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Charles R. Mousseau

@alphalackey.bsky.social

550 followers 440 following 2.1K posts

Gambling-industry polymath, NHL hockey fan (Go Jets Go!); poker, chess, pro wrestling; massive Gunther mark (#GuntherStruck); dipsomaniac; anti-racialist; he/him.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · Dec 27

We all have an emotional support dead famous guy and who he is says a lot about you

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 13h

Hairy, sure. Tight green shorts, sure. But I promise you, anon, that the thing you're seeing in his arms and chest is not 'pudge'.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 13h

It's one of the saddest heartbreaks that Everett isn't almost as principled as he is portrayed to be. Because when he's a dick, he's a major dick. And I'm not quite prepared to gloss over that, if you don't think he's an abused husband, then you don't think a husband can be abused.

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 16h

No, that was André Roussimoff

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 16h

He was *a* rock, but no, that is Bruno Sammartino.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 16h

"The face that runs the place" of any promotion back then couldn't have a frivolous haircut ;)

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 17h

I mean, I'd take any of the grumpy old buggers playing cards at the local Italian community centre on a Friday night. "A better human being than Columbus" is the faintest of damning praise ;) but yes, I'm sure someone who knows the name "Salvatore Bellomo" knows why Sammartino is a primo choice!

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 17h

How could you ever forget a Italian-American built like a whiskey barrel on legs?

And since you know who this is, you know why it's a good choice, right? The dude *is the person of* the American Dream for an immigrant.

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 19h

I had no idea. Hell, now there's no excuse. I expect to see you all here this time next year celebrating Sammartino Day :)

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 19h

A wrestling hero and a real life hero. With a hero's story. Evading the fascists that were rooting out resistance in his small town. Small, malnourished kid barely makes it out to America. Lives the American dream to get big and strong and be a hero for countless others, Italian and all alike.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 20h

(thanks to @kimspirit.bsky.social for the suggestion)

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 20h

For pro wrestling fans, there's one obvious answer.

Picture of professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino, wearing his championship belt.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 1d

"People forget China,
and your War on Cancer.
Yeah, they all betrayed you,
yeah, and your country too"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_G_...

Manic Street Preachers - The Love of Richard Nixon (Official Video)

YouTube video by ManicStPreachersVEVO

www.youtube.com

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, he created the Southern Strategy. He also created race-based and sex-based DEI. To say the man had a complicated legacy would be an understatement :)

But yes, in the grand scheme of things, I'd put the Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs as FAR darker stains on his legacy than Watergate.

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 3d

Humour is a completely normal human reaction in the face of an atrocity. When our brains struggle to process something, “cracking wise” is a coping mechanism. I cracked a joke at my grandfather’s funeral. And whatever you say about it, the roar of laughter I got told me I wasn’t alone.

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 3d

It really is beautiful. It works so much better for me with one mournful voice than (say) some country ‘Family’ band singing it in harmony.

Modern video games put as much effort into using song and music to tell the story as any movie.

Related: this version of “O, Death”

youtu.be/9DpdyXLJiiw?...

Until Dawn - O' Death [Lyrics] (Original Soundtrack)

YouTube video by Caio Clarke DNA BIANCONERO

youtu.be

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

There wasn’t a single line in the sequel even half as imaginative as “of course I believe in the Users; if I don’t have a User, then who wrote me?”, to say nothing of the repeated use of religious metaphor throughout.

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

“The secret world inside the computer” has always been great to stoke the imagination, but in the end, the sequels betrayed this and gave us iPad skinned Temu-brand Blade Runner.

Wreck-It-Ralph 2 is a truer sequel to TRON than either of the last two movies.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

The original was an extremely imaginative movie that had a deepness to it relatable to anyone who had ever programmed a computer at the time, either at home or at work.

Generational change in tech absolutely invited a revisit to “what does the computer word look like”, but we got none of that.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

There was a video game (Bioshock Infinite) set in the early 1900s, and in one vignette, one of the main characters sings what is simply the most beautiful version of that song ever. Even used the original lyrics.

Beautiful enough that I had it played at my mom’s funeral.

youtu.be/9F1l6xXLSI0?...

Bioshock Infinite OST - Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Full)

YouTube video by BioshockInfiniteOST

youtu.be

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

That was absolutely the best random encounter in that game, bar none. You wanna light some crosses on fire? Fine, I wanna light some robes on fire. With dynamite.

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

I'm rapidly developing the Old Man mentality that, if a game is too ambitious to release without bugs, it's too ambitious. Obvious exceptions for Early Access where I know what I'm going to get :P

Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

Okay, that's fair to say. I'm a bit surprised you didn't bring up how BL4 was buggier -- is it buggier? Sure AF seems like it to me. Like I have that "exclam icon" above my quests but it just won't go away. Apparently there's some hidden quest that it just won't let me view, or..?

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

Before you had even responded, I could already hear the fingers snapping in my head :)

I do love how he devotes a verse of the song to talk about the men he's beaten to death with his bare hands. Like okay, good to know!

Anyways, in case it's in your head now too:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRh0...

Tennessee Ernie Ford - 16 Tons

YouTube video by Brandon DeCamp

www.youtube.com

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 4d

If "Tennessee" Ernie Ford counts, then you're looking at one of the greatest working-class anthems ever in "Sixteen Tons"

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Charles R. Mousseau @alphalackey.bsky.social · 5d

Really?

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