Al Dente

IMHO, Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest comics out there. His new stand-up special on Netflix, "Annihilation" is riotously funny and at the same time tremendously poignant. 

During the first third or so of the show, Oswalt lays down some jokes about the current POTUS that are freakin' hilarious. I have copied and pasted one of my favorite jokes below and whited it out so you can view it by highlighting. I don't want to offend anyone who doesn't appreciate humor regarding this topic.

The rest of the show is devoted to his experience, over the last year, of dealing with the unexpected death of his wife and impact on his young son. Obviously a heavy and personal topic, but Oswalt pulls it off without being maudlin or undignified. I've never seen any stand-up routine quite like it. Actually, I feel bad about calling it a stand-up routine-- it's much more.

I highly recommend it.

A review from the AV Club

Now the joke:

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"And by the way, I feel bad — I feel bad for Trump.
The poor guy — look. Here's what happened.
They had that, that, uh, the journalist dinner, the correspondents dinner.
Obama went up, made fun of Donald, very mean.
And Donald said, "I'm takin' his job. You don't make fun of me. I'll take your job."
Spent all this money. Now he has the job, and he's sittin' there, goin', "This job sucks. My life before this was amazing, it was golf and hookers and jets."
Donald Trump taking Obama's job would be like if the head of linguistics at Rutgers made fun of David Lee Roth.
And David Lee Roth was like, "I'm gonna take his job,zibbly-bobbly-boop."
And then he spends 40 million dollars. And he goes into that first meeting like, "All right, I'm the head of linguistics at Rutgers! Bring on the hookers and the cocaine!"
And they're like, "No, we're gonna talk about the lack of recursion in German Romantic poetry."
And he's like, "Humaly-bebaly-zibbly-boobly? What just happened?""

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Last night, my 7-year old daughter had pajama night and a book fair at her school. Teachers were reading stories to the kids in several classrooms, so I "encouraged" her to attend as many of these as possible over the next hour so that I could sit in the back and track the game on the MLB app. When the following popped up on my phone, I pumped my fist but remained quiet.

"Michael A. Taylor hits a grand slam to right center field. Daniel Murphy scores. Anthony Rendon scores. Matt Wieters scores."

I could see some other parents look at me and smile as they realized something good was happening with the Nats.

See ya at the game!

Al

What the hell am I supposed to do today in the office?

"Facebook Down: Site Breaks for Users across World" by Caroline Mortimer on independent.co.uk

#SocialAnxiety #WhatDoIDoNow #OMG #WTF

I'm going to be an optimist and buy a ticket for Thursday's game.

Update: Got a ticket from StubHub in the gallery 307, the first row for $160. Not a bad deal. Now I just hope there's reason to attend!

Last week they were for a ban on bump-stocks, and now they're back on message.

"NRA Opposes Outright US Ban on Gun Devices Used by the Las Vegas Killer" on cnbc.com

10 hours ago, DonRocks said:

The Chiefs are so impressive that they forced several players into my medium-term memory - one of whom is the fastest player in the NFL: Tyreek Hill, who can achieve speeds of nearly 23 mph.

 

Tyreek is one of my best fantasy picks-- especially after losing my #1 pick David Johnson, and more recently, Ty Montgomery.

I pray to the football gods that Latavius Murray doesn't score more than 11 points tonight. I need this win!

Thanks Bob!

Has anyone been to Rosemary's Thyme Bistro? I love lahmacun, so I'd like to try it out.

Looks like they have a second location in Dupont Circle.

If you don't have an empathic brain response to yawning, you're a psychopath!

While driving home past NRA headquarters on 66 yesterday, I saw their one and only statement on the Las Vegas shootings. Their flag was flying at half mast.

Some friends picked up some goodies from Gus's for a party I went to this past weekend. The chicken was amazing. I don't think I've ever had fried chicken that was so greaseless, crispy, juicy, and delicious. The sides were good too, but I didn't think any of it was remarkable. But geez, that chicken! Too bad Gus's is so far from me-- though I'm sure my heart thinks otherwise.

NRA Contributions to Congress

12 hours ago, DIShGo said:

a lover of books, old movies, travel and food, and Art Frahm.

It seems that the sacrifices service members make aren't for protecting our 1st Amendment freedoms.

The NFL uses the flag as a marketing tool. 

The people who proudly display the Confederate flag and lose their shit over taking a knee, are completely blind to the irony.

Someone once tweeted, "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail." That's some serious totalitarian horseshit right there.

Given our president's grasp of history, he probably couldn't tell you what the 13 stripes represent.

I'm trying to be careful of what I say, but the phony indignation of certain politicians is nothing but a dog-whistle for the nationalist element of American voters. It disgusts me.

Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya-- some history on the dish

The girl with colitis goes by.

Here's some blatant product placement for ya:

"Ethics Group: Trump Is Wrong To Wear Campaign Hat on Trip to Texas" by Julia Horowitz on money.cnn.com

Try the French Toast!

Has anyone been recently? My +1 wants to go, but I don't know how it stacks up against some of the Indian joints in the Fairfax area.

Did you put hairy balls on your shopping list?

"South Park Is Triggering People's Amazon Alexas and It's Seriously NSFW" by Gianluca Mezzofiore on mashable.com

Fucking hilarious.

On 9/2/2017 at 6:01 PM, DonRocks said:

the 56-year-old Don wonders if he sacrificed anti-black racism for allowance of just about all other racism, but I'm probably missing something because it's late (1 AM) and I'm tired). I would love your thoughts.

Harumpfff!

I always thought he was satirizing any kind of racism. The white characters (except Jim) were always portrayed as ignorant (the townspeople, Taggart) or conniving (Hedley). It's crude by today's standards, but I think it still holds up as pointed satire. Case in point (offensive language):

Blazing Saddles, IMHO, is arguably the best comedic film of all time. Or is it Young Frankenstein? Ok, it's a tie.

On 9/6/2017 at 8:34 AM, yeah said:

"Thomcord" grapes--imagine Concord grapes with edible skin and less chewy center. $2.99 for a clamshell, I think it's a lb.  Excellent. 

I tried these. There's not enough Concord in it!

I love Concord grapes.  

My comfort level with sitting at a communal table usually depends on where I am, geographically speaking. I'm less likely to be thrilled about it in DC or NYC because... well, because of the attitude of the customers around me. Sorry for the generalization, but folks tend to be a lot less communally-oriented.

Communal dining in other places can be a great experience in terms of the connections (albeit temporary) you make with other diners. I can recall memorable meals at communal tables in Seattle, Santa Fe, and even the Eastern Shore. Not only was the meal good, but the company was as well.

What a voice...

I got wrangled into dining at the Herndon location recently. Everyone at the table went the hibachi-flat-top-magic show-thingy route, so I tried the sushi. The sushi was nothing special, and the tastes I had of some of the crap coming off the hibachi sucked-- low quality ingredients, overcooked, and greasy.

Is there such a thing as a high quality Japanese "Steakhouse"? I don't think I've ever been to one.