The Frankish Reich

Right. Maybe Beilein was just a guy in his contact list who bothered to respond.

If you read the article, you'll see that he has come to terms with who he is: an introvert, in a job that is usually the home of extroverts. And he's found a way to be very successful, particularly now that the team seems to understand him and to put in the hard work as a team playing for him.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6047900/2025/01/10/bills-coach-sean-mcdermott-playoffs/?source=freeweeklyemail&campaign=602288&userId=12924261 A really nice deep dive into a reserved man not given to over sharing. And really well-written. We often treat our reporters as scoop-and-tweet machines. When Joe B. gets a chance to stretch out here, he shows he's in the top rank of sports writers. (Sorry, no non-paywall link, but you guys know the workarounds. Better yet, just subscribe!) McDermott insists his “goofy dad” ways have always been in there. “I was a class clown when I was younger, believe it or not,” McDermott said. In third grade, teachers would send a note home every Friday, updating his parents on his weekly progress. In sixth grade, for various reasons, including being a class clown, McDermott was held back a year in school. But that sense of humor, although it wasn’t necessarily dormant during his first seven years as head coach, he wasn’t going out of his way to display it like he has this season. It would come out here or there, like when he winked after using the term “process” in a news conference his first two years, almost in a self-deprecating way. But to a grand degree, McDermott had been buttoned up until now. Many have voiced a feeling, as unquantifiable as it is, that this year’s Bills team is different than the ones they have had over the last five years of playoff losses. And that very well may be true. However, NFL teams often channel the energy of the head coach leading them. And if something is different about this year’s Bills team, it might be because something is different about Sean McDermott. The coach who arrived in 2017 touted process, culture, a growth mindset, a desire to have supreme attention to every detail and a borderline robotic work ethic. In his early years in Buffalo, he ran what some described as a “military-ish” program. That coach is still in there, carrying all those same beliefs, but perhaps not in the same form. Even in media settings, McDermott appears more relaxed and forthcoming than ever before.

It'll be someone with a big pick off Nix. As Nix gets more comfortable, he's taking more risks. So ... Rapp.

Worth taking a minute to remember the days when I thought we'd never have this kind of stability and success. We owe the Pegulas/Beane/McDermott big time.

Long snapper: how on earth would you decide? Did Ferguson have a single bad snap this year? Did anyone beat him and block a kick? Let the Reid Ferguson Gets No Respect bandwagon begin!

Lay off the Diet Root Beer! You do know that some of that crap has caffeine added, right?

Ouch. Actually, I like Orlando Tim. I appreciate his comments on education, etc. I just think he needs to get out more in the virtual world. Staying in the alt right echosphere is damaging, as is staying in the lib-prog echosphere. Understood. When I say "ignorance" I mean "you were probably unaware of the long history here." And it is a long, long history of major wildfires once or twice a decade, some of which consumed a lot more acreage than the current one. The main difference now: there's a whole lot more development to destroy. Was it wise to rebuild and then expand development after each and every time this has happened?

Well ... Storm Drain Eco Terrorist!

She was sworn in less than a month ago. I mean, I don't like her and I wanted Caruso to win, but really ....

A. When you're joke is not funny. B. When your audience is "special" Eye of the beholder

Good Lord, I need to explain a joke again to the witless. Our friend T Master said it's absurd that you can't pour your own oil down the storm drain but they'll pave the street right outside it with oil-based asphalt. I could have replied, "Sounds like someone's been cited for pouring his oil down the storm drain." But that wouldn't have been edgy. So I went with something coming at it sideways. That's all. Not a comment about the relative merits of changing your own oil vs. paying someone to do it.

Having checked out the Battle Swarm Blog, I stand corrected. It is a useful source for those investigating the Old Texas Man Pissed Off By Ever-Rising Price of Store-Brand Diet Root Beer phenomenon. Why Is Diet Root Beer Up 131% Even Though Aluminum Is Down? This may count as an “old man yells at cloud” moment [furthest thing from my mind - ed.], but before the Flu Manchu lockdowns and the resultant supply chain breakage, HEB’s house brand of Diet Root Beer went for $2.25 a 12-pack. Now, here in early 2025, it’s going for $5.20. I calculate that as a 131% inflation rate over five years, considerably above the official 21.9% phony baloney “let’s lie for Biden” rate. So what gives? https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=62376 EDIT: wait a sec ... how do we know B-Man isn't "Battle Swarm" Blogger Lawrence Person? That would be peak Alt-Media. Quote your own blog as authority.

Not so long as he doesn't let the old oil go into the storm sewer

Well at least the DOJ will now get involved in the search for the real killer. It's kind of fun playing your favorite Democratic Nominee Once Said Incredibly Stupid Thing game in reverse.

Something makes me think T Master still changes his own oil

Bill Cosby (WH opinion: can't be revoked) Bill Belichick (granted it by Trump, then refused it after Jan 6, maybe he'll get it again) Robert McNamara (the best and brightest Vietnam strategist) Donald Rumsfeld Jonas Salk (perpetrator of poison posing as a polio vaccine, or so I've heard) Eddie DeBartolo (owner of the Mafia's Team) Strom Thurmond, famous racist Arnold Palmer (awarded after private locker room viewing) Jack Nicklaus (sans such viewing) Bill Clinton (to throw a curve) Bill Gates (noted "vaccine" ruse chip-implanter) Joe Biden (noted father of Hunter) Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan (a Trumpy two-fer) John McCain (famous for being a bad pilot who got captured) Al Gore and John Kerry (the Biden two-fer and perpetrators of the Great Climate Hoax) Nancy Pelosi Hillary Clinton (famous Satanic Rights crusader) Magic Johnson (the Boy Who Lived) RFK Sr (father of Bear Cub Butcher and Brain Worm experiment) George Romney (son of Mormon who fled the USA in order to practice polygamy, father of RINO dog abuser) George Soros is in fine company.

Oh, it's been pretty cheap for a while. See Limbaugh, Rush.

The Palisades and other LA area wildfires: there is no reason to blame climate change/global warming. This has historically been, still is, and always will be an area particularly prone to wildfires. I won't repeat the links here, but just check out the Wiki page on Malibu for a full list of major wildfires there over the last century.

Glad to see you are now reading that great site Battle Swarm Blog. (?) That's insight you can't pay for.

Thank you for the link. I can now see that he opined in Jet magazine (does that still exist) that "there's a lot of evidence to disprove that O.J. was involved" in the killings of his wife and Ron Goldman. Leave that #32 up on the new stadium! There's evidence!!

I dunno, but in unrelated news: I am expecting another emergency phone call from Trump to Alito to discuss the job application of someone who clerked for Alito 12 years ago, and not for any other purpose.

We live in an America in which Hunter Biden is allowed to vote and Donald Trump is not. Discuss.

I am glad to see Argentina maybe turning the corner here. But they've done it before, and it never stuck. So far ...