continuing proofs America is wacko [3]

If you have the money to afford Super Bowl tickets I can't imagine the food prices would be all that burdensome.

Eldorion wrote:If you have the money to afford Super Bowl tickets I can't imagine the food prices would be all that burdensome.

Yeah that's true But I've never been a sports guy anyway, even if I was I'd rather watch it at home away from all the noisy idiots...

I've enjoyed going to football games but the last time I went to one I got beer poured on me for wearing a Dallas jersey and this drunk woman in the row in front of me kept turning around to yell at and taunt me and the guy sitting next to me (also in Dallas colors) who were just sitting there. So ... that kind of put me off going back. :/

Actually around that same time I had a store clerk refuse to serve me because I was a Dallas fan even though I wasn't wearing anything branded. It was a sportswear store and he asked who I supported. I was like "the Cowboys, but I'm actually here for someone else" but by the time I finished he had already turned around and walked away.  Living near DC can be rough.

Funnily enough I remember my brother telling me about a football match he went to a few years ago, sat near an American couple (evidently on holiday) they seemed to be under the false impression that British 'Soccer' was more of a gentleman's sport with better behaved fans...needless to say 90 minutes of coarse/drunken/mildly racist/noisy/annoying shouting mixed with the lovely odours of beer, pasties and stale p*ss (that's fratton park for you) and crap weather seemed to change their opinion...

This is why I have nothing to do with commercial or even school sports.  My tolerance for certain kinds of stoopid is just too low.  (I'm all about other kinds of stupid)

Eldorion wrote:I've enjoyed going to football games but the last time I went to one I got beer poured on me for wearing a Dallas jersey and this drunk woman in the row in front of me kept turning around to yell at and taunt me and the guy sitting next to me (also in Dallas colors) who were just sitting there. So ... that kind of put me off going back. :/

At least you were popular

halfwise wrote:This is why I have nothing to do with commercial or even school sports.  My tolerance for certain kinds of stoopid is just to low.  (I'm all about other kinds of stupid)

I'm fine with sport as a leisure activity, but the near religious devotion of some fans has afterall they are being paid vast amounts of money for kicking a ball much faster than most of us can manage, they aren't exactly heroes.

And why root for the "home" team, which has been imported from all over the country, and in a few years will look completely different with other imports/exports?

This is why Eldo's preference for Dallas makes sense. At least the cheerleaders keep consistent standards.

Well my dad was a Dallas fan back in the '70s, I think as a way of rebelling against his family who were all Steelers fans. So he raised me to root for the Cowboys from a very young age. But I root for the Ravens too when there isn't a conflict.

Baltimore's especially weird in terms of moving football teams though. There's a lot of fans around here who still loathe the Colts for moving away, but the Ravens only came here because Art Modell abandoned Cleveland. Though at least they got a replacement team after only a few years, and were able to keep the colors and history.

This is actually kind of awesome:

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Less than 3% of Americans are worth dating
Business Insider By Andy Kiersz and Linette Lopez


Happy Valentine's Day.
If you're in a relationship, stop right here.

If you're not, you're single.

That's completely fine — around half the population of US adults are. But you should know it's highly unlikely you're worth dating.

In fact, according to our calculations only about 2.7% of American adults are "worth dating."

Before you get up in arms about how it's totally fine that you're still wearing cargo pants in your 30s, or how every man who dates you has to really like all your sorority sisters (because they are your BFFs for life), allow us to explain what makes someone "worth dating."

Or as some like to say, "eligible."

To assess how many eligible singles live in the country, we turned to the Minnesota Population Center's 2014 American Community Survey IPUMS (ACS). It's an ongoing project by the Census Bureau that asks roughly 1% of all Americans every year — about 3 million people — several questions about their social, demographic, economic, and housing situations.

There's tons of great information in there, but we took only the most relevant tidbits to define eligibility

They're actually single: We removed anyone who is currently married, or living with a nonmarried romantic partner. Unfortunately, the ACS doesn't ask whether respondents are in a relationship with someone they don't live with, so some people with partners might have slipped in.
They're between the ages of 18 and 40.
They don't live with their parents: The ACS includes information on family relationships within a household. Anyone who boomeranged and had a mother or father within the same household was excluded. Of course, we do run the risk here of excluding nice people who are taking care of elderly parents, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
They have at least a college education: The ACS includes data on educational attainment. We included anyone with a Bachelor's or a Master's, holding a doctorate, or with a post-graduate professional degree like a law or medical degree.
They don't live in group quarters, like a college dorm or a military barracks.
They have a job.
See, we're not really setting the bar that high.

Based on our analysis of the ACS IPUMS data, about 6.7 million Americans satisfied all six of the above criteria, and therefore count as highly eligible by our demanding measures. Given that, according to our analysis, there were about 245 million Americans over the age of 18 in 2014, only about 2.7% of American adults are highly eligible singles.

Good luck out there.

I'm batting 600

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (UPI)
Officials in New York City cited cold weather as the reason to cancel the annual Central Park Ice Festival.

The Central Park Conservancy announced the Valentine's weekend event would be cancelled due to "extreme temperature and high winds" in the area.

The free annual event typically features lights and music as well as ice sculptures carved by local artists. The festival's ice-sculptor-in-chief Shintaro Okamoto told the New York Times the cancellation is "a bummer" and insisted that similar events have been carried out despite extremely cold weather.

"We've done exhibitions and competitions in the past where it was negative 20s, negative 30s up in Fairbanks, Alaska and Ottawa, Canada," Okamoto said.

I'm reserving judgement until I hear from a meteorologist...

I really shouldn't say anything until I've actually been outside...

But: I think there was cause for cancelling saturday given temperatures and winds New Yorkers aren't really equipped for so wouldn't show up. But Sunday is Valentine's day, and with it both a bit warmer and the winds quite reasonable, they should have gone for it.

Update: been outside, today would have worked. But yesterday had both winds and temperatures in the teens. In NYC there's so many options that if you put a damper on an outside activity, everybody will just do something else. Plus I think earlier in the week the forecast for sunday was about as bad as saturday, so they had to make the call before it gets too late.

Apparently there's supposed to be 3-5 inches of snow tomorrow, but they're also calling for it to be 10 degrees warmer than it was this weekend (still below freezing ofc).

Oh, dear God.

And people wonder where Trump supporters come from.

"Go back to the dessert!!" I just love that.

Back to the dessert? Don't mind if I do.

I rather like Trevor Noah.

The stereotypes about Canadians really are true!

Also, it was nice of whoever screenshotted that to try to obscure the guy's identity, but they dun goofed it up.

What happens when you try to drive an oversized American car on the streets of London?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36116082

What I don't understand is why there's so many SUVs in New York City. This is a place where parking space is at a premium.