Arrogance: 12 years ago I was working a "DC job" and was taking interviews to try to coerce a minimal raise out of my boss's boss. At an interview, the principal read from my resume that I'd done my undergrad at Georgetown (make fun of me, I deserve it) and noted that because I'd gone to high school in a flyover Plains state, it "must have been easier to get in". So, being a [cough] year-old-dickhead, I replied "I was a national merit scholar, sr class vp, and an all-american in track and cross country, so you're right, it *was* easy getting in. The hard part was choosing to go there." I didn't get an offer, or my raise, and a year later, in my hubris, left for law school.
Honest to god I thought about doing a "Walking In Memphis" pun somewhere in that section, and I've had the song stuck in my head all week as a result. I was thinking about it when your comment came in.
you know, honestly, I had always sort of pictured her as the suffering counterpoint to this whole operation, kind of like Calvin's mom in Calvin and Hobbes, but this anecdote shows she's just as deep in as Scott is.
So, the context here is this. It's 2005 and Jeopardy! is having their Ultimate Tournament of Champions in the wake of Ken Jennings amazing run. I get an invite as a previous college champion. I am still young, but I've been hip deep in quiz bowl for the last decade at this point. I actually do really well, all things consierred, but I miss one Daily Double (my only miss of the day). So I don't move on. Alas, still got enough money to finish off the down payment on my new condo.
I get an email from a quiz bowl community acquaintance who asks me why I didn't be more when I found the second Daily Double and I said that I was a little gunshy, especially because it was literature and I wanted to play it safe. I was very honest.
Two weeks later, another quiz bowl friend sends me an email with a link where the first guy is on the main Jeopardy message board completely ripping my performance as cowardly and deserving of the loss.
I was...displeased.
Fast forward to fall 2005. There is an open pop culture tournament and my regular team (which had won three national titles in the format was playing with me) finds out we'll be playing message board poster's team. One of my very good friends in the community requests to moderate this game just in case there's bad blood. I turn to my teammates and I say "Can you guys trust me on this, I got this." They know what's up.
In a 21 question match, I proceeded to get 16 of the 21 tossups correct as we win something like 550-40. I set the record for most correct tossups in a single game. One of my friends posted that it was Wyatt Earp at the end of Tombstone levels of vengeance and execution.
The arrogance in asking my veteran teammates to trust me on this paid off. It was the best moment of living well's the best revenge.
Meanwhile, the elite company of ACBN Readers Who Have Been On Jeopardy grew by one yesterday, with a fine performance by the internet's favorite veterinarian, Dr. Mark Primiano.
Two arrogance examples... first, sleeping in a park with a group of couchsurfers for 4 nights when I was 19 in Pamplona during San Fermin, to run with the bulls. I didn't get mugged!
2nd, I was 25 and had 4 months left in a judicial clerkship. I was interviewing for a full-time job and they asked if I would leave the clerkship early. I said no, and they asked me why. I explained I made a commitment and would stick to it. They asked me back for a 2nd interview and asked if I would leave early AGAIN. I explained I would not, asked them if they would like it if an employee left 1.5 years into a 2 year contract, and spent the rest of the interview asking them to convince me why they were a good fit for me. I didn't get the job (but ended up with a better one).
I have to be honest, when I started today’s newsletter I was confused because any taco is a walking taco, if needs must. Learn something new every day!
Honestly I’ve never quite understood the term either. A traditional taco seems easier to walk around with than a pile of chips and toppings. But I don’t make the rules.
True walking tacos are made *inside* a personal sized chip bag (I like Fritos but Doritos work too) - then you eat it with a fork and it’s impossible to drip taco filling everywhere! They still remind me of high school football games.
So, this was actually a point of discussion in workshopping the dish--ideally, we would serve them inside Cape Cod Chips bags, but practically speaking, it's easier for us not to.
That totally makes sense! The way the band moms at my high school solved the logistics issue there was to slice the front of the bag open and stuff the walking taco that way instead of opening it from the top, IIRC.
....but Frito Pie is served in a casserole dish and....wait, I think I see where you're going here, and yes, I would love a casserole dish full of walking chowdah.
I think, to the extent that I’d heard of frito pie, it was from my wife - who grew up in Michigan but is kind of handicapped in her knowledge of Michigan lore because she specifically grew up in Ann Arbor in academic / academic adjacent households. The Wikipedia article mentions these being available in southern California but I can’t recall encountering them when I lived there 🤷🏼♂️
In high school I once claimed in a radio interview that we’d win this huge area basketball tournament. A tournament my high hadn’t won in 50 years. We in fact did end up winning the tournament.
The single most arrogant thing I ever did was to tell a prosecutor he was wrong about the law, his case was shit, and that I'd beat him using less than 10 words.
I was wrong, it took me 5. Had 5 to spare.
The cherry on the top was introducing him to the witness he'd failed to subpoena after
Camp Trash rules, I stand ready to defend pop punk.
Animals being able to sense storms was always a thing that perplexed and amazed me (it still does) but now that I've moved from California to a place that regularly receives thunderstorms, I'm starting to develop a (less-effective) version of that ability. Usually it's a smell thing, very strange, I don't fully get it.
I've done a lot of arrogant things, but some of my favorites are:
- Cussing out my terrible high school guidance counselor, a terrible VP and a hired security guard moments before taking my seat for high school graduation (they told me I couldn't walk unless I sat on the side of the field opposite where my parents were, they were wrong)
- Working a full shift, driving to college, moving all my stuff in, then working a full shift at my college job all in rapid succession. I went 28 hours without food and 46 hours without sleep. I do not recommend it.
- Deciding that I would graduate college in three years without taking summer sessions.
- Moving across the country with no specific plan to a town where I had spent all of 90 minutes.
The most arrogant thing I ever did was volunteer to cover the 6'6" club championship winning ultimate player on the opposing team by saying "I'll shut him down." I gave up a few passes but then I settled into actually shutting him down and getting a D against him. I also snagged a pass that he tipped and we ended up beating them by 5 points.
- I was making bank doing doc review for a pharmaceutical company and saved a huge chunk of it for a wedding. Problem was I wasn't engaged yet (Francis and I been together over a year). I gambled right, tho.
Arrogance: Sometime in the 8th-10th grade range, during my skater punk years, our government class had just learned about assault & battery charges and how even though they're commonly used in tandem they are actually two different things. Well we were at the local city built skate park, that may have not been technically open to the public yet, and police showed up to make us leave. As you would expect from a group of high school skater kids we all had choice words for the local authorities. During the "debate" about whether or not our presence was allowed one officer threatened us all with assault and battery charges if we didn't leave peacefully. In all my teenage bravado and armed with the previously mentioned new knowledge I proceeded to explain to this officer why he was wrong and where he could politely place his incorrect threats. Obviously he didn't appreciate this and I ended up in the back of his car, cuffed, for about 15 minutes until I guess he decided either he had sufficiently scared me or I just wasn't worth the paper work.
Arrogance: 12 years ago I was working a "DC job" and was taking interviews to try to coerce a minimal raise out of my boss's boss. At an interview, the principal read from my resume that I'd done my undergrad at Georgetown (make fun of me, I deserve it) and noted that because I'd gone to high school in a flyover Plains state, it "must have been easier to get in". So, being a [cough] year-old-dickhead, I replied "I was a national merit scholar, sr class vp, and an all-american in track and cross country, so you're right, it *was* easy getting in. The hard part was choosing to go there." I didn't get an offer, or my raise, and a year later, in my hubris, left for law school.
I love it. Even without getting the raise, this just seemed satisfyingly worth it.
THE POP PUNK SIGNAL IS LIT. OPG COMES FOR AID.
You have my Vans
And my Axe (body spray)
(forgot to add [extremely Aragorn voice] to this)
:skanks into room: and my chucks :skanks out of room:
just when i thought your wife couldn't get cooler, she goes ahead and walking chowders.
Listen, we all know she's the brains, looks, and cool of the organization, but someone's gotta kill stinkbugs, and that's where I shine.
she's my third favorite (behind the kiddos)!
Tired: Walking in Memphis.
Wired: Walking with Chowders.
Honest to god I thought about doing a "Walking In Memphis" pun somewhere in that section, and I've had the song stuck in my head all week as a result. I was thinking about it when your comment came in.
It was the first thing that popped into my head.
you know, honestly, I had always sort of pictured her as the suffering counterpoint to this whole operation, kind of like Calvin's mom in Calvin and Hobbes, but this anecdote shows she's just as deep in as Scott is.
either that or she's finally got Stockholm Syndrome after nearly ten years of marriage
So, the context here is this. It's 2005 and Jeopardy! is having their Ultimate Tournament of Champions in the wake of Ken Jennings amazing run. I get an invite as a previous college champion. I am still young, but I've been hip deep in quiz bowl for the last decade at this point. I actually do really well, all things consierred, but I miss one Daily Double (my only miss of the day). So I don't move on. Alas, still got enough money to finish off the down payment on my new condo.
I get an email from a quiz bowl community acquaintance who asks me why I didn't be more when I found the second Daily Double and I said that I was a little gunshy, especially because it was literature and I wanted to play it safe. I was very honest.
Two weeks later, another quiz bowl friend sends me an email with a link where the first guy is on the main Jeopardy message board completely ripping my performance as cowardly and deserving of the loss.
I was...displeased.
Fast forward to fall 2005. There is an open pop culture tournament and my regular team (which had won three national titles in the format was playing with me) finds out we'll be playing message board poster's team. One of my very good friends in the community requests to moderate this game just in case there's bad blood. I turn to my teammates and I say "Can you guys trust me on this, I got this." They know what's up.
In a 21 question match, I proceeded to get 16 of the 21 tossups correct as we win something like 550-40. I set the record for most correct tossups in a single game. One of my friends posted that it was Wyatt Earp at the end of Tombstone levels of vengeance and execution.
The arrogance in asking my veteran teammates to trust me on this paid off. It was the best moment of living well's the best revenge.
The "you should've killed me when you had the chance" of quiz world. I love it.
Two additional notes:
I have a hard time watching Jeopardy now because I find myself being mad at the contestants when I know damn well how hard it is to do it in person.
And secondly, the poster has never made it on Jeopardy! despite having tried out for 20 years. But, sips tea, that's none of my business.
Meanwhile, the elite company of ACBN Readers Who Have Been On Jeopardy grew by one yesterday, with a fine performance by the internet's favorite veterinarian, Dr. Mark Primiano.
You're darn right it did!
Two arrogance examples... first, sleeping in a park with a group of couchsurfers for 4 nights when I was 19 in Pamplona during San Fermin, to run with the bulls. I didn't get mugged!
2nd, I was 25 and had 4 months left in a judicial clerkship. I was interviewing for a full-time job and they asked if I would leave the clerkship early. I said no, and they asked me why. I explained I made a commitment and would stick to it. They asked me back for a 2nd interview and asked if I would leave early AGAIN. I explained I would not, asked them if they would like it if an employee left 1.5 years into a 2 year contract, and spent the rest of the interview asking them to convince me why they were a good fit for me. I didn't get the job (but ended up with a better one).
I have to be honest, when I started today’s newsletter I was confused because any taco is a walking taco, if needs must. Learn something new every day!
Honestly I’ve never quite understood the term either. A traditional taco seems easier to walk around with than a pile of chips and toppings. But I don’t make the rules.
True walking tacos are made *inside* a personal sized chip bag (I like Fritos but Doritos work too) - then you eat it with a fork and it’s impossible to drip taco filling everywhere! They still remind me of high school football games.
So, this was actually a point of discussion in workshopping the dish--ideally, we would serve them inside Cape Cod Chips bags, but practically speaking, it's easier for us not to.
That totally makes sense! The way the band moms at my high school solved the logistics issue there was to slice the front of the bag open and stuff the walking taco that way instead of opening it from the top, IIRC.
"impossible"
I see you have not met children. "Here, have an oreo."
[twenty minutes later]
"How do you still have half of a oreo wafer uneaten still, and how do you get creme filling in your hair?"
Ah, so you've met my daughter.
I have met but am not responsible for children, so….fair
"Walking taco" and "Frito pie" are synonyms, depending on what part of the country you're in.
This was how I learned to distinguish them from "regular" tacos
....but Frito Pie is served in a casserole dish and....wait, I think I see where you're going here, and yes, I would love a casserole dish full of walking chowdah.
Okay, for winter, you flip it and crush the chips on top. I can see it.
I think, to the extent that I’d heard of frito pie, it was from my wife - who grew up in Michigan but is kind of handicapped in her knowledge of Michigan lore because she specifically grew up in Ann Arbor in academic / academic adjacent households. The Wikipedia article mentions these being available in southern California but I can’t recall encountering them when I lived there 🤷🏼♂️
In high school I once claimed in a radio interview that we’d win this huge area basketball tournament. A tournament my high hadn’t won in 50 years. We in fact did end up winning the tournament.
The single most arrogant thing I ever did was to tell a prosecutor he was wrong about the law, his case was shit, and that I'd beat him using less than 10 words.
I was wrong, it took me 5. Had 5 to spare.
The cherry on the top was introducing him to the witness he'd failed to subpoena after
Asking you this question is like asking Barry Bonds what the biggest home run he'd hit was.
When I returned to the office, I was Rickey Henderson at his most Rickey.
"Today I am the greatest of all time."
That is, I had the witness available, he didn't, I knew it, he didn't.
My arrogance could have been seen from Neptune that day.
Camp Trash rules, I stand ready to defend pop punk.
Animals being able to sense storms was always a thing that perplexed and amazed me (it still does) but now that I've moved from California to a place that regularly receives thunderstorms, I'm starting to develop a (less-effective) version of that ability. Usually it's a smell thing, very strange, I don't fully get it.
I've done a lot of arrogant things, but some of my favorites are:
- Cussing out my terrible high school guidance counselor, a terrible VP and a hired security guard moments before taking my seat for high school graduation (they told me I couldn't walk unless I sat on the side of the field opposite where my parents were, they were wrong)
- Working a full shift, driving to college, moving all my stuff in, then working a full shift at my college job all in rapid succession. I went 28 hours without food and 46 hours without sleep. I do not recommend it.
- Deciding that I would graduate college in three years without taking summer sessions.
- Moving across the country with no specific plan to a town where I had spent all of 90 minutes.
The most arrogant thing I ever did was volunteer to cover the 6'6" club championship winning ultimate player on the opposing team by saying "I'll shut him down." I gave up a few passes but then I settled into actually shutting him down and getting a D against him. I also snagged a pass that he tipped and we ended up beating them by 5 points.
So excited to see the Camp Trash shoutout. One of my favorite records this year, and they are just a super nice group of people.
Most arrogant thing I ever did was:
- I was making bank doing doc review for a pharmaceutical company and saved a huge chunk of it for a wedding. Problem was I wasn't engaged yet (Francis and I been together over a year). I gambled right, tho.
This is the companion piece to my "spent all my money on a ring without a job" (I got a new job a week and a half later, FWIW)
YES! I thought the exact same thing when I read that. (And awesome!)
Damn, have plans with my in laws on Saturday in Lexington. Can we expect more local appearances in the future?
I certainly hope so!
I will share the arrogance story in person tomorrow in Louisville to anyone at the event. I refuse to type it because I do not come off as good in it.
Arrogance: Sometime in the 8th-10th grade range, during my skater punk years, our government class had just learned about assault & battery charges and how even though they're commonly used in tandem they are actually two different things. Well we were at the local city built skate park, that may have not been technically open to the public yet, and police showed up to make us leave. As you would expect from a group of high school skater kids we all had choice words for the local authorities. During the "debate" about whether or not our presence was allowed one officer threatened us all with assault and battery charges if we didn't leave peacefully. In all my teenage bravado and armed with the previously mentioned new knowledge I proceeded to explain to this officer why he was wrong and where he could politely place his incorrect threats. Obviously he didn't appreciate this and I ended up in the back of his car, cuffed, for about 15 minutes until I guess he decided either he had sufficiently scared me or I just wasn't worth the paper work.
I'm late, but I would like to state my arrogant moment.
I corrected Alton Brown on something food science related, and I was right.
Proof:
https://twitter.com/altonbrown/status/402622841754894336