Yanet Garcia Lounging At The Pool, 49ers Fan Fight From Multiple Angles & John Daly With A Good Boy Having A Good Night
Take a moment to analyze your emotions this morning
It's back.
It ain't much, but at least you get something to watch on the patio TV while throwing a late-summer party.
My war on the yellow jackets has escalated
I feel like a moron for leaving a bird feeder out well into summer when the birds had moved on to eating seeds off plants which left the bird feeder to the yellow jackets who were enjoying themselves so much that they were entering the openings and laying there while feasting.
This weekend, I spent time analyzing the yellow jacket movements and what they were eating on -- birdseed & whatever berries are inside that seed.
S--T!
Of course they were.
I also found out that I had the yellow jacket traps too close to the patio and I hadn't properly provided a perimeter to catch the yellow jackets flying into the yard.
And I have purchased RESCUE traps based on the recommendations from readers. It's time to win this war.
On the youth of this country skipping Friday Night Lights to game or sit around the house doing nothing when they could be out socializing face-to-face
• Rob in NJ writes:
You had mentioned something about making the most of Screencaps Jr’s high-school football games, and as usual, I believe you are spot-on. It’s imperative for kids in the communities to make the most of those games.
For reference, I have a younger family member who just graduated high school in the spring. He was always the type that would be staying in and gaming, but it wasn’t until his senior year started last fall that he started going to his school’s games.
He couldn’t believe how much fun he was having and felt remiss for sitting at home for most of his time in high school. (Granted, Wuhan lockdowns affected his first few years in high school, so he was deprived).
And if nothing else - always nicer to spend a few bucks for a local gathering in the bleachers, as opposed to several hundred to barely see anything at an NFL game.
• Gerard W. writes:
Your eyelid’s are over halfway shut and you don’t even realize it. The next 8 years will go faster than any 8 years in your life. Trust me, we just dropped our oldest at college for the first time last week. The blink is real.
High School kids just don’t hang out in person that much anymore. It’s weird. I don’t know if it’s because they are all online all the time or because these kids were abused with masks and lockdowns forever.
(We encouraged our kids to have friends out during the COVID insanity. Attached is a picture of their friends tubing behind my truck in January of 2021 when Illinois was at the height of abuse and insanity.)
FJ.B. has a double meaning here in Illinois.
Kinsey:
Now I'm really curious. Did COVID begin the decline of high school students at athletic events or did it exacerbate the issue? I need intel on this subject from those of you who've lived through this and have analyzed the data from your own kids' experiences.
Last winter, I wrote about how few kids were showing up to the high school basketball games for a boys' team that won a DI district title, which is no small accomplishment around here -- it was just the third in school history. I took Screencaps Jr. to regular-season games where there were 10-15 students in the student section. That's not an exaggeration. I counted the students.
Ask your kids why they're not attending athletic events. I'm all ears. Of course they'll remain anonymous.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
Are you looking to one-up your neighbors this NFL season?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the new craze for guys who want the 110-inch TV viewing experience without the price is to create video walls made out of 70" TVs or whatever size you need to fill a wall. (I saw Costco is selling those TCL 70-inchers for $480...yes, the Chinese might end up with your data, but you already gave the Chinese your data when you signed up for 200 apps over the last 5-10 years...the commies are already tracking you.)
Granted, you'll have to watch a game with black lines going through horizontally and vertically, but you end up with a mammoth screen.
I'm going to stick with my two old-school 50" TVs in the basement and the auxiliary 32-incher off the bar when the action gets started next weekend.
I wasn't expecting that first question from Pete
• Pete in Arizona lays out five questions that will really have you thinking this morning:
Well, one week until we get back to what we love, American football. I can’t wait, it has been a long off-season. The 36th season of my 16-team Fantasy Football League is also about ready to kick off so I am stoked about that. But, to get us through this last final week, I think we need to answer some big everyday questions to get the screencaps folks something to think about and resolve before the games start. Now these are big national impacting questions that we really should have a unified screencaps community approach to. So, here goes, what does the screencaps community have to say on these ‘important’ questions?..
There you go, 5 'thought provoking' questions the screencaps community can ponder before kickoff of the 2023 Football season.
Kinsey:
Screencaps readers heading to the Masters
Someone asked about Screencaps readers who won the 2024 lottery and it took approximately 30 minutes to receive my first email Saturday morning.
• Bruce A. writes:
Joe, won my first set of Tuesday practice round tickets for 2013 and my second set for Monday practice round for 2024.
Americans are turning to Aldi in big numbers
Last week's conversation on inflation and shopping carts got Brendan in F'ville, NC thinking.
• Brendan writes:
Lots of ink spilled in the column recently about inflation and shopping cart etiquette... Low key shocked that nobody with feet in both the Screencaps community and a frugal dads' Facebook group has mentioned the solution to both 'da inflation and poor cart etiquette--Aldi.
Aldi grocery bills are at least 25% cheaper than the local Kroger subsidiary with comparable quality, and Aldi's shopping carts are equipped with a device that requires a quarter to unlock the cart for use in the store. The shopper only gets his $0.25 back when he returns the cart to the cart bay at the front of the store.
This figurative skin in the game leads to the best cart etiquette I have ever seen--with an immaculate, cartless parking lot full of the hoopties, economy cars, and luxury vehicles driven by the types of people who shop at a discount grocer. And the whole cart set-up allows Aldi to forego hiring cart attendants which allows Aldi to keep the prices lower. Virtuous circle.
Plus, Aldi has got to have one of the most interesting corporate histories anywhere. Working-class German brothers get drafted to fight for the Nazis in WWII, survive the war, and start a discount grocery store for a shattered German economy. The brothers get into a dispute about whether or not the stores should sell cigarettes which leads them to split the company in half. Brothers become legendary cheapskates who complain that pencil stubs are not worn down to the nub and the paper is too thick at corporate headquarters, endure a kidnapping, become notorious recluses, and die as two of the richest men in the world.
Just something to think about as you maneuver your shopping cart amongst the "Aldi Finds" and boxes of Millville breakfast cereal.
Kinsey:
I can't tell you the last time I stepped foot inside Kroger. We're either shopping at our local grocers, Costco or Aldi. I will gladly pay a premium to not deal with the scumbags at Kroger, Walmart and Meijer who roll into those places looking like they just came off a crystal meth bender.
And I might end up finding something cool in the Aldi aisle that could have toaster ovens and Nerf dart guns.
Don't buy the Bud Light comeback
• Mike N. writes:
Over the last few days, I have started seeing articles "time to buy AB", "The Bud Light boycott is waning", etc. The sources of these articles from what I can gather are both Deutsch Bank (the lead bank for issuing AB bonds), and paid opinion influencers by AB. Not a terrible strategy based on how effective lies have been in the media. I am surprised it took them this long to start something like this. My favorite philosopher George Costanza once said, "it's not a lie if you believe it"...
The Swiss castle offer from Vox
• Dave in Woodland Hills writes:
I saw a while back that a dude named Vox wrote you... offering to put you up or something at his castle in Switzerland. I know you are rightfully proud of the impact of Screencaps due to current and former spooks writing you, but don't let that distract you from your true reach.
Vox is a tough dude to impress and if whatever it was that impacted him enough to have him write you, THAT'S a sign of how far out into the world the tentacles of screencaps reach. You should check him out if you haven't already.
Kinsey:
From the sound of things, Dave and Vox know each other based on this intel. Is there some sort of text group I'm not aware of? Trust me, I've researched Swiss airfare for 2024. It's on my brain. That castle looks sweet.
Let's go have a great week. Yes, it's insanely hot across a huge swath of America, but in six weeks you'll be wearing a hoodie and dreaming of a beach. Enjoy it while you can. Have a great work week.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com