the HR hierarchy and point out the absurdity of this exercise. That would have been counter-productive. I will be bringing it up in other avenues where it will have more of an impact.

    • Suthenboy

      You are going to use reason and logic with the insane?
      Good luck with that.

    • trshmnstr

      I will be bringing it up in other avenues where it will have more of an impact.

      The single best way I’ve found to kill the momentum of this stuff is to simply say “do what you will, but I will not have one iota of that demographic information on my computer. You want to track demographics? Save the spreadsheet to your own computer so that I’m not the one who has to explain to the compliance office why I’m racially profiling job candidates.”

  17. Gustave Lytton

    Trump is going to make Zelenskyyy pay! Stop stop, I can’t roll my eyes any harder.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      In what? Ukrainian girls?

      I used to have one who worked for me, talk about Insane in the Ukraine!

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Did she really knock you out?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        She was a knock out, but souless.

  18. Not Adahn

    There was a big arcade in Houston that had a set of BT pods based there. Good times.

    • Nephilium

      The Dave and Busters up here had them back in the 2000’s. They were pulled out of the arcades when the licensing agreement ran out. Any of the ones still running are kept alive by vintage parts, blood, sweat, tears, and code.

      This group does several of the cons in the area as well (they mentioned doing Gencon recently). They have six pods that they brought, and one of them is signed by Steve Jackson. They were doing a tournament Saturday evening, but we didn’t stick around for it (it was a long day). I’m hoping they come back next year (September 19-21st is the Cleveland Gaming Classic next year).

    • Sensei

      Let’s do the Time Warp, again?

    • Nephilium

      I’m not reflexively opposed to it. Of course, I do have the advantage of being able to use the correct paper to cover my head with for the scene in the rain. The one, the only, Cleveland Plain Dealer.

      • R.J.

        I will get it and send you some thoughts.
        Meanwhile I am going to see Beetlejuice 2 with the expectation that I will want an hour and 1/2 of my life back.

      • Sensei

        Are we allowed to say transvestite anymore?

      • Mojeaux

        Beetlejuice 2 was singularly underwhelming. Monica Bellucci (love you, Monica!) subplot was not necessary. It was disjointed and scattered.

      • rhywun

        Are we allowed to say transvestite anymore?

        Isn’t it actually “transsexual” and you’re definitely not allowed to say that anymore.

  19. Gustave Lytton

    Rob Schneider on Kilmeade saying he’s a big Thomas Sowell fan. I think I woke up in bizarro world.

      • Contrarian P

        No idea what they’re hoping to accomplish with that one. The original was 25 years ago and was basically a long extended joke about a shiftless schlub who magically could run up to a golf ball and drill it 400 yards. When you’re playing a late 20s guy who’s a loser, it’s a lot less pathetic than the same loser in his late 50s. Even Sandler finally seemed to have gotten the message, but I guess he’s having a relapse.

        There seems to be a sudden mania for developing sequels to films made in the late 80s – 90s. I don’t like reboots (come up with an original idea) but a fresh take is a lot better, generally, than seeing what seems to be a deliberate destruction of the source material. I think a lot of the people making movies now really believe that everybody 30 years ago, despite the huge success of the films, had no real idea what they were doing.

      • Sensei

        Those bills don’t pay themselves!

      • Nephilium

        Contrarian P:

        From what I’ve heard and read, Adam Sandler’s whole thing now (for the most part) is to make dumb movies that someone wants him to make, get a lot of money for it, film on location somewhere he and his friends want to go for vacation, and cast his friends. One hell of a job if you can swing it.

      • Sensei

        Neph, he has been visiting lots of local places unannounced having a meal and being quite nice to fans and the businesses.

        All good local casual restaurants.

      • Mojeaux

        Apparently, his turn in Uncut Gems (which I have yet to see) arrested his reputation for mindless goofery and nincompoopery, and now he can pretty much do what he wants.

      • Brochettaward

        Adam Sandler is the lazy man’s hero. He’s been phoning it in for like the last 15 years of his career and is still raking in mad money. Respect.

      • Nephilium

        Sensei:

        Good deal. I may not like his recent movies (I’ll admit to a soft spot for several of the ones from my younger years), but I’ve got nothing against him, and respect him making money doing what he wants. I’ve also heard nothing bad about him (other than complaints about his dumb shtick and bad movies).

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Rob Schneider’s conservatism is well-established

      • Gender Traitor

        Are you still holed up in a hotel, or have you been able to go back home?

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Wait, what? KK is holed up in a hotel with Rob Schneider?

      • Aloysious

        Jaime, I think it’s time we start playing the Porn-o-sonic theme song for Happy Fun Time.

      • Tundra

        No, Adam Sandler.

    • Suthenboy

      I never knew much about that guy. It is not surprising to find an entertainer who doesnt spout insane leftist crap, constantly virtue signal and rarely weighs in on the culture war to be a sane person.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        Rob Schneider frequently weighs in on the culture wars

      • Suthenboy

        I guess I missed it.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        You gotta be on the Tweeters to get his real hot takes

  20. SarumanTheGreat

    From a dead thread (courtesy Pie):

    ‘Basques speak a non indo-european language isolate and are genetically different from the french and spanish. SO look at us we’re special sooo non mainstream.’

    Everyone knows that when God made Adam he dug up the bones from a Basque graveyard.

    • rhywun

      They probably have all kinds of claims to “being there first”.

      The Celts, too.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Everyone knows we Neanderthals were there first.

      • Suthenboy

        Any given person’s most distant relative on the planet is 52nd cousin and every one of them has tribalism bred into them since the first dawn. It turns out some parts of human nature are a bit troublesome.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Or, maybe there aren’t any $300 2002’s around anymore.

    I read that as three thousand, first time by, but it doesn’t matter. If that piece of shit $300 Mini in kit form is any indication, there aren’t. You probably can’t find a non-running 2002 for less than 3k.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Just because

    Purse-yo-purse combat.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    t

    • Ted S.

      ț

      • Q Continuum

        I’m glad I’m not the only one posting tt’s.

      • rhywun

        Uh oh… you lit the Pie signal.

  24. Suthenboy

    “Purse-yo-purse combat”

    Now see, I thought that was a euphemism for scissoring. Oh wait, that is a euphemism too. Huh. Of course from the video ‘The Battle of Pearl Harbor’ works even better.

    There is no combinations of words in the English language that cannot be construed as a sexual euphemism or innuendo.

  25. Homple

    I’ve read the linked Chandler and probably 5 of his novels. His sterling contribution to civilization is writing the novel that was made into the movie with Martha Vickers and Dorothy Malone in it.

    • Nephilium

      I’m quite fond of this story:

      J. Edgar Hoover would have found that last statement difficult to believe. One evening the late director of the F.B.I. (and an outspoken fan of Chandler’s) was dining at the restaurant. When he heard that the author of The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely was seated just a few tables away, Hoover told a waiter to invite Chandler to his table. “Tell him he can go to hell,” gruffly replied the creator of Philip Marlowe. According to Chandler’s biographer, Frank MacShane, “Hoover fell into a rage, saying he would have Chandler investigated by the F.B.I.”
      Philip Marlowe Slept Here

    • Suthenboy

      I have seen that before. I have no sympathy.
      I caught you so now I have something to bludgeon you with forever. Great control tactic if you can get the other to go along with it.

      • Evan from Evansville

        I have sympathy for (pretty much) *anyone* who’s having a bludgeon dangling over them as a control tactic.

        No idea if she did, but I’m guessing she got to cheat on him as much as she wanted, perhaps if she didn’t get caught, but if she did she could always yell the “WELL YOU DID IT, TOO! SO [insert marital FIGHT words/tone here]!”

        That’s a shitty thing to do to a supposed loved one. Especially when “Irreconcilable Differences” is a legit divorce option. <– Other 'dangling' stick? The money involved in the marriage/pre-nup/ etc.

    • trshmnstr

      Yeah, I think the issue isn’t the affair from 20 years ago. It’s the fact that he’s simping for onlyfans girls on the regular and wifey doesn’t appreciate that.

      Congratulations, the two of you spent the last 20 years driving a wedge between yourselves to the point where you’re “sexually incompatible”, and instead of being adults, talking through your issues, and becoming sexually compatible, you’ve escaped to the waiting arms of the camwhores and she has escaped to the spare bedroom. Adulting is hard, I’m sure.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Fuck. If they could work it out and make THAT an OnlyFans channel…uh. There’s hella money there to be made. In made ways. They could still fucking hate each other and make bank, only as limited as Rule 34.