OT: 112th Obsequious Banter Thread: Nearing the Halfway Point of the Year

Which 1 of 12 is Your Favorite Month?


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I've never been a Pacific theater guy. European mainland? Absolutely. The Battle of Britain and the Channel conflicts? Yes. The African campaign? Not as much, but definitely over the Pacific/SE Asia theater. I just find the Nazi-led Axis to be infinitely more interesting than the Japanese, from a WWII perspective. My grandfather was in the Pacific during the war, but that has neither a positive nor negative impact in what interests me. Believe me, I've tried to stoke an interest. I've seen "Tora, Tora, Tora," "Midway," Clint Eastwood's companion movies ("Flags of Our Fathers"/"Letters From Iwo Jima"), et al, multiple times, but I'd much rather watch the soap opera-esque "The Desert Fox" instead, with James Mason as Rommel. "Bridge on the River Kwai" gets a pass because it's not really Pacific theater as much as it is a land/jungle narrative.

And no, I've felt this way long before Michael Bay came along and plunked a Devil's Kiss turd of a movie about Pearl Harbor on the masses.

Now the Korean and Vietnam Wars - especially told from the side of the indigenous soldiers - I do find fascinating.
WATCH. THIS. VIDEO!

I'm not the most knowledgeable military history buff around here (paging @Beef Invictus), but the Battle Off Samar is the most gut wrenching and heroic fights that I've come across. A small group of American destroyers and destroyer escorts, along with a handful of escort carriers fought off a HUGE Japanese fleet, including the Biggest Battleship Ever, the Yamato (which weighed as much as every American ship COMBINED).

Despite the wildly uneven odds, the American managed to totally bamboozle the Japanese, who assumed they were fighting cruisers and fleet carriers. The USS Johnston and USS Samuel B. Roberts in particular distinguished themselves. The skipper of the Roberts addressed his crew just before engaging the enemy with one of the most heartbreaking lines I've ever heard: "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can." Both ships were sunk in the fighting, and their wrecks were recently discovered, making them the deepest known shipwrecks on the planet. To the best of my knowledge, no billionaires have been crushed touring them. Yet.

 
WATCH. THIS. VIDEO!

I'm not the most knowledgeable military history buff around here (paging @Beef Invictus), but the Battle Off Samar is the most gut wrenching and heroic fights that I've come across. A small group of American destroyers and destroyer escorts, along with a handful of escort carriers fought off a HUGE Japanese fleet, including the Biggest Battleship Ever, the Yamato (which weighed as much as every American ship COMBINED).

Despite the wildly uneven odds, the American managed to totally bamboozle the Japanese, who assumed they were fighting cruisers and fleet carriers. The USS Johnston and USS Samuel B. Roberts in particular distinguished themselves. The skipper of the Roberts addressed his crew just before engaging the enemy with one of the most heartbreaking lines I've ever heard: "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can." Both ships were sunk in the fighting, and their wrecks were recently discovered, making them the deepest known shipwrecks on the planet. To the best of my knowledge, no billionaires have been crushed touring them. Yet.


@Beef Invictus do your thing. I know we’ve talked about this battle before and you seemed to light right up.
 
The video does it better. That fight is insane.

At the commissioning or the Johnston, Lieutenant Commander Evans said "This is a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm's way." It turns out this was understatement. That's like declaring your fists are made for fighting, and your intention is to fight. So you run at and fight prime Tyson, Ali, and Frazier all at the same time. I mean yeah you said you'd do it, but nobody expected that particular fight is what you meant. They fought several capital ships whose secondary armament, each, surpassed the Johnston's main armament. And the Roberts was a destroyer escort, which was even smaller and less fit for fighting an entire fleet than a destroyer. Leroy Jenkins was less enthusiastic.
 
I've never been a Pacific theater guy. European mainland? Absolutely. The Battle of Britain and the Channel conflicts? Yes. The African campaign? Not as much, but definitely over the Pacific/SE Asia theater. I just find the Nazi-led Axis to be infinitely more interesting than the Japanese, from a WWII perspective. My grandfather was in the Pacific during the war, but that has neither a positive nor negative impact in what interests me. Believe me, I've tried to stoke an interest. I've seen "Tora, Tora, Tora," "Midway," Clint Eastwood's companion movies ("Flags of Our Fathers"/"Letters From Iwo Jima"), et al, multiple times, but I'd much rather watch the soap opera-esque "The Desert Fox" instead, with James Mason as Rommel. "Bridge on the River Kwai" gets a pass because it's not really Pacific theater as much as it is a land/jungle narrative.

And no, I've felt this way long before Michael Bay came along and plunked a Devil's Kiss turd of a movie about Pearl Harbor on the masses.

Now the Korean and Vietnam Wars - especially told from the side of the indigenous soldiers - I do find fascinating.

Guadalcanal at land and sea is worth digging into.
 
The frequency of lightning flashes right now is insane. It was like a flickering street light for like 5+ mins
We're on storm number 4 within the last two hours. They just keep on firing up right on top of us. We got hit with one around 6 this evening as well. The amount of rain we're getting is insane.
 
Lots of flash flooding will occur.
I'm sure my backyard is flooded. We just moved into this house and the way the backyard was designed is awful. When we get back from vacation, I'm going to have to do a lot of digging/building of drains. The back yard slopes from either side into a flat area outside the basement doors and the water just sits there. In another spot water runs off the one side of the house, across the driveway and sits at the base of the driveway. This water eventually runs under the deck to the basement door. Absolute nightmare. And to top it off, there's water that is coming in from above one of the windows in the basement that is under the deck. Found that out with the first storm that rolled through this evening. Put a towel on the ledge of the window, but that towel is probably soaked now.
 
I'm sure my backyard is flooded. We just moved into this house and the way the backyard was designed is awful. When we get back from vacation, I'm going to have to do a lot of digging/building of drains. The back yard slopes from either side into a flat area outside the basement doors and the water just sits there. In another spot water runs off the one side of the house, across the driveway and sits at the base of the driveway. This water eventually runs under the deck to the basement door. Absolute nightmare. And to top it off, there's water that is coming in from above one of the windows in the basement that is under the deck. Found that out with the first storm that rolled through this evening. Put a towel on the ledge of the window, but that towel is probably soaked now.
I almost bought a place in Roxy with all sorts of water problems. Had water table issues under the slab...lateral intrusion on the sides of the foundation etc. They had a finished basement not under code and luckily the inspector tested moisture behind the drywall. They had this huge retaining wall in the backyard to try to stem the water but the house just sat in a shitty spot at the end of a hill. Luckily it rained a lot for a few days straight and I went over and the basement with the carpet and walls were waterlogged. Bailed on the house. Needed too many french drains and water abatement system. Too much added investment and risk to house value. Inspector was money well paid...500 bucks at the time. Saved me thousands including headaches.
 
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Speaking of rain....there is basically no end in sight besides 1 day leading to and into July 4th......I hope the forecast is wrong. Rain like this sucks ass...
 
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Going on almost three years since I had Covid for the first time and lost my taste and smell I am finally getting my taste back to pre Covid days. Coffee smells and tastes like coffee again, but what really made it noticeable is a strawberry I ate when my daughter didn’t eat it before daycare, such a ridiculously strange happiness. 3 god damn years later man. Would have never thought.
 
Going on almost three years since I had Covid for the first time and lost my taste and smell I am finally getting my taste back to pre Covid days. Coffee smells and tastes like coffee again, but what really made it noticeable is a strawberry I ate when my daughter didn’t eat it before daycare, such a ridiculously strange happiness. 3 god damn years later man. Would have never thought.

This is big
 
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The video does it better. That fight is insane.

At the commissioning or the Johnston, Lieutenant Commander Evans said "This is a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm's way." It turns out this was understatement. That's like declaring your fists are made for fighting, and your intention is to fight. So you run at and fight prime Tyson, Ali, and Frazier all at the same time. I mean yeah you said you'd do it, but nobody expected that particular fight is what you meant. They fought several capital ships whose secondary armament, each, surpassed the Johnston's main armament. And the Roberts was a destroyer escort, which was even smaller and less fit for fighting an entire fleet than a destroyer. Leroy Jenkins was less enthusiastic.
USS Johnston, the first Leeroy Jenkins.

I remember seeing a youtube video about it a few years ago... It may have been about medal of honor winners because Lt. Commander Evans was the first person of native-American descent to be awarded the Medal Of Honor (He got it posthumously as he was never seen after ordering the evacuation of the ship).
 
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Going on almost three years since I had Covid for the first time and lost my taste and smell I am finally getting my taste back to pre Covid days. Coffee smells and tastes like coffee again, but what really made it noticeable is a strawberry I ate when my daughter didn’t eat it before daycare, such a ridiculously strange happiness. 3 god damn years later man. Would have never thought.

Had Covid around Christmas of 2020. First and only time. Other than her getting a slight fever for a day, losing taste/smell was our only symptom, thankfully. My sense of smell already sucks. Combined with allergies that typically have me stuffed up, that wasn't a big deal, but the taste thing was so weird because it was absolute. I could have pizza or a steak, and the only difference was texture. Only lasted a few days for us, but I know a guy who lost it for certain things for over a year. Congrats man. That's no small thing
 
Going on almost three years since I had Covid for the first time and lost my taste and smell I am finally getting my taste back to pre Covid days. Coffee smells and tastes like coffee again, but what really made it noticeable is a strawberry I ate when my daughter didn’t eat it before daycare, such a ridiculously strange happiness. 3 god damn years later man. Would have never thought.
Did you eat healthy? Eat all the gross veggies that you normally would not because they are vile weeds?

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