Archive for the ‘under the fedora’ Category

Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora: A Good Start, A Calendar oddity, A Bit of Luck for Next Season, Celtics Still Proving me Wrong, DeSantis goes there.

Posted: November 19, 2023 by datechguy in under the fedora
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The first of the three David Tennant Doctor Who specials meant to try to get the views they chased away to tune back in prepare for the 60th anniversary of the show is due out this week but for the Red Nose day children in need business in England there was a short special that came out yesterday:

It was not only hilarious but had several little things for the folks who have been gone:

  • Julean Blech as Davros who played him in opposite both Tennant and Capaldi
  • Reference to the Mark Three travel machine, vs Mark 4 in the premiere Davros episode
  • Reference to Genesis of the Daleks
  • The joke about messing up the Canon (in reference to the actions of Chibnall)

It’s a promising start.

Thanksgiving comes very early this year meaning that Advent, the beginning of the church year will not be starting the Saturday after thanksgiving as usual, but the week afterwards. So technically we have a full week between Thanksgiving and the start of the shortened Christmas season but the start of the shopping season still begins on the 24th.

The media and the admin keeps insisting that the economy is doing fine. The events of the next two to six weeks will tell us if they are right or if they are full of it.

In my tabletop baseball league my team which has been overachieving has dropped out of 1st but is still solidly in the playoffs. But no matter how it ends I’m looking good for next year.

Both unanimous winners of the MVP Ohtani in the AL and Acuna Jr. in the NL are currently on my roster so no matter what happens the rest of this year, It going to look pretty good for me next year.

But I think Ohtani would look much better in a Redsox Uniform next year. It would be the best marketing move to bring the Redsox fans back to the stands.

Will they have the balls to do it?

The Celtics with Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have gotten off to an incredible start and it has become apparent that Holiday has more than adequately replaced Marcus Smart both in terms of defense and in terms of intentional fortitude.

At least one writer has suggested that Philadelphia go after Smart to shore up their defense as they chase Boston, but no matter what the situation there is no question that I was completely wrong in terms of the effect of this trade.

The Celtics and the Bruins both with incredible starts are making a serious move to win over the Boston/New England fans who are walking away from the Pats. If they can follow through they might just do so.

Both the media and the Trump campaign have gone all in on the idea that Ron DeSantis is finished both to serve their own purposes as both fear him but despite this DeSantis continues to pull in money and continues to make the fight.

Yesterday he made the case for him over Trump noting some basic facts that people ignore

“As a lame duck with poor personnel, and the distractions, it’s going to be hard for him to get this done,” DeSantis said. “My candidacy is lower risk, because we’ll run Biden ragged around this country, but high reward because you get a two-term conservative president who’s going to stand for your values and deliver for you for eight full years.”

And on CBS he played the age card rather effectively:

Trump is still my 2nd choice and if he’s at the top of the GOP ticket next November he’s have my vote no prob but anyone who is discounting DeSantis is deluding themselves

Update: Here is one more

Under the Fedora: Mysterious Ways, Mea Culpa (but not maximum), Cost Benefit, Rotate, Rotate Rotate, Too Little Too Late (at least for me)

Posted: November 4, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, gaming, nba, nfl, nhl, online gaming, Sports, under the fedora
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I apologize, I had previously stated that I’d give you the lyrics of my parody song “Don’t Mess With God” (sung to the tune of “Don’t Bring Me Down”) if the Catholic Hating Dodgers got bounced from the playoffs quickly but I think the time has passed.

I will however note that the Texas Rangers who won their first ever world series against a gritty Arizona Diamondbacks team four games to one were not just the only MLB team not to have a “Pride Night” (meaning gay pride) in their stadium, but did not lose a game in the playoffs in any MLB park that hosted one.

The only sad thing, the great Frank Howard didn’t live to see them win.

You might recall I hit the Celtics hard for their trade of Marcus Smart noting that on a team devoid of balls he had the most.

Well the Celtics who got rid of Smart and both Williams and Brogdon and replaced them with Kristaps Porzingas and Jrue Holiday have yet to lose a game in four tries while the teams involved in these trades are a combined 4-13 with the Memphis Grizzlies who got Smart yet to win one in six tries.

So I guess a mea culpa is in order but I’ll hold off the mea maxima culpa for now because Porzingas has a long history of injuries and we’re just under 5% into the season.

If he plays in 95% of the games then we’ll go to the max.

The Patriots made no moves at the trade deadline and while that doesn’t sit well with a lot of the Boston media I’m fine with it for a few reasons:

  1. There was not going to be a lot of interest in middling players beyond a 7th rounder at best
  2. There is no point in trading people who are good enough to build around for draft picks that may or may not produce an NFL player. The cost benefit just isn’t there.
  3. While everyone is drooling over the chance to get the top pick in the draft in the end since a full 20% of super bowls were won by QB’s taken in the first round it’s also true that a full 20% of Superbowls have been won by players picked at 199 (Tom Brady) or later (Bart Starr pick 200) (Brad Johnson 227)

The bottom line is that while a stud is a grand thing to have you still have to develop a QB. I think it’s better to get a team to win some games, even against bad competition than to tank for a first round pick. After all most teams who play the tank game are still losing big.

Instead of insisting on the return of the Brady era which isn’t happening lets remember and celebrate that we had that abnormal time to win and let Bill develop players as best he can.

The Boston Bruins have yet to lose in their first 10 games this season and seem even better than last year (19 out of a possible 20 points so far) despite the two major retirements in the off season. The difference seems to be the defense that has allowed only a single power play goal against them and of course the excellent goaltending of their pair of Ullmark and Swayman.

Many have suggested they should have traded one I disagree. Having both of them is the best insurance policy that a team can have against a single injury derailing a season as both are #1 goalies on any team in the league.

I would however suggest that whatever rotation you are using in the regular season be applied to the playoffs. The failure to do so last year after a record breaking regular season in my opinion contributed to their 1st round playoff defeat.

Finally in my two primary Dynasty Leagues the disappointment continues. While I was able to play spoiler to the White Sox playoff hopes in the final series of the year I tanked against Florida finishing 2 games out in a league that has no wild cards.

Meanwhile in the 1971 league my team that has traded off most of it’s stars for draft picks and prospects have won 5 of their last 6 but with only 35 games to go 9 games is just too much to make up in the race for the final wild card, even if I didn’t have two teams ahead of me to pass.

However there is movement in the NL as the Phillies who had a ten game lead for the final wildcard spot have gone 1-9 in their last ten letting the Cards pick up 4 games while playing .500 ball at the same time.

St. Louis is now only 6 games out with nobody to pass and still has three games against the Phillies coming up before the end.

On the down side the Cardinals next 12 games are against teams with winning percentages of .654, ,604 .535 and .708.

If they are going to come back they’ll have to earn it.

5 Speaker Overboard Thoughts Under the Fedora, The Stupid Party, Some Working with Dems is More Equal Than Others, The Biden Escape Hatch, Questions and the way to go

Posted: October 4, 2023 by datechguy in politics, under the fedora
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I have no non-work net access at work nor do I own a cell phone so I was planning to write something about the Pope tonight when I instead got word of what went on in the house.

Seriously? With a six vote majority you vote out a speaker who on the whole has exceeded expectations for conservatives despite holding the thinnest of thin majorities?

The GOP is called the stupid party for a reason

One of the objections to Speaker McCarthy was that he made a deal with the Democrats for a continuing resolution to keep government open. A resolution Democrats were so afraid of passing that one of the pulled a fire alarm to keep it from happening.

So because they were so upset at McCarthy for working with Democrats to keep the government funded, those who opposed him worked with the entire Democrat caucus to remove him.

Am I the only one noticing the Irony here?

To me the most frightening part of this is what Glenn Reynolds noted:

Heck, if I’m the Democrats, I vote somebody tolerable as President Pro Tem of the Senate, then have Biden and Kamala both step down. With the Speakership of the House vacant, they could pick a succesor president that easily. If I’m Chuck Schumer, I’m scheming for that right now . . .

As of this moment there is no GOP member in the line of succession. This is the perfect chance for the left to rid themselves of both Biden and Harris. That Gaetz & company didn’t think of this is criminal.

I hate to say it but given the violence we’ve seen from the left if I was Joe Biden or Kamala Harris I’d be scared for my life till a new speaker is in place.

The logical questions that comes from all of this are these:

  1. Who is an acceptable speaker to these eight?
  2. Do the eight have a candidate who would be acceptable to the rest of the party
  3. Would the eight support any candidate that didn’t give them the power to boot him and would any republican in his right mind take the job knowing that these people will boot him if he doesn’t obey?
  4. How long are these people willing to keep the house without a speaker?
  5. Are there any parliamentary tricks that the Democrats can use to get the speakership if the GOP doesn’t have their full membership present to keep them from winning such a vote and if so who on the GOP side are watching for that?
  6. Did they think of any of this stuff before taking this vote

This is pretty much a dog catching a car and not knowing what to do with it, or as Sam Rayburn used to say: “Any old jackass can knock down a barn door, it takes a carpenter to build one.”

Now I’m just a small blogger who has been here for almost 15 years and I’d like a conservative speaker to advance conservative values so let me give a piece of advice to members of the GOP who would like that, particularly the entertaining eight.

If you want to get a strong conservative as speaker elect enough republicans to get a solid majority so that you can put through a conservative speaker

If you don’t elect republicans you don’t get a conservative speaker and if you are not able or willing to go out and find republicans who can win in districts currently held by Democrats and support them to the max then all the bluster about Speaker McCarthy is just BS.

Five Leominster Flooding Thoughts Under the Fedora: Once every 35 years, Maz paying off, Nasty Commutes, Now comes the rebuild, Sheer Personal Luck

Posted: September 12, 2023 by datechguy in local stuff, News/opinion, under the fedora
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Yesterday the rain came in a way it hasn’t been in about 35 years when one of the bridges in Fitchburg over the Nashua river was washed out in a storm, yesterday it was Leominster’s turn the rain kept coming down and the city was drenched, bridges washed out, basements flooded, sink holes appearing and route two the major artery east into Boston impassable.

I’ve not gone outside to shoot any video myself because the last thing Leominster needs is another person on the roads filming while they’re trying to clear to get blog posts.

Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzerella has been in office practically forever and it paid off yesterday here he is from facebook

and from a press conference today:

There is likely no mayor in the area more familiar with the various departments of his city and it seemed to me that they were really on the ball in terms of getting people out. You really can’t stop the rain if a front decides to pause over your area but the various crews allowed the city to weather the storm without loss of life and given the degree of flooding is quite an accomplishment.

Last night people were in dire straights in they had to head west or east on Route 2, to wit:

That is the primary exit from Route 2 for people going into the center of Leominster or into Fitchburg and it’s the primary exit to take route 2 east To Boston or 495 or Devens etc. People were stranded for literally hours on this road

With route 2 flooded people needed to take side routes such as 117 and with the side roads in conditions like this:

That simply added to the disaster because it diverted cars to these locations which the police and fire had to deal with.

What’s really going to hit people for six as the British would put it is the fact that many of the places that got nailed don’t get a lot of flooding. I suspect few if any of the residents whose basements are underwater or foundations were washed out had flood insurance so the cost of repairs is going to be astounding.

I have never had a better illustration of the parable of the house built on a solid foundation then when I saw this video:

The damage to personal property is likely going to be at least in the tens of millions possibly in the hundreds of millions, perhaps the governor can divert some of that illegal immigration emergency money to help rebuild and re-locate the people here.

Given that Massachusetts is one of the most reliably blue states in the country one might except the Biden Administration to come through, but given what we’ve seen in Maui located in an even bluer state I don’t know if that will matter. Time will tell in terms of how both the state and the feds do here.

On a personal level I was briefly trapped on the road with DaWife and my oldest who had just finished Eucharist Adoration together in Fitchburg as we were going to go to dinner together. We were on airport road when the emergency message came through and frankly there was no place for us to go so it took about an hour to turn around and hit a restaurant near my home in Fitchburg that had no issues.

But the real good fortune for me was that Pintastic NE 2023 had been moved and because of that move I had requested this day off weeks ago. If not I would have if I was luckily barely made it to work in Devens for around 3 pm. (the first drops of rain began at 1:10 pm in Fitchburg) and getting out at midnight I would have found every road home impassible at best and at worst would not have been able to clearly see dangers in the road that would have been submerged by water. I’m frankly a little iffy on what route I can use to get to work today but I guess we will see.

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