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I really enjoyed There There…

I really enjoyed There There so I've got Wandering Stars on my to read list. Probably in the summer when I'm not teaching.

Also second the recommendation for Among the Thugs.

I read mostly crime (with…

I read mostly crime (with some sci-fi and the genre known as literary fiction). I recently read and enjoyed Nick Petrie's The Price You Pay. Petrie is a UM/RC graduate (like me), but I would like this series (Peter Ash) anyway. I wouldn't start with The Price You Pay.

I like The Pentecost and Parker books by Stephen Spotswood, and I enjoyed the most recent one Murder Crossed Her Mind.

Along crime/thriller lines,I also recommend Margot Douaihy's Scorched Grace, John Sandford's Virgil Flowers books, Ace Atkins, Robert B. Parker's Spenser books (old now), Ian Rankin's Rebus series, Joe Ide, Michael Connelly, Sara Gran, Chris Offut (I am probably forgetting some). I have enjoyed the Mick Herron Slow Horses books.

For SF, I second the Scalzi recommendation. I've read most of his books (other than the Old Man's War series--first one was not compelling to me). His most recent two (The Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain) are good introductions to his work.

A bit.

A bit.

The whole Lake Charlevoix…

The whole Lake Charlevoix area (Charlevoix, Boyne City, East Jordan) is lovely. East Jordan schools are reasonably good--most of my cousins from there went to State (Sparty Family), but there were always some kids in their classes that went to Michigan.  Charlevoix and Boyne city schools are also okay.

I was going to point that…

I was going to point that out as well. We (college where I work) get a ton of kids from Hoban.

Hoban's Arch-rival is the other Akron Catholic high School, Saint Vincent-Saint Mary, alma mater of Lebron James.

100 times yes PP.

Don't…

100 times yes PP.

Don't tell me it's not a battle if  you haven't had cancer yourself. When they bolt your head down to table for radiation, it's a f**ing battle. When your elderly Mother, who had to interrupt her life 400 miles away to come and drive you to treatments, it's a battle. When she has to pull over on the highway so you can throw up after treatment (despite the compazine which fails to help the nausea), it's a battle. When you get no sleep for days because dexamethasone* is the devil, it's a battle.

Many people have had worse experiences then me; many have lost the battle. But don't tell me that cancer is a not a battle.

As a Michigan native (living…

As a Michigan native (living in Ohio) with many Sparty Alums among my friends and family, I also want to see MSU thrive as an academic institution. Unlike sports, academic reputation is not a zero sum game. 

That, being said I tend to root for MSU teams whenever they are not competing against Michigan (Except when coached by Dantonio).

Not a fan of Shawshank …

Not a fan of Shawshank (students used to love it), but do you not have any love for Bob Roberts? Bull Durham? The Player?

More Old Man thinks Samoans…

More Old Man thinks Samoans should use first names that don't upset middle aged white people.

https://www.youtube.com…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P66fiwPUUj0

Harbaugh may have some of Dino Ciccarelli's sentiments after the handshake.

I think it is still 12.50…

I think it is still 12.50/Month for education (students, teachers, faculty). That's what I pay.

I hope so, but it looked…

I hope so, but it looked like knee or calf muscle buckled. 

 

No force on earth could get…

No force on earth could get me to root for Duke basketball, but I definitely join you in pulling for them in football against the Irish.

I would have gone with bless…

I would have gone with bless your heart, but upvote none the less.

I am not defending or…

I am not defending or attacking admissions, but how can it be clear that "Michigan didn't handle this well.." when all you (or any of the rest of us) know is what the Mom says happened 3 years ago. Michigan can't/doesn't discuss this.

If what you recount is…

If what you recount is completely true, then yes this is a bad look for admissions. But the only person you are hearing this from is the Mother. Admissions/The University legally (I am pretty sure) can't discuss this at all (FERPA). 

People hear what they want to hear--what if admissions says "This works as long as X happens," and X didn't happen.

I got to say Morgan Wallen…

I got to say Morgan Wallen is an odd choice for PR purposes.

Regardless of my personal thoughts (no politics) about Wallen, it's a choice that the fan population probably has sharply divided opinions on (and not musical taste opinions).

Go Scots! 

I grew up in…

Go Scots! 

I grew up in Alma and my parents both went there.

Wexner on Jeffrey Epstein: 

Wexner on Jeffrey Epstein: 


"Mr. Wexner, the longest-serving chief executive in the S&P 500 and L Brands’ largest shareholder, once praised Mr. Epstein as “a most loyal friend” with “excellent judgment and unusually high standards.”"

So perhaps he's not the best judge of character.

I only recently realized…

I only recently realized that Sting did not stop in his tracks for fear of walking on the Mimes he slayed.

Love me some Mike Downey (or…

Love me some Mike Downey (or at least did  BITD) but Sidd Finch was a George Plimpton thing? Did Downey have some involvement with it?

"He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga—and his future in baseball."

UM/ Detroit teams mostly but…

UM/ Detroit teams mostly but I vaguely root for some other teams in the big 4.
College Football: Michigan

Hate; OSU, Alabama, Tennessee, Notre Dame

College Basketball: Michigan, Michigan State (grew up huge Magic Johnson fan)

  Hate: DOOK

NBA: Pistons, Lakers, Warriors

Hate: Bulls, Celtics

NHL: Redwings, Kraken (mostly for the name, but I'd like to see some West Coast success in the NHL)

Hate: Avalanche, Blues, Rangers

NFL: Lions, Steelers, Ravens

Hate: Giants, Commanders (Redskins), Cowboys

MLB: Tigers--mostly hate everyone in the AL central and don't really care about the NL (except I hate the Mets)

Hate the Giants and the Mets because they were doing well during my first year of college and I heard how awesome they were endlessly from Long Island/NYC contingent in my dorm.

Duke, The Commanders, Cowboys and Alabama are just intrinsically evil.

It seems part of the issue…

It seems part of the issue is the enormous variation in how electricity is generated (i.e. coal vs hydropower). I found this to be a good discussion (with footnotes to articles/studies if you have database access).

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars#:~:text=MIT's%20report%20sees%20gasoline%20cars,energy%20were%20to%20drop%20significantly.

These are in development but…

These are in development but they have a tendency for Breakin'.

I needed a new tablet (3…

I needed a new tablet (3 year old Kindle Fire HD10 wasn't working very well), mostly for reading books and CBR comics and occasional web surfing. Upgraded to an Ipad for $250 which was only slightly more than the currently top end fire tablet. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09G9CJM1Z/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=AwgAAAAAAAAAANK5&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

While Dave is a great…

While Dave is a great guitarist, Ray is a much more talented songwriter.

(just a little snark--BTW, I am also a 1990 RC grad).

Loved Red Hot Lover's when I…

Loved Red Hot Lover's when I lived in East Quad.

Place there now is ok, but not the same.

Upvote for Middle Kingdom…

Upvote for Middle Kingdom. Their Hot and Sour soup was fantastic.

Taco Boy still slams.

Taco Boy still slams.

I think it's gonna be a long…

I think it's gonna be a long long time.

Yes yesy yes 100 x yes

Also…

Yes yesy yes 100 x yes

Also Exile on Main Street, American Beauty, Outlandos D'Amour, Blood on the Tracks and many more.

Plus:

FIlm: Godfather 1 and 2, Chinatown, Jaws, Star Wars: A New Hope, All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Eraserhead, Alien.

 

And then I immediately ran…

And then I immediately ran across this less OT story.

Should Michigan football fans be nervous about high 2023 expectations? Wolverines mailbag


https://theathletic.com/4429476/2023/04/21/michigan-football-big-ten-predictions-2023/?source=freeweeklyemail&campaign=602288

 

I was going to bring that up…

I was going to bring that up--Is the issue that Kante can't get in to Michigan or as you suggest that he can't qualify with the NCAA. 

If it's the latter, could we still take him and have him be ineligible his first year (ala Terry Mills and Rumeal Robinson back in my day). I have a very poor understanding of how NCAA qualification works now.

Can we nuke this thread as…

Can we nuke this thread as soon as possible. Nothing good will come of it.

Re: D Pinball Pete's is…

Re: D Pinball Pete's is still there on South U (in the failed mall thing) or at least at was in the fall when I visited. The one upstairs on William has been gone for years. 

I miss Schoolkids (and slightly less Discount) records as well as the original Borders and Shaman Drum. I also miss the newstand/book store that (Campus News?) that was under U Towers. Read (without purchasing) many music magazines there when I lived in East Quad.

Definitely sad that Village Corner is gone and I also think not having the Kroger at Broadway and Maiden Lane does make grocery shopping less accessible to campus.

The Merchant of Vino on Plymouth was a better fancy grocery/wine/deli than the Whole Foods that replaced it. Sad that Seva moved out to Westgate (though I like the new location of Jerusalem Garden). I enjoyed the Del Rio and Middle Kingdom downtown. 

I personally miss Dave's Comics (upstairs of the corner of State and William), but Vault of Midnight downtown is objectively a better store..  

I like Knight's Campus Location as an addition. Literati is a good bookstore..

 

 

Totally agree on Downey and…

Totally agree on Downey and pre-Morrie Albom. Downey went to the Los Angeles Times where he won several (more?) National Sportswriter of the Year awards.

John Niyo was a student in one of the classes I taught as a GSI at Michigan; I think he was the sports editor at the Daily at the time. I am glad to see he is well regarded.

 

I believe Jalen Rose's…

I believe Jalen Rose's senior year team at (now closed) Detroit Southwestern had seven players go on to play D! basketball (including former NBA players Howard Eisley (Boston College) and Voshon Leonard (Minnesota) in addition to Rose.

I suspect there are very few high school classes that have 3 NBA players in them  (or at least there were few prior to the rise of the basketball academies). 

 

I love The Grifters (or at…

I love The Grifters (or at least loved it in the 1990s when I was in Grad School). Haven't seen it since.

Hate Rush with the heat of a…

Hate Rush with the heat of a thousand blazing suns, but that was still worthy of an upvote.

 

Ohio has some higher…

Ohio has some higher reputation SLA schools (Case Western, Oberlin, Kenyon, Wooster, maybe Dennison) and a solid middle (Wittenberg, Capital, maybe Ohio Northern, John Carroll, Baldwin Wallace) but there are also a ton of not selective small privates as well (I teach at one).

Not all of the second and third tier schools will survive.  The higher reputation colleges draw from a larger bucket, but most of the schools in the second and third tier* pull their students largely from the surrounding area (about 80+ percent of our undergraduates come from Ohio (mostly NE Ohio) with a significant chunk from Western PA).

I am aware of ROI arguments and realize the cost spiral in higher education is out of control (for many and complicated reasons).

But we get students all the time who transfer from bigger state schools or come here initially rather than go to Kent or Akron or Ohio because they did not or realize that they would not thrive in those environments (particularly first generation and students that graduated from small high schools). It will be a shame if large universities become the only option. We will continue to have a shortage of Nurses and teachers if we lose the (small percentage) of students who don't become a teacher or nurse or Doctor because they did not succeed when they were initially thrown into a freshman biology lecture that has more students than their high school class. 

*for Cedarville. Judgement on its academic reputation varies but it is a weird school and pulls more out-of-state students because many (at least mid-western) Baptist congregations both donate money and also sponsor scholarships for students in their congregations so they used to (at least) have students from further away.

As a very low level academic…

As a very low level academic administrator who has direct reports, I wish I had more up votes to give this. 

This is definitely true, but…

This is definitely true, but I'm fairly certain Deans, Department Chairs, Program Directors (and Marschall Runge, who runs Michigan Medicine) get regular performance reviews.

 

But then again, I would have thought Schissel would not turn out be as much of idiot as he turned out to be. 

Definitely this: "If he didn…

Definitely this: "If he didn't have a performance review for 6 years, he probably has felt untouchable."

Harbaugh may be prickly and difficult to deal with but not being in regular substantial communication with the head of what is the largest revenue generating component of the organization you manage is inexcusable.

But Warde not having a performance review for 6 years is a University Failure. 

To RBJ--Fingers Crossed for…

To RBJ--Fingers Crossed for Finneas and your family.

I survived a medulloblastoma (as an adult--a relative rarity) and it sucked, but I am still here 20 years later.  My neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic was the head of Pediatric Neurology. The first year i saw him, it was before he was seeing patients in the adult cancer center and I went to his Pedes office. Seeing all the little kids with scarred bald heads was just heartbreaking. I don't think I could work in that environment.

I had radiation but no chemo; while both suck, for Brain/Spine radiation, they create a form fitting latex mesh mask and bolt your head down to the table for 30 minutes while they do the treatments. I am glad your son won't have to go through that.

Had flexies as roommates…

Had flexies as roommates/housemates for most of my undergraduate years and my first year of grad school. My first year roommate is in family medicine, but primary care was a rare destination for the rest of the flexies I knew (anesthesiologist x 2, MSTP x2, Emergency medicine (later palliative care), Orthopedic Surgeon, Pathology, Neurology, and Neuro-Surgeon (Sanjay Gupta).

There was also a fair amount of attrition in the program.

East Quad for the first two…

East Quad for the first two years (RC all the way). Sanjay Gupta  lived on my floor (3rd Floor Cooley) or nearby my freshman year. My roommate (Reno Drew here) was in Inteflex (as was Sanjay Gupta and many others among  Drew and my mutual friends).

 

Grateful Dead--kind of…

Grateful Dead--kind of cheating here as The Dead are almost always better live.

St. Stephen > Not Fade Away > St. Stephen > Morning Dew from 5/8/77  (Widely bootlegged but released as official live 5 lp set as Cornell 5/8/77,

 

Also Jack Straw from Europe 72.

Hüsker Dü

Don't wanna know if you are lonely and The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill from The Living End.

U2

40 from Under a Blood Red Sky

 

(also +1 for the above Musta Got Lost from J.Geils Band.)

Don't disagree with…

Don't disagree with including the Scorpions, but both No One Like You and Rock You Like a Hurricane are better songs than Winds of Change (though it may just be that I am slightly older).

Hair Metal is ostly not my kind of thing, but nostalgia is a power drug.

I would add
 

Ratt--Round and Round

Poison--Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Skid Row--18 and Life

You are probably right--it…

You are probably right--it would not go over well. 

It is a pun on the nickname of the national rugby team, the All Blacks, which is probably New Zealand's most prominent national team (at least historically). The likely apocryphal story of the origin of the name is that it comes from a typo in a news story in the early 20th century where a player had described the team as being "All Backs." It more likely comes from the design of their kit. Regardless, the name dates back to at least 1905.

 

For many universities and…

For many universities and colleges, N is zero.