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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Open Thread: Genius Ad Campaign

Sunday Open Thread: Genius Ad Campaign

by TaMara|  June 21, 202012:52 pm| 102 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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The person who creates their ads needs a raise. Makes me smile every time it pops up on my newsfeed.

Sunday Open Thread: Genius Ad Campaign

 

Fencing Academy of Denver
We have masks…we have gloves…we stab anyone coming within 6 feet of us! Fencing is still proving to be one of the safest sports. We are offering small group beginner classes (kids and adult) starting in June. 
Sunday Open Thread: Genius Ad Campaign 1
Looks like we need an open thread, so here you go.
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Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    Feathers

    June 21, 2020 at 12:55 pm

    Tennis (singles with only one to the net at a time) works too.

  2. 2.

    Miss Bianca

    June 21, 2020 at 12:55 pm

    Love it!

  3. 3.

    Kropacetic

    June 21, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    Fencing Academy of Denver
    We have masks…we have gloves…we stab anyone coming within 6 feet of us! Fencing is still proving to be one of the safest sports. We are offering small group beginner classes (kids and adult) starting in June. 

    They make a good case.  I’ve always been fencing-curious.

  4. 4.

    debbie

    June 21, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    I really wanted to take fencing in college, but the class had filled by the time it was my turn to register.  ?

  5. 5.

    bbleh

    June 21, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    Haven’t re-focused on COVID yet.  Still basking in the wreckage of the Tulsa rally.

    In fact, I caught myself literally eating popcorn.

    Schadenfreude — it’s a helluva drug.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    I’d do it if you could dress up as one of the Three Musketeers.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    June 21, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    “Curses, foiled again!”
      – COVID-19
    .

  8. 8.

    Another Scott

    June 21, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    @debbie: The Princess Bride made fencing look glorious.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    KSinMA

    June 21, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    @Baud:  Yes!!!

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    June 21, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    @Baud

    Who, as best can remember, never once in the movies made use of a musket.

  11. 11.

    Kropacetic

    June 21, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    @NotMax: “Curses, foiled again!”
    – COVID-19

    Touché

    That’s French for “I see what you did there,” right?

  12. 12.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 21, 2020 at 1:01 pm

    @NotMax: Swords were more reliable.

  13. 13.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 21, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    @NotMax: I’m sorry, you have won this thread. We may all go home now.

  14. 14.

    bbleh

    June 21, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    Re fencing, the Western cattle-range kind is also excellent for social distancing.  Outdoors, with gloves, often at least a bandanna, and miles from anyone.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    June 21, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Agreed. Those scenes were every bit as good as Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks!

  16. 16.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 21, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    @debbie: I never had the desire…until now. I mean, it’s an awesome campaign and now I’m fencing -curious myself.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    @NotMax:

    It has nothing to do with muskets.  It comes from the French word for mouse.

  18. 18.

    Miss Bianca

    June 21, 2020 at 1:09 pm

    @Baud: Wouldn’t that require pants? Pantaloons, at least?

  19. 19.

    Miss Bianca

    June 21, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    @NotMax: Next ad slogan! : )

  20. 20.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    That’s why God made chaps.

  21. 21.

    Ken

    June 21, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    Genius Ad Campaign

    Darn, I was expecting further mocking of Brad Parscale.

  22. 22.

    Redshift

    June 21, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    My best friend and I started a fencing class on college, but we quickly realized we didn’t really want to learn fencing, we wanted to learn swashbuckling, and they didn’t have a class for that.

  23. 23.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 21, 2020 at 1:15 pm

    @Baud:

    You mean like the Mouseketeers?

  24. 24.

    CCL

    June 21, 2020 at 1:17 pm

    TaMara – off topic.  Because of you and your post of several days (weeks?) ago, tried baking the King Arthur Potato Bread yesterday.  Yummm!

  25. 25.

    A

    June 21, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    Sabre fencing before it went electric and FIE banned the flèche was nearly a contact sport.  Loved it.

  26. 26.

    tom

    June 21, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    Speaking of genius ads

  27. 27.

    James E Powell

    June 21, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @NotMax:

    Who, as best can remember, never once in the movies made use of a musket.

    When I was a child, that confused me to no end.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    ?

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    June 21, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @Kropacetic: I fenced for about five years.  I took it up when I got bored with doing other activities.  It’s fun, but like a lot of things, to get better takes commitment. It involves more of a sprinting kind of pace — lots of quick movements that culminate in a point, followed by down time.  There are not many long rallies.  The muscles that are most used are your quads, specifically your dominant quad.  I took many years of ballet and had no problem picking up lunges.

  30. 30.

    PPCLI

    June 21, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @NotMax: Excellent sabre-like wit on display there!

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 21, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    @NotMax:

    @Kropacetic:

    Which reminds me, whatever happened to that epée tape?

  32. 32.

    Michael Cain

    June 21, 2020 at 1:27 pm

    Long-time off-and-on fencer…  they’re offering lessons, done under careful control.  Fencing masks aren’t going to offer any significant impediment to virus droplets.  In any sort of actual bout, people will spend part of the time huffing and puffing at each other from distances much closer than six feet.  That said, it’s much better exercise than most people think, one of the few activities that improves older people’s balance, and a mental as well as physical challenge.  What I miss during my extended “off” periods isn’t so much the actual stabbing, it’s the mental part of fooling people so that they’re easy to stab :^)

  33. 33.

    The Moar You Know

    June 21, 2020 at 1:28 pm

    I did six weeks of fencing in high school and that’s the hardest cardio exercise I have ever done.  Ballet and mountain bike racing were more physically strenuous but not as cardio heavy.

  34. 34.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 21, 2020 at 1:33 pm

    @CCL: Oh, so glad to hear that! I made my standard flour. water, yeast and salt dough on Thursday. Used half to make hoagie rolls and the other half to make pizza. Mmm-mmm.

  35. 35.

    bbleh

    June 21, 2020 at 1:35 pm

    @NotMax: Lol, nice point.

  36. 36.

    Kent

    June 21, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    I never did western fencing but I studied Japanese Kendo in college for a while. I found it way too boring and ritualized. You put on all that gear and then have not much actual combat. https://youtu.be/tpjb5wG5l_U

  37. 37.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 21, 2020 at 1:46 pm

    @Baud: Big on chocolate, not on fat.

    Now I want one.  Damn you, Baud!

  38. 38.

    Michael Cain

    June 21, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    @Redshift:

    …we wanted to learn swashbuckling…

    HEMA and SCA both do rapier combat, which has fewer rules.  (I have had a chance to handle actual historical rapiers — swordsmen then had much stronger wrists and hands than I have.)  Theatrical fencing is its own thing, and has the primary goal of not touching your opponent with the weapon.  Many fencers have observed over the years that Errol Flynn was a much better swordsman in the movies when his back was to the camera.  His stunt double in most of those shots was a fencing instructor who knew what he was doing.

    I think the best Hollywood fencing story is George Takei’s.  When he interviewed for the Sulu role on Star Trek and was asked for something unusual and interesting about himself, he told them he could fence (he couldn’t).  At some point early on, one of the writers told him they were working on a story that would use him fencing.  So for a whole he was doing 12-hour days filming, then racing to the other side of Hollywood to take fencing lessons.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    June 21, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    @tom: Here’s a version for people who don’t want to get out of the boat:

    This is art. pic.twitter.com/ZPJxHu20TV

    — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

    I watched a few clips from the rally today as I was soaking up the schadenfreude. It was like watching the most painfully flop-sweaty stand-up routine ever delivered. The amazing thing to me is that people have so little respect for themselves that they’d sit there and nod their stupid heads while listening to that asshole spend 20 minutes explaining away the two-handed sip of water and ramp descent.

    I get why Trump does it — he suffered a narcissistic injury from the coverage of the West Point photo-op, and the psychotic babbling last night is how his diseased mind attempts to repair the damage. But the 6,200 or so people who showed up for that shit-show? They stood in line, went through security, waited for hours…for that? They’re even more pathetic than Trump’s excuses.

  40. 40.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    June 21, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    Fencing is awesome – it’s been a few years since I last did it, but I genuinely enjoy saber, and can fence from either hand (odd, because I’m not generally ambidextrous in any other activity).

  41. 41.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    June 21, 2020 at 1:53 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    “Turning water into whine”.

  42. 42.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 21, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I literally laughed out loud at the ending of that ad. Biden: He’s not a whiny bitch!

  43. 43.

    debbie

    June 21, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    @Michael Cain:

    I remember the episode where Zulu swashbuckled!

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    June 21, 2020 at 1:57 pm

    @bbleh:

    Still basking in the wreckage of the Tulsa rally.  In fact, I caught myself literally eating popcorn.  Schadenfreude — it’s a helluva drug.

    You too?  LOL

    Found out this morning that, unprompted by moi, Fro-ette was one of those couple hundred thousand teens who registered for a pair of tickets to trumpov’s rally.  What. A. Kid!  Totally made my Fathers’ Day.  =)

    Also went kayaking on a new river today – really nice.  That’s not a bad sport for social distancing either, come to think of it!

  45. 45.

    debbie

    June 21, 2020 at 1:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    That is an impressive turnaround on an ad. It was just last night!

  46. 46.

    Jeffro

    June 21, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Oh my, that’s awesome.

    I hope Biden has those electric guitars cranking every time he enters a room or walks on stage.

    Go long on aviator glasses, peeps! ;)

  47. 47.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 2:06 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Is that an official Biden ad? Seems like more of something he would delegate to surrogate group.

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    June 21, 2020 at 2:07 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just, wow. He took a huge chunk of time to ‘splain away his weirdass West Point performance? Pro tip “sir”: you do not shine a beacon on your fuckups, you do new things to put the other thing to bed.

    The video treatment is brilliant. That folks can turn around something this polished overnight astounds me.

  49. 49.

    Kropacetic

    June 21, 2020 at 2:08 pm

    @Barbara: Thank you for sharing your experience with me.  It sounds like something that can help with my focus and as a physical outlet.  I looked up some fencing clubs today.

  50. 50.

    trollhattan

    June 21, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    @Baud:

    Not a chance. It looks like the one last week that compared Trump’s ramp performance against Biden and Obama jogging through the White House and drinking water–one-handed–when they were finished. IDK who does those.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    @Jeffro:

    I hope Biden has those electric guitars cranking every time he enters a room or walks on stage drives his corvette.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    June 21, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    @Baud: Lincoln Project.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I didn’t see that one. Gotta link?

  54. 54.

    MattF

    June 21, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    @Betty Cracker: He can’t let it go. He can’t get them out of his head.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 2:12 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Gotcha.  It seemed different than their other ads I’ve seen.  I thought they were praising someone else’s ad in that tweet.

  56. 56.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 21, 2020 at 2:17 pm

    @debbie:

    That is an impressive turnaround on an ad. It was just last night! 

    So much material to choose from (what a whiny, orange bitch).

    Good on Hal Sparks, Charles Johnson and Evan Hurst who actually watched the shitshow.

  57. 57.

    LuciaMia

    June 21, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    As many others have noticed; its odd theres not  a hint of a tweet from Trump today. is he gearing up for a Twitter tsunami?

  58. 58.

    raven

    June 21, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    Two bits

    Four bits

    Six Bits

    A Peso

    All for Zorro, stand up and say so!

  59. 59.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 2:21 pm

    @raven:

    A forgotten milestone on the road to equality.  Nice.

  60. 60.

    Kent

    June 21, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    @Baud: It’s the Lincoln Project.  The Never-Trump Republicans.

  61. 61.

    Chetan Murthy

    June 21, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    @Baud: it’s this guy, I think: https://twitter.com/FindAClearTruth/status/1274756341395931137

  62. 62.

    narya

    June 21, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    I have been fencing-curious for awhile (and archery-curious, for that matter).

    My kitchen reno starts tomorrow; I’m almost done packing and arranging. They are going down to the studs, so it will . . . be a Project. I’m not moving walls or plumbing, but they’ll need to pull some additional electric and take up the cork tile that is (I hope I hope I hope) covering the maple flooring. Kinda terrified to be doing this, even though I’ve been saving up for literally years, given the pandemic (though cases are dropping precipitously here), and changes at work (boss is leaving). But I haven’t had a functioning oven since about January. And I am hoping that gutting it will make it easier; it’s not a large space, so being able to do the floor and electric and walls w/o needing to go around things may help. I hope.

    Lotta hoping going on here . . . and still enjoying the schadenfreude with the rest of you all.

  63. 63.

    frosty

    June 21, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    that epée tape

    Oh, nicely done! So subtle I had to read it twice.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 21, 2020 at 2:33 pm

    Blaming failure on meddling teenagers is literally what a Scooby Doo villain does.— Benari (@BenariLee) June 21, 2020

    Hey now! Scooby Doo villians weren’t traitorous Soviet shitpile mobster manbabies.

  65. 65.

    Michael Cain

    June 21, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    …and can fence from either hand (odd, because I’m not generally ambidextrous in any other activity).

    My experience is that most people can quickly learn to fence with their other hand, they’re just slow at first.  I had fenced for some time before I tried it left-handed.  Once I lined up left-handed to start, the reflexes for attacks and parries all seemed to be there without having to think about it, they were just slow.  I know a bunch of right-handed fencers who keep a set of left-handed gear so that they can fence even when their right hand/elbow/shoulder is messed up.  It seems to me to be a common enough thing that there’s a kinesiology PhD in there somewhere for figuring out why it works.

    My biggest problem trying to fence left-handed is that I’m tremendously right-eye dominant and I just miss seeing some things.

  66. 66.

    Rob

    June 21, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    @Baud: I think this is what you are asking about: https://twitter.com/santiagomayer_/status/1272041452126650369

  67. 67.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 21, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Actually, it’s this guy and he’s a great follow on twitter.

    https://twitter.com/FindAClearTruth

  68. 68.

    frosty

    June 21, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    @narya: That’s the way to go. We redid our kitchen several years ago. Demo’d down to bare studs on all the walls and tore out the ceiling too. It makes the electrical work a piece of cake. Also found out we had a leak in the waste stack from the bathroom and replaced the cast iron with PVC when it was open. MUCH easier than tearing the kitchen apart when the minor leak turns major.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    June 21, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    @Baud: Democrats need to find their Doof Warrior energy.

  70. 70.

    JoyceH

    June 21, 2020 at 2:40 pm

    @bbleh:  “Still basking in the wreckage of the Tulsa rally.”

    What struck me about the Tulsa fiasco is that it’s yet another example of how Trump gets screwed up by hiring people to do things they don’t know how to do. Brad Parscale is his CAMPAIGN MANAGER and he doesn’t know how to run a campaign. He’s a data guy. He knows how to get clicks, how to get eyeballs onto a screen. He does NOT know how to get a ballpark estimate of how many people will actually move their physical bodies through physical space and show up in Tulsa Oklahoma. If you told the media that you were expecting 10K, then you could explain away 6K as mildly disappointing, due to pandemic, protesters, summer heat, etc. But when you flak *100K* and maybe more, make provisions for a huge overflow area, and schedule your principals to speak to the overflow as well as inside… well, there’s no way to spin that as anything other than a monumental flop.

    Why don’t they just hire people who know how to do what they’re hiring them to do?

  71. 71.

    Martin

    June 21, 2020 at 2:44 pm

    @JoyceH: People that are good at their job will tell you the truth. Trump can’t handle that.

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 21, 2020 at 2:45 pm

    @JoyceH:

    Why don’t they just hire people who know how to do what they’re hiring them to do? 

    Errrr…..we really don’t want fascists who know what they’re doing.  Shit’s horrible enough with this Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby and his band of traitorous trash.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 21, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    @LuciaMia: he’s golfing, I imagine the tweets will start on the drive back to the White House. I’m guessing Barron is celebrating Father’s Day with Grampa Knauss, and Don Jr is alone in his apartment having a make believe Father’s Day lunch with a trumpy bear

  74. 74.

    Bishop Bag

    June 21, 2020 at 2:47 pm

    @Michael Cain: “First Lesson, stick ’em with the pointy end”

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 21, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    @Martin: “Sir, you’re excellent at being a whiny little bitch whose father didn’t love him!”

  76. 76.

    Kent

    June 21, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    @JoyceH: No worries.  Jared is tanned and rested after solving Covid and mideast peace.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 21, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    @Betty Cracker: you don’t realize how long sixty seconds can be till you spend them listening to an addle-pated old man telling a story about how he survived a walk down a 3% slope

    “wait till I’m rescued… really, really, it’s like an ice-skating rink… General I may grab you….”

    But they think it’s macho cause he said a swear while telling it

  78. 78.

    Chetan Murthy

    June 21, 2020 at 2:52 pm

    @JoyceH:

    He’s a data guy. He knows how to get clicks, how to get eyeballs onto a screen.

    Actually, he’s not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Parscale#Career

    Parscale is what we in the biz call a “content guy”.  [in the 90s, his sort would read “HTML in 21 Days” and six months later be running a creative agency: it wasn’t his skill, but rather his hustle, that got him places.]  He learned -just- enough about web tech, to start creating content, and then moved on quickly to selling content and management services. Think of ad agencies: you got the guy at the bottom who actually create the ads, but there’s an entire pyramid (as in: “scheme”) of guys above them who sell the stuff to clients.  His kind of “web  content/ad management” is what the data-driven ad companies are about destroying.  And it showed in 2016: he had armies of consultants from the big web ad platforms (GOOG, FB, etc) come in and help him, b/c hey, he’s about webpages.  Sure he probably learned a little: but not that much, and it’s not surprising that he got rolled in so many ways.

    I attach the portion of his wikipedia page from college thru when he stated with Trump.  As you can see, there’s no evidence of -any- actual real learning about data, statistics, or even any CS/engineering.

    Parscale, who is 6 ft 8 in (203 cm),[6] played basketball in high school, then attended the University of Texas at San Antonio for one year on an athletic scholarship.[7] An injury sidelined his sports career early.[8] He later transferred to Trinity University in San Antonio where he earned a degree in finance, international business and economics in 1999.[9]
    Career[edit]
    Parscale moved to California for a few years following graduation from college. During this time, he immersed himself in the state’s burgeoning technology industry. Among the skills he acquired in California was a proficiency in a host of programming languages, such as C, C++, JavaScript, Java, and Perl.[citation needed][10][11] In 2004, he returned to San Antonio and started his digital marketing business with an initial investment of $500.[12][13] In 2011, Parscale joined designer Jill Giles to create the company Giles-Parscale, which specialized in high-end design, branding, and digital media work. The company has since been acquired by CloudCommerce.[14] CloudCommerce operates Parscale Digital and Giles Design as separate entities, for which Parscale remains on the board of directors.[15] He also co-founded SATechBloc, an organization focused on supporting San Antonio’s technology sector.[12]
    2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign

  79. 79.

    Amir Khalid

    June 21, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    Liverpool are playing their first post-lockdown competitive match, a Premier League Merseyside derby at Everton’s Goodison Park. (The derby at Anfield ended in a 5-2 win for the Reds.) Liverpool have been rather the better side so far, but it’s still nil-nil at halftime.

  80. 80.

    raven

    June 21, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    @Baud: Yea, it wouldn’t fly today.

  81. 81.

    MattF

    June 21, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    Interesting WaPo article about Warren Harding. Turns out, to my complete surprise, he was an advocate of racial justice. Makes me wonder if his bad reputation is deserved.

  82. 82.

    CaseyL

    June 21, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    @Baud: You can! Check to see if your area has a “period swordfighting” school. “Period” = historical era.  Most likely to be Renaissance era, with rapier and main gauche.  Seattle does – well, of course we do – but there may be one in your region as well, maybe through the auspices of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms) or other historical cosplay group.

  83. 83.

    Martin

    June 21, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Well, look at how Trump is responding to poor polls. He’s suing CNN for running a poll showing him -8.

    Parscale knows he can’t bring Trump a -8 poll, which is what would result if he did his job well. Parscale can’t bring Trump 6200 attendees (the official count from a Tulsa official) for a 19000 seat venue. So he brought him 300,000 and then 800,000. You think Trumps deep state bullshit is just him – who do you think Parscale and everyone else is blaming for their failures? I guarantee TikTok is being explained to Trump as a Chinese government run service designed to prevent his re-election. I’m expecting some effort to ban them, etc.

    They’ve invented a self-reinforcing cycle of failure, which, if you think about it is genuinely impressive. We have so many institutional as well as social and genetic mechanisms to prevent that from happening.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    June 21, 2020 at 3:01 pm

    @MattF: The GOP at that time we’re better on racial justice but like today when it came to business corruption.

     

    @CaseyL: Thx.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    June 21, 2020 at 3:05 pm

    @Michael Cain:

    It seems to me to be a common enough thing that there’s a kinesiology PhD in there somewhere for figuring out why it works.

    I would guess a big part of it is that the mental side of fencing is harder to pick up than they physical side, and it doesn’t change when you fence with your off hand.  This is a bit similar to the way many baseball players can learn to switch hit; the part that’s really important doesn’t change just because you’re doing it with the other hand.

  86. 86.

    Amir Khalid

    June 21, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    YouTuber Beau of The Fifth Column shares his thoughts on what people might have missed while pointing and laughing at the Trump campaign.

    Meanwhile, they’re back under way at Goodison Park.

  87. 87.

    Kathleen

    June 21, 2020 at 3:09 pm

    @MattF: Thank you for sharing this. What an incredible story.

  88. 88.

    MattF

    June 21, 2020 at 3:09 pm

    @Baud: Also, Black Americans, in those years, were solidly Republican, so it makes sense politically. Hmm.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    June 21, 2020 at 3:13 pm

    I saw that Rachel Bitecofer is now working with the Lincoln Project. She was denied a tenure track position at her university in May, so I guess she feels more free to play hardball politics. She is one perceptive political analyst. I learned a lot from her March 24 update of her 2020 electoral model, published by the Niskanen Center. And I also unlearned a some misconceptions about the electorate. It’s a long read; Bitecoffer doesn’t waste words, she just has a lot to say.

  90. 90.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 21, 2020 at 3:14 pm

    If you want to learn fencing in Denver, you should go to the Cheyenne Fencing & Modern Pentathlon Center.

  91. 91.

    Origuy

    June 21, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    I joined a fencing club in high school and then the team when I started at Illinois. I never got into competition, but we won the Big Ten that year. The next year I was asked to be the manager. That meant handling the towels and the used football pants we wore in practice. I took that as a sign that I was never going to amount to much, so I dropped out. Just as well, sophomore year was a killer. I still have the foil and practice jacket.

  92. 92.

    Michael Cain

    June 21, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:  The Denver metro area has a surprising number of clubs.  I’m a member of Mile High Fencing Club.  We’re a pissant little rec center club (currently inactive because the rec center is closed), although a couple of members have medaled at Nationals in the 70+ age group.  We get a lot of people who say, “But Cheyenne is so serious.”

  93. 93.

    J R in WV

    June 21, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    @narya:

    My kitchen reno starts tomorrow; I’m almost done packing and arranging. They are going down to the studs, so it will . . . be a Project.

    You should give us a daily update, what happened today as planned, what happened today that wasn’t planned, ’cause you know that will happen too.

    We’re in our kitchen that was put in when we built the house back in 1994. New appliances since then, some repairs, but same old cheapest cabinets. I want to replace everything, but wonder how long that would take. New bamboo floor, new cabinets. So for you to do daily updates would be a huge help to me planning our rebuild.

    Best of luck, hope it works out just as you imagined it late at night!!!

  94. 94.

    Uncle Cosmo

    June 21, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    @Origuy: One of my uncles reputedly took up fencing during World War Two. Tires mostly. Ended up a multimillionaire.

    …Oh. Different sort of fencing. Zoot suit alors!

  95. 95.

    burnspbesq

    June 21, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Despite being the better team over 90 minutes, your lot were lucky to escape with a point. Davies’ shot could just as easily have gone in off the post as gone wide.

  96. 96.

    Just Chuck

    June 21, 2020 at 4:23 pm

    If you want to learn to fence for _free_ for as long as you feel like it, go hang out with the Society for Creative Anachronism aka the SCA.  You might even want to join, but you don’t even have to do that unless you want to do tournaments. Plus IMNSHO the styles of fencing they teach are WAY cooler both to do and watch.

    I just KNOW this ad has probably been posted eleventy hojillion times on the local barony facebook.  (wouldn’t know, I’m ex-facebook)

    Oh and the SCA is chock full of weird olds like us who are generally pretty liberal (with exceptions of course).  But do please bring the youts too.

  97. 97.

    Miss Bianca

    June 21, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    @Betty Cracker: LOL!! Oh, sweet little baby Jesus!

    Did Trump *really* fucking go on like that at the MAGAt rally? That is beyond embarrassing – that’s pathetic.

  98. 98.

    Miss Bianca

    June 21, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: I wish I could learn to fence without having to go all the way up to Denver from where I live! It’s a 3 hour drive. Wonder if there’s a decent place in Pueblo or Colorado Springs…

  99. 99.

    pacem appellant

    June 21, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    My bagpipes keep people way more than 6 ft away. No stabbing though. Maybe I should add bayonets to the drones.

  100. 100.

    Michael Cain

    June 21, 2020 at 5:21 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Don’t know what impact the virus has had, but Maciej Czyzowicz’s Rocky Mountain Fencing Academy used to run classes a couple of evenings a week in Colorado Springs.  Maciej’s a terrific guy.

  101. 101.

    Scamp Dog

    June 21, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    @Michael Cain: I used to fence there! Is Tom Raffey still involved?

    Looking at the Denver Academy of Fencing’s page, I see that I know two of their coaches, Tom and Greg, from before I moved to Denver. Small world, isn’t it?

  102. 102.

    Michael Cain

    June 21, 2020 at 6:34 pm

    @Scamp Dog: Fencing is a quite small world, particularly if you’re serious about it.

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