unclevlad

That would be an interesting question: most touches by a RB over the last, say, 3 years combined. If we just say 20 touches would be pretty high use, and certainly heavily involved in the offense, then 3 full years would be 980. Single-season? Last year, 3 backs topped that mark. Najee Harris (Steelers), Jonathan Taylor (Colts), and Joe Mixon (Bengals). (from StatMuse) Derrick Henry had that level in '19 and '20...and them played in only 8 games in '21. That's the point of the 3 year span: wear and tear. The current active rushing yards leader is Mark Ingram, with just over 8000 in 12 seasons. He's played in 153 games, and missed 30...so, 1 out of every 6. And his workload only approached 20 touches per game in 2014; for the last several years, it's been about 12-15. And here's McCaffrey: https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/player/christian-mccaffrey-26328/career-stats 2018, just over 20 touches. 2019, a bit over 25 touches. 2020...first 3 games, 25 touches, then BOOM. '21, 19 touches a game for 7 games, then BOOM. Running backs aren't valued because they don't last, because it's likely *relatively* easier to teach, and because there's a decent stream of em in most draft years. So, yes, the question of how much McCaffrey can actually contribute is definitely wide open.

well heck...if they don't catch the scammer who set up the fake financial firm, his personal Rebel's Run will turn out to be quite successful. (Mind, I hope he does get caught. And just because I love doing this... Ohana Capital Financial, Provo UT...is a branch of Ohana Capital Financial in Wyoming...but the Wyoming branch's listed address is in Utah. The Wyoming branch fell delinquent on their taxes in 2020; they were dissolved, but later reinstated in 2021. The branches were incorporated only a couple weeks apart. Oh, and the same people incorporated a branch in Hawaii, a couple months after the first 2. Yeahhhh...the shenanigans going on there would at least make me talk to a financial pro before I gave them any serious cash. Especially the tax delinquency. And this took me longer to type up here, than it did to find out.

Carolina has officially thrown in the towel. Christian McCaffrey traded to the Niners, according to Al on TNF just now, and Adam Schefter. For draft picks, which means they're basically walking from the table. Reload for later.... EDIT: yeah, we know no one values RBs. Draft picks are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th next year, 5th in 2024. Which is probably pretty good for Carolina; Niners apparently have a surfeit of bonus 3rd round picks, so it doesn't hurt them to potentially overpay. They need a back.

only 2-6 from the line. what a bum... Of note, too: he got the double-double coming off the bench.

Wow. Saints just gift wrap 2 touchdowns via pick-6's. First one, the receiver doesn't look the ball in...bounces off his hands. He's got 2 DBs converging, but he was WIDE open. The DBs just say "thank you" as the ball just sits in the air. Bye-bye. Then Dalton...the fact that he's still in the league tells me all I need to know about the state of QB play...forces a ball. He was getting spun a bit, but I think he just failed to read the defense. And this is against a Cardinal defense that had 2 picks coming in. Oh and before I started streaming, Dalton threw a pick in the end zone. EDIT: addendum. Just announced. I suppose we should've expected this. Since NBC shows the night game on Thanksgiving...that was a hole in the normal TNF schedule. So of course, the NFL just decided to give Amazon a game Friday night. So there will be 4 games on short/very short weeks.....<sigh>

Oh my. She won't worry about renting a place for some time, I'd say. Her new personal space will be rent-free.

The critics complaining about Johnson are going beyond the movie in isolation. Plus: perhaps it's true to the source...but that may also say more about the source, and in particular, translation into a different medium. Pretty sure it was Spider Robinson, in one of the Callahan books, that said something like "we often consider the intelligence of a speaker based on the degree they agree with us."

Oh, piffle.... In the age of social media, retro means "last month!!! Wow that was like forever ago!!!:

Opening game notes... From the Athletic's Pulse newsletter, Lakers look just like last year. No outside shooting. No fixes for the core issues. Granted, playing the Warriors, but they were very dismissive. Tonight, the Nets fall, and Ben Simmons looks...pretty miserable. They lose...to the Pelicans. Down 18 at the end of 1, down 30 apparently at one point. Final margin was 22. Legler's comments seem to be wondering how long it'll be before the whole thing completely falls apart. I mean, we all know the Nets are renowned for their stability and professionalism and demeanor......

Largely not gonna happen. Johnson's salary for Black Adam is reportedly $22.5M. After that, for any action movie in any sub-genre, you've got to nail the SFX, and those are never cheap. And, you can't NOT do it; the bar's been set too high by far, far too many films. There are parallels between actors and athletes in team sports. Salaries for the big names only continue to explode...but it also applies to the backup wide receivers, to the utility infielders...a little bit of success translates to getting paid quite nicely. This also holds for directors...they're the head coaches, and the known quantities get bigger bucks. On-set staffing? I believe Hollywood is mostly a union shop, so there's LOTS of people who are, shall we say, less than fully utilized. But exceptionally well compensated.... So, yeah, there's probably about as much excess fat as on bargain-bin bacon, but trimming it is a bit tricky.........

I wonder if that's a cousin of our dear fuzzball, death tribble. The resemblance is striking, wouldn't you agree?

Oh my. From the Atlantic's review of Black Adam, in re Dwayne Johnson: As you can imagine from that, they were not impressed. Reviews appear to be a mixed bag, but the most common seem lukewarm. "Derivative" might be the most common theme I saw, said in one manner or another.

And the Padres turn to small ball to pop 5 on the board while shutting the Phillies down the rest of the way. Series is now 1-1

But that holds for quite a few movie types. Star Wars movies run HOW much these days? Star Trek...I suspect not as bad but they aren't cheap. Dune was $165M, reportedly. F&F 9 was over $200M, but that was pretty much expected to pull in a *bundle*...I believe that's one of the highest-grossing franchises in movie history. What are you gonna make for $100M? That's going to have large-scale appeal? Knives Out! did just fine...and then some...on a much smaller budget. But then, you have to be careful...budget doesn't tell the whole story. Robert Downey came out *better* than anyone else in the MCU because he took a lower base pay...but a percentage of the gross. The Knives Out! cast was, by and large, in a similar position. It is an issue, tho. I believe the exceptional level of risk and the fundamental stakes, are why so many movies retread familiar ground. They can't bomb that badly.

Ah, but now you're requiring a secondary power to make the teleport work. Safe Blind Teleport would do it, sure, and it's cheap, but now you can't control your arrival point, and/or stitching more onto it...which is your complaint with Desolid. And as Duke says, how much will you actually need? Alternate Desolid from APG would be the simplest basis, as standard Desolid is massive overkill. But I've got no issue that "provides no defense" simply erases the need for "affects physical world." The two are completely interconnected, in my book...the only reason for Affects Physical World is because the defensive aspect of Desolid is too close to perfect. Alternate Desolid, this never enters the picture. You would have to define a new limitation, as you don't want the PD/ED it provides, and IIRC it has a +KB aspect you also don't want. Fine...they pretty much cancel each other in terms of points, so both go POOF! for +0. I'll grant that Tunneling feels right, but the problem here is that the Hero implementation explicitly denies "just passing through without disturbing anything." If you're willing to toss that out the window, then Tunneling works nicely. And we've pretty solidly established that nothing fits without significant tailoring. Given that: teleport has the worst connection to the style of effect, IMO, so it's the weakest basis.

FREAK!!! second inning for the Phillies. Bloopers. Broken bats. Decently hit, medium-deep fly ball to right...dead into the sun. Soto had no chance to catch it. Hard-hit ground ball, comes up a bit on the first baseman, gets away enough to prevent a double play...letting the runner on 3rd scored. Even the third out was adventurous...another high fly ball to Soto. He's fighting to keep it in sight, but manages. By that point, tho, Snell has to throw 36 pitches in the inning, and the Phillies get 4 runs. EDIT: fun!!! Padres aren't known as a power club, and San Diego isn't a home run hitter's park...but the Pads get back to back homers to start the bottom of the 2nd. So, 4-2. For some reason, they only allowed 3 hours between the start of the Padre game, and the start of the Astro game. Of course, yesterday that would've been fine; that game only ran about 2 1/2 hours. This one? Likely going rather longer...

You can't see an arrival point that's safe.

Just for grins, another maze: I have the feeling I'd be screaming, as no simple rule would seem to work...or at least, would be harder to maintain. I seriously doubt I could get through it before losing my cool completely. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/09/longleat-hedge-maze-longest-in-world.html The hedges here are 8' tall. Article notes it takes 6 gardeners with gas-powered trimmers a month to trim this back...and that has to be done every 6 months.

I think some of the issue here is, we're not on the same page. OP said "allow a druid to pass thru plant-based barriers and entangles." I think some are reading this as the specific powers, Barrier and Entangle...and their answer is directly connected to those powers. Some of us are reading it as D&D's Pass Without Trace, which includes ignoring a Wall of Thorns, a spell that, IIRC, has aspects of both Barrier and Entangle. Want a real-world example of why Teleport doesn't work? A classic hedge maze. Two pics of one in Spain, from Fodor's. The maze is said there to be one of the largest in Europe. This one shows the height. Teleport...not useful or safe. Desolid...makes it trivial. Size? It's given as 5625 square meters, which'd be a square 75 meters, or about 250 feet, on a side, or a touch under 1.4 acres.

I think it's impossible to prove it unless the shifter gets caught. The defense's objective would be to show it could not be the defendant. A telepath with the ability to do a complete memory trace would be one solution. Another would be someone with the absolute power to detect lies. Wearing the Cape built one; his name was Veritas. His power was off the charts...he could detect lies over the phone, for example. The larger question is how shifters would impact alibi laws. Because the shifter could do just as well, impersonating the criminal in order to provide a "rock solid" alibi. Something of a similar issue arises with a duplicator, particularly if the duplication power is NOT known. That's been a theme in occasional mystery novels...the unknown twin.

Ohhh man. Anyone else see these new ads from a group called Citizens for Sanity? Right-wing fearmongering, straw man arguments, sweeping generalizations. It might be that I'm watching the ball game on FS1; since equal time is no longer required, I believe the ads on there, or on Fox (the football games) have been heavily one-sided against the Democrats. It's possible I'm just blowing off the Democratic ads...they're basically forgettable, whereas the Republican ads grate like fingernails on a slate chalkboard. But I don't *think* so. And there's still 3 more weeks to go. Yeah....it's first Tuesday after first Monday, and Nov. 1st is a Tuesday. Ugh..............

The rule's for safety. Hibernate now and you'll wake up around Ground Hog Day, and then where are you?

Weird Al, maybe, but the other two are too mainstream. Tom Lehrer. Doctor Demento. One-hit wonder songs. Joe Bob Briggs. MST 3K. In my book, the name should evince blank stares from at least half the people, if it ever comes up. YMMV, of course. Another spot for Quirk Inspiration may simply be TV Tropes. Just remember you DO need to sleep some time...that site is the ultimate rabbit hole, I swear.

I'll do everyone a favor: the cookbook is pointless and stupid. And it makes the case quite well.

Sorry. Not allowed before Halloween.