Good morning: It’s a snowy Sunday (February 4, 2018), and everyone in America knows it’s SUPERBOWL DAY, when the Philadelphia Eagles will play the New England Patriots in Superbowl LII (info here). The venue is the hideously named U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I still remember the first Superbowl, which shows how old I am. It’s also National Homemade Soup Day, but most Americans will be showing down on chips with dip, pizza, Buffalo chicken wings, and nachos. In California and Missouri, it’s Rosa Parks Day. Even if you don’t watch the Superbowl, though, be sure to catch The Kitten Bowl V here at noon eastern US time.
You wanna predict the football winner? Go ahead:
As for the snow, I want winter to be over so my beloved duck Honey will return. I’ll be bereft if I don’t see her again. And, like the groundhog, I saw my shadow this morning when I emerged from my den, which means six more weeks of winter!
Not much happened on February 4. In Edo (the present day Tokyo), all but one of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku to recover their honor after avenging their master’s death. On this day in 1789, George Washington was unanimously elected as the first President of the U.S. by the electoral college: the only time such a vote has been unanimous. He did it again in 1792. On February 4, 1846, the Mormon pioneers began their trek from Nauvoo, Illinois toward Salt Lake City. In 1948, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) gained independence from England. On this day in 1974, the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped Patty Hearst from a house in Berkeley, California. She eventually started participating in their crimes, was convicted, spent 22 months in prison, and then had her sentence commuted by Jimmy Carter and was pardoned by Bill Clinton. Here’s her mug shot:
Finally, it was on this day in 2004 that Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.
Notables born on this day included Fernand Léger (1881), Charles Lindbergh (1902), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906), Rosa Parks (1913), Betty Friedan (1921), Dan Quayle (1947), Alice Cooper (1948), and Dara Ó Briain (1972). Those who died on this day include physicist Hedrik Lorentz (1928), Neal Cassady (1968, a hero of mine celebrating his 50th’s deathday), Karen Carpenter (1983; gone too soon!), Carl Robers (1987), and Betty Friedan (2006, died on her birthday). Here’s a beautiful painting by Léger, “Woman with Cat” (1921):
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili wants to get into the fooking sack:
Hili: Of course I will get inside, I just have to figure out how to do it.
A: But what for?
Hili: I do it on principle.
Hili: Oczywiście, że tam jakoś wejdę, muszę tylko zbadać jak to zrobić.
Ja: Ale po co?
Hili: Trzeba mieć zasady.
A picture of gus from Snowy Winnipeg, with a note from his staff Taskin:
Here’s a pic of Gus in the snow. It’s been very cold so he hasn’t gone out much, but the other day he kindly went to see if the bird feeders needed filling.
From Grania, a cat makes a magnificent leap:
https://twitter.com/CUTEFUNNYANIMAL/status/959878918277799936
Poor Ricky Gervais is packing on the pounds!:
I've got such a fat gut now, I have to sit down and lunge at my foot, then pull it towards me to put my socks on. I can feel my vital organs being pushed up into my throat. The worst thing is, it's all my own fault for being a greedy lump for the last few months. Insult me. pic.twitter.com/tsI9bJcTO3
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) February 3, 2018
This is a bandaid for his problem but not a cure! Only in America would something like this sell!
Easier to get one of these. pic.twitter.com/rp1gi1a3gG
— No Trouble Tara 🎼 (@SoNotThePoint_) February 3, 2018
And a lovely picture of a blood moon.
Super blue blood moon over Svalbard 2018 https://t.co/QXKwq5zsBh pic.twitter.com/cAf6chSAGZ
— The Ice Age ❄️🌞 (@Jamie_Woodward_) February 3, 2018
h/t: Michael
First one, 1967 I think, the Packers and the Chiefs. It was played in the daytime and not the big deal they pretend now. Same teams repeated the following year. I use to pay attention to this stuff.
In II the Packers won again, but I think their opponent was the Oakland Raiders.
Yeah, they played those games in the daylight, someplace where it was warm. I used to pay attention in those days, too.
Yes, why do they stretch the season into February when any sane person should be indoors with a cat, dog, and a warm fireplace?
My theory, which is mine (and becoming true), is that some day the baseball, football, and basketball seasons will all overlap.
At the professional level, I think they do. Basketball does not finish until around June, well into Baseball season and football is overlapping basketball now.
Football season is well under way while the World Series is taking place. An during that timeframe, the NBA is having pre season games. Don’t know if that counts
Just out of interest, how many countries compete for the World Series?
I think the total global count is one.
The World Series last year was played during the last week of October (and, had a Game 7 been required, it was scheduled for Nov. 1st). The NBA season opener was on October 17, 2017, which corresponds to week 7 of the NFL season.
So we have already arrived at the overlapping three-sport promised land. Your theory (which was yours) has been confirmed.
Well, obviously I wasn’t paying that much attention. I am pretty sure they were not paying $3000 for a ticket in the cheap seats. The cost of going to one of these things is almost as obscene as politics.
Off topic but just heard that Congressman Ryan tweeting out about a secretary who received a $1.50 a week raise with the new republican tax reductions. $78 bucks a year or less than Ryan makes in the congress in one hour. Like Trump says – biggest tax cuts in history.
http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/03/politics/paul-ryan-tweet-tax-cut-backlash/index.html
The sarcasm goes right over Ryan’s poor little noggin.
That reference to Dara Ó Briain made me laugh. I hope PCC(e) gets over his Honey blues soon, and I hope Honey comes back.
I still remember the first Superbowl, which shows how old I am. – I think that is what you meant?
I remember not watching the first superbowl. This is something I have done for every superbowl since. I did once go to a “Superbowl party” but I spent my time drinking beer and talking to people and not watching the game.
You’re my kind of sportsman!
The Patriots will almost certainly win, but I hope they lose since they have won so many. Eagles fans have a poor reputation, but even so I hope they win.
Saturday Night Live had an especially funny skit last night about this whole issue, complete with parodies of the local accents.
I saw a piece showing the competition between Boston and Philadelphia for more important city in revolution days. Now that one is more interesting and it might be a toss up.
I’m so old I’ve forgotten the first Super Bowl.
I must say, regarding that first election back in 1789, George Washington did not get news of the results by phone or twitter. He lived about 250 miles from Philly at his place, Mount Vernon. A Charles Thomson was given the task of riding to Mount Vernon to give Washington the news and to accompany him back to take the job. That was a journey of 8 days one way.
What is a “fooking sack?” Just a more polite version of “f**cking?”
The last Super Bowl I saw was in the early 1990s – Dallas and Buffalo I believe. Did not really watch it – was at a Super Bowl party. I do not like American football. I did not watch when the hometown Chicago Bears were in it about ten years ago, Like everyone in Chicago, I did watch the 1986 Super Bowl.
I did watch Ireland-France play in the Six Nations (rugby) tournament yesterday. A wet miserable day in Paris. Not a very good game but a spectacular finish. Ireland has a new patron saint, Johnny Sexton.
PCC[E] is referencing Dara O’Briain’s “get in the fookin sack” anti-quackary comedy rant. Here it is on video cued up to the relevant part: https://youtu.be/YMvMb90hem8?t=2m2s
Thanks. Dara is my second favorite Irishman today after Johnny Sexton. Even if Dara is not a rugby fan.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/oct/17/munster-heineken-cup-dara-o-briain
I can see Dara’s point of view re class. In an almost related way, I’ve given up on team sports EXCEPT for women’s teams. I’m hoping British sportswimmin will somehow [osmosis?] civilise the men playing & watching the male versions of the games!
I’m following the Women’s Six Nations with great pleasure.
I’m bored & disappointed by the boorish ignorance displayed on the pitch, on the stands, players & fans down the pub/nightclub etc. Not much has improved since the 70s & I’m done with waiting for blokes to grow up.
I hate football, and I generally don’t spread memes, but double negatives cancelled with this one.
There was no poll button for “Don’t care”, so here’s one I made earlier 🙂
[x] Don’t care
I’m not interested in the Six Nations rugby either, but at least those guys play the game without all that ridiculous body armour.
How many of those rugby players weigh well over three hundred pounds ?
Not many, which is why play in Rugby Union is continuous for two forty-minute halves, rather than have the game stopped every thirty seconds so all can get their breath back after moving a yard or two in either direction.
Actually none. Some props may go 260. You cannot drag that much weight around the pitch for 80 minutes.
The Patty Hearst case would be a good hook for a free will discussion.
To me, the most bizarre thing about Feb 4 (my birthday today) is that it is
BOTH
the day that in 1794 the French legislature abolished slavery throughout all territories of the French First Republic (re-established in the French West Indies in 1802)
AND
the day in 1861 that the Southern Confederacy was formed in Montgomery Alabama.
(I remain proud to share the day with Betty Friedan, Rosa Parks, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.)
Happy Birthday! 🙂
The sock tool is adaptive equipment to help people with injuries, strokes, or other medical conditions regain their independence – an important part of the healing process.
Apparently all three terms are of superstitious origins, from a recent astrologer inventing the ‘super moon’ – which is not visibly different – to get more customers over the “blue moon” of religious fasting calendars [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon ]to the recent invention of ‘blood moon’ by pastors to get more customers.
Ironically at least one reporter find the specific claims I think the image alludes to false and questionable as well:
“At the end of January was a striking example of fake astronomy news. A total lunar eclipse (visible in the western United States) occurred on Wednesday, Jan. 31. However, the headline for an article in the science section of The New York Times said, “Watch the Super Blood Blue Moon Before You Go to Work on Wednesday.” Although the eclipse part of the headline was true, the other elements were questionable.
The claim was made that there was a (1) blue moon, (2) blood moon and (3) supermoon. Let’s examine them one at a time. …
… As a matter of fact, 2018 has no blue moons at all! …
… Thus, the January eclipse was not a blood moon [but a partial eclipse, as in the image]. …
… I suspect that The New York Times has got the supermoon description wrong or at least imprecise to be more generous. …”
[ http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/lifestyle/columnists/cc-lt-star-points-020418-story.html ]
Leger is close to being my favorite artist. I think that cat painting is the best cat painting so far. Perfectly captures the look and spirit of the subspecies Little Black Cat.
I own one of those sock things! Very useful when my back is playing up even more than usual.
We picked the Eagles to win coz they were the underd*gs. 🙂
I hope you bet big Smokedpaprika because the Eagles won at the very end after one of the wildest games I’ve ever seen.
The commercials were pretty much all made just for this game. The one I liked best was where ex-con Martha Stewart pulled off Jack-in-the-Box’s nose (in a fast food fight, of sorts). For those not in the know, Jack-in-the-Box is a fast food chain (mostly burgers).
I am reading this latest from PCC (E) at 0530 and know who won. I know not from watching the game but from Yahoo news. I did watch the game, kind of, as I was reading Daniel Ellsberg and looked up at the replay of anything interesting.