November 15, 2013
Link-O-Rama
• Headline of the week: "Woman having sex at Waffle House uses burger for sandal."
• I lost a lot more weight in a lot less time, so where's my $10,000?
• Everyone's favorite retired Twins blogger, Batgirl, was featured in the New York Times for the writing she does under her "Anne Ursu" alter ego.
• Monday night I saw Dave Chappelle at First Avenue and it was amazing. He took the stage at around 11:00 p.m. and begrudgingly left at 2:10 a.m. after three hours of stand-up and chatting with the audience. Chappelle is such a gifted, relaxed performer that it was often hard to figure out what was a planned routine and what was improvised riffing, but he had the sold-out crowd wrapped around his finger all night.
Chappelle famously removed himself from the spotlight for a long time and in going back on tour he recently made headlines for a messy show in Connecticut, but his genius was on full display Monday and he seemed to feel such a genuine bond with the adoring Minneapolis crowd that he couldn't bring himself to leave the stage. As an insomniac comedy junkie, watching him light up cigarette after cigarette and shoot the shit until 2:00 a.m. was an experience I'll never forget.
It's tough to fully describe the late-night craziness Monday night, but Chris Riemenschneider of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gave it a good try.
UPDATE: Chappelle got his own star on the side of First Avenue.
• Kevin Love apparently took in one of the Chappelle shows too.
• I had my first TCF Bank Stadium tailgating experience before (and during/after) last weekend's Gophers-Penn State game and took a bunch of pictures.
• Did the Twins and Joe Mauer make the right decision moving him from catcher to first base?
• This week's "Gleeman and The Geek" episode features an update on my $4,700 exploding tire, tales of tailgating, dumb pranks, and our growing feud with "The Sportive" podcast. Oh, and it was literally recorded in a basement.
• Five words: Puppies. Learning. How. To. Walk.
On a related note: Boston Terriers in shower caps.
• Here's how KFAN's website described my Thursday morning return to the airwaves with Paul Allen: "Aaron Gleeman joins PA in-studio to catch up on baseball, Mauer's move to first base, his love life, and his mom." Not quite accurate, though: We talked about Twitter too.
• Scott Melker mashed up Hall and Oates with a bunch of different rappers, including a combo of "Maneater" and "C.R.E.A.M." by Wu-Tang Clan that's brilliant.
• Carson Cistulli of Fan Graphs explains why Big Pun was the real MVP this season.
• Amanda Brooke Perrin's awkward guide to first dates is fantastic.
• I'm printing this out and taking it on all future dates.
• See, now this is my type of (almost) love story.
• Ricky Rubio got an assist through Jarrett Jack's legs.
• There is where I'm getting noted jumpsuit enthusiast Michael Rand's birthday present. And possibly my entire wardrobe from now on.
• My breakdown of some free agent starting pitchers the Twins might actually sign.
• Brian Wilson can't sign with the Yankees because he won't shave his beard.
• Ten years ago this week the Twins traded A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for a decent haul.
• Hey look, it's David Ortiz's first career walk-off home run and he's wearing a Twins uniform:
That video has so much amazing in it. There's even a Bobby Kielty sighting.
• Sure, there could in theory be multiple people named D.J. Short, but I choose to believe that my Rotoworld and HardballTalk colleague has been living a secret life this entire time.
• For anyone interested in supporting the free content at AG.com, I've cut the sponsor of the week price in half from now until the end of the year.
• The latest from my future wife, sans video but still pretty damn good.
• Nick Punto is the new Moneyball.
• I'm into not-safe-for-work burrito talk, so Liz Welle and Maggie LaMaack are my favorite same-sex Twitter couple.
• To honor Tom Scharpling announcing that he's ending "The Best Show on WFMU" next month after 13 years the Fenway Park organist played the theme song during a World Series game.
• Saoirse Ronan has the greatest accent of all time.
• Some of this week's weird and random search engine queries that brought people here:
- "Aaron Gleeman bullshit theories"
- "Gleeman vs. vegetables"
- "Boy who lost 23 pounds with water"
- "Blowing a .789"
- "Chubby kid making pizza"
- "How the hell do I get the elliptical to fold?"
- "Breaking cartilage in the ear"
- "Yangtze restaurant best dish"
• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is "Bad" by Wale and Rihanna:
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