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RTDNTOTO šŸ» Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 21 (2026)

Maister said:
there's the whole obnoxious Pats fan thing that's still very much a thing dating back from the Belichick-Brady days. So it was nice seeing them getting beat
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Same back in the day with the Dallas Cowboys.
 
JNA said:
I suppose I'm mildly pleased about the Seahawks victory over the Pats. I mean I couldn't care less about Seattle, but there's the whole obnoxious Pats fan thing that's still very much a thing dating back from the Belichick-Brady days. So it was nice seeing them getting beat
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Yep. New England is and will always be cheaters in my book. I hope they go 0-17 every year.
 
Planit said:
It had a fun upbeat vibe, family & community oriented, an actual real wedding took place, & the sign at the end.

"The only thing more powerful than hate is love"
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Oh, and did you catch him mimicking some football moves when he was dance-carrying the football through the streets? (e.g. head fakes and changing direction)
 
Yesterday, at the Superb Owl Party, everyone stood for the National Anthem, and that it was proper decorum. I disagreeā€”at the event, yes. But I have never thought about standing for any anthemā€”American or otherwiseā€”when it is on TV as part of an event, parade, etc. I decided not to make a point of order about it, but I donā€™t think standing is the norm in this case. With that said, if one would like to, fine, but itā€™s not compulsory.

Thoughts?
 
Super Bowl was fine. Growing up in northern New England in the 80s it was not cool to like the Pats. Everybody just had their own team they liked.

We had a really great spread of food and I'm still recovering from that and the lateness of the hour getting to bed.

I thought the halftime show was OK- It feels like kind of a bummer that it was produced more for the TV/screen audience than the stadium audience 9who I'm sure could also watch on a big screen). I guess I'm more of a fan of the rock concert style stage.

For the ads, - gah, so much AI, crypto, and GLP-1 drugs! Boring.
 
Faust_Motel said:
Super Bowl was fine. Growing up in northern New England in the 80s it was not cool to like the Pats. Everybody just had their own team they liked.

We had a really great spread of food and I'm still recovering from that and the lateness of the hour getting to bed.

I thought the halftime show was OK- It feels like kind of a bummer that it was produced more for the TV/screen audience than the stadium audience 9who I'm sure could also watch on a big screen). I guess I'm more of a fan of the rock concert style stage.

For the ads, - gah, so much AI, crypto, and GLP-1 drugs! Boring.
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Yes my husband went to the 2004 Superbowl in Houston and he said you can't see anything with the halftime show - his seats were in the endzone so maybe that had something to do with it lol - but being there was awesome and the Pats won so that was a good thing lol
 
jumbach said:
Did anyone watch the Muppets Show reboot the other day?

Tried to get to the zaniness of the original yet not imitate it. If it gets picked up, I'll get it a try, but the pilot was pretty meh.

And no Pigs In Space!
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I actually watched it three times, once by myself, once with my youngest daughter, and once with my wife and grandson. I liked it, they like it. I never heard of the guest star Sabrina Carpenter but I enjoyed her performance and interaction with the characters. I am torn on Matt Vogel being the voice of Kermit. Outside of that, I think it did the original show justice.
 
Wannaplan? said:
Just read on social media that a company was pushing the boundaries of innovation. I am sincerely confused, I thought innovating was cool enough in of itself. And isnā€™t it tautological to say you are pushing the boundaries of innovating because isnā€™t the act of innovating already at the boundary of what is known, of what is expected? I donā€™t want to work for that company, they are making something so simple very complicated.
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Whenever I think of somebody innovating or pushing the boundaries of innovation I think of American Dad and Arizona State.


 
I enjoyed the halftime show yesterday (though for the first minute or two it sounded like the sound kept fading out for a moment here and there). It was upbeat and vibrant and colorful. I know a tiny bit of Spanish and could understand that Bad Bunny was largely singing about believing in yourself (or something like that?) and this Gringo didn't hear anything offensive in the performance. I thought the stage show itself was by far the most interesting Super Bowl show in a very long time - he had a great use of the limited space (I loved when he fell through the roof of the house and I was genuinely surprised by that) and even though I couldn't understand everything, I could definitely gather quite a bit of the visual story he was telling.

My wife went wild when Ricky Martin appeared. I thought whoever he was sounded good but would have had no idea who it was if my wife didn't mention it. I know who Ricky Martin is but he does not appear to have aged any since the late '90s.

Neither my wife nor I recognized Lady Gaga but we both had heard that song before. I think we just weren't expecting to see her there. Luckily we had our 15 year old daughter there to tell us it was Lady Gaga.

In the end, I really like most of the performances since Jay Z has taken over the halftime show. I think he does a good job at bringing in very current and very relevant performers.
 
I went downstairs for a meeting. The odor of stinky winter coat lingers over the cubicles. Many people need to wash there coats.

That goes for the rest of you.
 
kms said:
I went downstairs for a meeting. The odor of stinky winter coat lingers over the cubicles. Many people need to wash there coats.

That goes for the rest of you.
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I have no winter coats. Just a zip up hoodie and a denim jacket. They do get washed.
 
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luckless pedestrian said:
I loveed the music, I loved the production - it told the story of Puerto Rico as an American territory - the imagery was great and he's a great performer
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I read over the AP discription on it, and it makes more sense now. However, given that only 13-14% of Americans speak Spanish, closed captions would have been nice to help understand what he was saying.

Trump called it a slap in the face... right now there are a lot of people cheering if that is how he took it.
 
michaelskis said:
I read over the AP discription on it, and it makes more sense now. However, given that only 13-14% of Americans speak Spanish, closed captions would have been nice to help understand what he was saying.

Trump called it a slap in the face... right now there are a lot of people cheering if that is how he took it.
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I guess people that say that have never been to the opera - I love attending the opera, the music, the emotion, the production, the story - do I know what they are saying in Italian, nope, but I love it just the same

Now I don't listen to opera, only attend because it's the whole thing - sort of like this, it was the whole production, the story and the music
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I loveed the music, I loved the production - it told the story of Puerto Rico as an American territory - the imagery was great and he's a great performer
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I thought the performance production was good - more interactive and creative than the LED light shows we've seen in past years. The music is not something I listen to, but even the bands that I like have ho hum superbowl performances (cough, the Who, cough), so I thought it was okay.
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I guess people that say that have never been to the opera - I love attending the opera, the music, the emotion, the production, the story - do I know what they are saying in Italian, nope, but I love it just the same

Now I don't listen to opera, only attend because it's the whole thing - sort of like this, it was the whole production, the story and the music
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This Up Here GIF by Chord Overstreet


Music transcends language.
 
Maister said:
I understood little of what Bad Bunny sang, but I kinda liked the Hispanic community/neighborhood vibe that the performance was obviously going for. But musically, not my cup of tea.

EDIT: I'd be interested to get Kjel's input. Assuming she saw the halftime show, I'm sure she took home about 98% more from that performance than most of us.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the half time show. The sets, dancing, really put a glimpse into latino culture. The house was throwback to what many houses in Latin America look like, the bedrock of life, and where it starts, in the smallest of places. It even has the kid alseep in the wedding. If you have ever been to a big catholic latino wedding, there is always a kid asleep due to the sugar crash and the amount of time and boredom there is present. The dancing and "fiesta" really is representative of our culture in general in how big moments are steeped with family and love, no matter what's going on in the world.

Vox did a great article about the easter eggs in the show.
www.vox.com

Bad Bunnyā€™s knockout halftime show, explained by a Puerto Rican

All of the cultural Easter eggs you might have missed.
www.vox.com www.vox.com
 
Maister said:
I understood little of what Bad Bunny sang, but I kinda liked the Hispanic community/neighborhood vibe that the performance was obviously going for. But musically, not my cup of tea.

EDIT: I'd be interested to get Kjel's input. Assuming she saw the halftime show, I'm sure she took home about 98% more from that performance than most of us.
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Hola!

My big kids came over and we had a feast: empanadas, tostones, pernil, habichuelas guisadas, "nachos" made from the tostones and pernil, rice and potato salad (it's a thing in the Caribbean). The game was somewhat of a snooze fest but the second half was better than the first half.

Green Day sounded awesome in the pre-game performance, my big kids were like GenX is never going to die :cool:

My husband and future son in law are both from the Dominican Republic which has a shared history and many commonalities with Puerto Rico. All of us have lived in neighborhoods and cities with large Puerto Rican and Dominican populations and my oldest and I have both worked at a Puerto Rican founded community organization. I would like to note that the Spanish spoken in the Caribbean is different than Spanish spoken throughout the rest of Latin America and it is also not textbook Spanish. Technically they are dialects, but I'd also argue that they are flirt with the edge of being a criollo language. The rhythm, syntax, speed, and pronunciation vary considerably.

Bad Bunny's show was fantastic. Unless you are Puerto Rican or have good knowledge of Puerto Rican history and culture some of the show probably didn't make sense.

The opener with fields of sugar cane was an acknowledgement of Puerto Rico's slave plantation history until Spain ended slavery in 1873. After U.S. takeover in 1898, large corporations bought up the sugar cane producing land and relied on low wage labor.

The piragua stand is a core childhood memory for many Puerto Ricans and those living here in the mainland-if there's a Puerto Rican neighborhood, there's a piragua cart somewhere serving up shaved ice doused with sugary flavored syrup. Also featured were drinking chilled fresh coconuts, old men playing dominoes, and women at the salon which are a big social hub in many Latino communities (as are barber shops).

La Casita "little house" was part of the stage and IMHO was a pretty realistic depiction of the concrete block homes found throughout the Caribbean. My youngest said it looks just like her uncle's house. Family is very important across Latin America and the diaspora. We all have that one relative that is "home" to the collective family, no matter how humble it may be. Another symbol was the sapo concho which is an endangered toad, it is in the video/film for the song DeBƍ TiRAR MĆ”S FOToS. The video if you haven't seen it is a lookback from an Old Benito and a commentary on gentrification and the importance of preservation.

Puerto Rican flag, this is subtle, but the one carried during the show had a light blue background which was the flag design prior to the U.S. taking over Puerto Rico in 1898 via the Treaty in Paris. Puerto Ricans love their flag and there's a whole song dedicated to it: Que Bonita La Bandera. Little kids learn it in school, even my youngest did as she attended a majority Latino school. Puerto Rico struggles in many ways because it is a territory with crushing rules/laws imposed by the federal government, any movement for independence has been quashed, and will likely never gain statehood status. This also ties into Ricky Martin's singing of "Lo Que le PasĆ³ a Hawaii" from Bad Bunny's album which draws direct correlations between Hawaii and Puerto Rico being taken over by outside interests.

The electric poles near the end of the performance was really IMHO the biggest FU. PREPA is the electric company on the island and charges astronomical rates for shitty service. Hurricane Maria basically destroyed the electrical network and many parts of the island went without electricity for nearly a year. The federal government failed to respond in any adequate way post Hurricane Maria.

Bad Bunny brought the performance home with the parade of flags from most countries in the western hemisphere. The point being that we are all American as we reside in North, Central, and South America and that the U.S. are not the only Americans.

*********
68 million U.S. residents are Latino, 20% of the population. About 60% of Latinos were born in the U.S. and 40% have immigrated. People with Mexican ancestry are the largest group with 39M people, Puerto Ricans are the second largest group with 6M, trailed by Cubans with just under 3M. Latinos have contributed enormously to the U.S. American experiment. For me, this half time show and Bad Bunny's outstanding album were a love letter to Puerto Rico and Latinidad. Wepa!
 
Maister said:
Childhood memory #166:
Every summer as a kid my dad would bring home a grocery bag filled with bbq chicken (wrapped in wax paper) grilled by the firefighters down the street from his workplace. Apparently, it was part of some kind of an annual fundraiser. The chicken was delicious, but there was something special about how it came home in a big paper grocery bag and how it had a smoky aroma you could detect the instant he brought it into the house. I remember asking my dad one year how many more days it would be until the firefighters had their chicken cookout. I looked forward to it with anticipation.

View attachment 66283
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They did these in the Buffalo area. Chiavetta's was the leading company, though there were a few similar ones. Don't think its a thing in the Chicago area. Luckily Chiavetta's bottles the marinade and I can make it myself on the Weber grill.
 
Who is looking forward to the new USA Channel show - Anna Pigeon based on the novels by Nevada Barr?
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I loveed the music, I loved the production - it told the story of Puerto Rico as an American territory - the imagery was great and he's a great performer
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I don't know anything Bad Bunny sings. I'm probably of an age where no superbowl performance is geared towards me. They already know I'm watching the game as a "mid/late" 40s male.

I thought the production was better than most Superbowl halftime shows. The style and feel seemed completely different and its pretty wild that they could create it so quickly in the middle of a stadium. The picture of the trees marching out to the field was pretty hilarious. The whole thing felt light and airy to me. Maybe it wasn't supposed to, but everything seemed happy, which is a positive right now.

Overall, the music sounded good. I caught about 30 words that I recognized. My wife liked the guest stars. I liked the truck that made an appearance.
 
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