Russ Oates

@roates33.bsky.social

267 Followers 166 Following

You probably know me from Purple Row or SB Nation, maybe vaguely seeing me at a particular history conference over the years.

MINDTRAP The coach of the college baseball team, Buck Knox, was checking the residence grounds to be certain his players were in by curfew. Suddenly, he heard a loud crash and turned to catch a glimpse of a man running into the residence. Buck thought it was his star right-handed pitcher, Art Dodger, but he couldn't be sure. Buck went to Art's room and opened the door. Art Dodger stood in the middle of the room, his right leg in his pants and his left leg out. Art, looking at the wrist watch on his left arm said, "I heard a loud crash and was just getting dressed to see what happened," he stammered. "Forget the bull," said Buck, "I'm certain it was you who just ran in here. For that little caper, you won't by playing tomorrow." How could Buck Knox be so certain it was Art who had been out after curfew?
Ryan Nanni @celebrityhottub.bsky.social • 43s ok it's time for a very stupid thread to distract myself the other day, i started building new college football conferences, not based on geography or history or competition but on much nominative similarity. for example: there are 23 FBS universities named after a city. we can split them in two: View full thread Ryan Nanni@celebrityhottub.bsky.social • 43s my imperfect solution is to put these ten schools into THE EPHEMERAL CONFERENCE Air Force Army Florida International Liberty Miami-OH Navy Notre Dame Old Dominion Temple TCU there is no perfect logic here. they simply do not fit the other categories, nor can they all fall under one label. 门 ••• Ryan Nanni@celebrityhottub.bsky.social • 42s thank you for reading this thread, which was not behind a paywall and therefore cannot be complained about
The haunt is over. This is the hunt. DEVOUR ME New York Times Best Selling Authot EMILY RATH On the cover is a woman with red braided hair and the head of a man with a bony hand reaching for his neck.
A human torso wearing a Star Wars shirt that has X-Wings, Y-Wings, and TIE Fighters on it, looking like Galaga sprites. A larger image of Darth Vader appears above them. A red University Press of Kansas mug appears as well.
Thanks, Russell! Your card has been billed $64.01. An image of Spencer Hall, who has glasses on and has a beard.
A replica of the U.S.S. Missouri made of building blocks. In front of the ship is a book with the title Mr. Truman's War
Book cover for The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance. At the forefront are two individuals, one with antlers above his ears and blonde hair and the other turquoise-colored with black hair. Behind them in the middle of the image is the inn and a large tree with yellow leaves. Farther back is Mount Vengeance.
A screenshot of a History Channel show about the Bible. A man in a black-hooded cloak with his left eye obscured by the hood. He beats a resemblance to Obama.
A guy holding a baby
Three stickers in a row. On the left is a book plate that reads "to Russ! Isla Jewell." In the middle is a stickers that reads "Books & Bewitchment, Romantic AF, Arcadia Falls, Georgia" A squirrel is to the right of AF. The third sticker is a glittery shiny sticker that has Books & Bewitchment and Isla Jewell on it.
I'm wearing a white shirt with a purple design in it. It says Mile High Flyers around an image of a basketball player on a rocket in front of the state of Colorado. The shirt also says A Denver Rockets booster.
A collage of three pictures. On the left is an image go a yellow box that says "The Lay's Challenge from Potato To Door." In the upper right is a view of the inside of the box the chips came in with a paragraph about chips. On the bottom right is an image of the bag of chips, classic-style, upside down.
The Pokémon Chikorita, a small light green quadruped with a giant leaf sticking out of the top of its head.
A gif from the Simpsons of a long-haired Homer running down a street while an old man shouts "Why don't you get a haircut, you hippie!" while sitting next to his wife.
A man lifts the lid of a cooler open and closed while the speakers play a version of Smashmouth's "All-Star."
Paul A.C. Koistinen (An image of a person touching a bomb) Arsenal of World War II The Political Economy of American Warfare 1940-1945 (An image of three airplanes in flight)
Challah bread
Russ Oates 2013: The year I became a C-SPAN star while attending a SHAFR panel [photo of me while the chyron on screen has the name Charles Duelfer displayed] Matthew McGuire Here's another picture of you so folks won't confuse you with Mr. Duelfer [same photo above but without the name]
Two hockey pucks laying side by side. On the left is the Seattle Kraken puck, which has that team name written in an arc at the top of the puck and a "S" that looks like a kraken. Underneath it is "National Hockey League". On the right is the Utah Mammoth puck with that written in an arc at the top. In the middle is a Mammoth with "National Hockey League" underneath it. The main color is a light blue on each puck.
The view from Section 209 at Madison Square Garden during a New York Rangers game. The Rangers are in their blue jerseys on the left and the Washington Capitals in their white jerseys on the right.
Books & Bewitchment Isla Jewel That is what is written on the book cover. Flying books and the silhouettes of a man and a woman also appear on it.
A yellow-gold box with "3.0" in white and ten small circles below it, three colored white.
A screengrab from a 2010 Colorado Rockies game. A Dodgers catcher walks in front of Troy Tulowitzki at the end of a Rockies loss. Tulowitzki's bat is broken into two long parts. One is slender and sticking up from home plate.
Delilah S Dawson House of Idyll A book cover with a bleeding unicorn
A bookmark that says Delilah S. Dawson House of Idylee with a red unicorn that appears to be dripping blood, stickers that say Guillotine, Bloom, and Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd, and a book plate that says for Russ!
Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft: Heir of Strand Delilah S. Dawson On the book cover are seven individuals, including a human and and orc. There are bats flying around a castle as well.
The cover of She Used To Be Nice: A Novel by Alexia LaFata. A young woman wearing a white tank top with a gold chain around her neck and her hair flowing down her left shoulder. Her face is covered by a blotch of red.
A Fae in Finance Juliet Brooks On the cover is a woman, the Fae Princeling with green wings, and teh Gray Knight.
The cover of Delilah S. Dawson's It Will Only Hurt for a Moment. At the bottom of the cover is a woman submerged in water except for her head. At the top of the cover is an abandoned building and trees but it is upside down.
Vinny 7:13 I just whipped 40's ass!
Book cover: The 1929 Sino-Soviet War: The War Nobody Knew by Michael M. Walker.
An image of a book: Charles Evans Hughes and the Dawning of Modern America by Joanne Raitano. The cover has an image of Hughes with his beard and side-sweeping mustache.
A tweet from edsbs that says: Again, follow your dreams, because unqualified idiots are paid to do things they shouldn't be doing every day, why not you
A photo of Major League pitcher Jon Gray when he was with the Rockies. His arms are folded across his chest.
An image of two books. On the left is A Violent Peace: A Global Military History of the Interwar Period. On the right is Resisting Reagan: Liberal Strategies in a Conservative Age
80% of the employees you onboard should be fired within 15 days. That's where we are at at my firm, and we're crushing it. It all comes down to a new hire's pacing during onboarding. If each individual is onboarded in the same way, with the same checklist, you know exactly how they're pacing against their previously onboarded peers. Wasting time in "get to know you" calls and endless Zoom meetings and piles of documents? Not us. Here's our process: For the first two weeks, new hires barely talk to their manager because they're too busy going through a checklist with 100+ items to complete: • Reading company docs • Sitting in on team calls as observers • Watching "Never Been Kissed" at least 17 times Each day ends with a 15-minute check-in with their manager where their manager is filling out a scorecard of: • Are they getting it? i.e. Could they follow the plot that Josie was a reporter embedded within a high school, even though she was -- important -- 25 years old? • Do they get creeped out that a romance is playing out between an English teacher and a student he believes to be a minor, or do they agree with me that it's a fantasy to begin with and handled appropriately anyway? • Can they make the initial buy that Drew Barrymore - a cutie-pie by any metric we have programmed into our Al model - could reasonably be considered a "Grossie?" There's no hand-holding. No ramping. Just small daily evaluations of "are they good at work" coupled with team sentiment of "do we like working with them" and "do they have original ideas for how to update 'Never Been Kissed' into a premium streaming show. It feels like Peacock to us, but do they think Amazon? Netflix? Is Crackle still happening? You owe it to the great people who are already on your team to only let other great people in, much like Josie. And if they can't, they're out.
An image of a LEGO Statue of Liberty
Spencer E Hall Super important fanshot: https://www.sbnation.com/2015/1/29/7947813/man-drifts-with-child-is-now-king-of-dads Brian Floyd Hand on one sec Michael Katz King of Naboo full scene! Spencer E Hall goddamit I hate my children right now Michael Katz hahaha I thought it was just a sick troll Spencer E Hall I am resigning Brian Floyd still laughing Ryan Nanni yesssss EDSBS is mine I'm gonna sell it for parts
A series of Slack messages with a link to a YouTube video of the Battle of Naboo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qZJ85MdS-g
An image of a LEGO set. A Star destroyer is chasing a rebel cruiser, like how Episode 4 starts
A LEGO set of the Star Wars logo. In the background is the word star in yellow. In the foreground is the bottom half of the word wars.
Joint Enterprises, Development, & Investments New York (April 2, 2025) — The following statement was released today by Russ Oates, through his personal representatives C.E. Hughes and Porter Engle, Co-Chairmen of Joint Enterprises, Development, & Investments (“JEDI”), in response to questions about his future career plans: ‘I’m back.’ -30-
A screenshot from the movie The Gospel of John that shows Henry Ian Cusick (Lost's Desmond) playing Jesus.
A picture of two books side by side laying flat. On the left is Churchill and His Generals which has a picture of Churchill surrounded by several military officers. On the right is Railroads and American Law which has had a drawing of a steam locomotive on it surrounded by armed men facing off
An image of the book Dartmouth College v. Woodward: Colleges, Corporations, and the Common Good. Below the title is a black and white image of the Dartmouth campus from the 19th(?) century.
An image of two books side by side. On the left is The Presidency of George H.W. Bush, which has Bush in a suit and tie and his left arm extended out. On the right is Bull Moose on the Stump, the 1912 campaign speeches of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt appears with his signature glasses on a red background that is the US flag.
A three-level bookcase with all three shelves occupied plus the top. All books are from the University Press of Kansas.
An image of the book The Sick Chicken Case: The US Supreme Court and the New Deal. Below that title is a black and white mage of a woman standing next to a rooster cage attached to the back of a 1930s car
An image of the book "Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean: The Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Latin American Context." The cover has that title on it in blue and white text partially over a rectangle.
An image containing two books. On the left is 1927 and the Rise of Modern America. It has that title on the cover and pictures of Charles Lindbergh, Clara Bow, and Babe Ruth. The other book is Modernity and the Great Depression: The Transformation of American Society, 1930-1941.
A photo of stickers and bookmarks. In the middle of the photo is a sticker in the form of a kitchen knife.
A view of Manhattan looking south.
A Halloween-themed "I voted" sticker. An orange circle has a city skyline across it in black. Bats are flying into the sky with a full moon.
A photo of spiderweb cookies. Nine cookies are on a sheet of parchment paper and a baking tray. The cookies are chocolate and topped with marshmallow that sort of looks like a spider's web.
An image celebrating Bluesky reaching 10 million users. It has the number 461,213 on it.
A person laughs in reaction to a longform commercial's brand. He is wearing a black shirt and sitting in a chair.
An image of a basketball game being played between the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces. This picture is taken from a high angle and in line with the baseline.
A screenshot of a website where a big s plash ad has taken over the page. Occupying most of the page, it is an advertisement for Texas vs. Michigan on Saturday.
A Cybertruck parked on the street.
A view from the right field seats at Citi Field on July 12, 2024. The foul pole is on the left side of the image.