#since it was late on a Tuesday afternoon in the off season there was virtually no one at the site and

[elephantbitterhead]

Another highlight from the Hadrian's Wall adventure -- we stopped to enjoy Cilurnum/Chesters Roman fort and spotted the feet of ancient dogs recorded for posterity. They're in terra cotta tiles that were used to build a kind of makeshift bathhouse in the dying days of the fort, after getting to the original bathhouse became too dangerous for reasons that are unclear (according to our guide). Look at all those tiles propping up that shambly hypocaust! We'll never know how many dog toes are lost to history in those stacks.

[lindoig7]

Tuesday-Friday, 25-28 August

Tuesday

We awoke carrying a few aches and pains from yesterday’s exertions, so we relaxed over some very simple killer Sudokus – we finished our previous book yesterday so started a new one today and the first few are VERY simple.

It was still raining on and off – more off than on – so we stayed in the van virtually all day.  We sorted and edited photos and wrote for our blogs all morning and watched a movie in the afternoon – Legends of the Fall.  It was quite good, if a little depressing.

After I cooked a more than acceptable steak and added it to Heather’s veges brilliantly cooked inside, we ate dinner and then played dominos while waiting for the HWS to heat enough water to do the dishes.  We usually turn the HWS off during the day to save gas (and the noise the heater makes) and had forgotten to turn it back on in the late afternoon.

We then started a new series of DVDs – just the first episode of True Detective. It is too early to tell if we will like it, but it is set in the US.  For some reason, I thought it was set in the UK when we bought the series a couple of weeks ago.

Wednesday

We were still a bit fragile this morning so had another easy morning in the van. We had intended doing the laundry, but opted instead for a quiet morning catching up on a few items of business, looking at photos and relaxing.  It was mostly sunny but still felt cold so we ran our heater almost all day again.

During the afternoon, we went for a pleasant drive before hitting the supermarket and booze shop again.  We mostly shop at Woolies, but I needed beer and have become quite partial to a cheapie made specifically for Liquorland.  It is called Steamrail Pale Ale and given my penchant for the romance, noise and smells of steam trains (and the fact that I drove one about 30 km as an 11- or 12-year-old kid), it seems appropriate to add the taste of Steam(rail) to my list of pleasures. We shopped at Coles, but they didn’t have everything we wanted and Liquorland didn’t have Heather’s favourite cider, so we finished the groceries at Woolies and the booze at BWS after all.

Our drive was originally planned for Noojee, but we saw a turnoff to the Tarago Reservoir and detoured to that.  It was a delightful drive, especially the last couple of clicks to the reservoir itself – big trees, winding track through pastures, quaint farms and outbuildings – very cute.  We had a short walk around the sprawling picnic area (where all forms of picnics or social gatherings are absolutely forbidden) but access to the dam and its water is securely fenced off. Instead of returning to the main road and Noojee, we continued on the Tarago road through picturesque Jindivik and meandered via lesser roads back to Warragul.

Thursday

It looks like being fine most of today, but with a wickedly wild, wild wind.  It is howling around, rattling the whole caravan and battering the awning even though it is in the lee of the van.  A great day to get the washing dry and it was definitely laundry day for us – but Heather used the dryer in the laundry and everything was dry in the time it would have taken to peg things on the line (and retrieve the things that would inevitably have blown away!).

I had a few little maintenance things to do, including trying to secure the awning a little more rigidly. As I said, the wind has been quite ferocious here today, particularly in the afternoon, and the whole caravan is constantly buffeted and bombarded with the shriek of the wind and the crashing of the awning.

We went out for a walk in the afternoon, just a kilometre or two around the circuit behind the van, but it was quite hard work heading into the teeth of the gale.  It is a few days since we did the loop out there and it is amazing how much difference such a short time makes.  There are many more flowers out (mainly our beloved Flinder-bells, aka onion weed) but so many trees and shrubs are now in bud, the willows are covered with long trailing green ribbons, all looking very lacy and delicate, and even the scrawny little stick just outside the van is developing its mantle of beautiful white blossom.  We hadn’t noticed any of this before, but it seemed quite obvious today that the season is definitely changing – even if the weather still shows little hint if spring (other than its traditional winds).

It is getting very hard to post anything to my blog at present.  The Wi-Fi in the park is very weak and frustrating.  I can get very slow access most days until about lunchtime, but still with lots of delays and drop-outs.  After lunch, I can never access it at all.  I managed to post a few things today by transferring some text and photos from my PC to a Sandisk USB stick, then using Bluetooth to drop that into my iPad Camera Roll, and composing and posting that to my blog using my tethered iPhone as a hotspot.  It’s a slow and laborious process with too many steps and stages where I can get things wrong.  The Tumblr app is by no means intuitive – and is a bit different on either my iPhone or iPad – so the whole process is fraught!  I will just have to keep persevering – or get up early enough to post things from my PC in the morning.

We went down to the ablution block for our showers just before 5 pm with some mountainous livid clouds threatening – and it is a good job we never left it any later.  Heather got back in time, but I had gone down a few minutes after her and had to jog back to the van in the first of some sprinkles foreboding a very heavy downpour that hit just as I reached the awning.  Another 30 seconds and I would have had two showers for the day.

Within an hour, all Hell broke loose.  The wind went absolutely wild.  It shrieked through the adjacent trees and the awning on the van next to us was reduced to a twisted pile of scrap within minutes.  Ours disconnected from its struts a couple of times but we went out quickly and rescued it before any damage occurred.  We could hardly hear each other for the noise, and the poor screeching Corellas and Galahs in the trees were being blown off their perches. The rain bucketed down and the lights flickered on and off for several minutes. If any of the trees behind the van had fallen our way, the van would have been completely crushed.  Fortunately, the prevailing winds all pass our van on their way to the trees.  It was all very exciting, if more than a little disconcerting.  It rained/poured on and off until about midnight or a bit after, but the wind kept lashing the van until about 5 am.  Next morning there were numerous branches down around the park, but the extent of the damage elsewhere became obvious during our excursion later in the day.

I have experienced some amazing winds in caravans.  I recall many (many) years ago, I was in an onsite van in Busselton (Western Australia) which is not so far from the Cape Leeuwin weather station and we heard that the anemometer wound off its stanchion at about 190 kph.  We awoke to 20 cm of water throughout the park, but being so sandy, it was all gone within a couple of hours.  Much more recently, we were at Camperdown in our previous little van and it was so wild that I had to park the car across the van to shield it from the worst of it as well as chocking the wheels and tying it down.  And at Tibooburra a few years ago, we were the only van in the park and drove out to Cameron Corner for the day without any inkling of an impending storm – but came back in the afternoon to find all the components of the awning distributed around the park.  Fortunately, nothing was broken and we were able to reconstruct it well enough to continue on our way.  We sat out a wild cyclone in the Kuril Islands a few years ago and Heather drew attention to another exciting storm event the first time we approached Inexpressible Island in Antarctica (NEITHER of these were in our caravan) but I still think Thursday’s little puff was about as violent as I can remember – perhaps because we were so close to the trees and the cacophony they generated.

Despite the drama of the storm, Heather made the most wonderful meal using our new double-sided frying pan/mini-oven.  We had bought a boned leg of lamb and she marinated it for almost a day with a great concoction of herbs and spices (in lots of yoghurt).  Cooking it in the pan with lots of chopped onion resulted in the most amazing rich, caramellised, delicious feast you could imagine.  It really was fantastic and we have enjoyed the leftovers in 3 meals since.  Superb!!!

Friday

A really great day today.  We headed south to the coast, but you should have seen the trees on the way that had been brought down overnight.  We saw maybe 20 or so giants and hundreds of smaller trees as well as thousands of branches, twigs and metres of bark stripped from the vegetation. We had to drive around dozens of branches and small trees on the road, but the really big ones blocking the whole road were already being removed.  Council and SES crews were hard at work, along with local farmers who were cutting up the logs and repairing broken fences and other damage.  I don’t suppose this was hugely unusual for them, but for (sort of) city slickers to see so many mammoth trees that had been guarding the road for centuries laying on the ground with their roots splayed to the heavens was pretty amazing.  It reminded us how lucky we were not to have been in the way of the giants that could have demolished our caravan had we been in the path of one.

We went down through Korumburra and Leongatha to Tarwin South and hence to Tarwin Meadows – only to find that it was private property and we almost ended up in their front yard.  We back-tracked and followed a lovely quiet road to the Cape Liptrap Lighthouse.  It was a wonderful short walk to the light-tower itself and we enjoyed some magnificent views and saw some lovely little birds (and some quite a bit bigger). The coast was still pretty wild after the storm but we kept ourselves safe, well away from the fury, at the top of the cliffs.  We had a bit of fun playing the calls of the Brown Thornbills on our birding app.  There were quite a few around and several came out to say good mornig to us as well.  Don’t usually do this, but we were trying to confirm their identity using the app and next moment they were reacting with us.

We followed the coast as close as we could and ate our lunch at Walkerville North whilst watching the sea-birds (and a dog harassing them) before going on to Waratah Bay.  We walked along the beach and saw millions of tiny sand-balls created by the little crabs that had burrowed down while the tide was out.  There were quite a few pretty shells, all broken, and hundreds of small smooth stones of almost every colour and pattern.  The beach was very flat and very wide, at least 150 metres wide I reckon, but the tide was coming in and although we watched it for a while, I guess the entire beach would have been reclaimed by King Neptune within half an hour or so.

We tried to get to Shallow Inlet but were again thwarted by the National Park closure.  We had tried to get in from the east a week or so ago without success and coming from the west didn’t make it any more doable.  It simply doesn’t make sense to close so many parks and reserves because of Covid.  Every National and State park is locked up for no conceivable reason.  They would be the safest places around!  Sure, Melbourne people aren’t allowed to travel, but there is much more freedom throughout the rest of the State but government/s have chosen to punish the rest of the country despite there being absolutely zero risk.  Many of the rules are simply moronic.  There is no possible policy reason for them and the only other interpretation I can put on this stupidity is that the rules are set with only vindictiveness in mind.

We were able to go to nearby Sandy Point - and when we reached the end of the road, we simply drove straight onto the beach. We weren’t the only car on the beach and it was obvious from the many tyre tracks that driving on the beach was normal.  We drove half a kilometre or so along to where there was a sign indicating that driving beyond that point was not allowed, but it was a bit of fun and enabled up to get some good views of the shore-birds.  We saw about 15 Eastern Curlews – not that common in our experience – and a couple of hundred Red-capped Plovers – a lot more than all I have seen in my lifetime.  It was a great opportunity for a few photos and a bit of a novelty to drive on the hard-packed sand.  The whole area was wonderfully quiet and peaceful and quite beautiful!

We dilly-dallied there for a while and then drove home via Meeniyan, Mirboo North and Trafalgar with the last leg in particular being through really beautiful country.

[seriestrash]

The List - Chapter Three

- 1 - 2 -

Summary: It’s summer vacation and TJ and Cyrus fill their days checking things off Cyrus’ list.

Read on AO3

Chapter Three: +3

Word Count: 2073

It’s late into the second week of summer and TJ and Cyrus have been checking things off the list with hast. Cyrus’ park day with TJ had boosted the younger boys confidence immensely and he was tackling things with a relative amount of ease. TJ works one morning and two afternoons a week but other than that TJ and Cyrus had been consistently spending their days together when their parents would allow.

In the past week Amber had stayed for dinner one night after her therapy session which was awkward to begin with - dining with the lady she has to open up to - but once she and Cyrus broke away to watch a movie together it was natural and full of easy laughs. Cyrus thought it worked out perfectly that Amber’s sessions were on a Tuesday evening because TJ was occupied at the gym. 

Today TJ and Cyrus head to the virtual reality arcade together for another task on the list. As per usual, the two end up messing around a lot and playfully get off task. Cyrus found the total emersion of the VR completely terrifying and TJ found that completely amusing but without being facetious. 

After completing the task and a bit more mucking around, the two decide to take a break from the games. TJ makes his way to the restroom whilst Cyrus secures a table. Cyrus hadn’t even been seated for a minute when a familiar face approaches him.

“Hey, Marty!” Cyrus greets him warmly.

“Hey, Cyrus, are you here alone?” Marty pricks up a brow and quickly lets his eyes scan the room. Cyrus suspected he was trying to work out if Buffy was present.

“No I’m here with TJ.” Cyrus announces.

Marty scrunches his face in confusion, “As in Kippen? As if the guy that’s a jerk to everyone, Buffy included?”

“TJ is just misunderstood.” Cyrus frowns lightly, “He’s different now to how he was.. You two would probably be really good friends if you gave him a chance.”

Marty gives Cyrus an unconvinced look and then nods his head as if he were motioning towards something. Cyrus turns back and finds TJ approaching.

“Hey, Marty.” TJ nods in the other boys direction as he sits at the table.

An awkward few seconds pass and Cyrus scrambles to quickly fill the silence. “So, Marty, are you here with anyone?”

“Nah, my mom’s across the road at the grocery store. I thought I’d kill time in here.” Marty answers. 

“Do you come here much?” TJ tries to contribute but Cyrus could tell his friend felt uneasy.

“Only once before.” Marty laughs awkwardly and Cyrus grimaces.

“Am I missing something?” TJ doesn’t understand the look they exchanged.

“He came here on a fake date with Buffy.” Cyrus explains.

“Jonah and Andi were there too.” Marty adds. “They were on a real date.. I think..  Actually I have no idea.”

Cyrus laughs because he was all too familiar with the awkward beginnings of Andi and Jonah. “Those were dark and confusing times, I’m not sure either of them knew what was going on.” Cyrus jokes and Marty chuckles lightly.

TJ folds his arms and coaxes his head as he looks across at Marty, “So are you still obsessed with Buffy?”

“I’m not obsessed with Buffy!” Marty says defensively.

Cyrus turns to TJ with a disapproving look.

“What?” TJ shrugs his shoulders at Cyrus, “Everybody knows he had a huge crush on her, it was very obvious.”

“Doesn’t mean we need to address it at the table.” Cyrus says in a hushed tone as if Marty couldn’t hear their conversation.

“I had a crush on Buffy, past tense and I was not obsessed.” Marty folds his arms like a huffy child and TJ wears and amused smirk.

“You have a girlfriend now, right?” Cyrus tries to steer the conversation somewhere new.

“Had, past tense.” Marty repeats with an exhale. 

“Did you break up because you’re still obsessed with Buffy?” TJ bites down on his smile as he anticipates Cyrus’ disapproving stare. Surely enough, Cyrus whips his wide-eyed and unimpressed look in TJ’s direction. 

“Yeah he’s a real angel now, Cyrus.” Marty rolls his eyes. 

“I’m just kidding,” TJ says genuinely although his smile contradicted his sincerity. 

“What about you, Cyrus?” Marty decides to let the teasing slide. “Do you still talk to that high school girl?” 

“Amber?” Cyrus furrows his brows. 

“The girl from The Spoon?” TJ questions as he had sat through her overly chatty service whilst there with Cyrus.

“No, her friend, the one you and Jonah double-dated with?” Marty clarifies.

“You dated a high school girl?” TJ seems surprised. 

“Iris.” Cyrus confirms and he realises he hadn't thought about her in a while. “No, we’re just friends.” 

"Too bad, she was cute.” Marty processes that with a nod.

“So Marty, are you going to try out for the basketball team again next year?” TJ clears his throat. 

“I think I might focus on track season first and decide about basketball later.” Marty tosses his head from side to side before settling upright again, “I heard Buffy was starting a girls team for next year though.” Once Marty notices TJ’s smirk return he rolls his eyes, “I know that from a friend who wanted to tryout, not because I’m obsessed with her.” 

TJ chuckles quietly and from there all awkward tension was relinquished. Marty and TJ continue to chat basketball and Cyrus loses interest quickly as he didn’t know how to contribute to the conversation.

“You look bored, Underdog.” TJ nudges Cyrus with his arm. 

“Me? I love sports, shooting hoops,” Cyrus exaggerates his enthusiasm, “Maybe I’ll try out for the team myself next year.” 

“You know since I’m captain I can put in a good word with the coach?” TJ plays along.

“As long as the coach can look past my lack of athleticism and inability to shoot the basketball anywhere near the hoop.” Cyrus jokes along with a laugh. 

“I didn’t see make a basket on the list.” TJ pricks up a brow. 

“That’s because basketball is boring,” Cyrus fakes a yawn, “Your one on one match with Buffy put me to sleep.” 

“Hey you seemed pretty excited when she beat me.” TJ sends him a gentle scold. 

“Buffy beat you at one on one?” Marty - whom had been sitting back, confused by TJ and Cyrus’ unlikely friendship as they joked - smirks, “I’d say I’m surprised but I’m not.” 

TJ rolls his eyes and shrugs it off. 

“You mentioned a list before, what list?” Marty questions. 

TJ looks to Cyrus with a hint of panic in his expression like he’s accidentally shared something Cyrus might not have wanted public but Cyrus is surprisingly forthcoming with his explanation.

“So you two are just hanging out going through this bucket list of sorts for the summer?” Marty asks. 

“Pretty much.” TJ bops his head with a smile. 

“A bucket list with some pretty lame goals.” Cyrus laughs nervously and TJ shakes his head at the shorter boys negativity. 

“That actually sounds pretty cool.” Marty looks genuinely impressed by the idea, “If you guys want some extra company...” 

Cyrus instinctively looks to TJ for approval and when TJ nods his head Cyrus returns his gaze back towards their friend, “We’ll call Marty from the party.” 

“It’s cuter when Buffy says it.” Marty jokes with a crinkled nose. 

Cyrus let out a sigh in anticipation and TJ’s smirk returns as he says, “You say you’re not obsessed with her but it kinda sounds like you-” 

“I’m not obsessed with Buffy.” Marty waves a finger in TJ’s direction, “But I am leaving.” 

“I was just kidding, you don’t have to go.” TJ frowns as he thought he had made Marty want to bail. 

“I have to get back to my mom.” Marty smiles to show he’s okay with the teasing. 

TJ and Cyrus walk Marty out and watch as he crosses the road towards the grocery store before turning their attention back to one another. 

“The twins” - TJ says referring to his younger siblings - “come home from sleep away camp tomorrow so we’re having a family day but the day after, we could meet by the outside basketball court at school, work on your professional basketball career?” TJ shifts his weight between his feet with a bouncy motion. 

“It’s not on the list.” Cyrus shakes his head. 

“So?” TJ scoffs, “We’ve gone off list before.” 

Cyrus crinkles his nose and shakes his head again. 

“Too bad.” TJ purses his lips momentarily, “We’re adding ‘make a basket’ to your list so we have to do it.”

“You can’t add things to the list?” Cyrus gives him a quizzical look, “The list is the list.”

“The list is final?” TJ almost challenges, “All 97 things is all you’ll ever do in your life?”

Cyrus frowns because TJ had a point.

“That’s what I thought,” TJ smirks victoriously.

“I’m sure I’ll learn I’m incompetent at plenty more things in my life,” Cyrus folds his arms with a huff.

TJ shakes his head with a silent chuckle, “Since I’m helping with the list I think it’s only fair that I get to add something onto it. Actually, 3 somethings,” TJ smiles, “I get to pick 3 tasks and that'll make it 100 things on the list.”

“Okay.” Cyrus agrees although his expression was dubious, “Make a basket,” Cyrus stresses the singular score, “What else?”

TJ thinks intensely for a moment before shrugging, “Not sure... To be determined.”

Cyrus groans, “The not knowing is physically painful for me, I hope you know that.”

TJ fails at hiding his amused grin. “So we’re on for the day after tomorrow?”

“You’re not sick of me yet?” Cyrus asks without really meaning to. 

"I just insisted I get to extend the list by 3 tasks.” TJ laughs but once Cyrus’ blank expression remains TJ affirms, “I’m not sick of you, Cyrus. I’m having so much fun...” TJ’s smiles curls into a worried look, “Are you getting sick of me?”

“No, not at all.” Cyrus shakes his head quickly and he becomes very aware of how awkward he’s made things. 

“So, day after tomorrow?” TJ repeats and Cyrus thinks maybe he only made it weird for himself. 

“Day after tomorrow.” Cyrus nods. 

“Walk me home?” TJ jokingly shimmies his shoulders. 

“I got nothing better to do.” Cyrus shrugs. 

“Gee you really know how to make a guy feel special.” TJ scoffs and plays up his mock offence. 

The two begin walking together. “So what went wrong with Marty and Buffy?” TJ questions. “I was pretty certain she was just at sweet on him as he was her.” 

Cyrus thinks about this for a moment. Why had it never occurred to him that her unknown crush could be on Marty? 

“Earth to underdog?” TJ grabs Cyrus’ attention as he had zoned out thinking about Buffy. 

“Huh?” Cyrus is confused for a moment. 

“Marty, Buffy?” TJ summarises. 

“I can’t talk about that with you.” Cyrus frowns. “Buffy wouldn't like me discussing her with you.” 

“But we’re all friends now.” TJ states. 

“Still.” Cyrus shakes his head, the last thing he wanted was to get into trouble with Buffy again over something he’s shared about her with TJ.

“So you and Buffy have never talked about me before?” TJ questions. 

“Why would we?” Cyrus laughs nervously and he regretted his jittery reply although TJ didn’t seem to register it as odd, his joking demeanour remains. 

“Because I’m the coolest guy you know.” TJ smirks and it was obvious he was playing around. 

“Jonah is the coolest guy I know.” Cyrus holds back a laugh. 

TJ cups a hand to his chest like Cyrus had just wounded him with his words. “I have a reputation to uphold and you’re saying I’m second best to ultimate frisbee boy?” 

Cyrus sends a scold sidewards at him for the little jab at Jonah’s sporting preference but he still decides to play along and take TJ down a peg or two in the process. “Who said anything about you being second best?”

“How low on the list am I?" TJ fakes a gasp and exaggerates an upset expression, “You’re being very mean to me this afternoon.” 

Cyrus worries TJ was serious and properly apologises and TJ laughs quietly at the neurotic and sincere reaction. With a smile he says, “You couldn’t be mean if you tried, underdog.” 

[Next Chapter]

End Notes: Chapter Three!! I Hope you’re enjoying the story so far. Thanks so much to everyone that left replies and likes and reblogs on the last chapter! 

What’s that I hear? Oh it’s just me self serving my muffy heart.. Carry on!

[ericvick]

What to know this week

Traders are gearing up for a busy week of corporate earnings results from the mega-cap technology stocks this week. This will come alongside a slew of economic data reports and a monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve. 

The biggest names in the S&P 500 — including Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOGL) — are set to report second-quarter results this week. The reports will add to what has already been an exceptional earnings season: So far, 24% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported second-quarter results, and of these, 88% have topped Wall Street’s earnings per shares estimates, according to an analysis from FactSet. The blended earnings growth rate for the blue-chip index, which includes both companies’ reported growth rates and the estimated rates for the companies have yet to report, stands at 74.2%, which would be the highest since the fourth quarter of 2009. 

Earnings results from technology companies Snap (SNAP) and Twitter (TWTR) last week underscored the strength in the internet advertising market, suggesting a strong backdrop that likely also benefitted bigger ad-driven companies like Facebook and Alphabet. Snap’s second-quarter revenue growth came in at 116%, or the biggest jump in four years, and the stock rocketed to a record high following the results. Both Snap and Twitter grew active users more than expected, and their estimates topping second-quarter revenues suggested better monetization of these increased users. 

According to JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth, Snap’s results especially “will likely raise the bar for other ad names,” including Alphabet and Facebook. The companies report results on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. 

“GOOGL shares are well-owned, but GOOGL remains one of our Top Ideas in 2021 as we believe: 1) reopening will remain a tailwind for Search and YouTube ads, especially as overall spend continues to shift online and travel continues to recover; 2) overall margins will remain meaningfully above pre-pandemic levels … 3) Cloud growth will remain solid at 40%+ while profit losses continue to improve; and 4) greater capital returns are likely on the heels of the $50 billion incremental buyback authorization last quarter,” Anmuth wrote in a note published July 22. 

Story continues

As for Facebook, “advertising should continue to benefit from reopening and we are encouraged by newer initiatives around Reels and Shops, as well as the creator economy, audio, and AR/VR [augmented reality/virtual reality] a bit further out,” Anmuth added. 

An illustration picture taken in London on December 18, 2020 shows the logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft displayed on a mobile phone and a laptop screen. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Alphabet has been the best performer of the Big Tech FAANG stocks so far in 2021, with shares rising 52% compared to the S&P 500’s 17.5% gain for the year-to-date. As a company that derives meaningful revenue from travel-related advertising revenue, Alphabet has been viewed as a key beneficiary of the broader economic reopening that began to occur in the spring of this year. Other software names, by contrast, have generally been viewed as bigger beneficiaries of a stay-at-home and work-from-home environment. 

Alphabet’s second-quarter revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC), is expected to grow 46% to $46.1 billion, according to Bloomberg data, which would mark the fastest top-line growth for the company since the fourth quarter of 2012. 

Still, other online advertisers are also poised to get a boost from the reopening environment, with marketers more open to spend as pandemic-related uncertainty eased. Facebook’s revenues likely grew 49% over last year to $27.9 billion for the second quarter, accelerating slightly from the 48% rate in the first three months of 2021. That growth would come even as the company continues to contend with some decreased ad-targeting abilities after a recent Apple update that allowed users to opt out of tracking in apps including Facebook on iOS devices.

And Apple, for its part, likely also had a strong fiscal third-quarter, according to Wall Street’s estimates. Though consensus analysts expect to see that revenue growth slowed sequentially to 24% from the second quarter’s 54%, a boost from Apple’s latest iPhone upgrade cycle will likely still be at play, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. 

“While the chip shortage was an overhang for Apple during the quarter, we believe the iPhone and Services strength in the quarter neutralized any short term weakness that the Street was anticipating three months ago,” Ives said in a note published July 21. “Taking a step back we believe based on our recent Asia supply chain checks that iPhone 13 demand will be similar/slightly stronger than iPhone 12 out of the gates which speaks to our thesis that this elongated ‘supercycle’ will continue for Cupertino well into 2022.” 

Meanwhile, e-commerce behemoth Amazon is heading into its first-ever earnings report without founder Jeff Bezos at the helm. The stock has underperformed so far in 2021, rising 12.3% for the year-to-date, after jumping by more than 76% in 2020 amid a pandemic-fueled boom in e-commerce demand. 

“We expect strong top-line growth in ’21, albeit decelerating versus pandemic-charged ’20, led by e-commerce growth of +27% y/y (vs. +42% y/y), including a strong 2Q and solid growth in 3Q-4Q as AMZN comps the pandemic surge,” Cowen analyst John Blackledge wrote in a note. 

An early Prime Day sales extravaganza is poised to help boost Amazon’s second-quarter top-line growth. The two-day event took place in late June this year, or at the end of the second quarter, compared to July 2019 and October 2020. And on the bottom-line, Amazon’s faster-growing, high-margin Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform likely continued to help boost profitability. 

Federal Reserve decision

The Federal Reserve kicks off its latest two-day meeting on Tuesday, with a monetary policy decision and press conference from Fed Chair Jerome Powell set to take place Wednesday afternoon. 

The Fed’s June monetary policy statement and updated Summary of Economic Projections were taken as much less accommodative than many market participants expected, with the central bank raising its median forecasts for U.S. economic growth and core inflation over the next two years. The projections suggested the Fed might be more inclined to adjust policy in light of a fast-recovering economy experiencing rising inflation.

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell testifies before Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing to examine the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress, Thursday, July 15, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Fed’s first monetary policy move would impact the central bank’s quantitative easing program, with asset purchases still taking place at a rate of $120 billion per month. Powell’s discussions around these purchases have shifted throughout his recent public appearances, suggesting more serious consideration among FOMC members to announce the start of tapering. In April, for instance, Powell said the economy was “a long way from” achieving the Fed’s employment and inflation targets that would trigger a pivot to less accommodative monetary policy. But after the Fed’s June meeting, Powell said the economy was “still a ways off” from the central bank’s goals.

“Next week’s FOMC meeting should be less eventful than June’s hawkishly-perceived meeting. There will be no new interest rate forecasts ‘dots’ so attention will focus on the post-meeting statement and Chair Powell’s press conference,” JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli wrote in a note. “We believe the statement’s wording around asset purchases will be unchanged, but we expect that Powell will relate that the Committee discussed tapering again and that the economy is slowly getting closer to passing the ‘substantial further progress’ test to actually start tapering.

However, in the weeks since the Fed’s June meeting, more concerns arose around the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which triggered a sell-off in markets last week and which might increase monetary policymakers’ perceptions of the risks still present in the economy. At the same time, however, the risk that fast-rising inflation might need to be curbed with a monetary policy adjustment has also increased, with core consumer prices and producer prices each rising faster-than-expected in June. 

But on net, the Fed is likely to maintain a wait-and-see approach before making any adjustments, according to Feroli.

“Powell’s mid-July Congressional testimony raised the prospect that the FOMC statement would introduce an asymmetric policy bias: standing prepared to adjust policy if the Fed ‘saw signs that the path of inflation or longer-term inflation expectations were moving materially and persistently beyond levels consistent with our goal,'” Feroli said. “Since that testimony the rise of the Delta variant has injected some downside growth risks into the outlook, and this should help the doves argue for retaining the current symmetric policy bias.” 

Earnings Calendar

Monday: Lockheed Martin (LMT) before market open; Tesla (TSLA) after market close

Tuesday: Centene (CNC), UPS (UPS), 3M (MMM), SiriusXM Holdings (SIRI), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), General Electric (GE), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), Polaris (PII), Waste Management Inc (WM), Boston Scientific Corp (BSX), JetBlue (JBLU), Fiserv (FISV), Raytheon Technologies (RTX), Invesco (IVZ), Lamb Weston Holdings (LW) before market open; Apple (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Alphabet (GOOGL), Teladoc Health (TDOC), Visa (V), Microsoft (MSFT), Mondelez International (MDLZ), Juniper Networks (JNPR), The Cheesecake Factory (CAKE) after market close

Wednesday: Humana (HUM), CME Group (CME), Pfizer (PFE), McDonald’s (MCD), Six Flags Entertainment (SIX), Boeing (BA), Moody’s Corp (MCO), General Dynamics Corp (GD), Teledyne Technologies (TDY), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) before market open; Facebook (FB), Ford (F), Xilinx (XLNX), PayPal (PYPL), ServiceNow (NOW), Lam Research Corp (LRCX), Align Technology (ALGN) after market close 

Thursday: Merck & Co (MRK), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), T Rowe Price Group (TROW), Comcast Corp (CMCSA), Spirit Airlines (SAVE), Valero Energy (VLO), Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT), The Carlyle Group (CG), Mastercard (MA), Molson Coors Beverage Co (TAP), Keurig Dr. Pepper (KDP), Yum! Brands (YUM), PG&E (PCG), Citrix Systems (CTXS), S&P Global Inc (SPGI) before market open; Amazon (AMZN), Overstock.com (OSTK), Albertsons Co (ACI), Altria Group (MO), T-Mobile (TMUS), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Twilio (TWLO), Pinterest (PINS), Mohawk Industries (MHK), Upwork (UPWK), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), United States Steel (X), Gilead Sciences (GILD), 

Friday: Caterpillar (CAT), VF Corp (VFC), Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM), Chevron Corp (CVX), Danimer Scientific (DNMR), Procter & Gamble (PG), AbbVie (ABBV), Charter Communications (CHTR) before market open

Economic Calendar

Monday: New home sales, month-on-month, June (4.0% expected, -5.9% in May); Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity Index, July (32.3 expected, 31.1 in June)

Tuesday: Durable goods orders, June preliminary (2.0% expected, 2.3% in May); Durable goods orders excluding transportation, June preliminary (0.8% expected, 0.3% in May); Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, June preliminary (0.8% expected, 0.1% in May); Non-defense capital goods shipments excluding aircraft, June preliminary (0.8% expected, 1.1% in May); FHFA House Price Index, month-on-month, May (1.6% expected, 1.8% in April); S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index, month-on-month, May (1.50% expected, 1.62% in April); S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index, year-on-year, May (16.20% expected, 14.88% in April); Conference Board Consumer Confidence, July (124.0 expected, 127.3 in June); Richmond Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index, July (20 expected, 22 in June)

Wednesday: MBA Mortgage Applications, week ended July 23 (-4.0% during prior week); Advance Goods Trade Balance, June (-$88.0 billion expected, -$88.1 billion in May); Wholesale Inventories, month-on-month, June preliminary (1.1% expected, 1.3% in May); FOMC Monetary Policy Decision

Thursday: Initial jobless claims, week ended July 24 (380,000 expected, 419,000 during prior week); Continuing claims, week ended July 17 (3.192 million expected, 3.236 million during prior week; GDP annualized, quarter-on-quarter, second quarter (8.5% expected, 6.4% in first quarter); Personal consumption, second quarter (10.5% expected, 11.4% in first quarter); Core personal consumption expenditures, quarter-over-quarter, second quarter (6.0% expected, 2.5% in first quarter); Pending home sales, month-on-month, June (0.5% expected, 8.0% in May)

Friday: Personal income, June (-0.4% expected, -2.0% in May); Personal spending, June (0.7% expected, 0.0% in May); PCE deflator, month-on-month, June (0.6% expected, 0.4% in May); PCE deflator, year-on-year, June (4.0% expected, 3.9% in May); PCE core deflator, month-on-month, June (0.6% expected, 0.4% in May); PCE core deflator, year-on-year, June (3.7% expected, 3.4% in May); University of Michigan Sentiment, July final (80.8 expected, 80.8 in prior print) 

—

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

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[keywestlou]

MORNING POST #49

Spent yesterday morning from 8 to noon undergoing some medical tests and blood work. Part of my annual heart check up. No time for the blog. By the time I researched and wrote it, it would have been 5 or 6 in the late afternoon.

Ergo, today a Morning Blog. My attempt to cover 2 days in 1. No order. You get my notes in the order they are stacked on my desk.

Enjoy!

Monopoly seems to have lasted a lifetime. Still ongoing. Remember from my youth. Played the game for generations with friends, my parents, my children, and my grandchildren.

The game will never die. Some variations have come out over the years. A new Key West Monopoly set will be available for purchase in the fall. In time for Christmas.

Casey Arnold is a Key West businessman. He came up with the idea of a Key West game. He contacted Hasboro Gaming who owns the rights to the Monopoly game. He received permission to proceed.

The new game is basically the same as the old. It will reflect Key West, however. Tokens will include a Kino sandal, slice of Key Lime pie, rooster, conch shell, manatee, and fishing boat.

No question. Most of us will be playing Monopoly again. For me, with Robert and Ally.

A South Beach update.

First, a possible murder. Two North Carolina men and a Pennsylvania woman. The two men raped the woman. She later died in her hotel room. It is claimed the two men gave her a pill before raping her.

The men were aged 21 and 24. The woman 24.

The men have been arrested.

I received a call yesterday from a friend. She wanted to share what she was seeing in South Beach.

Tons of people. Thought City government did the right thing in imposing the 8 o’clock curfew. Things were getting out of hand. A riot was inevitable.

The surprise was that the partiers were not college kids alone. Most were young adults. Those already out of school. Described to me as “young professionals.”

Interesting.

Filibuster. Biden has to get rid of it. I keep repeating myself.

He will have to crawl before he walks. First, a return to a Senator having to stand and argue his position for hours.

A few months later, a better way. Get rid of it in its entirety. By that time, Biden will have secured the support of the two recalcitrant Democrats or picked up some Republican Senators.

Biden and he country need the filibuster gone. Otherwise much needed legislation will move. McCullough will have succeeded “in scorching the earth.”

The word filibuster is derived from a Dutch reference to pirates. Evidence of its evil beginnings.

Filibuster became popular in the U.S. in the 1850s. I suspect because of the slavery issue at the time.

It has been used since in order to prevent action on a bill on the Senate floor.

There was a time when U.S. budgets were in the hundreds of thousands. Then millions. Followed by billions. Now, trillions!

Wow!

The recent stimulus package which has become law was $1.9 trillion. Talk now is of a $3 trillion infrastructure bill.

The condition of the U.S. economy today requires America to spend overwhelming dollars. The only way to stave off a recession.

Infrastructure is the best way to proceed. The money will create tons of jobs. Employment will rise dramatically. People will have money in their pockets to spend for items not necessary for survival/basics.

Biden has an immigration problem of magnitude on his hands. Especially involving children without parents. Now in excess of 3,000.

He thus far has played the game of blocking out news re the problem. I don’t blame him. However not healthy for the U.S. nor Biden.

The press have been a problem. They want access and ability to obtain news re the immigration children. Biden has been polluting press access. His conduct not one of transparency.

Critical though I am, I believe he will turn the problem around. Access however should be available even before he achieves his goal.

Mask wearing continues to be a problem. Many did not and do not want to wear them. Thank you, Donald. Government officials cater to their desires. The laws re masks are generally permitted to be flouted.

DeSantis advised last week he was not only opening Florida to businesses, he was also exempting old and new fines re failure to wear a mask.

Prior to DeSantis’ remarks, the Key West police were doing a better job re the masks. Giving out tickets. They stopped however based on DeSantis deciding the fines were not collectible.

Now no  one wears a mask. Not quite accurate. A mere handfull at any given time.

The Citizens’ Voice carried an interesting comment re the situation in this morning’s newspaper: “It appears that on the one-year anniversary of the lock down, St. Patrick came and drove the masks out of Key West.”

Last week, 8 killed in Atlanta. Yesterday, 10 in Boulder. A gun problem unquestionably. I continue to wonder if we as a people are ever going to get the gun issue under control.

I thought progress was being made. The NRA had been weakened. However, then came January 6. Even I who have never handled a gun or cared to, wondered if maybe this was the time for me to carry.

If January 6 was reflective of what is to come, then I need to protect myself. The issue of personal survival now part of the mix.

A thought concerning the Asian women murdered in Atlanta.

Respectfully, I thought any Asian problem in the U.S. ended with World War II. Never heard of any since, except those Trump motivated against China.

With the shootings, groups, organisations, and individuals have come out of the shadows and advising how horrific it has been for Asian women. The racism ran deep.

Glad they were there to tell us who were unaware. They should have been more vocal, if at all, before the Atlanta deaths.

Such is not the point I wish to make however. It is with the massage parlors themselves. Generally advertising Asian women inside. Publically known Asian women were the workers. Most if not all knew or suspected the massage parlors were dens of inequity.  Whore houses. Brothels.

A parlor provides “massage services for a fee.” As early as the 19th century, it became common knowledge the massage parlors were being used as a “euphemism for a brothel.”

In 2019, the Polaris Project estimated there were 9,000 massage parlors in the U.S.providing sexual services. “Full services” and “rub and Tug” available. The latter referring to only hand jobs being offered.

A 2011 study in New York city reported the “house fee” paid up front to the “mama-san” was $60 to $100 per visit. An extra $40 was required to be paid to the sex worker for a massage and “happy ending.” Oral and full service required an additional fee on top of the $40.

The massage parlors run like the whore houses in days old run by the Mafia. Girls are moved from one massage parlor to another for variety and safety purposes. A raided massage parlor reopened within a few days under a new corporation. The corporate trail made it virtually impossible to trace ownership.

My criticism once again is simple. Those now arguing in support of their Asian sisters should have been out there years ago arguing that their people were being used as prostitutes in the slave trade. Why weren’t they?

Their may be one explanation. They knew these women were working in the trade because they needed the money. To support themselves and their families. The apple cart was not to be turned over less the ladies not have a source of income to provide a somewhat decent life.

Key West has 2 Asian type parlors that I am aware of. I mentioned this 2 years ago in a blog. All of a sudden 2 appeared in Key West. One on Duval and the other on the corner of U.S. 1 and Eisenhower. Still there. Names Asian Massage Key West and Island Massage Spa.

On this day in 1775, Patrick Henry before the Virginia Provincial Convention spoke, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”

Syracuse, my Syracuse! I spent the season crying and moaning how terrible we were doing. Kept saying the best material ever player wise, but not getting it together.

Richard Nixon when discussing an election, said the campaign must peak as election day is reached.

Syracuse seems to be peaking. Wow!

First, I was shocked the team even got into the NCAA Tournament. Further shocked when I saw they were a #11 seed in the Midwest Region. Not bad.

Syracuse’s first game was against # 6 seed Sand Diego State. Syracuse won.

The next game this weekend pitted Syracuse against #3 seed West Virginia. Syracuse won.

Syracuse plays in the Sweet Sixteen this weekend.

They look terrific. Especially Buddy Boeheim. He has really come out. His shooting fantastic. He has scored 30 and 25 points in the 2 games mentioned.

I became irritated before the West Virginia game sunday night. In the pre-game show, the sportscasters analyzed the pending game. Gave all of 15 seconds to Syracuse. Spent several minutes thereafter talking about how good West Virginia was, that they should have been the #1 seed rather than #3, etc. Syracuse forgotten.

I do not know where Syracuse is going from this point forward. I hope their peaking continues. It would be nice to go to the Final Four once again. Even better, to win the whole thing.

I have tons more of notes. Blog already too long. I may be able to use some in tomorrow’s blog.

Tonight my blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine my time. Join me. I rant and rave. Love it! www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

MORNING POST #49 was originally published on Key West Lou

[kansascityhappenings]

Joe’s Weather World: Winter goes on a bit of a break (FRI-12/20)

For many of you the holidays start really getting into swing this weekend…last minute rushing around…family coming into and out of town…just a general hustle and bustle of the holidays.

That means you don’t check in with me and the blog as often…which is good and bad. Bad when there is active weather…good that this time of year is sort of a pleasant distraction from the day to day routine. With the sort of mundanely mild weather trends through Christmas Eve…perhaps longer…it’s really not going to be a bad thing to have your other distractions.

The bottom line is Merry Christmas! I’ll get a few blogs together next week…but really there isn’t a lot going on right now and that’s good for traveler’s and good for about everyone else who don’t want a White Christmas.

Forecast: 

Today: Cloudy this morning…there may be a brief sprinkle south of KC…then clearing later afternoon with highs approaching 50°

Tonight: Fair skies and chilly but not bad for late December with lows in the 30° range

Saturday: Should be brighter with highs in the lower 50s

Sunday: Milder with highs in the 55-60° range

Monday: Mostly sunny and warm with highs near 60°…some upside

Discussion:

Well yesterday the EURO through a Hail Mary White Christmas pass attempt. I showed it on the news last night and told you I had doubts the modelling was going to be correct though.

Last night that snow was toast…so really that 1% chance of a White Christmas is about 0% right now…

It may rain though…

The EURO data overnight has this look for who will have at least some snow on the Ground for Christmas Day…

Upper Midwest and Rockies area seems most favored and that is about right for Christmas.

Nationwide today at least…some 38% of the country is snow covered as of this morning.

The last time we had more snow on the ground on this date was back in 2016.

So far this year…we’ve had 5.4″ of snow…and while nothing is coming for at least a week…perhaps longer…there may be one more chance before the New Year.

Here in the Plains though the snow season has started out well “overall”.

Already 20-50″ worth across the Upper Midwest.

Again nothing really promising down here for at least a week for snow lovers to get too excited about.

The opposite actually. I just wanted to drop a couple of items in regarding the warmth coming up. Yesterday we hit 51° at KCI…far exceeding forecasts…the snow up there is virtually gone except in shaded areas…while I look out my window this morning on the south side with considerably more snowcover. Even that will be toast by later tomorrow mostly.

I mentioned that we would’ve been 60-65° yesterday without the snow on the ground in the region. When the snow finally disappears in the area…we’re poised for a dramatic warm-up given enough sunshine and a bit of a breeze.

Here are the highest highs for Sunday the 22nd.

and for Monday the 23rd…

and for the heck of it Tuesday the 24th (Christmas Eve).

I don’t think we’ll be in the mid 60s…but near 60 any of those days is possible although Tuesday may be more of a struggle because of a lot of clouds filtering the sunshine.

Hey not bad for the first few days of winter…Saturday night actually at 10:19 PM

Saturday will mark the start of astronomical winter with the Winter Solstice occurring at 10:19 PM. This is the shortest day (amount of daylight) of the year. After this we will gradually gain more daylight. #wiwx pic.twitter.com/VOgFCct0wx

— NWS Milwaukee (@NWSMKX) December 20, 2019

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Meanwhile in Alaska…it’s cold (for a change)…like real cold.

I’ll often show you Alaska when WE’RE real cold…typically they’ll be warmer up there in parts of the state. Well when they get real cold…we typically are milder (not always but more often than not).

How cold was it…well something yesterday happened in Barrow, AK…far northern AK…for the 1st time since June 24th…they had a day with temperatures BELOW average. That’s right…a 177 day streak of warmer than average weather…broke yesteday. There may have been one 1 day average temperatures.

Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska, had a daily temperature below normal today for the first time since June 24th! #akwx @AlaskaWx pic.twitter.com/1tUK9sZEjC

— Brian Brettschneider (@Climatologist49) December 20, 2019

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The high there was -4 and the low was -15…that was a average for the day of -9°…1° below average.

With the changing climate up there and the lack of sea ice for many days/months it couldn’t get overly cold despite being in near total darkness. The sea ice has filled in however in most of the region

4-12″ thick ice is considered “young” ice.

Anyway…cold there…milder trends here.

By the way the new long range forecast came out last night off the EURO model…I didn’t get too deeply involved…I’ll look or tonight but here is a glance at the forecast snow through early FEBRUARY from the various models that go into the ensemble (average).

Average data is over 6″…which actually would be about normal for JAN into early FEB.

Snowlovers can dream though I guess.

OK that’s it for today…no blogs over the weekend I don’t think…quiet weather. Again Merry Christmas…safe travels and I’ll see you again on the blog early next week.

My feature photo comes from Kelsey Lynn Bollin out in Leavenworth, KS…cool shot!

Joe

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/12/20/joes-weather-world-winter-goes-on-a-bit-of-a-break-fri-12-20/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/12/20/joes-weather-world-winter-goes-on-a-bit-of-a-break-fri-12-20/

[ofasleepvisits]

I’m not where you left me at all

Sometime in late February 2020 I coughed in my boss’s boss’s office and he jokingly asked if I’d been to Italy.

March started and we were aware of growing coronavirus concerns, but we thought life would still be normal.

Everything in our lives revolved around final preparations for our once in a lifetime trip to Spain.

Saturday March 7th

It was the second to last soccer weekend of the season. Our kids would not be attending the final games on the 14th because we would be flying to London the night before. Lyla’s coach told her to have fun in Spain and thought nothing of any chances of us not going. There was talk of coronavirus among the parents, but no one was noticeably concerned. One parent said something to me about it being like the flu so obviously we should still take our trip. The media was probably blowing things out of proportion to hurt Trump. 

That evening when the trip was finally imminent, we sat down to make final arrangements. Mindy is a planner and didn’t like that we had so many details left unaccounted for. We had the big stuff done months ago...

5 plane tickets on Norwegian Air, MCO to LGW Friday night to Saturday morning, LGW to BCN Monday morning, BCN to MCO (connecting through LGW) on the following Monday

The Hilton at near LGW for the weekend, even opting for that first Friday night though we wouldn’t be there until the morning so we wouldn’t have to wait until Saturday evening to check in

The AirBnB in Eixample in Barcelona from Monday to Sunday, the hotel by the airport for Sunday night so we could go straight there after the game, already packed in ready for our flight

And of course the 5 tickets to Camp Nou to see FC Barcelona and Messi play

...but nothing else planned. So that evening, we booked a black cab in London to take us to see the sights. I think coronavirus was on our minds, so we’d stay away from crowds. That would be for Sunday the 15th. We booked all sorts of little things around Barcelona too, the zoo, some museums, some parks, and other sights for our week there.

Sunday March 8th

I checked the weather and realized I needed some warmer clothes so I went to the mall and spent about $200 at the gap on button-up shirts and sweaters. We had bought the kids new sneakers the weekend before I think. Mindy said she’d buy some clothes the next day.

Monday March 9th

I went to work like a normal day. Came home like a normal day.

After dinner you left to go clothes shopping and I read about soccer. Champions League games were scheduled the next two days. Things were getting worse in Spain in terms of the coronavirus. There was talk of playing games behind closed doors, i.e. without fans in attendance. It sounded crazy. Mindy came home around 9p with her new clothes. I told her there was a chance of us not being able to go to the Barcelona game, the whole reason for our trip. We would know more tomorrow I said.

For the first time we talked seriously about not doing our trip.

Tuesday March 10th

I checked online first thing in the morning and it was official, the next two La Liga games would be played behind closed doors. We decided not to do our trip.

Did the heartbreak change me? Maybe

I went to work and told my boss and she seemed surprised. She said she and her family was still planning on doing their NYC trip for spring break.

FC Barcelona sent a nice email about refunds for our tickets being processed within 30 days and that felt good. Norwegian Air and Airbnb weren’t budging for now.

Wednesday March 11th

A potential vendor came to our offices to pitch my boss and me on a product I now forget what it was. He was from France and I remember shaking his hand and thinking to myself, like, maybe I shouldn’t be shaking his hand.

That was my birthday and I’d recorded the Liverpool vs Athletico Madrid Champions League game from the afternoon to watch in the evening. It’d be the last major soccer game with fans in 2020. It was fun to see Liverpool lose. A week later the game would be blamed for spreading since all the Spanish people had flown to England. Months later I don’t think anyone seriously thought that made a difference.

The president spoke that night. He talked of banning travel. We watched selfishly hoping that something he would say would help us get our money back. At this point whatever was going on in the world very much felt like something that was happening to us specifically. I was regaling coworkers with stories of misfortune about a trip of a lifetime canceled.

It was either this night or the next day that I posted on Facebook about how our trip was canceled and we may not get our money back but our family was happy and healthy and that’s what was important and whatever other trite pseudo-optimism works on social media to get supportive comments from distant family and various acquaintances.

Thursday March 12th

We got called into a conference room at work around lunch time or maybe just after lunchtime, 20 or 30 of us shoved into a conference room meant for 15 people, and told that we would be working from home until the end of the month. We could start tomorrow if we wanted. Or we could come tomorrow to gather some things then start working from home on Monday. There were some questions of whether you had to. If I recall correctly, the answer was you didn’t have to work from home if you didn’t want to, you could come to the office during the second half of March. But I may be misremembering.

But that doesn’t matter because by the end of the day we learned via email the policy was tightened to, don’t even come to the office tomorrow. Work from home starts Friday March 13th. No one come to the office until April. My boss wouldn’t be doing that NYC trip.

Friday March 13th

The day was a mix between work and dealing with the Norwegian Air. They kept hanging up on us. They refused to acknowledge the pandemic and how it would be reckless for a family to travel. Our Airbnb host was saying the same thing everything is great in Barcelona, you should still come she said via email.

One final phone call with Norwegian Air around 8p, I think our flight was a few hours later, the rep was like, what’s the problem, flight to Gatwick looks to be on time. How could you in good faith send a family on that flight? Click.

Don't show up, don't come out Don't start caring about me now Walk away, you know how Don't start caring about me now

Disputed the charge with Amex. Posted to Norwegian Air’s LinkedIn. Mindy found the CEO email address and send a message. Something worked, a few days later we got our money back. A few weeks later we got our Airbnb money back. One by one, Mindy got us all our sight seeing money we spent that weekend before the trip back.

Ironically FC Barcelona was the last to refund us because the March games ended up not being played behind closed doors but rather were “postponed,” I guess under the auspice of if they played them in summer with fans we’d be expected to attend. Didn’t matter, the rescheduled games in summer were without fans and we got refunded.

The next week

We made our best of spring break. Tried to recreate our weekend in London with food: Ale House seemed to offer the best fish and chips. Restaurants were weird. Lockdown and quarantine were sort of haphazard, masks weren’t a thing yet. By the middle of the week, everything was closing. We made “paella” and had sangria to recreate Spain. We played Barcelona’s scheduled Champions League game vs. Napoli on FIFA on the Xbox. Work started getting crazy so I really couldn’t take a legitimate week off.

The rest of the year

Eventually the pandemic went on, it quickly no longer felt like something that was just happening to us. Plenty of people had their trips of a lifetime canceled. And much worse, there were job losses and school closings. So we considered ourselves the lucky ones.

Though it took some time to survive you I'm better on the other side

And we really were and are the lucky ones. There were and are millions of people all over the world stuck at home by themselves, the whole world disrupted. Beside that missed trip and the pain of virtual school and the adjustment to working from home, our life has been fine. We just haven’t experienced the pandemic as acutely as so many people.

On a random Tuesday night, the five of us sit down for dinner. Our kids make us laugh. And we realize we are spending time with the people we most want to be with in the entire world. In ten or twenty years we would pay untold sums of money to have what we have for free right now.

[newyorktheater]

Below is the day-by-day calendar of “theater openings”* in September, 2020, as we enter the sixth month of winging it online — and experimenting back offline. This month will see Brian Cox as George Bernard Shaw, Harriet Harris as Eleanor Roosevelt and Damian Lewis as Oedipus the King, as well as the return of Broadway’s Boys in the Band. The Apple Family cast gets a third go-round, and there are “reunion readings” with the original Off-Broadway casts of “Hamlet in Bed” (including Annette O’Toole and John Glover) and of last year’s “Sugar in Our Wounds.” The Met offers for free its new production of “Porgy and Bess” with such Heavenly tunes as “Summertime,” just as this unsettling summer’s coming to an end, and we can try to settle in for what would normally be the beginning of the new theater season.

September offerings are not just on screens (though they’re not on conventional stages either.). A new company will  launch six original plays that  we can call epistolary  — the audience gets involved in the letter-writing (see September 21). There is a decadent walking tour play of Greenwich Village (see September 30.).

Several ongoing series have been consistent in quality and output, several of them newly created during the pandemic.

Play-PerView (See September 12, 19 and 26) Livelabs: One Acts from MCC (which will reportedly resume in September, but has yet to make any announcements.) Viral Monologues from 24 Hour Plays (some 10 short new monologues almost every Tuesday) Playing on Air,  which has offered original audio plays with starry casts since 2012, has announced no new plays this month, but they keep their old ones on their site.

There is a promising new series this month from Urban Stages, which is putting its September Fest online on Wednesdays in plays that deal head-on with a contentious America (See September 2, 9, 16 and 23.) Every Wednesday this month (and on into October), the Chicago-based International Voices Project, will present translated plays from around the world, this year for the first time virtually (which means you don’t have to be in Chicago to “attend.”).

 Stars in the House, Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley’s daily variety and talk show since the pandemic began, fairly reliably presents Plays in the House — Zoom readings of well-known plays, often classics — on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons…and a Sunday matinee for teenagers.

And these shows are just what we know about. Since physical theaters were shut down in March, many shows are put together at the last minute, sometimes not even announced until the very day of their launch. (And there have been last-minute cancellations too.) Even the reliable Metropolitan Opera only announces its free online offerings for a week at a time. That’s why  I will be updating this preview guide every day, and highlighting the offerings each new day with a new link up top. This calendar as of this moment offers a glimpse of what’s in store. Come back day by day for a better look. (Some of the plays listed do require advance reservation.)

A reminder that this calendar lists when the shows “open.” Some are live and available only for that one performance. Other shows are available for four days, or a week, or longer.

*My definition of theater for the purposes of this calendar generally does not extend to variety shows, cast reunions, galas, panel discussions, documentaries, classes, or interviews — of which there are plenty, many worth checking out. My focus here is on creative storytelling in performance. (I make an occasional exception for a high-profile Netathon,involving many theater artists.)

September 1

Dear Liar Bucks County Playhouse 7 p.m. available through September 4 $25-$35 Brian Cox portrays George Bernard Shaw and Marsha Mason  the actress Mrs Patrick Campbell, who originated the role of Eliza in Pygmalion in this play by Jerome Kilty in which the characters read the letters they wrote to one another over 40 years.

Macbeth Bedlam 7 p.m. Shakespeare’s tragedy directed by Ryan Quinn. Come half an hour early to listen to music.

La Olla Latino Theater Company 7 p.m. ET A video of the 2016 adaptation of Plautus’ comedy about greed, “The Pot of Gold” which centers on Leo, a bit player lost amidst the din of a shady 1950s Los Angeles nightclub who finds a pot full of cash.

Britten’s Peter Grimes Metropolitan Opera 7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours

Tolerance Party: #1 “Ice-Breakers The Cell 8 p.m. $5 to $25 The first in a series, each a half-hour long. “Six strangers are brought together in a video chat by an unknown entity and are given a group task, but no one can agree what it is.” Written and directed by Joseph Hendel, but the audience has a say about what happens.

September 2

Bars and Measures Urban Stages 7 p.m. available until September 6 The first entry in Urban Stages’ September Play Fest, Idris Goodwin’s play tells the tale of two brothers. One is a classical pianist. The other is a jazz bass player. One a Christian. The other a Muslim. One living in freedom. The other in jail. Separated by bars, can the brothers reconcile their differences through the language they know best: Music? The virtual reading features the same cast as the 2019 production (pictured above): Shabazz Green, Roderick Lawrence, Abraham Makany and Salma Shaw

John Adams’s Nixon in China Metropolitan Opera 7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours

Jauria/Spain International Voices Project 8 p.m. Based on a court trial where the victim is forced to provide more details on her personal intimacy than the defendants.

September 3

The Oedipus Project Theater of War Productions 2 p.m. Live only Damian Lewis, Lesley Sharp, Clarke Peters and Kathryn Hunter perform Sophocles’s “Oedipus The King” as a way to consider the current pandemic

Berg’s Lulu Metropolitan Opera 7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours

September 4

In Love and Warcraft American Conservatory Theater 3 p.m. ET In Madhuri Shekar’s play, college senior Evie prefers the online role-playing game World of Warcraft to real life. In the game, she’s a fearless warrior with a boyfriend. In real life, she ghostwrites love letters for people, even though she’s neither been in love. When Evie becomes attracted to her client Raul, she must decide whether or not to let her powerful and sexy warrior character out in the real world. Live performances 9/4, 9/5, 9/11, 9/12, in which you can chat, or on-demand 9/18 – 9/25

Eleanor Barrington Stage Company 7:30 p.m. repeated September 5 $15 This new play about Eleanor Roosevelt, by Mark St. Germain stars Harriet Harris (who also portrayed the First Lady, diplomat and activist in the recent Ryan Murphy Netflix series “Hollywood.” as well as in a forthcoming TV series, “Atlantic Crossing.”)

The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Metropolitan Opera 7:30 p.m. available for two days Porgy and Bess returned to the Met stage for the first time in 30 years to open the 2019–20 season, with a cast led by Eric Owens and Angel Blue singing the familiar arias “Summertime,” “It ain’t necessarily so,” and “I got plenty of nothing,

September 6

Thomas Adès’s The Tempest Metropolitan Opera 7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours

September 9

#Nword Urban Stages 7 p.m. available until September 13 In this play by Christian Elder, a white girl calls a black boy “the n word” on the school bus. His mother confronts her mother. The event escalates.

“Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha” | Ukraine International Voices Project 8 p.m. Sasha, a colonel in the Ukrainian army, who has died of a heart failure, sees his widow Katia and his step-daughter Oksana prepare his funeral feast. A year later, the country will be engulfed in the events that can make the dead rise. Sasha is ready to be resurrected, but his family is not

September 10

Incidental Moments of the Day Apple Family Plays 7:30 p.m. Available through November 5 The third and final play in “The Apple Family: Life on Zoom” sub-series, the first of which, in April, I loved, the second of which, in July, I didn’t. Written and directed by Richard Nelson, with the same reliable five-member cast (plus one additional performer), this third installment takes place after six months of self-imposed pandemic isolation. “The Apple siblings again gather on Zoom for an evening of dinner, conversation and performance, while the world continues to sputter more and more out of control, amidst anger, loss, death and a coming election.”

September 11

  Qualified Alien Here Arts 1 p.m. A puppet and their assistant petition to join the circus. Rosa Douglas and Ben Elling light a candle for the meritocracy in this short puppet play, adapted for screen.

September 12

Seneca Falls Play-PerView 7 p.m. $5-$50 This play by Jean Ann Douglas is “an anachronistic triptych through late nights in the first 72 years of the women’s suffrage movement: 72 years of… mostly a lot of waiting.” The cast includes Susannah Flood, April Matthis, Kelly McAndrew Monique St. Cyr, Erin Wilhelmi and John Zdrojeski

Tape The Shared Screen 8 p.m., available until September 21 After 10 years, three self-absorbed people are forced to reckon with the unresolved trauma of a high school love triangle.

September 16

The Incels Urban Stages 7 p.m. available until September 20 In this play by Ruth Zamoyta, two depressed, bitter men can’t find girlfriends. Can a third man convince them to put down their guns?

“All Adventurous Women Do” | Serbia International Voices Project 8 p.m. A play about the necessity of going elsewhere to fully realize one’s sexuality,

Jack Was Kind All for One Theater 8 p.m. Through October 10 Tracy Thorne wrote and performs this “intimate, confessional play examines long-seated issues of privilege and complicity.” The production will be presented live on Zoom, four times a week, Wednesday-Saturday through October 10 for limited audiences.

September 17

Laura Benanti

DO RE #METOO 9 p.m. A virtual concert of badass feminists led by Laura Benanti, Peppermint and Margaret Cho covering the most sexist songs ever written!

September 18

Downtown Variety Take 14 La MaMa ETC The launch of La MaMa’s 59th season with a virtual afterparty, featuring Belarus Free Theatre, Annie-B Parson, Stacy Stearns, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, D’Mani Thomas.

Cannabis! Here Arts Baba Israel, Grace Galu, and their band Soul Inscribed use music and spoken word to explore the history of cannabis in a theatrical concert based on “Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational, and Scientific” by Martin A. Lee

September 19

Sheldon Best and Chinaza Uche in Sugar in Our Wounds at MTC

Sugar in Our Wounds Play-PerView 7 p.m. A “reunion reading” (with the original Off-Broadway cast) of Donja Love’s play about a romance about a slave on a plantation during the Civil War and a passing stranger.

September 21

Artistic Stamp This new company, with scripts by six playwrights, takes “audiences” on an unusual journey, through handwritten correspondence. For each play, the actors exchange seven letters over several months with audience members becoming a character in the story, replying to the letters and playing a role in deciding the outcome. All six plays launch today.

September 23

The Silverfish Urban Stages 7 p.m. available until September 27 Meghan Loughran’s play starring Holly Davis, Nikki M. James, George Salazar and Kate Wetherhead tells the story of a young, broke couple in love thrown a curveball, and come up with a plan. “It might not be a plan that “good people” would go for, but when you’re young and in love and desperate and poor, the word “good” can mean a lot of things.”

“Testosterone” | Germany International Voices Project 8 p.m. This comedy offers a parable about toxic masculinities and the limits of liberal do-goodery in extreme times.

September 26

Hamlet in Bed Play-PerView 7 p.m. A “reunion reading” of Michael Laurences Off-Broadway play featuring Annette O’Toole and John Glover

September 30

“Decomposed Theatre” | Romania International Voices Project 8 p.m. Imagine the fragments of a shattered mirror. The challenge before us is to reconstruct the original

Voyeur: The Windows of Toulouse Lautrec Bated Breath Theater Company In this open air, intimate theatrical experience, you and five other masked audience members will be guided through the dreams of iconic artist Toulouse-Lautrec as he recalls his final absinthe-laced years living and working in Montmartre. The sidewalks, doorways and windows of Greenwich Village become the setting as live accompaniment collides with the city’s soundscape, transporting you into the bohemian world of 1899 Paris.

Suddenly dancing The Madison in The Boys in the Band: Robin De Jesus, Michael Benjamin Washington, Andrew Rannells, Jim Parsons

Boys in the Band Netflix

A video capture of the 2018 starry Broadway production   of Mart Crowley’s landmark gay play. (Subscription required.)

September 2020 Online Theater Openings: What’s streaming day by day Below is the day-by-day calendar of “theater openings”* in September, 2020, as we enter the sixth month of winging it online -- and experimenting back offline.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Lawmakers, United in Their Ire, Lash Out at Big Tech’s Leaders (NYT) The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, four tech giants worth nearly $5 trillion combined, faced withering questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on Wednesday for the tactics and market dominance that had made their enterprises successful. For more than five hours, the 15 members of an antitrust panel in the House lobbed questions and repeatedly interrupted and talked over Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google. It was the first congressional hearing for some time where Democrats and Republicans acted as if they had a common foe, though for different reasons. Democratic lawmakers criticized the tech companies for buying start-ups to stifle them and for unfairly using their data hoards to clone and kill off competitors, while Republicans questioned whether the platforms had muzzled conservative viewpoints and were unpatriotic. Not since Microsoft stood trial in the late 1990s for antitrust charges have tech chief executives been under such a microscope for the power of their businesses. From its conception, the House antitrust hearing was set to be a spectacle, lining up four of the world’s most powerful executives—with two of them among the planet’s richest individuals—to answer largely hostile questions together.

Teachers Are Wary of Returning to Class, and Online Instruction Too (NYT) As the nation heads toward a chaotic back-to-school season, with officials struggling over when to reopen classrooms and how to engage children online, teachers’ unions are playing a powerful role in determining the shape of public education as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage. Teachers in many districts are fighting for longer school closures, stronger safety requirements and limits on what they are required to do in virtual classrooms, while flooding social media and state capitols with their concerns and threatening to walk off their jobs if key demands are not met. But even as unions exert their influence, they face enormous public and political pressure because of widespread acknowledgment that getting parents back to work requires functioning school systems, and that remote learning failed many children this spring, deepening achievement gaps by race and income. With the academic year set to begin next month in much of the country, parents are desperate for teachers to provide more interactive, face-to-face instruction this fall, both online and, where safe, in person. But many unions, while concerned about the safety of classrooms, are also fighting to limit the amount of time that teachers are required to be on video over the course of a day. Critics say the unions are being inflexible and trying to have it both ways: reluctant to return to school, but also resistant to teach online. “You can’t just keep saying you’re scared. We’re all scared,” said one parent, an essential worker in the Bronx with an autistic son. “Our kids need in-person learning.”

US is expected to report a record-breaking economic plunge (AP) Having endured what was surely a record-shattering slump last quarter, the U.S. economy faces a dim outlook as a resurgent coronavirus intensifies doubts about any sustained recovery the rest of the year. A huge plunge in consumer spending as people stayed home and avoided shopping, traveling or gathering in crowds as the virus raged is estimated to have sent the economy sinking at a roughly 32% annual rate in the April-June quarter. That would be more than triple the previous worst quarterly economic fall, a 10% drop set in 1958. Depressed activity in such areas as business investment, home construction and government spending also likely contributed to the worst quarterly contraction on records dating to 1947. So dizzying was the contraction last quarter that most analysts expect the economy to manage a sharp bounce-back in the current July-September quarter, perhaps of as much as 17% or higher on an annual basis. Yet with the rate of confirmed coronavirus cases now rising in a majority of states, more businesses being forced to pull back on re-openings and the Republican Senate proposing to scale back the government’s aid to the unemployed, the economy could worsen in the months ahead.

The latest trend among wealthy American travelers? Buying another country’s citizenship. (Washington Post) For generations, the American passport afforded its holders the privilege of hassle-free travel around much of the world. That has changed with the coronavirus pandemic. While borders are beginning to reopen to international travel, some countries are staying closed to Americans because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak stateside. These travel restrictions are producing an emerging trend among some wealthy Americans: buying a second passport. “This limitation of mobility has made more people aware of ... the benefits of having more than one passport,” said Armand Arton, the president of financial firm Arton Capital, which specializes in citizenship through investment. Arton says his firm has seen a 30 to 40 percent increase, year to date, in demand for services that help clients obtain citizenship in a sovereign state through financial means. The price tag for these services varies, ranging from $100,000 for some Caribbean options to more than $2 million for European ones.

Dream control? (Science Alert, MIT News) Scientists have developed an experimental device and protocol for manipulating the content of people’s dreams while they are sleeping, by making them recall specific cues that can trigger targeted dream themes and experiences. While the boundless dream-building of Inception remains the stuff of science fiction for now, the new research shows that the evolving science of dream control is far more than fantasy—and that information processing during sleep is capable of being engineered from the outside.

The CJNG and the Mexican state (Financial Times) Under the leadership of Nemesio Oseguera, the Jalisco Next Generation Cartel (CJNG) has gone from upstart to cartel powerhouse. Originally enforcers for the Sinaloa Cartel of jailed drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the group was initially known as the “Zeta Killers” after its pursuit of the brutal, now largely extinct Zetas cartel. It has expanded aggressively into 31 of Mexico’s 32 states. Operating through a network of cells within a hierarchy headed by Mr Oseguera, it funnels a significant chunk of the drugs consumed into the US over the border, particularly fentanyl and methamphetamines, according to experts and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. “I’m seeing that the CJNG like none other before has decided to take on the state in toto,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security consultant. “They are a formidable challenge to the state.”

Good genes (Foreign Policy) A 103-year-old Pakistani man has recovered from the coronavirus. Aziz Abdul Alim tested positive for COVID-19 in July and was released last week from hospital after responding well to treatment. Alim has outlived three wives and nine sons and daughters; he divorced a fourth wife and is now on his fifth marriage. Alim worked as a carpenter into his 70s and continues to live in the district of Chitral.

Pot and kettle call each other black (Reuters) China’s ambassador to London said on Thursday that the United States was trying to trigger a new Cold War with the Communist state because it was searching for a scapegoat ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. “It is not China (that has) become assertive. It’s the other side of the Pacific Ocean who want to start new Cold War on China, so we have to make response to that,” China’s ambassador to London Liu Xiaoming told reporters. “We have no interest in any Cold War, we have no interest in any war.”

Coronavirus spikes in Asia spur warnings against complacency (Reuters) Spikes in novel coronavirus infections in Asia have dispelled any notion the region may be over the worst, with Australia, India and Hong Kong reporting record daily cases, Vietnam testing thousands and North Korea urging vigilance. Asian governments had largely prided themselves on rapidly containing initial outbreaks after the virus emerged in central China late last year, but flare-ups this month have shown the danger of complacency.

Temperature soars to record-breaking 125 in ancient desert city (Yahoo News) Record high temperatures will continue to be challenged across the Middle East this week as blistering heat and dry conditions remain over the region. The week got off to a blazing start in Baghdad, Iraq, with a temperature reading of 50.6 C (123.1 F) on Monday. But on Tuesday, the temperature climbed even higher. According to preliminary reports from the area, the temperature reached 51.7 C (125 F) in the afternoon, surpassing the all-time record high temperature of 51.2 C (124 F) for the city. Similar heat was felt across the Middle East with temperatures in the upper 40s C (115-120 F) across the region on Monday and many areas reaching above 50 C (122 F) on Tuesday.

Joining the conflict in Libya, Turkey sees economic gains (AP) When Turkey’s president signed a security deal last year to back one of the sides in Libya’s civil war, another agreement was waiting to be signed by his new proteges the same day: a memorandum redrawing the two countries’ maritime borders. In Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s memo, Turkey and Libya lay claim to large areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the potential natural gas deposits under it. The deal achieved a longtime goal of Turkey—finding a partner to back its claims. Several Libyan officials say their side entered the deals with Turkey reluctantly, late last year, believing they had no choice. They desperately needed an ally as their opponent in the war, Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter, bore down on Tripoli with his forces, strengthened by Russian, Emirati and Egyptian backing. In the end, Turkey sent troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries and other military support that helped pro-Sarraj forces repel Hifter’s assault this spring, preventing the collapse of the Tripoli-based administration and shifting the tide of the war.

Lead levels dangerously high in world’s children (Foreign Policy) One in three children in the world have been found to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood, according to a report published by UNICEF. The report found that up to 800 million children have blood levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter—a level at which the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for intervention. Improper disposal of car batteries is one leading source of lead contamination, as they currently make up 85 percent of lead used globally.

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Scherzer Breaks Nostril, Standing Unsure

http://tinyurl.com/y3dhe8ku The Nationals and Phillies had been rained out for the second consecutive night time on Tuesday, however that weird incidence was relegated to a minor footnote, as a result of Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer suffered a damaged nostril when he fouled a ball into his face whereas making an attempt to put down a bunt in batting observe earlier that afternoon. The excellent news for fantasy homeowners is {that a} CT scan got here again destructive and he isn’t anticipated to overlook any vital time. Nonetheless, the Nationals haven’t stated something official about his standing. At this level, it appears unlikely that Scherzer will take the mound for his recurrently scheduled begin within the second sport of Wednesday’s twin billing. Nonetheless, if there was one pitcher on the planet who can be undeterred by a damaged nostril (and prepared to pitch by means of ache) it’s Scherzer. The 34-year-old righty has been arguably probably the most sturdy workhorse within the sport during the last decade, making not less than 30 begins in each season throughout that span, courting again to the 2009 marketing campaign. He merely doesn’t miss begins. Nationals supervisor Davey Martinez instructed reporters that he nonetheless anticipated Scherzer to begin one half of Wednesday’s doubleheader towards the Phillies, however that assertion got here previous to the rainout and official analysis of a damaged nostril. Veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin, who was initially slated to pitch on Monday, will take the mound for the front-end of the doubleheader, but it surely stays to be seen what the Nationals’ elect to do within the nightcap. They’ve a number of choices. In the event that they resolve that Scherzer may use an additional day of relaxation, which looks as if the plain plan of action right here, it’s probably that the task will go to both Erick Fedde or spot starter Austin Voth, who is predicted to be referred to as up from Triple-A Fresno to function the 26th man. Fantasy homeowners ought to keep tuned for additional updates on Scherzer, however there’s a powerful risk that he’s able to go within the collection finale on Thursday. Editor’s Notice: Keep forward of the competitors from wire to wire with rankings, customizable projections, commerce evaluator, unique columns and extra in our Season Pass. And begin utilizing optimized lineups on Yahoo!, DraftKings and FanDuel with our DFS Toolkit!. Pete Pummels Braves On an evening wherein reigning Nationwide League Cy Younger Award winner Jacob deGrom was completely sensational, placing out 10 batters over eight 1/Three innings of two-run ball, it was rookie sensation Pete Alonso who stole the highlight. The 24-year-old slugger went 4-for-Four with a two-run homer, a pair of doubles, three RBI and three runs scored within the Mets’ – blowout win over the division-rival Braves on Tuesday. He additionally walked twice, reaching base safely in all six of his plate appearances within the contest. He received the Mets on the board within the third inning with an RBI double, considered one of his two doubles on the night time, and clobbered a mammoth 426-foot two-run homer off Braves starter Julio Teheran within the fourth inning. Alonso has actually lived as much as the lofty preseason prospect hype, delivering top-of-the-scale 80-grade light-tower energy in his first publicity to major-league pitching. He’s as much as 24 round-trippers on the season and owns a elegant .274/.359/.624 triple-slash line to associate with 46 runs scored and 57 RBI. He’s already cemented his standing as a reputable four-category fantasy famous person and has a practical shot at eclipsing the 50-homer plateau this season. To place that in context, solely 4 hitters have achieved that feat since 2010. He’ll be the unquestioned centerpiece of the Mets’ offense for years to return and a possible late-first, early-second spherical choice in fantasy drafts subsequent spring.   Minnesota Marathon Max Kepler delivered a walk-off single within the backside of the 17th inning to propel the Twins to a 4-Three victory over the Red Sox. The 17-inning affair lasted a grand complete of 5 hours and 45 minutes. The 2 groups mixed for 32 hits, stranded 30 baserunners, used a grand complete of 18 pitchers and threw 487 pitches on this marathon contest. The 2 groups went into extra-innings tied at two runs apiece. Mookie Betts launched a solo homer — his 12th of the season — to place the Purple Sox forward within the 13th inning, however Max Kepler, who entered the sport as a pinch-hitter within the sixth inning and completed 3-for-5 with three RBI, responded with a game-tying solo shot within the backside of the body to maintain the Twins alive. Contemplating how a lot these bullpens had been taxed, there’s plenty of strain on Wednesday’s starters Eduardo Rodriguez and Kyle Gibson to absorb some innings. Regardless of the way you have a look at it, this was simply the craziest sport of the 2019 marketing campaign thus far. Story continues Cincinnati Quashes Controversy Reds supervisor David Bell expressed confidence in nearer Raisel Iglesias after pulling him in favor of Michael Lorenzen to shut Monday’s sport towards the Astros. The 29-year-old right-hander was summoned within the eighth inning to aim to protect a one-run lead and safe a five-out save. Iglesias managed to work round a stroll and a wild pitch to flee the eighth inning, however received wild once more within the ninth. He issued a leadoff stroll to pinch-hitter Myles Straw earlier than bouncing again to retire Alex Bregman. With the tying run on-base, and Iglesias already at 21 pitches (10 strikes) Bell elected to show the ball over to Lorenzen, who received Michael Brantley to line out to middle area and whiffed rookie sensation Yordan Alvarez to finish the competition. “We’re simply making an attempt to do no matter we are able to to provide us our greatest probability to win. Raisel’s completed it earlier than, he’s going to do it once more. He’s a fantastic pitcher. He’s going to be prepared subsequent time,” stated Bell after Monday’s sport. When a virtually equivalent state of affairs introduced itself towards the Astros on Tuesday, Iglesias was as soon as once more summoned to guard a one-run lead within the eighth inning. He whiffed Yuli Gurriel and Robinson Chirinos to flee the jam created by lefty Amir Garrett. As a substitute of coming again out for the ninth inning to aim to finish the five-out save, Bell as soon as once more turned to Lorenzen, this time to face the underside of the Astros’ lineup. He managed to retire the aspect with a view to safe his fourth save of the season. Regardless of the odd occasions on this collection, fantasy homeowners shouldn’t draw any vital conclusions. Iglesias stays firmly entrenched because the Reds’ major nearer. Nonetheless, they aren’t afraid of utilizing him (and Lorenzen to a larger extent) in a non-traditional method. He made some noise about his irregular utilization patterns, complaining to reporters that the workforce was utilizing him “horribly improper” in early Might. The Reds have clearly made an effort to reduce his portfolio, utilizing him in a extra conventional one-inning nearer function ever since, however they nonetheless wish to use him in high-leverage, multi-inning conditions outdoors of the ninth inning. It is a state of affairs price monitoring transferring ahead, but it surely doesn’t seem like there will likely be a major change anytime quickly in Cincinnati.   AL Fast Hits: Adalberto Mondesi left Tuesday night time’s sport towards the Mariners with proper groin tightness. … The Indians are optimistic that Mike Clevinger (ankle) will be capable to make his subsequent scheduled begin Saturday towards the Tigers. … Joey Gallo (indirect) may return to the Rangers’ energetic roster subsequent Tuesday for the beginning of a collection towards the Tigers. … Jose Altuve (hamstring, knee) will likely be activated from the 10-day injured checklist on Wednesday. … George Springer (hamstring) is ready to start a minor league rehab task Thursday with Double-A Corpus Christi. … Aaron Judge (indirect) homered Tuesday in his fourth rehab sport with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. … Tyler Glasnow (forearm) threw one other profitable bullpen on Tuesday. … Blue Jays supervisor Charlie Montoyo stated Monday that Ken Giles (elbow) is predicted to return from the 10-day injured checklist when he is first eligible. … Domingo German (hip) started throwing off flat floor on Monday. … Luis Severino (shoulder) hopes to begin throwing from a mound on both June 25 or 26th. …  Twins positioned Byron Buxton on the 10-day injured checklist with a proper wrist contusion. … Blue Jays positioned Justin Smoak (quad) on the 10-day injured checklist. … White Sox positioned Welington Castillo on the 10-day injured checklist with a strained left indirect. … Yoan Moncada (again) remained out of the White Sox beginning lineup Tuesday. He’s anticipated to return on Wednesday. … Yandy Diaz was held out of the Rays’ lineup Tuesday due to a hamstring difficulty. … Giancarlo Stanton went 0-for-Four in his return from the injured checklist on Tuesday. … Whit Merrifield went 3-for-Four with a pair of house runs, a career-high six RBI to guide the Royals to a blowout victory over the Mariners. … Eloy Jimenez socked a go-ahead two-run homer to propel the White Sox to a win over the crosstown-rival Cubs. … Jose Ramirez walloped a three-run homer to energy the Indians to a rout of the Rangers. … Oscar Mercado swiped a pair of bases within the victory. … Luke Voit went 3-for-Three with an RBI within the Yankees’ win over the Rays … Edwin Encarnacion launched his 22nd homer of the 12 months, his first in a Yankees’ uniform, in that one .. Tyler Skaggs struck out six batters over 7 1/Three innings of one-run ball in a win over the Blue Jays. … Hansel Robles transformed his 11th save in that one. … Shane Greene netted his 21st save within the Tigers’ win over the Pirates. … Alex Bregman slugged his 20th homer within the Astros’ loss to the Reds. … Ramon Laureano went 4-for-5 with a three-run homer within the A’s blowout win over the Orioles.. … Hunter Dozier (chest) went 2-for-5 with a double, two RBI, and a run scored Tuesday in his second rehab sport with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. … Hunter Pence (groin) may return from the 10-day injured checklist when first eligible. … Joe Palumbo will begin for the Rangers towards the Indians on Wednesday. … Jordan Zimmermann (elbow, glute) is predicted to begin for the Tigers towards the Pirates on Wednesday. … Andrelton Simmons (ankle) will start a minor league rehab task Tuesday with the Angels’ rookie league affiliate. … Jordan Montgomery shut down a bullpen session Tuesday in Tampa after experiencing discomfort in his surgically-repaired left elbow. … The Angels have requested launch waivers on Cody Allen. NL Fast Hits: Craig Kimbrel labored a scoreless inning for Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday. … Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts famous Tuesday that Joc Pederson will play first base in some unspecified time in the future this season. … A.J. Pollock (elbow) may start a minor league rehab task over the All-Star break. … Kyle Hendricks has been recognized with a proper shoulder impingement. … Jay Bruce (hamstring) remained sidelined Tuesday towards the Nationals. … Caleb Smith (hip) will make a rehab begin earlier than returning to the Marlins rotation. … Scooter Gennett (groin) was scratched from a scheduled rehab sport on Tuesday on account of moist area situations at Excessive-A Dayton … Brandon Nimmo (neck) will likely be shut down fully from baseball actions for the subsequent month. … Mike Moustakas was faraway from Tuesday night time’s sport towards the Padres on account of a left hand contusion. He’s anticipated to stay out of the Brewers’ lineup on Wednesday. … Logan Allen tossed seven scoreless innings to earn a victory over the Brewers in his major-league debut. … Kirby Yates recorded his main league-leading 26th save within the Padres’ win over the Brewers. … Clayton Kershaw struck out six batters over seven shutout innings in a win over the Giants. … Nolan Arenado went 3-for-Four with a homer and three RBI within the Rockies’ lopsided win over the Diamondbacks. … Charlie Blackmon notched his fifth consecutive three-hit sport in that one. … Jordan Yamamoto whiffed seven batters over seven scoreless frames in a win over the Cardinals. … Jack Flaherty fanned eight batters over seven innings of three-run ball in a loss to the Marlins. … Josh Bell launched his 20th homer within the Pirates’ loss to the Tigers. … Jeff McNeil went 3-for-5 with a solo homer, stolen base and three runs scored within the Mets’ lopsided win over the Braves. … Freddie Freeman swatted his 20th lengthy ball within the shedding effort. … Mets positioned Jeurys Familia on the 10-day injured checklist with a Bennett lesion in his proper shoulder. … Adam Wainwright (hamstring) will return to the Cardinals’ beginning rotation on Thursday towards the Marlins. … Tyler Chatwood will begin for the Cubs on Thursday towards the Mets. … Brandon Morrow (elbow) has begun throwing from a distance of 135 ft. … Rockies designated Mike Dunn for task. 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[nailtravels]

Welcome back to Clayfest Tour 19 and the quick turnaround to the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park with the inaugural Suwannee Rising Music Festival. Rise up! Spring is the time to be in North Florida and we’ll be here for all of them from Brainquility to Spring Reunion, Suwannee Rising to Tipper. This heralds back to an earlier spring and the Bedouin trade outpost that smelled vaguely of burnt pig bone. You can still smell it, if you try. Festival season begins right here while the rest of country still shakes off their winter cobwebs. Suwannee Rising bought out many of the Bear Creek and Wanee faithful and their distinct vibes could be felt as early as the pre-pre-party. Both of those festivals had reputations for mad love, insane ragery and professional camping prowess. This line-up covered several different genres of fantastic music with greats like Moe and Oteil Burbridge joining with Lettuce, Dumpstafunk and many more to offer up a weekend of music and fun with great friends, old and new. Welcome to the inaugural Suwannee Rising: Call of the Buttscratchers.

Come home to Hobo Kamp.

Lucienda Rosalita and Baitbucket headed south out of Roanoke on their way back to the Live Oak forest. Bluegrass spilled out of the Pioneer as they cruised along the rolling hills of southern Virginia. They were in Clay’s van, which Darth Khaleesi had recently gifted them. It replaced the Adventure Wagon which, only days earlier had been left for scrap on the side of I-75 at Paine’s Prairie, just south of Gainesville. On his way to go tuna fishing in Louisiana, Corporal Turner reported that she was no longer sitting on the side of the interstate. Now they cruised along the same road, in the same vehicle that had carried the original Shawsvegas Mafia to this park that he loved so many times. Now his ashes sat on the dashboard right next to the Alabama cap. You cannot make this stuff up.

Darth Walthall and Moonshine Gary, Suwannee Rising 2019

The week in Roanoke had been full of tears, moonshine and music. From dancing cowgirls to vomit on the Appalachian Trail, it had been a blur of smoky bars and acoustic guitars. Not Baitbucket’s Larrivee of course. The rumors that it was waterproof proved to be unfounded after it spent the night in the pouring rain of Live Oak. He’s why we can’t have nice Canadian guitars. In Virginia, the blueberry moonshine and Knob Creek flowed like a river and the music began each day even before the sleep boogers had been cleared.

Virginia is for thugs.

They arrived at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park Tuesday afternoon and pulled down the Hippy Trail toward the Hobo Kamp. Sarah and Sarah had been reserving the space since Suwannee Spring Reunion and the line of hanging clothes completed the Hobo Kamp theme. Sarah had dug a trench to hide the contraband electricity, which would be used to power the stolen Christmas lights and the towering death clown. Baitbucket still wasn’t sure if we was going to buy a ticket, work the festival or simply not care. He was widely regarded as a kamp body and spent most of his time around the fire contributing to its gibberish. It wasn’t until Wednesday even that the call came through inviting them to cover the festival for the website. Perfect timing. The “small-dog” metaphor could now be passed over for one with a bigger, more sparkly footprint. After all, this is our park and last checked, when we’re here, we’re supposed to go pretty big. Once again, they were legit and would have the VIP passes needed to efficiently maneuver the folds of the festival. Game on.

For this festival, the entire Suwannee Rising Kamp Happiness Hobo Kamp was run completely by girl power. There was such a wealth of strong, beautiful women that the entire facility appeared virtually overrun. With surprise visits by Kamp Happiness founders, Spacebug and Darth Walthall, newcomers like Holly, Margo, Roxanne and Jessica added much-needed spice and networking foundations were put in place with Jodie and the thugish brutes known as the Buttscratchers.

How is one supposed to properly network with new neighbors? Welcome to your field. Welcome to our fire. The best way to introduce yourself to neighboring  campers is with a gift. Sparkly rice crispy treats or ham and egg sandwiches are just a couple of ideas, but gifts of any kind are a fine way to get the wheels greased between neighbors. Otherwise, encroachment issues may arise and in a forest of 800 acres, that’s a bad look. Make sure safeguards are in place so as to avoid unfortunate lapses in communication. It’s fun when two small fires becomes one big one.

Run, don’t walk. It’s the attack of the Buttscratchers. This Wanee procession has been raging just south of the lake for years. Listen for their haunting call as you wander by the sweet spot, next to the sound board, on your way to the rail. Their bar serves everything on tortillas and it’s always the last stop of the night. Jodie could be found chumming the road with glow sticks and then setting up her gear for some wook fishing. Serious anglers, the slot for wooks (phisha wookinus) in April throughout Suwannee County is five to seven feet. Aggregate bag limit is three per person. Be sure to harvest responsibly and help protect our remaining wook rookeries.

A Day in the Life of a Buttscratcher

8:12 am:  The light fog hung over the tents throughout the forest as only the earliest birds began to stir. Special Ed was already up brewing the coffee and preparing for the first acoustic jam of the day; He’d begun to smell like a Polaroid plant and it was agreed he should take a page out of Waffle’s book and consider an old fashioned trucker’s shower.

10:10 am: As the second wave of late-night revelers began to roll out, Margo ran down her battery for the second time during the breakfast jam. It’s a rule, Floozies fans should just camp together. Is it too early to get greasy and low-down? I think not grasshopper. Visit her spot, Cool Beans Coffee next time you’re in Marietta, Georgia.

Suwannee Rising 2019: photo by Sarah Fortier

12:12 pm The Kamp Happiness courtesy vehicles remained in operation for most of the festival. Sarah’s golf cart served to transport team members as well as locate groundscores and firewood. The second courtesy bike disappeared sometime during the festival. Last seen, it was with Chandler, who had been already sucking contraband electricity from Sarah’s contraband electricity. Who steals from the bike thieves and where are all the courtesy vehicles ending up? Sounds like some kind of mystery to be sure.

Thank you Sarah Fortier for this gallery of serious whimsy. Look for her work when nailtravels heads to Floyd, Virginia for the culmination of Clayfest Tour 19. The world is yours. Also thanks for helping to reserve the Hobo Kamp for the rest of the flotilla.

Easy E, Suwannee Rising 2019: photo by Rose McGuire

Chandler, Suwannee Rising 2019: photo by Roxanne Epstein

5:34 pm: Baitbucket had removed his governor and the moonshine began puddling in the bottom of his feet. It was far too late to change anything. The good work had been done and there was only time to sit back and wait for the white lightning to fill the cavities of his head hole and make a mess of things. By the time he threw himself from the moving golf cart, his vision had begun to get all “wiggly”. His head slammed into a tree stump but his face had been spared by his new groundscored sunglasses. The last time anyone saw him his face was covered in drool and his shirt was getting ripped off in strips of torn, colored cloth. As he offered an umbrella apology to everyone the next day, he chalked up the entire nasty incident to the effects of sustained and intense grieving.

This next gallery is from our sister and professional ukulele picker Arielle D’Ornellas. For a musician she’s one heliconia of a photographer. These shots will explain why she stands head and shoulders above the rest. Visit her social media platforms on Facebook and Instagram and be sure to catch her band as they play at Orange Blossom Jamboree later this month.

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Thanks to Suwannee Rising for including our team in the inaugural fun. The Spirit of Suwannee Music Park is the perfect place to unwind with music and friends. We look forward to many more years working together in the park to make it a special venue for everyone to enjoy. Thanks to Roxanne Epstein for helping with photography and mimosas.

Thank you Shane Turner for having a mind to catch a soapfish with a net. You will be missed.

Keep up with nailtravels as we slug through the summer of lost rednecks and Clayfest 19. Get ready for Tipper&Friends, Suwannee River Jam and Backwoods Music Festival in Ozark, Arkansas. Don’t ever look back.

The Inaugural Suwannee Rising: Call of the Buttscratchers Welcome back to Clayfest Tour 19 and the quick turnaround to the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park with the inaugural Suwannee Rising Music Festival.

[ultrasfcb-blog]

World Cup 2018: Uruguay rating late winner to beat Egypt 1-0

World Cup 2018: Uruguay rating late winner to beat Egypt 1-0

World Cup 2018: Uruguay rating late winner to beat Egypt 1-0

World Cup 2018 highlights: Egypt 0-1 Uruguay

Uruguay snatched a late winner as they started their World Cup marketing campaign with a dramatic victory over Egypt, who left Mohamed Salah on the bench.

Jose Gimenez headed powerfully into the web within the 90th minute as he met Carlos Sanchez’s free-kick to present the South Individuals a profitable begin in Russia.

Uruguay had been the higher aspect as Luis Suarez had missed 4 possibilities and Edinson Cavani had hit the within of a publish with a 25-yard free-kick.

Salah, who scored 44 occasions for Liverpool this season, remained an unused substitute as he continues to recuperate from a shoulder harm sustained in final month’s Champions League ultimate.

With out Salah, Egypt lacked a leading edge and had seemed on target to earn a degree of their first match at a World Cup finals since 1990 earlier than Gimenez’s late purpose.

The end result means Russia are high of Group A after their 5-0 victory over Saudi Arabia within the event’s opening sport on Thursday.

Suarez off type however Uruguay win it

Gimenez’s 89th minute header places Uruguay forward

It had seemed like being a irritating afternoon for two-time World Cup winners Uruguay, with Barcelona ahead Suarez surprisingly off type.

He was making his 99th worldwide look and was enjoying in a World Cup finals sport for the primary time since being banned from all soccer associated exercise for 4 months for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini throughout Brazil 2014.

However on the Ekaterinburg Enviornment Suarez proved wasteful.

He shot off track early on, scuffed a shot vast when unmarked solely six yards out and was then twice denied by Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shenawy – who saved one shot together with his legs after which stopped Suarez from taking the ball round him.

Uruguay completed the match strongly with El-Shenawy making a incredible one-handed save to push away Cavani’s well-struck effort from the sting of the penalty space late on.

Cavani later hit the publish with a superb 25-yard free-kick earlier than El-Shenawy was overwhelmed within the 90th minute.

Egypt miss Salah’s affect

The sport passed off on the 35,000-capacity Ekaterinburg Enviornment, which contains a momentary 45-metre stand behind every purpose, with the stands constructed particularly for this event.

Nonetheless, there was a shocking variety of empty seats with the attendance being solely 27,015.

The Egypt followers within the stadium have been anticipating to see Salah play, particularly after boss Hector Cuper had mentioned on Thursday that he might “virtually 100% guarantee” media that Salah would characteristic.

Nonetheless, Salah, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday, remained an unused substitute, deemed not match sufficient to play as he continued his restoration from injuring shoulder ligaments throughout Liverpool’s Champions League ultimate defeat by Actual Madrid on 26 Could.

Egypt followers have been diminished to cheering their idol when he was proven on the massive screens within the stadium, however hopes of him enjoying ended within the 82nd minute when Egypt made their third and ultimate substitution.

With out Salah, Egypt struggled to create possibilities, though Trezeguet ought to have achieved higher with a weak shot on the flip and Ahmed Fathy noticed a well-struck long-range effort saved by Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.

Egypt followers might be hoping to see Salah of their second match of the event, in opposition to hosts Russia on Tuesday, 19 June.

Man of the match – Diego Godin (Uruguay)

Diego Godin made 4 tackles, 5 clearances, eight interceptions and one block. He additionally received 15 duels and made 68 passes, with a cross success charge of 85.3%

Egypt stay with out a World Cup win – the stats

Uruguay have received their opening match at a World Cup event for the primary time since 1970, once they beat Israel.

Egypt are nonetheless winless on the World Cup finals, failing to win 5 matches (drew two, misplaced three).

Jose Gimenez’s profitable purpose within the 90th minute was Uruguay’s newest profitable purpose in a World Cup match since Daniel Fonseca’s 92nd minute winner in opposition to South Korea in June 1990.

Egypt have failed to attain in every of their final three World Cup matches.

African groups are winless of their final 19 World Cup encounters with South American groups (drew 4, misplaced 15) since Cameroon beat Colombia in June 1990.

Jose Gimenez has scored in consecutive appearances for Uruguay, additionally scoring in a pleasant in opposition to Uzbekistan.

Uruguay have received every of their final three World Cup group stage video games with a purpose scored within the final 10 minutes of matches.

Three of Uruguay’s final 4 World Cup targets have been scored by way of headers – solely three of their earlier 22 World Cup targets had been headed.

This was Oscar Tabarez’s 16th World Cup match in control of Uruguay – just one supervisor has managed extra matches for a South American nation on the World Cup (Mario Zagallo for Brazil, 20 video games).

Oscar Tabarez grew to become the fifth supervisor to take cost of the identical nation at 4 completely different World Cup finals (1990, 2010, 2014 and 2018), after Walter Winterbottom (England), Josef Herberger (Germany), Helmut Schon (Germany) and Lajos Bartori (Hungary).

‘Salah may have an essential position’ – what they mentioned

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez mentioned: “To win matches on this group means we can progress. We both die or we kill and the expertise in the present day will assist us develop, however we will not make an excessive amount of of it.

“Generally the ball will go to the again of the web, generally it will not however we’re at all times seeking to rating. I am very pleased with the perspective of the crew and the way they performed.

“Egypt performed very effectively, an excellent sport, however I think about with Mo Salah, if he had been in high type Egypt would have benefited with him on the pitch, however we are going to by no means know.”

Egypt coach Hector Cuper mentioned: “Mo Salah is a vital participant for us however it’s essential have a very good crew, and we have now a very good crew. Salah may have an essential position for us sooner or later matches.

“We needed to keep away from dangers on this match [with Salah], however I believe he might be superb for the following sport.”

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ultras FC Barcelona - https://ultrasfcb.com/football/6212/

#Barcelona

[pxwcaleb92690705-blog]

Are You Eating Sufficient Carbs For Ideal Rehabilitation?

Media, in general, could be defined in straightforward conditions, like a movie was good, guide sorrowed, or even the Net is helpful, and also exactly how did our company ever live without it! I have actually been through this ladies now for 14 years, and also having no little ones from my personal, I like these pair of girls like they were my very own, and their true papa just talks to them when he requires one thing. The third time in the critically-acclaimed set will premiere digitally worldwide beginning Tuesday December 20th on Personal Computer, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS and Android. Today our team possess several major events that multitude combating game tournaments - Hypespotting, VSFighting, Competing Scenes and also certainly EGX. If you loved this post and you want to receive much more information concerning wlasniechudne.info please visit our page. 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You might keep in mind Hellblade coming from when that was announced at GamesCom 2014, but ever since this is just one of those video games that's been gurgling out quietly beneath. Government crime studies advise that severe intense crimes among youths have actually decreased due to the fact that 1996, even as computer game purchases have actually shot up. Together, this Advanced Generation triad stands for the very successful Video game Kid Breakthrough games to this day. Unlike the iPhone, the volume from devoted games controllers for Android phones is actually a little a lot more bland, as there aren't as many for certain phone designs ... and the video games that support them may be varied as well. U.S. launch from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, enriched models of the authentic Silver and gold games. Shift is actually no different, along with a tidy interface that lots nearly immediately after powering on. And also, as the physical video games begun little memory cards as opposed to disks, there is actually no need for the prolonged put in procedures that have actually ended up being the norm when beginning a brand-new game. An additional part I entirely adored concerning this manual was exactly how the writer properly dealt with to blend imagination as well as dystopia to generate a special globe. The activity of soccer is actually participated in in between pair of groups, each staff containing eleven gamers. But this was actually still the best explicit sexual web content Wildenborg had seen in a computer game. In the sentimental prelude Wenger always remembered prohibiting Mars pubs before his initial game accountable, back in 1996. You observe, this is exactly what I really love concerning Salinger's thus commonly disputed work - its own ability to stir ideas and viewpoints that surpass the publication as well as the story report and also create you think, and possibly -only perhaps - be a touch rebellious, also. I regularly checked out pre ordering as a strategy to buy a game and you get on a finances.

[timeoftstretched]

Half Iron #2: Pre-Race Recap

So I’m something like 35 hours out from my second half iron distance triathlon, Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa.  Having chosen to race an early season half, to clear some calendar space for an (abbreviated) off-season before starting to train for the New York City Marathon (which will be my first – as well as my last chance for guaranteed entry), I really dove into this training with the new year and the new administration.  (For inauguration weekend, I escaped DC for Mexico City, which was my “end of freedom festival”; my training plan had me beginning the following Tuesday).  Figured I’d divide the work and do a race “pre-cap,” before the actual tri even goes down.

As some might recall (I certainly do!), last year’s training cycle, culminating in August’s Ironman 70.3 Timberman, was somewhat tumultuous.  About 2.5 months in, I began feeling pain in the interior of my left knee, which prevented me from exerting any real effort while cycling.   This killed my speed at both the 2016 NYC Triathlon, and ultimately at Timberman, which was my first half.  I completed the bike in 4:04:56, which was just…a really long time to be on that bike, having spent half the time either enduring or anticipating inevitable sharp pain.  No fun.  I was fine with my total time of 6:57, as it was my first, but the bike was pretty disappointing and unpleasant.

My goals:

I looked to 2017 for a few things.  First, I knew running the NYC Marathon would be important, so I wanted to craft my year around that, rather than around triathlon.  Second, I knew I needed a proper off-season – I was registered for the marathon last year, but after Timberman in late August I was just too tired to keep it up.  Third, I wanted to see big gains on the bike, and ironically a slower run, since my run time (1:56) was only possible because I was unable to burn my legs during my ride.  

Underlying all this was my new job, which is far, far more forgiving in terms of time, allowing me to actually train properly, so long as I was dedicated to the training.

My plan:

Once again, I adapted Matt Fitzgerald’s Super Simple 70.3 plan, but this time, dropped just one swim per week, and added a gym day instead.  (For several weeks, I got to work with a trainer at my gym, which was hard, and great, but financially unsustainable.)  The plan peaks at several weekends of a 60-mile ride + a transition run & a 14-mile run the following day, and unlike last year, I didn’t skip any.  Swims peak at 2400m, which, if being honest, I did in yards all but one time, but I did all but one of the longer efforts.  Including bike commutes (which, given how much I sweat during them, I count!!!), I peaked at around 13.5 hours a week.

So what does all this mean?  As compared to last year, I more than doubled my time spent in the pool.  As compared to last year, I completed an additional 5-6 long effort rides, in allllll sorts of conditions.   And as compared to last year, I controlled my run mileage and truly kept it to what my plan demanded.

Things that didn’t go perfectly:

Knee.  Despite these changes – a better-balanced training routine, increased strength work, and more sleep – when my rides started topping 40 miles, I started to get some threatening pain right where I had it last year – interior of my left knee.  Instead of internalizing anxiety over it (OK, I had one anxious afternoon), I immediately got physical therapy recommendations from friends and started seeing Sydney over at Rose PT every single week.  Through a combination of butt-strengthening exercises and trigger point release during our sessions, a couple of weeks later that pain stopped threatening, and has not since resurfaced.  Could it, during a hilly 56-mile ride on Saturday?  Totally!  But at least I got my training in.  So the fact that the pain came up isn’t good, but this is a current win, actually.

Burnt Legs.  For at least 4 scattered weeks during this cycle, my legs felt absolutely toasted every morning when I tried to make them work.  Fighting through that wasn’t particularly easy, but on a stepdown recovery week (i.e., “Oh my god guys I only have to ride 45 miles Saturday and run 10 miles Sunday I’m in heaven”), the legs started to come back to life so I had faith that a taper would get me to race day feeling strong and less spent.  (Note:  this has played out so far.   I’ve felt great this week.)

Weather.  Oh god, training through winter was truly as irritating as I expected.  At first, I looked forward to two hours on my trainer, catching up on all the Netflix I had gotten behind on.  But by the fourth week of this, I started to get really, really bored, and was dying to get outside.  My toes go numb very quickly, so it’s extremely unpleasant for me to ride in anything under about 45 degrees, and I stuck to this, but as spring approached, teasing us with days of good weather and happy weekend forecasts that turned into 40s and rain, or 30s and wind, I started to get a little more stir crazy and just…went out anyway.  This got me some good experience in the rain, and in the cold, and in the wind, but it wasn’t fun or my best riding.  And I haven’t put on my wetsuit since last year, and haven’t gotten into any open water either.  A seasonal inevitability, but seriously not ideal.

A Lengthy Vacation. Look, life happened, and I had plans to take a 2.5-week trip to Japan and Philippines in February/early March.  It was early enough in my plan that I wasn’t missing any crazy volume weeks, and I put in increased run mileage during my vacation (if you’re training for something, I recommend vacationing with running friends!).  I returned and didn’t feel like a complete whale…just a little set back on the bike, which I was willing to swallow.

No Proximate Training Partners. This I didn’t feel so much, because I pretty much trained alone last year, too.  Callie and Abby signed onto the race, but they’re in NYC and there were a number of envious moments, seeing as they got to put in all their long efforts together.  This said, our text message thread helped me get through some harder moments (e.g., the Sunday we all kept texting each other every other mile of our 14-mile run, since we were all apart and feeling warm and rough).  And we got to run the NYC Half Marathon all together in March which was super fun.  And not having my squad around meant I made new biking friends, like my neighbor, with whom I did virtually all of my long rides.  I was lucky to have found her!

What I did (more) right:

Weight/Nutrition.  I don’t own a scale and I don’t use the ones at the gym, but based on photographic evidence and, you know, mirrors, I am not as skinny as last year.  This is obviously a far-from-scientific assessment, but keeping up my protein and caloric intake probably helped sustain me through the multiple peak volume weeks.  While my legs might have felt exhausted, overall I didn’t grapple with any chronic fatigue preventing me from getting a workout in.  (This does NOT mean that I was psyched to do every workout.  I certainly texted friends multiple times saying something like, “I really don’t want to go to the pool,” asking for verbal support to get me there.  This really worked.)  Part of this was having an extremely supportive personal chef who was cooking multiple meals each week, since he knew that my training + work schedule was tight.  Anyway, this all helped.

Not Skipping Workouts.  Three or so weeks ago, my dad asked me to dinner with him last minute on a weekday, and I had planned to get my ride in after work.  I had a baby conniption about skipping a workout, because it was the first one I was skipping (other than my Japan trip).  Once I realized how impressive and absurd this was – and, of course, getting my head on straight about prioritizing time with my parents over one stupid 12-mile ride – I happily dined with him.  But that was the first!  I really (and frankly, incredibly) got the rest of them done, somehow.  I swam at lunch with a triathlete newbie colleague.  I sometimes went to a spin class at lunch.  I would ride in to work, but take a 10-mile detour where I’d do loops of Hains Point.  I would do a track workout and then run into work and get the rest of my miles in that way.  I got creative and made it work.

Probably Many Other Things I’m Not Giving Myself Credit For.  Since, you know, that’s a thing.  Like getting myself to PT early and consistently.  Like going to the gym and doing strength work even when I was soggy from a rainy run.  Like having a buddy for the middle sections of most of my long runs (thanks, Julia!).  I’ll take those.

So, here we are.

I’m flying now to San Francisco, staying on the couch of a generous runfriend who’s also racing Saturday (but a mere stop on the way to her second Ironman!), doing all the pre-race tasks tomorrow like picking up my bib (#1196) and dipping into likely-frigid Lake Sonoma and checking into our cute rental house situated on a vineyard.  We have plans for wine tasting the day after; a day that’s hard to visualize because I’ve got a pretty big item to tick off my agenda before that happens.  Here’s what I’m hoping for on Saturday, other than good race photos.

Swim.  This race is seemingly unique with its self-seeded swim start.  I’m going to seed according to last year’s time (43:21), but I’m hoping for and somewhat expecting a faster time given my doubled training, pending water conditions and all that (obviously).  There may be some chop, as compared to the pristine, crystal-clear, calm waters of Lake Winnepesaukee, and it’ll be cold, as compared to last year’s ideal.  So I can’t be surprised or disappointed if this doesn’t come through, but I’m definitely looking forward at least to a swim where I don’t have a ton of people swimming past/over me.

Bike.  T1 and the bike are going to be cold.  I’ve packed accordingly, and am planning to wear my winter run jacket on the ride, which to many will appear to be overkill but I get really cold on my bike.  I’m nervous about this, but being prepared with the right gear is helping.  I’m hoping for at least (pleeeeease) a sub-4-hour time, but honestly, I’m not sure what to expect.  Picking up 20+ minutes as compared to last year would feel great, but it’s really hard to know what I’m capable of; I only started hitting my stride on my rides late in my training cycle, and even then, I was riding on a trail that had frequent momentum-killing stops.  Ultimately?  I’d love not to feel that knee pain, and have the freedom to burn out my legs more and feel like I got to give it a lot more of my energy.  The clock can say what it wants.

Run.  I’d love another sub-2-hour run.  But if that doesn’t happen, I’ll be counting it as a win, since it means I worked harder on the bike.  The course is a lot flatter than Timberman, which should help, as should the weather, which is forecast to be about 15 degrees cooler, but my real goal is to run the whole thing other than aid stations, and remain positive like last time.  (Maybe less positive, though.  I think my butterflies-rainbows-unicorns attitude on the Timberman course weirded people out.)

So there we have it.  I’m not shortsighted enough to set time goals on my second half on a different course in an effectively different season.  What I want is to have a great day, and not freeze, and have fun, and high five people, and cross the finish line feeling like I left everything on the 70.3-mile course.  And then enjoy my victory week out West.  This training cycle has already been the success I was seeking, so really, no matter what happens on Saturday, #IM703SantaRosa is a win.

Onward to the start line.