WheatNOil
@WheatNOil
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Hockey, Geekiness, Parenthood. Physician at the U of Saskatchewan. Also on too many other social media sites, but all under this username.
Joined February 2015
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The mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are kind of brilliant at a science level. I’ve had a few people in my real non-Twitter life ask me to explain how it works so I’m going to try my best here in this thread while I’m waiting for a patient to show.
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So then, a COVID virus enters your body. Your body has never seen the virus before.
BUT it’s seen that protein that’s on the outside of the virus. Your memory cells say “you’ve got to be kidding me, THIS asshole again? Get the fuck out of here!”
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Once it fights off the virus, though, it remembers it. You’ve got memory cells in your immune system and if you run into that virus again, your memory cells say “I’ve seen this asshole before”. Your body uses it’s past experience to demolish the virus before it can make you sick.
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Your cells see these instructions and say “sure, I’ll make this”. So your cells make a bunch of the asshole protein.
You immune system sees this new protein you’re producing and immediately says “what... the fuck... is this?” And it starts attacking the protein.
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The vaccine contains no actual part of the virus. It has only the instructions on how to make the asshole protein. So, you can’t get infected with COVID from the vaccine. You just get these instructions.
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What if the virus mutates so it doesn’t produce the asshole protein any more? Well, since it uses the asshole protein to get into your cells, if it mutates away from the asshole protein, it’ll probably also be less infectious. That’s what makes the vaccine low-key brilliant.
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Remember it hasn’t seen this protein before. It takes awhile to ramp up production. Then it launches an all out war against the asshole protein. The fevers, chills, muscle soreness, etc you might get as vaccine side effects is your body bombing the hell out of the asshole protein
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So you destroy the asshole protein (which in and of itself can’t infect you, it’s just a protein, not the virus).
Now here’s the important part. Your memory cells ‘remember’ the asshole protein. They remember exactly how to destroy it.
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Congratulations! Now, you’re immune to COVID! You’ve got the blueprints to defeat it as soon as it enters your body.
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That protein, by the way, is an important one for the virus. It uses that protein to get into your cells. That protein makes the virus more infectious. In short, that protein makes the virus more of an asshole.
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The first thing to know is how your immune system works. Basically, your immune cells attack anything foreign to your body. If it sees a protein or a virus or a bacteria or anything that it doesn’t recognize, it launches an attack.
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I saw this awhile back and it’s, of course, brilliant. I wanted to break it down to step more basic than this and throw in a few more swears but Rob’s video here is fantastic.
Here I describe a brief overview of how the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines work. Taking a vaccine is one’s personal choice, and I hope this video can help someone make that decision rooted in science.
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Now COVID has DNA in it that codes for all of its parts. So scientists looked at the entire DNA sequence of virus and found the sequence of DNA that is the blueprints for that protein. The asshole protein.
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Your body’s own ‘natural immune system’ quickly and efficiently launches an all out war, using the template it has from when it destroyed the asshole protein last time. It destroys the virus before it can take hold, replicate, and make you sick.
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So scientists took the blueprint for the asshole protein on COVID and made an mRNA version of it. Literally just the instructions on how to make that protein.
These instructions “are” the vaccine.
Let me explain.
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So you’ve broken down the mRNA instructions. You’ve destroyed asshole proteins. Everything from the vaccine is gone.
Except for those memory cells who remember that protein very well.
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If it’s fighting off a virus, for example, it takes time to build up a full attack. It’s got to figure out what part of the virus to attack & ramp up production of what it needs to attack those parts. That can take a few days. Meanwhile the virus is replicating and expanding.
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This is correct. Sorry, I got caught up wanting to explain our own DNA-RNA process and went on autopilot. COVID is an RNA genome meaning it just uses the RNA directly instead of transcribing from DNA. The rest is the same.
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So, with that in mind, we return to the vaccine. Scientists looked at the COVID virus and saw a protein on the outside of the virus that looked like a good candidate to launch an immune attack against.
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By the way, your body breaks down the mRNA instructions that you got with the vaccine pretty quickly too. That’s normal. You don’t need a bunch of instructions hanging around forever. Your body breaks those down and gets rid of them.
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Side note: DNA is the blueprint to make things in a cell. Cells take the DNA and transcribe it into RNA. The RNA is the instructions that tell the cell what to make. mRNA (literally messenger-RNA) literally just gives instructions to the cell to make something.
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We don’t know for sure. We have a very long memory for some viruses and shorter for others. We’ll have to see for this one. Sometimes we make up for a shorter memory with a “booster” vaccine some ways down the road. Like a little reminder.
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Probably not. Most of the viral load comes from replicating in your body, not exposure. But remember the vaccine is 95% effective, not 100%. A lot of that depends on how robust your own immune response is to the protein and how effective your memory cells are towards it.
@WheatNOil
what happens if the viral load from exposure outweighs your immune system's capacity to attack the protein? is that possible?
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Reinfection from a virus you’ve had before could be because the virus mutated (in which case it’s technically a different virus) or because your ‘memory’ or that virus wasn’t as strong as you’d like.
@WheatNOil
Then how is there risk of reinfection? And in some instances, the illness has Ben more severe the second time?
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Not by any way I can see. Your immune system, in all this, is working exactly the way it’s supposed to work. It attacks the foreign object and then remembers it for later. Your immune system at no point is altered. It’s out there doing it’s thing.
@WheatNOil
Could this by chance alter the immune system down the road and the body starts attacking things it shouldn’t
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Hey everyone, there’s a lot of great questions that people have attached to this thread and I’m trying my best to answer them, but there’s a lot. Also, some are beyond my knowledge.
You immunology / ID nerds out there, feel free to jump in in the replies.
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Also, remember, we get a vaccine to protect ourselves, but more importantly to protect others around us, especially those who ‘can’t’ get the vaccine (or 5% who aren’t immune). We do this for each other, we get through it together. Get through the winter friends. Spring is ahead.
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There’s lots of questions about allergies in the thread. Here’s the best thread I’ve seen on it so far.
tldr; don’t be TOO worried about allergies.
1/OK so there *may* be new reports of allergy to
#COVID19
vaccines but many other things (e.g., vasovagal syncope) can be misdiagnosed as allergy so we need more clinical details from the UK
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Ok, some more things. People wondering my credentials. I’m a physician, but not an immunologist. I’m actually a psychiatrist, but my job at the U of Saskatchewan is in medical education. So I try to explain complex stuff in simpler ways.
(And I don’t ‘usually’ swear so much!)
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Friends I’m very happy people found this useful. Two things
1) If you have specific questions about whether the vaccine is okay for ‘you’ b/c your other conditions, (often autoimmune) please talk about it with your doc. That’s better than info from random me who doesn’t know you.
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2) There’s SO many excellent questions and I can’t answer them all even if I ‘didn’t’ have a job and my own kids to be a father to. So I’ll do my best, but thank you to all the wonderful science nerds going through and answering for me. I see you, I appreciate it! 👊🏽
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The rest of hockey Twitter having to deal with Oilers vs Canucks Twitter for the next round.
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Wait, is there going to be a protest against vaccine mandates in Calgary? A city in a province without a vaccine mandate? In front of hospitals that are so overloaded with unvaccinated people (b/c of this lack of mandate) that many vaccinated people had their healthcare canceled?
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1) Celebrate!
This is a very good vaccine! The UK is crushing COVID using a huge amount of AZ with extended dose intervals against a rapid spreading variant. We have real world evidence this vaccine works and protects you! This is legit awesome!
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@brett_milam
There’s some evidence that you get immunity (at least partial) after the first shot. But they wanted to make sure your body gets a good immune response & so we do it again. It’s like a second round of target practice so you’re ready for the real thing.
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Friends, all my ICU colleagues are freaking out right now.
I mean like literally 100% of the ones I know are freaking out.
Not about what ‘might’ happen but what ‘is’ happening.
We’ve been at this long enough to have some Alarm Fatigue, but this is one I wouldn’t ignore.
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“We shouldn’t have to show a card to go eat nachos.”
I agree, my friend.
We also shouldn’t have to cancel children’s cancer operations and call in the military.
So take a pick.
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@TraceeM
Mostly because the “regular flu” is really a combination a huge variety of influenza viruses that mutate and change fairly rapidly. So every year you’re dealing with new strains. They’re bastards in a different way.
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We’ll know more soon, but it’s safe to say once you get both doses: 95% chance you’re immune, you ‘probably’ spread less, but should still mask & try to distance so YOU’RE not the asshole spreading the virus to people who haven’t got the vaccine yet. At least till cases drop. 2/2
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You can tell the truly grizzled veteran Oiler fans because they do not, under any circumstances, feel this game is in the bag.
Are they having fun?
Yes.
But it’s the type of fun that is riddled with anxiety. That expects death at any turn.
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The 2nd dose is the same as the 1st and is there to make sure you get a good enough immune response for longer memory. ‘Maybe’ 1 dose would be enough but we don’t know yet. They did the trials w/ 2 doses to make sure it works. Extra target practice for your body!
@WheatNOil
Thanks for this explanation. Can you share, for the 2 dose vaccines, does the 2nd booster shot contain exactly the same as the first or is it different, in some way?
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5) Celebrate!
We get out of this pandemic by vaccinating. Every individual person who gets vaccinated contributes to that goal for themselves but also society! As cases and hospitalizations drop in the coming weeks / months, know you contributed to our collective health.
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McDavid is so over-rated. He only really has one move: Grab the puck and single-handedly dismantle an entire team reducing them to ash and dust as if they were mere phantoms of humans.
But I mean, after that, he has... what... maybe only 3 or 4 other elite skills? Overrated!
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We don’t 100% know yet. If you’re immune, you’re killing the virus quickly so it doesn’t have much time to replicate & spread. The Moderna trials showed less spread in vaccinated ppl who got the virus but had no symptoms. But less spread doesn’t mean no spread. 1/2
@WheatNOil
Can you still transmit COVID to other people, if after the vaccine, you come across ‘Rona and gotta fight?
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2) Take a breath. Clots remain very rare but you should be aware of the symptoms & seek help if necessary. This is a great infographic to help.
Once you’re ~4 weeks out, you’re in the clear for clot risk.
If you're anything like me your medical anxiety may be causing you to be HYPER aware of every sensation in your body right now 🥴
So I made this handy chart based on info from
@COVIDSciOntario
& expert input from
@MPaiMD
@ASPphysician
to help you know what's normal & what isn't.
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3) Celebrate!
One shot of AZ is very effective at reducing serious illness. (Possibly more effective than one shot mRNA.) It has increasing effectiveness as you go out several weeks. Extending the 2nd dose seems to be MORE effective than getting it right at 4 weeks.
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Bouchard scored without letting McDavid get a point. Rookie mistake.
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The longer clip looks worse for Matheson. I get why Drai was ‘pissy’.
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4) Keep an eye on 2nd shots.
There will be more AZ coming in for 2nd shots. There’s also ongoing studies mixing mRNA with AZ for 1st & 2nd shots. We should be getting results soon. Theoretically, this should be fine & possibly better protection! Waiting for the data to confirm.
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Last thing: The people that follow me here are generally a decent bunch, so I doubt it’s any of you...
but if you’re chirping Kelly Talbot or any player’s family member about a hockey game, please just log off and never log back on.
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I have a number of followers who are new parents. As a child psychiatrist and a father, I will add to this thread in time to give, what I can assure you, is very valuable advice you won’t find in any medical literature.
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For the love of god somebody deliver McDavid’s beer for him tonight.
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If you’ve never experienced ‘really’ cold weather, there’s certain things that happen at those temperatures that you can’t really imagine.
Like you can tell how cold it is by the ‘sound’ a door makes when it closes.
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I have a lot of new followers who are going to be very disappointed once hockey season starts and my feed is less science and more obscure Edmonton Oiler stats.
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I’m currently at the Saskatchewan physician town hall where we are getting an update on the COVID situation in SK.
I think my main takeaway is this:
If you are a resident in Saskatchewan, please try not to get sick for the next several months.
With anything.
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Can’t look too far ahead. Canucks were in this spot too.
This is like being up in the 3rd. As a fan of this team, I’m not taking anything for granted.
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To understand mutations, it helps to know how viruses work. First, viruses can’t make more of themselves on their own. Two coronaviruses can’t get together, go on a date, have too much to drink, and have a baby COVID.
They need someone else to make more of them.
This tweet in the thread has been getting a lot more love lately. Despite the emergence of a new strain in the UK, this tweet remains basically true. We would ‘expect’ the vaccine to still work. Would it be useful to do a thread on mutations?
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Oilers iced a lineup where 9 out of the 18 skaters were either NHL rookies or played in the AHL this year. And no McDavid OR Klefbom.
You take that point and run.
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Just to be clear:
If you go bardownski for a goalski that’s corski AND a a fenski but if the D gets a blocski then it’s a corski but not a fenski. A save by Koski is a corski and a fenski but if you don’t take a shotski you’ll miss out on corskis & fenskis, according to Gretzky.
Tippett asked about Oilers giving up a lot of shots on goal, said, "Way overplayed. That's my own pet peeve. You talk about corski and fenski and this and this. I see ten shots a game every game that I would class as a turnover, not a shot on goal." 1/3
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“What do we want?”
COVID!
“How do we want it?”
In such overwhelming quantities so as to overwhelm the healthcare system and cancel other people’s cancer surgeries!
Like, my dudes, you’ve already won, take the W and leave us be.
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By the way, on a team with Connor McDavid, Talbot may have been the single most important reason for Edmonton’s only playoff appearance in 13 years. Think we all owe him a salute.
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@DGlaucomflecken
As a psychiatrist, I take offense to this.
Yes, we will sometimes up the ante in therapy in order to create leverage for change but we would never EVER threaten to send people to Internal Medicine Grand Rounds! We have ethical boundaries!
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Look, the mostly likely outcome here is the Oilers lose in 5.
But god damn… if… if they could do it.
It’s the one in a million shot that makes sports sear a memory into your brain.
Logic states it’s not going to happen.
But fans live and die by ‘if’.
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@Ratdoodle_
?
Maybe just point out you’re not actually getting exposed to the virus. You’re just giving the body target practice. Same as you would for anything else. Practice on something easier to make you more successful when it’s game time.
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Credit to Darnell Nurse, it’s hard to make Jamie Benn go head first into someone else’s box.
Talk about great timing. In case you missed it on
@Sportsnet
@EdmontonOilers
Darnell Nurse with the hit on Jamie 'Benn'd but don't break..
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Wayne Gretzky stats are honestly hilarious. They’re always like this.
Player X: 13
Player Y: 15
Gretzky: 843
Now up to 5 (off 1G-4A) in a game his team currently leads 7-3 late in the 2nd period tonight, McDavid has tied Glenn Anderson for the 4th most career 5+ point performances in
#Oilers
franchise history (6) behind only Paul Coffey (10), Jari Kurri (14) & Wayne Gretzky (79!!!)
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A lot of people, in good faith, ask why not trust one’s own natural immune system to fight COVID.
It’s important to know that if you’re vaccinated, it’s STILL your own natural immune system that fights COVID.
At no point will a vaccine fight an infection for you.
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Forgot to tell this story.
5yo came home from Kindergarten in his indoor shoes yesterday. Forgot his boots at school.
We get home from work today, his boots are on our front step. Teacher dropped them off. Worried he’d have cold feet trick-or-treating tonight.
Teachers. Man.
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Janmark - Brown have been everything you could ask from your bottom six players and then some.
Janmark has found an extra gear in the playoffs and it's glorious to watch him and Brown grind through the Panthers
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You know, it's good to remember that while there is a lot to celebrate about being Canadian, there's a lot that divides us as well. But I do think, at least today on Canada Day, we can all unite together and say: Fuck off Ryan Kesler.
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You know, we probably shouldn’t let this latest bit of divisiveness change the reality of the last couple years.
The vast majority of people did every reasonable thing they could do in the face of a pandemic with a novel virus, which we had to learn about on the fly.
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One common question I got was “What happens if I get the vaccine and I’ve already had COVID?” Related to that, “Should I get the vaccine if I’ve had COVID?” and “how long am I immune for?”
Strap in friends, we’re going on another “way too long thread”.
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The Oilers would be a legit Cup contender this year if only the NHL would call some penalties in the playoffs.
I mean that seriously.
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There are 47 goalies in the NHL who have played at least 200 minutes.
Of those, Skinner has the 2nd worst and Campbell the 5th worst save percentages.
Campbell has the worst save percentage for high danger shots against. Skinner the 3rd worst.
Oilers need a goalie.
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It’s Wednesday, May 26th. The Oilers - Jets are in the 50th OT. Dave Tippett looks down his bench and sees Koekkoek and Bear then shakes his head, sending out the lifeless husk of Darnell Nurse for his 2000th minute of ice time.
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Deep in Ice District, Steve Yzerman sits in an empty room. Before him is a glass if red wine, poured from a bottle of No. 99 Merlot. On a paper plate beside it is a Bobby Nick’s burger.
Jammed in a small adjoining room, connected by a one mirror, sit the entire Oiler management.
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By this logic, if you had shingles and COVID you could talk about My Sharona
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@SelfAnalytics
In short: yes. The rate of allergies to vaccines is very low generally. I suspect we’ll see few since literally billions are going to get the vaccine. This is why usually people are asked to hang out for 30 minutes after the shot to make sure you don’t have a reaction.
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And so it was that on June 15, 2024, the Oilers signed Shania Twain to a Standard Player Contract.
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Every year at Christmas now I think about Christmas 5 years ago when I nearly died with my wife, child and in-laws.
While I wait for my brother-in-law to arrive so we can open presents, let me share...
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One of the reasons there’s so much disinformation about COVID is that it takes a less effort to make up bullshit than it does to disprove bullshit.
Yet, if you don’t know a ton about the subject matter, the bullshit can sound as true as the actual facts.
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3yo turns 4 today.
We’ve been up for several hours.
All the presents are opened.
Pancakes have been made. And eaten.
7yo lost a tooth.
Shenanigans have been had... are still being had.
Both boys have had almost every conceivable emotion.
I’m two coffees in.
It’s 9AM.
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So, random thought:
The Oilers have Jujhar Khaira, Darnell Nurse, Caleb Jones, Andreas Athanasiou, Ethan Bear, and Kailer Yamamoto
Does that make them the most ethnically diverse team in the NHL? (Obviously an extremely low bar)
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THE TRADE WORKED FOR BOTH TEAMS! NEAL WOULD NEVER HAVE PRODUCED LIKE THAT IN CALGARY SO IT WAS ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION AND YOU CAN’T MEASURE THE GRIT AND HEART THAT LUCIC BRINGS TO THE TABLE! SO IT WAS TOTALLY A FAIR TRADE!
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We’re only 4 periods in to the season. Real Oiler fans don’t panic.
Mostly because real Oiler fans are already dead inside and have no feelings left to feel.
Eat at Arby’s
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Hitchcock (before watching the Oilers play): McDavid can’t do everything, the rest of the team needs to step up. It can’t be just one guy.
Hitchcock (after watching the Oilers play): You know what Connor? Just stay out there. Don’t even come back to the bench.
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Kind of amazing that Draisaitl was the 8th best C, the 4th best LW, AND the 8th best RW all in the same season.
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Outside of not pooping in our drinking water, vaccination is probably the single most important scientific advancement to save lives in human history.
Imagine being ‘against’ that.
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Here’s the thing
1) Tkachuk needs to get suspended for this hit b/c head injuries are serious
2) Kassian needs to get suspended for what he did b/c head injuries are serious
3) I have little faith the NHL will do both b/c ultimately the NHL doesn’t really care about player safety
If Tkachuk doesn’t get suspended for this unpenalized headshot on Kassian then I’ve given up on
@NHLPlayerSafety
& the
@NHL
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Taylor Hall played on some terrible teams & was often the only reason the game was close. He was the most exciting Oiler for years & made the games fun to watch in otherwise forgettable seasons. For that, I’m glad he’s getting some respect & I’m having a beer for him tonight.
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