Cumberland Farms used to be my go to convenience store for the cheap store brand chips, cheap fountain drinks, cheap coffee.
Now the store brand chips are gone, fountain drinks and coffee no longer cheap, and even the gas is more expensive than average.
What happened? Did they get bought out?
I was thinking about picking up a Dzierwa autograph card, but having a hard time wanting one because of how low effort the autos are. I get that players have to sign a lot of these, but still. Contrast that with Jeremiah Jackson, whose autos are things of beauty. Dzierwa is likely to be a way better player, but damn JJ’s auto is pretty.
My daughter's 26 year old boyfriend had terminal cancer, and he went on a trip with us back in early May. He wasn't really an Orioles fan (or a baseball fan at all), but he knew I was, so he watched a few games before the trip to be able to talk to me about it. The few games he watched coincided with when Coby went on the absolute heater. 10-for-25 with 4 homers and 11 RBIs.
Based on what he saw, he thought that Coby was an Aaron Judge level player, one of the best in baseball. I didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise.
He died earlier this month, and went to his grave thinking that Coby was the best player in baseball. RIP. I think of him every time Coby gets a hit.
Just saw the Hadestown pro shot, I cannot believe what a baller Patrick Page was.
He ruptured his achilles 10 days before filming, an extremely serious injury. Instead of withdrawing, he slaps a medical boot on it (which was fabulously decorated by the costumers), goes out and performs as flawlessly as always. The cane he also uses fits fabulously with the character and costume, to the point I started thinking the cane was part of his original Hades stage costume (upon further reflection, I don't think it is).
Only after the proshot did he go get surgery.
Patrick Page, I am in awe.
Topps certainly does collectors no favors with the immense number of similar looking and similar named parallels. Rainbow looks like a hologram, holo, confetti, sand glitter and crackle board all have a rainbow effect too, confetti literally looks like a tube of elementary school glitter, diamanté also looks like crackled aluminum foil. E-Bay title listings match the picture no more than about half the time. Drives me crazy. So a quick reference for anyone that might find it helpful:
1 - Rainbow. Looks like a hologram, the only background effect is rainbow.
2 - Holo. Also has a rainbow effect, but an uneven background effect as well. Distinguished from confetti by the unevenness of the background.
3 - Diamanté. Diamond background. No rainbow effect.
4 - Confetti. Also has a rainbow effect, but looks like a tube of elementary school glitter. Distinguish from holo by the angular, more evenly sized pieces of glitter. Because it looks like glitter, it gets mistakenly labeled sandglitter all the time.
5 - Sandglitter. Rainbow effect again, but the glitter is much, much finer than confetti. Looks like sand. Focus on the “sand” part of the name, not the “glitter” part.
6 - Crackleboard silver. Has a rainbow effect which Diamanté does not. The crackleboard is not all triangular or diamond (but includes those too), more random polygons.
I know it’s been months since Series 1 was released, but I still see these confused and mislabeled all the time. Many of these base backgrounds come in colors too. Hopefully some find this helpful!
I know losses count the same however they happen, but it seems like the Os have an inordinate amount of “stupid losses” this season. It’s one thing to just get beat 4-1 when the other team hits and pitches a bit better than you, but it feels like a lot of the Os losses aren’t that. Bad baserunning, an untimely error, a questionable managerial decision, a bad blown save, giving up just one untimely hit after being unable to cash in plenty of chances yourself.
Is this perception just my fan frustration, or are the Os “stupid losses” higher than normal?
Link is the list of The Athletic’s top 50 trade deadline candidates, which includes three Os. Ward, Cano and Helsley.
While I hope the Os aren’t sellers, that list doesn’t seem crazy. Valuable players that should bring a decent return, but not necessarily part of the Os young core either.
Thoughts?
Just got a new Tacoma, first experience with combination plates.
When entering the plate into parking apps that use license plate recognition, do I just ignore the “COMB” in small print in the middle?
Using the photo as an example (not my plate), would I enter C278860 into a parking app, or CCOMB278860?
Thanks for your experience!
At many ATMs (including the one I generally use), I’ve noticed that the default withdraw amounts haven’t changed in years. Still something like 20/40/60/80/100/Other. So for anything over $100 (which is always, I don’t get or use cash all that often), I have to manually key it in.
I think these were the same default amounts 30+ years ago, and $40 definitely doesn’t go anywhere near as far as it did then.
Another oh-fer tonight. Average at .160 without much power, negative WAR so far this year as well as last.
If he wasn’t the third highest paid player on the Os, he’d probably have been DFA’d already.
Unlike when Pete was struggling, there haven’t really been many signs of him turning things around.
So what should the Os do?
Whenever I see a post about a relative asking for a grandkid, niece or nephew's SSN to set up a 529 (it's required, either at time of set-up or time of beneficiary change), the inevitable answers here are "just set one up with you as the owner and have them contribute to it".
I won't do that.
When you contribute to a 529 someone else owns, it legally becomes their money, not your intended beneficiary's and certainly not yours. The owner can legally withdraw it (subject to taxes and penalties on earnings only) and use it themselves for whatever they want. There are plenty of otherwise good people, including those we're related to, that have hidden problems, whether it's gambling, substance abuse or just living beyond their means. Do I want anyone else to control my money that I want to go to the beneficiary? No I do not.
This next reason is selfish, but valid I feel. I want the beneficiary to know the gift came from me. If it's just money that gets mixed in with someone else's account over the years, the beneficiary has no idea where it came from, or how much. I've established 529s for all my nieces and nephews (I'm the owner), then later give them the account statement (and access to all funds in it) for a high school graduation present. The current balances for my high school aged niece and nephew are around $10K each. Small repeated contributions and a hot market over the last 15 years add up. Anyway, that's my gift to them. If that money were just mixed in with their parent's account, it's much less clear.
I do understand that providing me the SSN to set it up requires trust. I get that. One of my brother in-laws initially balked at it, and that's fine. I completely understand. We talked about it, and he did decide to provide them, but had he not, that's fine too. I just wouldn't have set up 529s for his kids.
I get that there's risk to providing SSNs. If anyone has doubts about the integrity of the individual asking, of course they shouldn't do it. That said, I still won't contribute to any 529 that I don't own.
I used to be into collecting, and have been out of it for awhile. Got excited by a new O’s player though, and have been chasing his 2026 Topps parallels.
First, let me say there are many sellers that don’t understand what they’re looking at, which is understandable because there are so many parallels. I see confetti listed as sand glitter (and vice versa), holo listed as rainbow (and vice versa), crackle board silver as holo, and everything in between. But I’ve mostly got that figured out.
The one thing I haven’t quite wrapped my brain around is the criteria Topps uses for individually numbered cards. For example, per some analyses I saw here, there are around 250 of each Aqua Holofoil, which are not individually numbered. Pretty much the same as the 250 of Purple Holofoil, which are. Is there any rhyme or reason to this, or is the answer “just because”?
I don’t frequently drive the Merritt, but when I do, I always think of a comment I read here a couple years ago describing it as “fucked up NASCAR”.
That couldn’t be more accurate. You tuck in the long line of cars in front of you, basically bump drafting, riding along the rail, going way too fast, just praying no one wrecks or does anything stupid in front of you. The “on ramps” (and that’s a generous description) are like exiting pit row, needing to go from zero to 60+ pretty instantaneously.
So whoever described the Merritt as “fucked up NASCAR” a few years ago - while I don’t remember who you are anymore, I think of your comment every time I drive the Merritt. You nailed it. It’s my favorite r/Connecticut comment of all time.
The Orioles have now lost 8 of their last 10, are 17-23 and in last place in the AL East.
Whether you attribute that to Elias, Albernaz, underperforming players, injury woes, or all four, managers are usually the first to go, especially first timers like Albernaz.
So is Albernaz on the hot seat? If so, exactly how hot is it, and how likely is a Red Sox like housecleaning scenario in the near future?
