unclevlad

Croissant dough is a ROYAL PITA, much like puff pastry dough. I've seen the instructions for puff pastry. I shut the cookbook and put it next to my signed Necronomicon..... But....yeah...if you make the crescent moon shape, then something like sliced in half, with a swipe of raspberry preserve or orange marmalade for each half, then a drizzle of ganache over the top....... I don't need a personal chef to do dinner, I need one to do BREAKFAST....

Well, there's this...and probably others I don't feel like finding: https://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-winners-lost-everything-2017-8#lara-and-roger-griffiths-bought-their-dream-home-and-then-life-fell-apart-2 Most of these are cash payouts, and for lesser amounts. But to be sure: the sheer size would give you a second, probably even 3rd, chance...but many of these people could blow through it all.

Did you realize credit cards cost the stores THIS much? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/dining/restaurant-credit-card-fees.html?unlocked_article_code=1YDWGtP6Us8HIuUwPBs5ievIW6tM1DPwY4UbwtadexNxXORM7gT4Nm9-dtz6DjrL0hqfXqFHzYhXvyNrTi1iyEdbrSDVfztII1kpIF3RE6QhXZ3Q9waeHzl9r9cYNz69bY0X6fnkh2T_1VwzYzL1w4vLd4cN8CcvNO5Ma9OovblYOM-BYdp8JZ-_Ma46PNr3c0ng2b3khAOQXMp99S0PfM1y3R8GRDwL1MhSEi4nyfO_H42cvXbjcphjedqJMT9Fn7Z2ATE3X6FDaBR_FTxDyr8oNLQd6FeeeBxrXjnzWDEanh_U5zw7RHoz5cm_s3NPQId8LFQDvGgfeel8z4o4NvjgLY16&smid=url-share

Forget it. We've had this argument and it's pointless to rehash it.

The argument for limiting STR, most likely, has figured characteristics at its root. On the surface, it would appear this should also limit HA bonus damage...as perhaps it should, but the root of HAs was "limited STR." HKAs have never had that basis. Your example is...confused. Keep it to a fixed amount of spending and look at the options. Plus, normal and killing damage are significantly qualitatively different. I think the rule's in place because the designers wanted to actively, strongly limit killing damage. Champions was not about killing, so killing attacks needed to be downplayed. Given that STR is *so* heavily favored...that meant that the HKAs had to be gimped. It also doesn't help that the STUN multiplier pre-6E was so swingy. So, it IS about balance...just from a higher-level POV. There's NOTHING wrong with adding STR to an HKA. NO, it doesn't provide something for nothing. You paid for the STR. The problems are linked to other aspects of the older editions.

<shrugs> That's your take.

Ordering Trump to jail might be a royal pain...and would risk violence against the judge if no one else, but... https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/us/politics/trump-chutkan-2020-election-truth-social.html?unlocked_article_code=nITSgGYF4PM1lxSLDcVSXwajVbQaZJWHKlIA7kkN8sSm8ravC2hDKOfYvqCoIFc87bugxLOS9FUJeYhE770D6_cX339KlHLgnG02koEfp2_oBZfVbj8n8W4RyucIuxjmgnLG3SNmp9K9yQkGiLata1QKDeDmiOc7gPLdmS8gILPEllXp9Hk5xH1K_HKoFXKhsb6jJcXQjwjdyjaUioaFBbd_DsQfPqe2oemHPrW9jhSQZY-U8N1SOlY0dkoAW_dYN3voD_OqRs4JeMzdC6sGG3kd255MacBVpBvFRY4rRDGUEAaDbyBk5kCSG_oAmVpg8OIO83-U0eXIeZpa7IxapkPuGKCMJyjb0PRCa4Xs8YC2kJD09Qx_&smid=url-share

I'd question that, but that might invoke the Spanish Inquisition.............

Then buy MA maneuvers. They work massively better anyway.

Yeah. The Westminster Dog Show.

Well, but that's easy for you to remember, that's like yesterday for the rest of us...

Copied from an author's page on FB, altho not posted by the author:

I CAN buy HTH damage separate from STR. I *do*...almost ALL the time. For every 5 points of STR over 20, I'll pay for either 1 MA DC (HTH) or a d6 of HTH. It's trivial.

Imagine a floor devoted to cubicles....and please forgive me for the terrifying image. Lots of extra power fixtures...but all 110 volts...tending to run through a raised floor, or quite a few power pillars, or both. NO water to most of the floor. Overhead lighting arranged in large blocs. Not practical to turn these into full-function, individual-size living spaces; it MIGHT be practical to turn them into semi-communal spaces akin to dorm rooms. Not exactly comfortable or private, but I doubt it'd be practical to do a whole lot more.... These spaces might be about as bad as it gets, but there's probably a lot OF them........

It might be better in principle, but there'd be infinite argument in practice. I mean, just look at us here. The virtue of the system that exists is simplicity and consistent applicability. Heck, just look at the vagaries of hit vs. error calls. This might well be worse. I've got my own conceptual stat for offense. Call it the Move the Line stat. In every at bat, determine how many bases the batter gained OR LOST as a result of the AB. A grand slam? 10 bases. A line drive to 3rd, doubling off a runner there? -3. The harsh version? Make the 3rd out with the bases loaded...-6. (A single, scoring 2 and leaving 1st and 3rd, is +6.) There are base running situations that are more problematic. Speaking of base running, I'd love to see Runner's Errors. Like last night, Yankees-Braves. Harrison Bader got picked off 1st...down 6 runs. Or a runner, with 2 outs, trying to stretch a play to get to 3rd...and getting tagged out. Note that the reliever has a stat...percentage of inherited runners stranded, IIRC, altho it might be the converse, that scored. That's at least as important to stat-heads, I think, than just ERA.

Truffles......white, black, chocolate, it doesn't matter...............

Side thought on the 14th Amendment article. Note that I don't think any of us is even remotely qualified to ANSWER the questions, so this is really more of a thought experiment. Let's take this chain of events. 1. While the cases come to trial, it's a long process. Trump becomes the nominee before this. 2. At least one of the trials comes to a conclusion BEFORE the election, and Trump is convicted of charges that would appear to trigger the 14th amendment. Can Trump be summarily removed from the ballot at this point??? The 14th amendment triggering events happened before he was placed on the ballot, so it shouldn't be ex post facto to disqualify him. 3. Instead, let's say the conviction happens AFTER the election. Same point. Can the election itself be nullified???? If so, then who's president? 4. Latest: say the trial isn't a jury trial...jury selection is gonna be a complete MESS in all of these...and instead, it's a judge. The trial wraps up in early January, 2025, BEFORE election certification. NOW WHAT??? 5. Same, but it wraps up AFTER certification. NOW WHAT??? I'm going back to the point before. The disqualifying incidents happen before the nomination. The nomination is thus invalid, and from that, it's not at all hard to say the election is invalid. IF Trump is elected before arguments are finished...at least for the federal charges...he can maybe compel the DoJ to shut down the cases altogether. A 14th amendment case might be manageable, but who has standing to bring the case? I don't know. If Trump is elected after arguments are finished, tho, it's in the hands of the judge or jury. Even if Trump pardons himself and everyone else, a pardon does not vacate the conviction...so a 14th Amendment case still feels strongly supported. An aspect of the Georgia case is...Trump can't stop it, not on his own. And the charges certainly look to be sufficient to disqualify him.

True, it can only slow things down. I'm thinking that several of the named defendants that we don't recognize immediately, are tied to specific charges, and tie back to the major players via one form or another, ergo...conspiracy charges. They're charged because that's the criminal path to get at Trump, or Rudy, or Eastman, or Powell. EDIT: Oh, and some of it might be to put pressure on the more incidental defendants, to try to get them to turn on the major participants.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/14/live-updates-trump-indicted-on-rico-charges-in-georgia-election-probe.html Has a copy of the indictment. I'm not gonna go over it in detail...it's 91 (!!!) pages. 19 defendants. Many will be quite familiar, like Powell and Guiliani. 41 total charges. RICO, multiple charges of soliciting an oath violation from a public official, false statements/writings, forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery, witness tampering, and even some computer fraud/hacking charges. And all tied up in a bow with a perjury charge, as the last one. And ya gotta figure that the phone call alone would seem to be prima facie proof of QUITE a few of these.

Youch... The A's probably won't end up with the most losses ever, or worst record in the modern era...but they're on pace to have the worst run differential in history. By a LOT. 119 games, -286. The record's -349 by the 1932 Red Sox. Projected out? At the current pace, the A's will be -389. Per game...Red Sox were -2.27. Through 119, the A's are -2.43.

At first glance, I agree. But...let's take this scenario. 7th inning. Starter gets one out, but then single, walk. Runners on 1st and 2nd. Starter gets pulled. Reliever comes in, let's say, gets a strikeout. Then tries to pick the runner off 1st because it looks like he's drifted off too far. BAD throw...goes down the line. Runner on 2nd gleefully scores. Under current scoring rules, the starter's charged, but it's unearned. Under what you suggest, should the run be charged here *to the reliever*, and if so, should it be earned? The reliever wasn't responsible for the runner on 2nd.

Full text will be released some time this evening, but a Georgia grand jury has returned an indictment in the election fraud case. The clerk of the Fulton County court says worst case, 3 hours, then they should be released. Wow, that's one BIG document, it sounds like!

Good point. Guns are ubiquitous, for all the obvious reasons...norms are soft and squishy, punching someone HURTS most norms. And you have to get Up Close and Personal to hit someone. Note that many of the weapons don't have particularly high damage ratings. A quick cross check shows that several of the Pulp Era Rifles, in the Military section (HSEG 65) can be found on Wikipedia's WW II infantry weapons used in the US. Good enough. They're still only 6-7 DCs. Now, OK, the Browning M2...that's a .50 caliber, tripod mount...that's 3D killing, so 9.

Therein lies the disconnect in a nutshell. Because Grail and I might accept your "gameplay is the thing"...but what you appear to mean by it, and what we mean, are not the same. There's a cognitive dissociation that's a Bad Thing...particularly with STR, which is a very concrete, measurable, comparable value. But we've beaten this to death, brought it back, and beaten it some more.

If people can't understand the rules, then it's a gameplay issue. If people can't make characters with which they can connect, it's also a gameplay issue...because they'll play a different game.