He was the non-asshole version of Ted Williams.

The way I'd seen it, Portugal was a very, very narrow favorite to advance out of the group behind Germany; the things I'd read made me think it wouldn't be a surprise for any one of the other three to make it out.

Oh, lighten up, Francis.

Both this moment and Pamela asking about Louie's ex-wife and their children seemed as meta as the show's gotten (which isn't necessarily a great sign, but, hey), so it's definitely some of the latter.

Maybe we can trade him for picks before the next Racial Draft.

Yeah, I caught that. And their positions were reversed: Louie-verse Maron is the successful one, with Louis being the one who's kind of stuck in a rut.

It's kind of fascinating at this point to watch you describe your own position as conciliatory and restrained; from my reading, it's neither. You present your position as open-minded, honest, and ingenuous, and the opposing one as cynical, jaded and pretentious; how on earth could that come across as anything but…

Oh, man. I need to re-read Red Harvest. Drives me crazy, it's so good.

One time I tried grunting when I played. I'm not very good to begin with, but I was hopeless when I added that dimension. Gave me a whole new respect for the skill.

Still working my way through OitNB, haven't seen Masters of Sex. Otherwise:
1. Hannibal S2
2. Americans S2
3. True Detective S1
3. Fargo S1 (I'll let next week be a tie-breaker)
5. Orphan Black S2
… and somewhere in the basement, buried under a bear trap, House of Cards S2.

Lorne Malvo's going to show up in some econ text as an exemplar of avoiding the sunk cost fallacy.

Can you imagine Malvo pulling that 'take a dump in the middle of a conversation' trick? Hannibal might actually outright frown.

I think it'll be a bit more No Country than that, with Malvo emerging wounded but free, that thin little smile still on his face.

Yeah, this episode was a gem. I criticized the show for spinning its wheels in the past, but despite how little actually happens—something that didn't occur to me until I read the review, but which is absolutely right—this felt more like the gears of the universe coming into alignment instead of wheel-spinning.

I think we need to accept that there isn't likely to be another American Big Thing in men's tennis. Or that it's no more likely, and maybe even less likely, than the next Swiss Big Thing, or Serbian Big Thing, or any other relatively tiny country that's produced a tennis great.

Craptacular seems a bit strong, though, yeah, I meant more the drama of the match than the quality.

Radwanska beating Azarenka was one of my favorite matches in recent memory. It was just astonishing to watch her utterly control the match with craft and guile.

Raonic is fun to watch, just because he seems like such a throw-back at this point, compared to the dominant style. The other 'up-and-comers'? … man, I can hardly even keep their names in my head. There's that Australian kid who doesn't work hard enough with the crazy dad, the Bulgarian guy who is/was dating…

Hey, Switzerland was the only team to beat Spain last time around.

I think the women's game suffered for a few years after Henin's abrupt retirement, and some of those 'routinely changing' match-ups felt more like a testament to the weakness of the field rather the strength. (That said, Schiavone's FO win was The Best.)