Fashion is... Teejus F'ing Christ, What are these Abominations?

 And why must I own them...

Before clicking this link, come up with what you think these cost? Then be prepared to have your mind blown by what they actually cost. What are we doing here people?

SAGTTP (Should a Gheorghie Take The Piss)?

Gheorgies,

I have a bit of a conundrum. There's a retired guy that is often at my local YMCA. I don't want to dox him, so let's call this fellow Karen.

Karen talks to everybody. I occasionally see him jawing in the weight room, but the locker room is where he prefers to work. In fact I've probably mentioned him before in the comments as the guy who played The Rush Limbaugh Show at high volume on his phone speaker in the locker room (rest in piss, el rushbo). He wears a red hat to the gym sometimes. Yes, the standard issue version.

There are lots of Karens. This is the one I'm referring to.

I make it a practice to simply ignore Karen when I see him. If I had to break down the percentages for my reasons to ignore him, I'd put it at 69% due to loudcasting his support for toxic politics and 31% not wanting to risk catching a glimpse of Karen's tiny flaccid pecker.

Today, while I was chatting with someone else Karen piped up with a comment about 'topics that set him off'. "Give us a warning of what they are so we can avoid them" I said as I finished getting on my workout clothes. I'm not sure what came next was exactly the warning I'd requested. 

Gheorghies, he Karened. "I wanna know how that Ilhan Omar went from having no money to having $30 million! I think we need to throw her in jail for 20 years and then deport her..." I imagine he kept going, but I started walking as soon as he started his diatribe. It did call to mind a revenge fantasy I may or may not have imagined in the past.

Apparently only some politicians are allowed to have money.

And Gheorghies, that's where you come in. What's a fair comeuppance for this locker room Karen? I'll share my diabolical idea first, and accept suggestions in the comments for other more sensible measures. This is all strictly hypotheical, of course.

Proposal A - Fill small squeeze bottle with urine and keep it stashed in the back of my locker, until I find myself there alone, at which point I discharge the squeeze bottle of piss into one of the vent holes in Karen's locker. A budget version golden shower, if you will. 

Surely there are some drawbacks to this plan. I know it's gross. But I'm also ridiculously hydrated most of the time, so I also worry it may not be gross enough.

Sound off and tell me - SAGTTP? TIA!

We're No. 69: Santa Clara

Five weeks away from Selection Sunday and the best event in sports, the NCAA Tournament. According to several bracketologists, almost 30 teams are locks for the 68-team field, another dozen are almost assured spots barring late-season face-plants, and roughly two dozen teams have work to do to and are on the bubble. Which brings us to the first entry in this season’s series: the Santa Clara Broncos. 

The Broncos are a case study in both seasonal evaluations that go into selection and the larger college hoops landscape that determines who gets a seat at the table. The school is a private Jesuit university located down the road from the San Francisco Bay area and California’s oldest institution of higher learning. It’s a charter member of the West Coast Conference, founded in 1952, and its notable conference hoops rivals are Gonzaga and St. Mary’s. The Broncos are No. 41 in current NCAA Net rankings, which the committee uses to separate teams, No. 38 in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, and No. 51 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI). Herb Sendek – yes, *that* Herb Sendek, formerly of Arizona State and N.C. State – is in his 10th season as head coach. 

Let’s give them a look: 

Recent history: At least 20 wins the past five seasons, including this year. NIT appearances three of the past four seasons. A pretty fair historical footprint, with seven NCAA appearances, including the 1952 Final Four, and four other NIT trips. The Broncos have had only seven coaches since 1935, and all but one of them had career winning records. 

Mascot/nickname profile: Broncos and a mascot named Bucky, of which there appears to blessedly little history. The student section is referred to as “Ruff Riders.”

Home arena: Leavey Center (cap. 4,500) in Santa Clara, named for alum Thomas E. Leavey (Class of 1922), the founder of Farmers Insurance (cue J.K. Simmons and the TV commercial theme). 

Notable hoops alumni: Steve Nash, who led the Broncos to the NCAAs in 1993, ’95 and ’96 and was a two-time NBA MVP; Kurt Rambis; Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder), Brandin Podziemski (Golden State Warriors); John Bryant (WCC Player of Year, fixture in German professional league to present day); Dennis Awtrey; Ken Sears (1950s All-American and first college hoops player to appear on cover of Sports Illustrated). 

Current season: Santa Clara (21-5, 12-1) is currently in first place in the WCC, a half-game ahead of Gonzaga and a game-and-a-half up on St. Mary’s in a top-heavy league in which the top three have separated from the pack. Redshirt sophomore guard Christian Hammond (16.4 ppg) is one of three double-figure scorers, along with 6-7 senior Elijah Mahi (14 ppg) and 6-9 redshirt freshman Allen Graves (11.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg). The Broncos have won eight in a row and 12 of 13, their only loss a respectable effort against the Zags. 

Reasons to believe: Depth, quality, shooting ability, unselfishness. Nine players average between five and 16 points per game and between 12 and 30 minutes per game. They have seven capable 3-point shooters and five players with at least 60 assists. They shoot 47.6 percent as a team and are outscoring opponents by 12 points per game. They beat St. Mary’s in their first meeting, and they get another crack at both the Gaels and Zags in coming weeks. A solid 7-4 record against Quad 1 and 2 competition. 

Reasons to fade them: Here’s where we get into the effects of one’s neighborhood. The West Coast Conference is a middlin’ 11th in league RPI ratings. Gonzaga is near the top of the heap in many metrics, and St. Mary’s is actually several spots ahead of Santa Clara despite the head-to-head loss. This has led to hoopologists wondering if the WCC is worthy of a third team getting into the field, i.e., a second at-large bid. The Big Ten is projected to get nine and perhaps ten at-large bids, the SEC eight and the ACC and Big 12 seven. The eighth- or ninth-place team in a conference no more deserves a spot in the NCAAs, unless it wins the automatic bid, than you or me (Dead Horse and Club alert). 

Shouldn’t matter if the league is deep and difficult, but in an era of consolidation and mega-conferences, it does because the power conferences dictate terms. Selectors use metrics and available statistical tools to justify inclusion among the Power 4 conferences and the swells, and to exclude mid-majors who did everything asked of them, but whose numbers "just didn’t add up." That’s why we’re in a season where Miami of Ohio is still undefeated and could win 30 games, but if the RedHawks lose in the MAC Tournament, there’s a very real chance they’ll be denied because of their strength of schedule or predictive metrics or league ranking or whatever. In a just and fair world, teams such as Miami-O and Santa Clara should be locks for the field if they get to 26 or 28 wins. Alas, boys and girls, we do not live in such a world.

Superb Owl Open Post

Getting you ready for the Big Game with a mini playlist and open comment thread. 

Happy International Clash Day

In terms of their commentary on the times, the only band that matters was both of their time and prescient. It's impossible to narrow down their protest tunes to find just one that resonates today, so consider this an assignment - listen to this one and go find some more.

Breaking News, Washington Post Edition

Today in Media Disruption came the explosive purge at the Washington Post when one of the country’s great newspapers announced massive layoffs – believed to be approximately 300 people, one-third of its entire staff – and kicked off an enormous restructuring effort that, I guarantee, no one, least of all gajillionaire owner and Amazon ayatollah Jeff Bezos and those he instructed to carry out his orders, have any idea how to pull off or how it will play out. 

The Post will eliminate its sports department, its books department, its news podcast and will severely cut back foreign bureaus and even local and investigative reporting. Every department took a big hit. All Middle East reporters and editors were turfed, as were correspondents in Iran, New Delhi and Ukraine. Sports reportedly will be covered as a “cultural phenomenon,” whatever that means. 

Executive editor Matt Murray informed staff on a Wednesday morning Zoom call, then later circulated a memo that any line editor would reject, with prejudice, for its obfuscation, double-speak and pusillanimous tone. He began: As we shared in our live stream earlier, the company is taking actions today to place The Washington Post on a stronger footing and better position us in this rapidly changing era of new technologies and evolving user habits. These moves include substantial newsroom reductions impacting nearly all news departments. For the immediate future, we will concentrate on areas that demonstrate authority, distinctiveness, and impact and that resonate with readers: politics, national affairs, people, power and trends; national security in DC and abroad; forces shaping the future including science, health, medicine, technology, climate, and business; journalism that empowers people to take action, from advice to wellness; revelatory investigations; and what's capturing attention in culture, online, and in daily life. 

As Murray isn’t stupid, he’s certainly aware that the Post already does all of that, and that gutting entire departments and slicing coverage in no way puts a news organization on “stronger footing.” No, the reasons for Wednesday’s purge are contained deeper in the memo – burying the lede, as they say in the news biz. As you know, we have grappled with financial challenges for some time. They have affected us in multiple rounds of cost cuts and buyouts, along with periodic constraints on other kinds of spending. We have concluded that the company's structure is too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product. This restructure will help to secure our future in service of our journalistic mission and provide us stability moving forward. 

Deep down, still this fucking guy

A diminished product “providing stability.” Sure. Do go on: We are producing much great journalism of which we can be proud. As we discuss every day in the news meeting, some of our best work attracts readers and generates subscriptions and engagement. Unfortunately, some does not. Some areas, such as video, haven't kept up with changes in how consumers get news and information. Significantly, our daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years. And even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience. If we are to thrive, not just endure, we must reinvent our journalism and our business model with renewed ambition. 

Of course, this is all about money and costs. The Post has been hemorrhaging subscribers and readers for many months, not the least because of actions by Bezos. Legendary former Post editor Marty Baron, who worked under Bezos for eight years after he bought the paper in 2013, acknowledged the paper’s financial issues but also called out his old boss in a statement Wednesday that read, in part: “The Post’s challenges, however, were made infinitely worse by ill-conceived decisions that came from the very top — from a gutless order to kill a presidential endorsement 11 days before the 2024 election to a remake of the editorial page that now stands out only for its moral infirmity. 

Loyal readers, livid as they saw owner Jeff Bezos betraying the values he was supposed to uphold, fled The Post. In truth, they were driven away, by the hundreds of thousands. The owner, in a note to readers, wrote that he aimed to boost trust in The Post. The effect was something else entirely: Subscribers lost trust in his stewardship and, notwithstanding the newsroom’s stellar journalism, The Post overall. Similarly, many leading journalists at The Post lost confidence in Bezos, and jumped to other news organizations. They also, in effect, were driven away. Bezos’s sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own. 

This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.” Perhaps a suitable way to describe the Post amputation is: Shocking but not surprising. Newspapers and organizations have slashed staff and costs for years, sometimes shuttering entirely, a practice that accelerated when they were no longer run by families and news people but by corporations and business interests more wedded to profits than public service. 

Bezos didn’t buy the Post because of a soft spot for the First Amendment, but because he believed it to be a promising business move. Sure, there’s the prestige and ego boost of owning the outlet that printed the Pentagon Papers, busted open Watergate and is respected around the world. In the end, however, a man who can afford whatever money the paper loses without sweating a drop chose to further diminish his own product for bottom line reasons. Businesses make decisions all the time about the quality of their products or services. Maybe they use cheaper ingredients or farm out customer service to call centers, in the name of maximizing profits. But a newspaper’s sole currency is credibility; once credibility is compromised, it doesn’t come back. 

Again, giving Murray the benefit of the doubt, he knows that it’s not possible to “reinvent” journalism. Changing times may mean re-examining how stories are presented. New technology may assist the process. Maybe priorities shift, or reporting is pared back or expanded in certain areas. Maybe voices are added or subtracted, either in the storytelling or editing. But journalism requires pretty much the same formula as a hundred years ago: people asking questions, doing research, explaining how and why something matters. Though maybe Murray is on to something, as the new Washington Post writes about Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and Caps’ all-timer Alex Ovechkin and Wizards guard Trae Young as cultural phenomena. Hasn’t been tried.

Gheorghasbord: Good for the Gander

This post started as a comparative analysis of Geese and Goose. The bands, not the birds. It was inspired, really. And then like so many of my inspirations, it sorta petered out and took a nap. But now it returns, like the salmon to Capistrano, part of a widely-ranging selection of things that my brain found interesting this week.

The New York Times calls Goose a "jam band with indie-rock undertones". See what you think:

The same NYT writer asks us to "think of Geese as an indie-rock band with jammy elements". Sure, man. Here they are recently on Saturday Night Live. I think I like them better than their fellow-feathered act.

Turning to things sporting, Thursday marks both the eve of the 2026 Olympics and the opening match of the 2026 Six Nations. Holders France host 2023 and 2024 champs Ireland at the Stade de France in a gigantic match, both in terms of the quality of the teams and the impact on the outcome of the event. The French are the consensus favorite to repeat as champions (8/11 on Betfair), while the recently-banged-up Irish (6-1) are third-favorite behind England (5/2). Scotland comes in at 12-1, while Wales (55-1) and Italy (125-1) will once again drag at the back.

Thursday's opener will air live on Peacock from 3:10 ET. The NBC streaming option will carry all of the tournament action.

And finally, sticking with athletic competition, check out this spill veteran skiing star Lindsey Vonn took a few days ago in Crans-Montana, Switzerland:

Vonn, who returned to competition in 2025 after several years away in retirement, has been the best women's downhill racer on the world circuit by some measure. Since the beginning of December, she's finished no worse than third, and won twice in five races. 

She suffered a complete rupture of the ACL in her left knee during the crash at Crans-Montana, ending her dream of a return to the Olympic podium...wait...I'm being told that...she's still going to race in Milan-Cortina? With a brace on her COMPLETELY RUPTURED ACL?!?

Well I'll be goddamned.