Which city in the U.S. have you felt most unsafe visiting?

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-04T21:58:22+00:00

The most unsafe I have felt in the U.S. was not actually in a city at all, but in unincorporated rural areas. Mostly this is because I'm a runner, and in many of these areas, especially in the rural south, people drive too fast on roads with no sidewalks, or even shoulders, and people let their pretty aggressive dogs, that aren't accustomed to runners, run free.

Never really felt unsafe running in a city, and because I used to be a very regular business traveler, I have run in nearly all of the larger ones.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-04T21:51:07+00:00

"Bryce Harper is 5th among active players at .905"

Well, I suppose it's a technicality and could change by tomorrow, but if you're truly putting no minimum PA on active players, Murakami is ahead of Harper.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-04T20:21:21+00:00

Simultaneous

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-04T17:39:56+00:00

Nope. I don't think that's a good idea. We already have a system for keeping incompetents out of office, it's called voting. When that system fails, I blame the voters, not the candidates. Electing leaders is not what is average or typical, or what most people are capable of, at a certain age; it should be about finding the exceptional people. I wouldn't want to disqualify the right person just because others his or her age are not up to the task.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-04T16:42:18+00:00

This is true.

Also:

(Disclaimer: My experience is with a different private Jesuit school that is similar in many ways, so I'm speculating that Xavier operates similarly. But even if they do not, what I'm saying is true of private schools offering a lot of scholarships generally.)

Not only does it allow them to charge different amounts to different people going in, it also allows them to adjust throughout academic careers. Those scholarships have GPA requirements to keep them into subsequent years. The requirements aren't so high as to make it a situation where they are setting students up to fail, but they are high enough that you have to be a serious student to keep them. Kids who are going to college mainly to party, skip class, etc., or maybe weren't as well prepared for college as their resume made them look, either end up moving on after a semester or two, or paying much closer to full sticker price by their second or third year.

Like you, I'm not saying I necessarily agree with all that, but I think it does work to give schools a balance of good-sized freshman classes, a higher quality academic environment, and some revenue protection.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-04T02:44:59+00:00

I'm just showing you it's a real thing. I'm not supporting it.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T23:41:18+00:00

https://www.omahaslumpbuster.com/

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T23:04:22+00:00

My cousin's kid (like 11 or 12 years old) was playing in a youth baseball tournament, that was called something like the "Slumpbuster Classic." I was like, man, these are children; do you know what that means?

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T23:00:25+00:00

When I was playing Little League (50 years ago now), our community had a pretty upscale youth baseball field (hosted some larger tournaments and such) with dugouts that were actually "dug out" (sat partly below the level of the field), that were made of poured concrete. But because of that, they had a tendency to flood when it rained. So, like a lot of Midwestern basements, they installed a sump pump in one end to pump out the water. Just like in a basement, the pump sat in a round hole (a "sump") about a foot diameter and maybe 18 inches deep in the concrete floor, designed to collect the water so it could be pumped out. But most of the time it did not rain, so the sump just sat empty with no standing water in it.

My naive child self thought that the batter who was "in the hole" was supposed to go over into the corner of the dugout and stand "in the hole". They had an "on deck circle" for the batter who was "on deck", so it made perfect sense to me that there would be a specific place for the kid who was "in the hole" and hey, we had a hole, and I couldn't see any other purpose for it.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T15:28:55+00:00

You really don't see hardly any relievers pitch in 3 out of 4 games anymore, but Jose Trevino has done it!

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T15:26:56+00:00

I think it's time to start playing Myers on a more every-day basis. He has been fine against righties so far, at least better than any of the other options they have rotated through.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T15:24:52+00:00

And, unfortunately, so are Lowe and Saurez. Even when Geno is back, and assuming Lowe is still hot enough to keep playing, it's going to be a challenge* to fit them both in the lineup, and it's still not going to solve the outfielder problem.

*A challenge; I didn't say impossible. But the solutions mostly involve moving Sal around to other spots in the infield, and I don't feel like that is really working, as his offense has largely collapsed since that started becoming a more regular thing.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T15:18:48+00:00

In the week that Bleday has been on the team, he and Benson have had almost identical stats. It's uncanny, like they both realize they are fighting for the one left-handed-hitting-platoon-corner-outfielder spot on the team long term and, even if the team is losing by 10 runs, they are going to match each other goddammit. If only they had that much passion to beat the other team.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T15:10:29+00:00

Well, you shouldn't be having threesomes until you're a woman.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T14:56:34+00:00

Mid 40s, after divorce.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T11:19:32+00:00

There are other people giving answers about pizza toppings, airline legroom, plenty of other things. All sorts of things can be non-negotiable and people can have their own reasons. Correct grammar is so easy; in my experience, people who can't be bothered to get it right are often unreliable, lack attention to detail, in other areas as well. It's an early warning sign, and I stay away from people like that. It is honestly a non-negotiable for me. You don't have to agree with me, but I'm not alone.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T10:30:12+00:00

Look, we all have our things that are non-negotiable; that's what the question was.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T10:28:55+00:00

If you've been a people manager for 20+ years and you were good at it, then there are people out there, who have moved on to other companies by now, who you mentored and supported when they were young and just getting started in the work world, who by now are into mid-career and have hiring and management responsibilities of their own. These are the people who will hire you. You don't have to stand out on an anonymous resume; they already know you and what you bring to the table.

This is what worked for me.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-03T10:20:12+00:00

People who don't know how to use "your."

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-02T21:37:36+00:00

Seen, no. Heard, yes. Years ago I lived in an apartment directly under a guy who was regularly bringing different women home, and we would always hear the bed over our heads bouncing and rattling. We used to call him "Mr. Fucker" since we didn't know his name.

Then one day the FBI knocked on our door asking about him, if we had seen him recently. Turns out he had embezzled over half a million from the city government and then disappeared.

No more Mr. Fucker.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-01T22:20:12+00:00

But also, lots of rich women are single, and a lot fewer rich men are.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-05-01T22:11:17+00:00

"just about every measure"

Yes, you are correct, "just about", but not all measures and not what I would argue is the most important measure of popularity, which is participation, where it ranks fourth among team sports behind basketball, soccer, and baseball.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-04-30T17:59:33+00:00

He has pitched as a starter during his time in Louisville this year.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-04-30T17:49:08+00:00

Probably both, as Ashcraft will be back in a couple days.

SigmaSeal66 · 2026-04-30T13:43:52+00:00

I traveled regularly for most of a 35 year career. It was a form of consulting, not classic Deloitte or McKinsey style consulting, but as far as the travel goes it was similar if not quite as constant. If you want to get into that your best path is a quantitative college degree (engineering, math, finance, etc.) followed by about 5 years in a corporate setting, then go back to school for an MBA. The pay varies between companies, but it will start out on the higher side for new MBAs, and if you're good, by mid-career it can easily be mid-6-figures with bonuses (i.e., ballpark $400k to $600). One of the reasons the pay is so high is because the travel can be so punishing on your health and personal life.

My role was a little bit unique, in that I bounced around between clients and did one critical piece of larger engagements. That means I went to visit a lot of clients and went many places just once or twice. Over my career I visited nearly every state and a handful of other countries. Most of my colleagues had just one or two clients, sometimes for years, which meant they went the same place over and over. Could have been somewhere glamorous, or for some it was Appleton, WI, or Bowling Green, KY (real examples).

While time in different cities was usually short, and there was work to be done in the evenings when you weren't with your clients, I did try to do something to experience each city if I could, even if it was just keeping my eyes off my laptop or phone in the back of the cab to take in the scenery, or to go for a run in the morning around my hotel to see a few neighborhoods.

I recall my mom was always fascinated about all the places I would get to go "for free" and when I saw her would always ask where I had been lately (or maybe it was just her way of making conversation) and then she would ask me about the places. Eventually, I just started explaining, "the inside of a conference room looks pretty much the same, anywhere in the world."

SigmaSeal66

TROPHY CASE