CycloneRulzzz said:

Surprised at amount of people rooting against Argentina. If we aren't in it I want the teams with generational stars going as far as possible.

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I am actually rooting for England now...I've got like 15% English blood or something in me.

Bellingham and Kane...what a combination those guys are.

Hawkeyes have already confirmed the sponsor for their uniforms patch.

Surprised at amount of people rooting against Argentina. If we aren't in it I want the teams with generational stars going as far as possible.

It's great to see Boyd pitch well.

Ok, since the "To Imbibe is to be led astray" clue took out the wine theories, I’m going back to another path I looked at earlier.

On Plate 56, if you move column to column from Old Lavender instead of by row, you hit Flint (Grey). The book’s note for it mentions:

“The flints used for striking the spark in the old flint-lock muskets would also, by reason of the oil and grime, take on some such color.”

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That pointed me toward the Ferguson rifle, the breech-loading flintlock designed by Colonel (later Major) Patrick Ferguson. The dirty Red Coat even had his own experimental unit called Ferguson’s Rifle Corps during the Revolutionary War. He died at the Battle of Kings Mountain on the border of the Carolina colonies.

"Mull over the Colonel’s past" made me look at the name instead: Ferguson means “son of Fergus.” Fergus Mór was the legendary first King of the Scots and founder of Dál Riata, the kingdom that included the Mull of Kintyre.

"Mull over… says your kin." That geographic pun feels very much like the “William’s forest” style of wordplay earlier in the riddle. (Coincidentally, (maybe?) Paul McCartney has owned a farm on the Mull of Kintyre since the ’60s. Wings had a hit song by that same name that was the first single in the UK to sell over 2 million copies.)

I don’t have a solid tie-in to Part Two yet, and this could still be the wrong off-ramp, but it feels worth exploring now that the wine path is closed. Kagavi is having a nice laugh.

Maybe it'll provide someone else with some ideas!

I'd just like to point out, and probably someone already has in this thread since I looked at it last, but if you look at two major American sports today, many of the best players in those leagues aren't even American.

NBA- Lots of elite Euro talent
MLB- Latin, Japanese players
NHL- Canadian, European, Russian

The NFL is really the only league that doesn't have any sort of outside influence.
Soccer in the US as a whole isn't even as popular as High School football.

FriendlySpartan said:

I didn’t know you were a world class coach but I’ll fully respect the fact that you’re damn good at your job.

Were those kids teens or older? Did those kids have perfect nutrition, recovery access, access to the other plethora of coaches where this was their only activity?

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I could have had this in my best physical days and my top speed, jumping height, etc. would not improve much at all.

Improved motion yes, but some things you either have or you don't.

BCClone said:

NC Iowa is pretty flat and tight soils.

I walked quite a few fields this year looking at Chemical effectiveness. The one consistency I saw in the fields was heavy trash residue. The chemicals seemed to be soaked up by the trash and didn’t get soil contact. All the fields were strip tilled or no tilled.

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Seen this with heavy residue and cover crops. UW has an awesome program going right now where they are studying effectiveness of herbicides in heavy residue. Rodrigo Werle at UW is an excellent weed scientist

After all these ups and downs, and decimated pitching, the Cubs are sitting with the 5th best record in MLB. Hard to believe but reason for optimism if the pitching can mend some with no further significant injuries.

I have been playing with cover crops some. I fly rye grass on standing corn, hoping to see some growth in the fall? Hopefully that happens this fall. The rye comes up in the spring we plant beans and kill the rye. I use chicken litter and don’t buy much dry, unless I need it. I agree with BCClone my OM is going up and so are my yields. I do like notill drilling 15” beans. We will see, I am not 100% sure CC’s are the fantastic things we are told.

cyfan92 said:

I put Michelin Cross Climate 2's on our sedan this winter and they were GRIPPY!

My only complaint with this strategy is having to store tires

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Thats why I recommended the All-Weather route. Loved the Toyo Celsius we put on tbe wifes prior Palisade, completely changed how it handled winter weather up in NE Iowa. I put Hankooks on my Lacrosse, and while good in inclement weather. They're absolutely terrible in the dry hunting all over on grooved surfaces. Will go with Toyos again here soon there or give the new Continentals a try.

cyfan92 said:

I put Michelin Cross Climate 2's on our sedan this winter and they were GRIPPY!

My only complaint with this strategy is having to store tires

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You take your CC2s off after winter?

Well there’s our center everyone was asking for

cyfan92 said:

I put Michelin Cross Climate 2's on our sedan this winter and they were GRIPPY!

My only complaint with this strategy is having to store tires

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Check with your tire shop, some offer storage.

StClone said:

Is she really 6'6" ?

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FIBA lists her at 6'6" so I think it's legit.

jmb said:

Nor being a swimmer, basketball player, baseball player is genetically hard wired. Each of them lends themselves to certain types of athletes with varied gifts. There is certainly some bleed over of various sports but those with the most physical gifts and the best access to training certainly outperform those that are genetically inferior with same
Access to training

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Just like any natural ability. Music, art, math, etc...

CycloneT said:

I think shell have 4 years since I don't think the new rules have gone affect.

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She's been playing university basketball, which generally counts against eligibility even if foreign. But who knows what the rules are anymore (even before the new rules).

Yormark got the same that Monster paid NASCAR and UFC, so I would say he did well for the conference.

FriendlySpartan said:

No I get that’s how those kids are chosen. Our US players are chosen the same way.

Again I don’t believe that being good at soccer is somehow programmed into your genetics and if you don’t have the soccer gene you can’t be great.

Maybe you’re right. I can’t prove my point and it can’t be disproven either. Only example I can use would be for F1 and that doesn’t fully count.

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Nor being a swimmer, basketball player, baseball player is genetically hard wired. Each of them lends themselves to certain types of athletes with varied gifts. There is certainly some bleed over of various sports but those with the most physical gifts and the best access to training certainly outperform those that are genetically inferior with same
Access to training

FriendlySpartan said:

No I get that’s how those kids are chosen. Our US players are chosen the same way.

Again I don’t believe that being good at soccer is somehow programmed into your genetics and if you don’t have the soccer gene you can’t be great.

Maybe you’re right. I can’t prove my point and it can’t be disproven either. Only example I can use would be for F1 and that doesn’t fully count.

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Our talent pool should be way larger than it is. We will always have other sports bigger but this is a country of 350 million people. Club soccer at the youth level is way more exclusive than most want to admit.

Watching Happ bat .198 with 45 k’s the last month could easily be bested by Alcantara.