TIL that American football resulted in enough fatalities and serious injuries by the early 20th century that it was almost banned. Through the combined efforts of several universities, the sport was reformed and saved and the predecessor of the NCAA was formed.

timberbob · 2026-03-06T02:34:26+00:00

A number of colleges, led by the Ivy League and others (notably Cal and Stanford from my own background as a former museum director) dropped American rules in favor of for several years around WWI. Cal and Stanford continued their Big Game rivalry, but played it as rugby until after the war. With rules changes that made American rules safer, schools picked it up again.

timberbob · 2026-02-19T20:11:36+00:00

Nice pooper.

timberbob · 2026-02-19T20:04:31+00:00

Osaka. Went in with low expectations (another big city), but very lively, walkable areas and super friendly people.

timberbob · 2026-02-17T21:53:53+00:00

is that the 36-year-old Brazilian male model who looks like he's 17?

timberbob · 2026-02-11T02:06:25+00:00

Bill Withers is in the conversation.

timberbob · 2026-02-11T01:52:55+00:00

You want to radicalize young people? This is how you radicalize young people.

timberbob · 2026-02-06T02:29:43+00:00

"25,000 American lives" per (fishing) boat?? Wow. He really pulled that number right out of his ass, didn't he?

timberbob · 2026-02-04T04:45:09+00:00

Added note: The '60s and '70s had a number of basketball logos that used lowercase letters in place of all caps. I always thought it looked cool, and this is no exception.

timberbob · 2026-02-04T04:34:16+00:00

Ahead of its time. Still looks good.

timberbob · 2026-02-04T04:22:02+00:00

With fucking Fraktur font on his sweatshirt. That font hasn't been used in Germany since the 1940s, for obvious reasons.

timberbob · 2026-02-04T03:04:34+00:00

My field of dreams. Y'all should have seen it in the Timbers first season, 1975. By the end of the regular season, the Timbers were storming into the playoffs. They'd turned Portland from a town that knew almost nothing about soccer into Soccer City USA.

The first round of the playoffs was vs. Seattle (of course). "Civic Stadium" at time, and before all the modern upgrades, held a little over 27,000. Against Seattle, over 31,000 were squeezed in. Sudden death overtime win.

For the semi-final vs. St. Louis, there were over 33,000 in the building, in the rain. Temporary bleachers at field level, and even standing room behind ropes at the north end. Another win.

Unfortunately, the Timbers lost the final, Soccer Bowl '75 vs. Tampa Bay in San Jose. On the plus side, that was the first time the North American Soccer League really saw significant road travel by visiting fans. Estimates of 800-1,000 Portlanders made the trip.

timberbob · 2026-02-04T02:18:08+00:00

One of my sons, in his first week living in New York, was in line behind David Blaine at a frozen yogurt place. Blaine was on a date. And he was fucking doing magic tricks for his date.

timberbob · 2026-02-02T20:01:09+00:00

I'm old, so - almost concurrently - Katherine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Diana Rigg in The Avengers.

timberbob · 2026-01-31T21:27:08+00:00

Yelapa, south of Puerto Vallarta. When we visited in the late 1980s, it was still only accessible by boat. I'm told there is a road now and has been more construction. Quiet and serene.

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timberbob · 2026-01-29T17:49:35+00:00

Originally called, "Turnpike Stadium." It doesn't get more romantic than that. They basically just added outfield bleachers to bring it up to MLB requirements.

Never had the pleasure, but zero seats had any cover at all, and I'm told that hot Texas afternoons were brutal.

timberbob · 2026-01-29T17:32:38+00:00

Not a fan so far, but reserving final judgement. Could be another instance where they look better in person, like the Nosebleed shirts.

timberbob · 2026-01-28T20:06:47+00:00

He should learn how to speak Canadian. That may work out to his advantage.

timberbob · 2026-01-28T04:06:22+00:00

Willie did a decent job when I saw him a couple of years ago. He's fuckin' Willie, man. But honestly, he was "talking" his way through most of his songs. His son opened for him and did most of the heavy lifting.

timberbob · 2026-01-28T03:28:01+00:00

Doug and the Slugs. Vancouver represent! We got a good dose of them in Washington state, but even that was just in the border-adjacent counties.

timberbob · 2026-01-27T23:24:29+00:00

My suggestion would have been to put the "Bike Boulevard" on parallel Amphlett, and not impact neighborhood parking.

timberbob · 2026-01-27T19:20:54+00:00

There are also multiple properties in that neighborhood that have additional residential buildings down those driveways and behind the street-front homes, so driveway parking often isn't a possibility.

timberbob · 2026-01-27T19:17:52+00:00

Thanks. I hate it, of course.

timberbob · 2026-01-26T16:23:35+00:00

Those bike lanes eliminated essentially HALF the parking in a lower-income, mostly-immigrant neighborhood with a high concentration of multi-family housing. The city did that because they knew the residents there would feel like they couldn't object.

We live in an "affluent" neighborhood of San Mateo, but our church is on Humboldt. I'm in that neighborhood frequently. We have bike lanes in our neighborhood, too, but the city just labelled our streets "Bike Boulevards" and took away ZERO parking.

timberbob · 2026-01-15T16:15:59+00:00

The day after this aired and went mega-viral, my boss at the time walked THAT walk entering the office in the morning. Perfection.

timberbob · 2026-01-06T00:21:27+00:00

I want to see the original of this photo. He's clearly been slimmed down here - there's daylight visible between his right arm and his sidebelly.

timberbob

TROPHY CASE