Rieboldt-aritas!

two thumbs up for those. and for mango chicken sausages. I wish I could go to a baseball game. I'm about 3-4 driving hours from a MLB park here. I did stumble onto the Rangers-BoSox game yesterday on the radio. unfortunately, the Sox chose that game to lose. I'm getting cable + internet hooked up in my apt Wednesday. yay for ESPN again! just in time to start ranking my picks for fantasy football draft.

excellent

Let me know if you want more than one ticket. I think Brian and Sarah will want to go (they are in Australia & Iceland respectively).

I have only been to that one A's game all year. Though I do have 2 gen admin. bleacher seats for the Red Sox series in Sept.

You had me

at "Tigers..."

Tigers baseball in August

The Tigers come to Oakland in August. I can trade some of my season tickets to get seats for one of those games. If I trade in for the Tuesday August 10th game then I THINK I can even use tickets for games I missed. Its complicated but the bottom line is thus: I can organize and distribute tix for the Tigers for anyone who wants to go. I am thinking of getting seats down low like when the EFFL group did the Texas game.

I prefer the Tuesday game because of the trade in option and also because on the 14th I will be going to China and I am sure I will need to run errands, etc., during business hours that week (the next two games are DAY games).

Sarah and I will bring the grill, mango chicekn sausages, and pitchers of Rieboldt margaritas (which are damn good, just ask Meredith, Becky Williams, Angielczyk... and others that have fallen victim to them).

I don't think the Tigers ever go to Finland...

press conferences and the Tiges

Yeah this year I signed up for something like Real One pass or something where I got to watch all of the NBa press conferences on the web. I loved that shit.

I don't have 402 or 40whatever.

I usually listen to the Tigers games on the web but didn't today. Apparently Jason Johnson pitched a gem to beat Santana for Minn. Man we took 3 out of 4 up there. Big wins big wins. 5 games out at the all star break, one win away from tying last years win total for the entire season, incredible. Pudge and Guillen have been ridiculous. 2nd half of the season is tough though. Series with the NYY and Bosox, A's, Whitesox and Rangers right off the bat. If we had one more bull pen pitcher we'd be leading the central. Our hitting is ridic, our starting pitching not bad, and our fielding could use some work.
But all in all, I'm tickled to be able to think about baseball in August. Hasn't happened in years.

402

Is good because it just keeps repeating sports highlights over and over. Its like Sportscenter without all the chucklehead bullshit, boo-yeahs, and Kenny motherfucking annoying asshole Mayne (sp?). Sometimes they switch to live press conferences which is also interesting.

All of this goes on in the background while I am working of course...

ESPN Classic- YES its on comcast, but...

I think i paid for some special digital thing. It is channel 407 on my TV. I also get ESPN news 402. I surf between 38,39,40,402,407. (I can hardly stand non-sports TV.)

Meredith

ESPN Classic?

Do you get that with Comcast cable?

Does channel 39 sometimes turn into ESPN Classic? when it's not acting like ESPN2 or ESPNDeportes?

I guess I don't pay that much attention to the name, but mostly just switch between Ch. 38, 39 and 40.

4:30 PST (730 est) ESPN Classic CAL vs. Stanfurd 1982

Its the "cheap seats" comedy version. Its on tonight. I saw it last night. Some jokes were pretty lame, but others were downright hilarious. I had never seen "cheap seats" before, but stayed tuned because of the subject matter. If you are a Cal or Stanfurd fan then its worth checking out because it gives some good insights into that awesome game.

Little did we know on April 6th

I was just reflecting on that game that rta, lottia, hellbenders and I went to on Aprils 6th. Mulder vs. Park. A's won behind Mulder's first start of the year. As of now the A's are 1.0 games behind Texas (could be 2.0, could be tied by day's end).

I just took a shit that was shaped like Palawan.

Texas Texas Texas

Not only is there a very large building on campus that is shaped like Texas (when viewed from space), I just realized that the campus itself is shaped like Texas.

The big unit

I just hope that dude doesn;t get tradeed before the game tonight (I got tix).

I am also going to see Schmidty on Sunday's day game. I have an extra ticket (10$). Anyone interested? I'm driving over.

Yeah well

100.000% of American children polled could not identify
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy when shown his picture.

This put us in a tie for last place with every other country in the world, after Hungary.

Interestingly, when shown a list of foreign leaders, 12% of the children picked Medgyessy as their "favorite foreigner."

What is our educational system coming to?

Walnut Creek

Randy Johnson is from Walnut Creek, CA.... maybe he will come back to teh Bay Area?

Worst news story of the day

Who the fuck cares? Why is this news?

Turtle

M, I am sure that there are many non-natives in the campus pond, but marms aren't often kepts as pets or else moved around. its posisble, but I just doubt it.

Red Sox pitching

D-Lowe sucks now. Arroyo is up a canyon somewhere. And, for some unexplicable reason, Theo signed BY Kim to a 2 year deal, and Kim is now in Pawtucket with a tired arm at age 24.

turtle, big unit

Parham, I dont' own a digital camera. I'll look more closely at the turtle, its shell is covered in algae. the turtles in the turtle pond aren't necessarily Texas natives.

I saw an article on Yahoo Sports that said Anaheim was interested in Randy Johnson and he was more interested in playing on the west coast than in NY. It sure would be interesting (in a "I'm trying not to drool over the prospect" kind of way) to see him in Boston. I like the argument about it being more meaningful to win the WS in Boston than in NY. but, whatever happened to boston's pitching staff that was supposed to put them up top in the AL East?????

Sheffield

OK, so Bonds had an MVP season too, but look at Sheffield's numbers:

.330 average, 39 HR, 132 RBI, 190 hits, 126 runs.

Pretty good.

That is all nice and good....

I agree with your sentimennt, but what's this shit about shef should have been the NL MVP last year?!? You do know they gave it to Barry Bonds right?

Randy Johnson to Yankees?

Latest rumor is that Johnson prefers the Yanks over the Red Sox, if he were to waive his no-trade clause. That baffles me. Don't players understand that if they win a World Series with the Red Sox they will be a Hero for life in New England, I mean for life, for ever, they will be a God. Whereas if they win a World Series with the Yanks they will be just another superstar to hop on the bandwagon and they will be forgotten within 2 years time. I mean, I know every position player on the '86 Sox team, and they LOST. But I bet a Yanks fan couldn't tell me every position player on any on their winning teams of the 90's. Look at Sheffield, who should have been MVP of the NL last year: he comes to the Yanks and now nobody even talks about him anymore... and if the Yanks win he will be just a footnote in history. Whereas if he had come to the Sox and the Sox win, he would be a hero forever. Same with A-Rod.

Austin marmorata

Meredith,

I seriously doubt that the turtle you saw in Austin was a marmorata. A lot of turtles can have head patterns like Pacific pond turtle. I mean, its possible, but I doubt it.... Any chnace you could take a digital photo and email it to me?

I don't know...

Well, the trade might not go through. I would think that the Lakers would have to get more than Odom, Grant, and a #1 pick, but Miami doesn't have much more to give. Of course, it could be a salary dumping move...

I am sober enough now to know I shouldn't worry about it until it happens.

But I like Shaq, but I never rooted for him in the Lakers. Of course Shaq never lived in Kingston Ri or went to school with my little brother.

lizard and J-Par crisis

I saw a lizard this morning at my apartment. I think it was a gecko, but it hid again pretty quick. There is an introduced house gecko around here. It was not wearing a Cal ballcap, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Parham, I think it will be okay for you to root for Odom while continuing to loathe the Lakers (if he winds up there). there have been a few players that I have liked who played for the Evil Empire. Of course, for players that I detest, playing for the EE only makes them more loathsome, and sometimes the act of going to the EE makes a player loathsome, but I decided that good players shouldn't be hated merely for their association with EE.

Major Crisis- drunk and confused

They are talking tradiong shaq for odom. What do I do if rhody ram odom plays for lakers... I am confused... di i root for him? do i root for the lakers... does not compute, does not compute.

Pokey diving for the ball

Yes on Reese; Pudge; Cal Berkeley

Yes, thank you! Josh! I too saw that play that Pokey made in the same game. He went into the stands, but it was NECESSARY.

Pudge is awesome. certainly one of my favorite players ever since he was on Texas. Though that shot of him holding the ball and J.T. Snow face down on the palte is a little haunting. Texas thought he was going to start sucking (catchers are supposed to break down). Whoops! One world series title later... And what is he hitting now? .370+ or something. Fuck, he is awesome. If I organize tix to see the Tigers when they visit Oakland then who is in?

I may be in my lats 14 mos. in the Bay Area. I am already getting nostalgic. I love how the fog and hills and sun and bay interact. I love the amazing sports teams. The libraries and museums. The delicious food. But ultimately we are all exiled. I am finishing year 8. Hoping for 10...

Jeter, Pudge, Kittens, Austin

Jeter is a decent shortstop on a great team. If he played for the Brewers he wouldn't even be an All-Star. That highlight of him diving into the stands was shown over and over on TV, but Pokey Reese, who was playing shortstop for the Sox in that game, made a more difficult catch in the exact same spot earlier in the game, and it wasn't shown on any highlight reels. Bullshit. I will NEVER understand this Jeter-philia that the media has. (On a similar note, I will never understand the Torre-philia either; give ME the best team in baseball each of the last 10 years and I will manage to win a couple World Series, too.)

I read Pudge's comments as being tongue in cheek, like he was just joking around with the reporter he was talking, too.

I posted that original kittens picture for no good reason at all. But I almost laughed coffee through my nose this morning when I saw Parham's "Kittens with Flowers" and "Two-headed Kitten" pictures.

That's cool about seeing Cal shirts in Austin. I remember last year at Woods Hole if I saw somebody with a Cal shirt or sweatshirt I would get all teary-eyed, dreaming of the West Coast and good sushi and the cool fog rolling in off the bay and coffee at the Free Speech Cafe and the RSF and IM championships and the Bear's Lair and watching all the hot coeds in Sproul Plaza.

pudge and jeter

I didn't like that part about "a lot of people want to see me on tv" either. That sounds stupid though it is true. I don't like those sorts of I'm bigger than the team type comments. I didn't expect that from Pudge. But there's no doubt that guy has done more for the Tigers than I could've imagined. Took a series from the damn Bombers.

Has anyone else notice how Jeter is being anointed as baseball's savior? He's being placed in the same category as Jordan and other willful winners. It's almost better that he isn't the most skilled defensive shortstop and isn't a deep ball threat. It's like they're harkening back to the pre-steroid era of baseball when everything was about desire and the little things.

two-faced kitten

MVZ has one in the collection. also a cyclopic goat.

I had a nostalgia moment today. I saw a guy on campus wearing a SF Giants t-shirt and a Cal ballcap. I wanted to hug him. he really stood out among all the burnt orange longhorns paraphenalia not to mention, Rangers' T caps and Astros shooting stars.

More Kittens

"Little Shrill Voices"
Mixed media assemblage (silk, pre-mature kittens)
13"h x 11"w x 5"d.
These kittens were the sad victims of an emergency pregnancy spay which saved the mother's life. It is not uncommon for very lonely (and sensitive) children to have in depth conversations with animals, flowers or even inanimate objects.

Fair enough, what's with the kittens?

Uhhh...

I didn't say he was wrong.

But he's right

A lot of people DO want to see him on TV. he is awesome.

What's with the kittens?

Pudge Rodriguez gets tossed in the 1st inning:

"I didn't do anything," Rodriguez said. "I was just smiling in the dugout. Anybody can smile. The only thing I told him was the pitch was low. I said to him two times or maybe three that pitch is low, it is not a strike. Then I go back to the dugout, and he throws me out. I don't think it was acceptable. ... A lot of people want to see me on TV."

Hahahaha. That's funny stuff.

turtles

yes there are turtles on the UT campus. I passed a little turtle pond yesterday. red-eared sliders, something with just yellow stripes on its head (cooter?) and maybe a E. marmorata. It had the coloration on its head that I associate with marmorata. there were piles of turtles out sunning themselves in the early afternoon. later on when I stopped to admire them again, a bunch swam over to where I was standing. I assume these turtles were actually begging for food, though they did it in a stoic sort of way.

Kittens

Austin, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley

AUSTIN: M, glad you made it safely. Did "nutsack" enjoy the ride? hey, i heard there were turtles on the UT campus. Is it true? Say "Hey" to Chris Bell for me.

SAN FRANCISCO: Boy, the A's sure exposed the Giants' weaknesses. Though the game ended on a Barry strikeout (which is not one of tehir weaknesses). Bummer. Oh well, at least we got to see him break the all time walks record.

OAKLAND: I am picking the Athletics to win the world series this year.

BERKELEY: Download the LONG (22.5 MB) version. It is MUCH better. "http://alumni.berkeley.edu/KCAA_Multimedia/The_Play_1982.asp"

in Austin

yay. I made it and all my possessions are in my apartment. I got moved in yesterday morning (with the help of some of my new labmates) and worked on unpacking for most of the rest of the day. The drive was uneventful, fortunately. nice scenery. a very different transect than the I-80 transect I drove back in 2000. for one thing, there aren't inspection stations for illegal immigrants on I-80.

oh yeah, one other thing IT IS REALLY HOT
though I think I could handle the heat if it werent' for the humidity. killer.

Last night's game

After Durham had his best game of his acreer, he had one of his worst. Two costly errors.

EFFL MLB comparison 7-3-04 (I deleted old one)

SFG 5-4
Bos 3-3
Oak 7-7
Det 2-4

SFG vs. Oak (3-2) 1 more games this weekend

Bos vs. Oak (2-1) 6 more games July & Sept
Bos vs. Det (0-0) 7 games in August.
Oak vs. Det (4-2) 3 more games in August

Bos vs. SFG (1-2) No more games

Plutarch on Sparta

I just finished reading 'Plutarch on Sparta'. It's a great book and it's full of quotes by Spartas Leaders and Citizens. I just thought I would share some of them with everyone. Maybe you will find enlightenment within.

Okay SS

I bite. What gives? What's this new approach? Talk to us in something other than quotes.

Spartan Saying #3

Plutarch, Sayings of Kings and Commanders:

"When Paedaretus was not chosen to be one of the Three Hundred, an honor which ranked highest in the State, he departed cheerful and smiling, with the remark that the was glad if the State possessed three hundred citizens who were better than himself."

A's at Giants, Friday July 2nd

I went to the game with Angielczyk. It was a good one. 5 HRs incl. one from Barry (opposite field). Durham had 2 homers and 5 RBI, his best offensive game ever. One of his homers was very high and majestic. Usually when they go that high they stay in the park. People were getting picked off, there was an unassisted double play.

Boinds is just 3 walks shy of the all-time walk record.

I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. That's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight... razor... and surviving.

The Horror! The Horror!

"They train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders
won't allow them to write fuck on their airplanes because it's obscene! "

Shitting the bed

From http://Lugntutz.com/slang.htm:
"shit the bed vb: to crash or die {I guess our new project will ~ with the latest budget cuts.}"

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shit+the+bed
"shit the bed

1. verb. To die

2. verb. To become mechanically inoperable beyond the point of repair. See also, fucked, fubar.

etymology and usage: "shit the bed" comes from the unfortunate final humiliation when an animal's (yes, including human's) bowels completely relax at the point of death, causing the contents of the colon to be expelled. To use the term as a "euphamism" for biological death is considered to be in poor taste. It is more often colorfully used in definition 2.

1. That asshole Mr Jones never had a good word to say to anyone. At his funeral, the few attendees were secretly glad that he had shit the bed.

2. I was hoping that my car could be repaired, but the mechanic told me that it had shit the bed so I had it scrapped."


See also http://phrontistery.50megs.com/longpig/dead.html#rs
Dead & Buried
213 Euphemisms for Death and Dying

shit the bed?

Never heard that phrase used that way.

But yeah, I know he died.

you know he shit the bed today right?

show some respect

Nice work Parham

But I'd prefer the Hot chick or the Late K mammal fossil
not to take anything away from the man who brought us some classic characters.

$%#$%#^$%#^#$%^

I am reading greg's post and looking the picture I posted. Then I refresh for the hell of it and my picture is gone. Goddamit!

PS- Pokey Reese made a better play at the same spot in the same game. he went into the stands, but had to.

Parham reaching new heights

Parham, dude, please post your god damn images so we can see them. It would only be worse if you entitled them "Hot chick" or "Never seen before Late Cretaceous mammal fossil" and then gave us that broken link. Please, what are you posting.

As for Jeter, I have to agree. Gammons called it the best defensive play he has seen. I don't believe it.

It was a good hustle play, but it didn't look like he needed to dive into the stands. But I guess sometimes you can get so pumped up that you put too much energy into it and fly out of bounds. And why in the hell isn't that area slightly more padded. There's a two foot wall there asking to be tripped over and fall head first into those hard plastic chairs. You should only be able to sit there if you're gonna help catch the player that makes that kind of move.

Maybe he watched Tayshaun Prince swat Reggie Miller and wanted to provide the same sort of lift. Who knows. Whatever the reason, it seemed to work and it will be remembered.

Think they trade Nomah for pitching?

friday thoughts

Jeter catches the ball 15 feet from the seats, he could have slowed down and then jumped into the stands, but instead he dove head first, full speed. everyone is excited by that play, but I think he is a fucking idiot.

Also, if coach K leaves DUKE for the fakers then I will lose a lot of respect for him. Don't flush you legack down the drain to hang with rapists, "shuhshevsky".

there we go... sweeet!

src src

i forgot about teh src part.okay, let me go add that in and see if my picture appears...

posting images

*image src="blahblahblah.jpg"*

But instead of the asterisks put less than and greater than signs on either side of the statement.

Jumbos taught me that.

my link

yeah, i forgot how to post images. that was a failed test. i know hiow to view source and see the location of images on the web, but forgot how to make those appear in posts.

Fritos

are corn chips, not potato chips. So I guess JP's claim to chip-ignorance is self-evident.

I've heard bee larvae can be tasty, texture not unlike popcorn. I'm not eating it unless a real live Chinese person makes it for me, in China, though. Not as a Cal Day gimmick, for sure.

The link to whatever picture JP posted seems dead.

all star voting

it's such a crock. Jeter and Nomar are the top two SS vote getters in the AL.

Makes no sense, baseball-wise. It's obviously a flawed system. A lot of NYC voters and Boston voters.

Carlos Guillen is having a great year. Next to Pudge, no one has done more for the Tigers who are slowly climbing back into the AL Central. Only 4 games out if they seal the victory tonight.

I wonder if Selig thinks the voting system is flawed. Or if it just equals more NYC and Boston viewers for the All Star game.

maybe Noah Lowry

...maybe he is for real. He has pitched well against the red sox and the Dodgers. i would like to see more of him.

yeah

I meant that I didn't think the Giants would do much if they make it to the playoffs. They've obviously been doing pretty damn well. Something like the best record in the MLB since a month or two ago. But it seems like it won't last with that pitching

Giants chance for? Red sox. Eating insects.

Giants don't have a chance for...? What? the playoffs? they can make the playoffs. but I don't think they have a good chance to win it all without more pitching. and a bat to counteract the barry walking.

Red Sox: I don't know what happened to them. They'd be in first or nearer first in any other division so some of their predicament is because of yankee winning. recently they got knocked around by los gigantes and also lost some close ones to the twins. I am still hoping for a yankees implosion. and also hoping they don't sign the big unit.

FOOD: i've eaten turtle, lizard, and croc, but never snake or any amphib. I have eaten insects. in 2001 i was illegally visiting minority villages in guizhou. in one town the power was out and i was served wok-fried hymenopterans (with bamboo) by candlelight. there were multiple stages of development including chewy larvae and more crunchy adults. As for fritos, no, i don't eat those. I find potato chips to be disgusting.

Blogger smarts up / odd foods

it is now offering "salamanders" and "marine biology" on the search line. Go 'benders!

And no, I've never had a Frito sandwich. Is it actually good?

It always struck me as a food created by the class cut-up to impress the other children, right up there with the Chee-toh sandwich, and the "Cap'n Crunch" sandwich of Breakfast Club fame. I have cultural limitations as far as food goes. A sandwich is meat and condiments, occasionally some vegetable product, on bread. No cereal in there, except maybe in the bread.

Worse, the freaks over here in Insect Bio insist on making such delicacies as "rice krispie treats with crickets" every year to feed kids at Cal Day, and I just can't deal. Like I'm gonna go all Fear Factor because I study bugs. F that. Do herpetologists get a kick out of frog-leg eating contests? Yeesh.

Frito Sandwich

Anybody else still make the frito sandwich?
The guy who invented that combo was a genius.
It's gonna help push me through the afternoon for sure.

Giants, Tigers

Giants don't have a chance unless they pick up some pitching talent before the trade deadline.

As for the Tiges, they've won 5 in a row, three were against the Diamondbacks, but still in the past they hadn't taken advantage of those weak team series (e.g, KC Royals). It will definitely be interesting to see how they fare leading up to the trade deadline. If they're above Cleveland in third place, there's an outside chance they make a run by trading for another starting pitcher. They're hitting is pretty damn good and guys like Eric Munson and Carlos Pena, who don't hit for avg, are starting to get their dingers.

How did the sox get so average in such a short amount of time. They got Nomah back. Was their pitching this big of an issue in the beginning of the season or is it that the Yankees just started to show up?

I HAVE LOST HOPE FOR THE RED SOX

Nows I am pinning all my dreams on the Giants. Maybe Lowry is for real. Why anyone would keep Tomko in the rotation above Lowry is a mystery to me. Maybe Deivi is not a fluke and he's actually a .300+ batter? In the name of Jesus spare us from Neifi Perez and his .220 average.

The A's are going to have a rough go, getting unhealthy at the same time that the Angels do get healthy. And aren't the Rangers a surprise.

How about those Tigers? 3 walk-off homers in a row. Only five games out of division lead (They are closer than the Red Sox...).

This one we had on a tape cassette

I saved up my allowance for it and ordered it from a magazine.

http://nitros9.stg.net/whirlybirdrun.html

We also used to play this one.

Holy shit am I getting nostalgic (also sending all these links to my little bro)

http://nitros9.stg.net/dinowars.html

The Tape Deck

Oh yeah, my VIC had the tape deck too. It could take like, 10-15 minutes to load your saved program-- all 3k of it. At 10 yrs old, I couldn't even *imagine* having the single Benjamin required to get the 5+1/4" floppy drive for it.

Those bird-poo screen shots are pretty hilarious.

On the subject of old-games nostalgia, I almost bought this doodad at the mall that was like a single joystick (black, hard rubber, one red button) with 100 classic Atari 2600 games on it that plugs into your tv, for $20.

I saved the $20, and probably an extra year of grad school when I walked away.

TRS-80

I had one with 4K of memory. I only had 2 games, midway and some spaceship game. That's so funny that you guys had one of these things too.

awesome

http://nitros9.stg.net/canyonclimber.html

Canyon Climber

Does anyone rememmber the old trash80 game "Canyon Climber"? There was one part where these birds are dropping "rocks" on you, but because of the primitive graphics it looks like they are shitting on you.

my computer programming skills

died when Commodore stopped making home computers. I used to know how to make fairly functional copies of arcade games on a "Vic-20" with only 3.5K of memory, using a combination of BASIC and machine language. Now I couldn't even make a PC print "RTA rules" over and over again. I've been tempted by trash80s at garage sales, but my tv probably doesn't have the hookups for one.

Major Trade

Cuttino Mobley was traded for Tracy McGrady. The Magic also get someone named Steven Francis.

This means that both Rhody players are in FLA now (Odom is in Miami).

computers

I can remember when my Dad brought home a TRS-80 that even used tape cassettes for some of it programs. Before that I recall being shown, with pride, a fancy calculator (cost several hundred dollars, can get one for 20$ now) and before that: a card-punching machine at his work.

And have you noticed how slutty and crazy the young whippersnappers dress these days? And the music?

We are fossils.

I drank 4 pints (maybe five). I have to clean out my system.

Parham

Yeah, I think there definitely is something physiological about getting up way to fucking early when you've had a night of drinking. Thankfully I only had one beer last night.

Man, I think it's pretty incredible to be using my wireless connection right now. I feel like my dad when computers came out.

OK

but check this out: Euro 2004

early morning berkeley platitudes

It happened again. Does anyone else wake up really early after nights of drinking? Its related to dehydration I am sure, yet even drinking buckets of water doesn't solve the problem.
This is going to throw my whole week out of whack. Now I have to try to compensate through a mixture of lattes and/or coronas. I already did half a jib on the frontsteps of VLSB at 5 AM. We gotta try to right this ship.

Two comments for Jumbos:

1) You must chill with posting the hot chicks. I bring that shit up at work and people think I am a perv. I try to hide that fact from the world.

2) I almost never get Patriots on my EFFL team. In fact I have a thing about it. One year I drafted Brady and he didn't do shit for me. That was painful. In my last experimental league my buddy took ALL Patriots. He actually won a few games.

All Quiet on the Western Blog

Aah, Wimbledon.

Hellbenders

Good luck in your move. I hope it is not too dreadfully hot in Austin when you arrive. I think Austin is prob a great place to move from Berkeley; one of the few places in the country that might compare favorably in a lot of things to Berkeley.

packing and moving

I am in the final (i.e. ugly) stages of packing my office and apartment. to date I have moved 30 boxes (almost all books, journals, and reprints) from my office to my apt. !!! yikes.

today I think I will be packing up my computer and I'll be online only sporadically for the next week or so until I settle in Austin. I'm heading out Monday.

Spartan Saying #2

Archidamus - son of Zeuxidamus (King, 469-427):
When he saw the missile shot by a catapult (which had been brought then for the first time from Sicily), he exclaimed, "Heracles! The valor of men is lost!"

Anybody going anyplace kick-ass

for fieldwork or meetings this summer?

I'm going to Belgium for (believe it or not) the International Congress of Arachnology.
I will have some beers made by monks and bring back chocolate for my girls.
Sweet.

internet media and separately, the NBA draft

Do you guys use Real or Windows Media (for PC users) for your internet music and videos?

Curious, because I got my new computer and am adding software and preferences, etc.

Boring question I know, but not much else going on.

Parham what the Celts do in the draft? anything good?
The bulls looked like they got a few good players

And the Mavs are trading like mad.

Big Question for FF season

what happens to blogger? I know it *started* as a stand-in for the Yahoo-provided FF board. But it has grown to be so much more.

Do we go back to posting madly on the shitty Yahoo format, or will most of the conversation still happen over here?

Just wonderin'.
RTA

Football is approaching

Big Questions:

1) Is Chiefs gonna take the aged Rich "Once had a Cannon" Gannon for the 4th consecutive year?

2) Is LOTTIA gonna take the concussed Kurt "I've still got it, trust me" Warner for the 4th consecutive year?

3) Can anyone beat Jumbos? (note to Parham: that is a joke.)

4) Will anybody take McNabb in the first round, even though he sucked major ass last year?

5) Is Parham going to draft only Patriots?

6) What controversial un-PC name will Totenkopf come up with this year?

Lots of stuff to think about, folks.

X-Men are real

Mutant SuperBaby

I don't agree. Go England!

then as now, written Constitutions

and written laws in general have a nasty habit of taking away a leader's right to say, "just trust me."

In simplest terms, that's why our current administration is so un-fond of ours.

Spartan Saying #1

Lycurgus - (Founder of the Spartan `Constitution' 8th century BC) Being asked why he had not made any use of written laws, he said, "Because those who are trained and disciplined in the proper discipline can determine what will best serve the occasion."

I want England to lose

Because their fans aren't as hot as fans from the other countries.

FDR was a genius, letting the russians suffer while the US prepared. Only with a psycho like joey could that plan have worked. i have been to the siege of leningrad museum. it is amazing the shit they went through. one of the survivors of that siege (ilya darevsky) discovered parthenogenesis in lizards (in Armenia). everyone thought he was crazy when he proposed it. now its a well-dosumented phenomenon, even in north america.

This day in History

June 22nd 1941, Russian archaeologists found the tomb of Atilla the Hun. The tomb was said to be cursed and whomever opened it would unleash the scourge of God! The archaeologists opened the tomb anyways. They found the corpse which fit Edward Gibbons description of Atilla very closely. That same day 3 million German soldiers crossed the Russian frontier (Operation Barbarossa) and started a 4 year war that would see 30 million Russians killed.

Ibrahimovic goal

I was trying to find a site that had that goal, but could only find pay sites. Thanks jumbos.

That was an amazing goal (Sweden vs. Italy)no less in the last 5 minutes to tie it up.

Euro goals, if you're interested

All the goals of Euro 2004

one more

aah, france.

Jumbos is back; was gone for the weekend; posts new picture of hot girl watching soccer

wondering

if there's a new blog and I didn't get invited.

Blogging to myself isn't so bad though.

Everybody else must be on a blog-cation, I hope at least.

golfer people and Friday nights unposted thoughts

why the hell does Tiger Woods suck ass now??

He hasn't won a major since he got rid of his old coach. Coincidence, I'm not sure folks, but I'm not a golfey guy, so how would I know.

Thoughts, comments, criticisms, please respond.

Does anyone else not post on Friday night because they're afraid that other board members would think, "Hey that guy's a loser posting on Friday night". Just curious, really just curious.

a's bullpen

sfgate.com referred to it as the "A's Hellpen" after today's loss.

A's obvious weakness

their bullpen sucks ass. The big three keep it close for 6, 7 innings (except Zito this year, what's up with that?), then Rhodes, Mecir & co stink it up. They don't have the offense to get the 6 run leads they need consistently. Two blown saves in three days. Mecir's record is 0-5. That's pretty horrible for a middle reliever, before the allstar break.

Is there some sort of glaring hole in the "moneyball" philosophy that requires that every year, you trade/let your closer go to free agency and hope you pick up a winner? It worked ok with Foulke, after Isringhausen blew town for the $, he somehow went from journeyman to star in one season but, Arthur Rhodes? c'mon, that dude was famous for giving up late inning dingers when I used to watch him in Baltimore in 96&97. His reputation should precede him.

Beane needs to fix that situation, and it isn't gonna be with somebody fresh from Sacramento or Modesto.

Forget Beckham

what about Beckham's bowing buddy? He has already Assumed The Position.

bravo

bravo

thanks quilmes

but, can't we all get behind this picture of beckham?

For hellbenders

come on Jumbos you dropped the ball on this one

"BURSTING WITH PRIDE
England are well-supported in every sense"

Wow, my lame joke killed the blog for a whole day. Amazing.

Dude, if you sit on your hand until it falls asleep it feels like someone else is doing it.

It all started when...

i right-clicked the Swedish bird to find out what URL Jumbies had linked from. Then it became a research project

Right-click, drag to properties, it'll give you the picture's URL & filename.

Whether I download them or not is none-a your beeswax.

filenames

why do you see their filenames? Are you downloading them?

Aahsome filenames

anybody notice that the blonde women's pics have "bird" (the british equivalent of our "chick") in their filenames-- eg latviabird.jpg, while the Portuguese woman is just "lady.jpg" What does this say? Good taste in birds, I guess.

Russian chicks

That is pretty funny.

man, i wish i could rememeber how to post photos. i make fun of Jumbos phtos, but i don't know how to post anything.

russian chicks

these seem to have already gone through the ontogenetic shift Parham noted.

Russian chicks

I have been to Russia two times and feel relatively well-qualified to evaluate Russian chicks. The young women are very beautiful. But I noticed something: All the older women are rather round, wrinkled, and moustached.

The fact that saw nothing in between suggests to me that the rate of change between hottie and babushka must very high. Thus, not unlike a tundra flower, the Russian hottie is an ephemral phenomenon.

We'll see what happens with Anna Pornokova.

PS- I did notice that women from the Caucasus region of the former USSR can be very well-preserved.

camera men

are usually men, so during sports games they're always scanning looking for the hotties.

By the way, did anyone else think Larry Brown's wife was kinda hot? Maybe I'm too big of a Pistons fan and was caught up in the moment, who knows really?

That last pic of the Russians

Those girls were at the Russia-Portugal game, watching soccer. Parham, I promise the pics will only be of hot girls at Euro 2004, and nothing else. No fun in that. I think it is kind of funny that all these major news agencies with serious coverage about this soccer tournament always put in pics of hot women fans.

i'm sure you enjoy banana hammocks as much as I enjoy women in bikinis. to be fair, jumbos last pic was not bad (in terms of me not being as embarassed to have it pop up on my screen as some of the other photos).

nice hammer and sickle tat

that would've been really hot during the cold war.

d'you remember that russian that Chevy Chase scores in spies like us, right at the end in all the white snow gear. that's kinda what I'm going for.

oh for fuck's sake!

ah, men's diving

kyle prandi, olympic diver

I like Jumbos pics

But to be sure that this doesn't devolve into pure porn we should make sure that the hotties are at least at sporting events.

As for M's shot, yeah, don't kill the blog with perpetual posting of banana hammocks.

Aah, Russia

How

can you compare Mr. Speedo to Miss Sweden?

just sharing the love

now you know how I feel about miss sweden the soccer fan etc.

Ah, jeez.

Now that makes me seriously wary of opening up the blog, fearing the possibility that there's a pic of some dude in a speedo. Jeez.

okay Jumbos

troy dumais, member of the US olympic diving team

I think I would go for

Portugal. They are ahead against Russia 2-0.

The gold medal goes to . . .

SWEDEN!!!!

Compendium

Posting Pics of hot chicks!

I just want to say that Zero is doing an awesome job at his duty. Keep up the great work!

Aah, Portugal

Portugal v. Russian today. Right now Portugal is up 1-0. Sorry, hellbenders, I can't seem to be able to post pictures of Dudes. We all have our duties and roles on this board, and I think that posting pictures of Dudes (e.g. like you did with Orlando Bloom in Troy) is your role. My role is to post pics of hot European girls who are watching soccer.

Best Coaches

NBA
Current= Larry Brown; Past= Red Auerbach

NFL
Current= Bill Belichick; Past= Vince Lombardi

MLB

That is harder...

who's currently the best coach

in the NBA


the NFL


MLB


and then same questions but include past coaches.

I should've posted this earlier

but I was busy reading and listening to news clips on the NBA World Champs.


GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PIIIIIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNSSSSSS!!!!!!!!




Can't wait to rib GM about this next FFL Season.
Send him my best Parham.

You're welcome Auerbach.

once in a while

it would be acceptable to certain members of the blog if you posted pictures of dudes too. they can be admired for their athleticism and/or their short shorts by those so inclined.

Thanks for the clarification

and the pics.

Parham

I look at all the "Dude pics" because they are action shots of the best soccer in the world, of which I am big fan. I am more of a fan ONLY of the Red Sox. Other than that, I am a fan of soccer. And, lucky me, interspersed among the pics of goals and soccer "Dudes" are pics of super hot women fans. So I post them here. You're welcome.

Chicken and the egg

Does he look at all the dude pics to find us the hotties, or does he find us the hotties so he can look at the dudes?

Jumbies altruism

is appreciated by me, because I went to "soccerworld.net" or wherever those pics are posted,
and I know that he had to wade thru a lot of crap about, including pictures of, dudes from other countries playing soccer to find those two attractive ladies for the blog to view. For those of us who don't have time or intestinal fortitude to go thru that many pics of dudes in short shorts, it is a really good free service. Thanks dude.

More Pictures from the European Cup

Fan from Latvia. Ahh, Latvia.

lurking sally, unfunny elephant

I knew she was there.

Jumbos, I am sorry i don't find you very funny sometimes. I will try to find you more funny more times in the future.

Quilmes, yeah, Detroit has some history, there is no denying that. But Boston and NY are in a class of their own in my worthless opinion.

So, did we ever decide how the FFL lineups would be? how many WRs etc?

packing

I'm following the blog, but haven't felt inspired to post. the discussion is interesting entertaining.

I'm packing mostly, and thinking about my move (thinking about it occupies a surprising amount of time). I'm renting a U-Haul to drive to Austin because all the major moving companies were full up into July. I didn't want to trust my stuff to a smaller moving company. the last time I did that I regretted it. I'm going down to Austin next week for a couple days to get a place. then I will drive down at the end of the month.

To: Parham. Re: Detroit = Boston

OK, so first of all, if you read closely at my original post, I say "I will acquiesce to Quilmes and Parham, and say that Boston and Detroit are equally the best Sports Towns." Obviously, I was being facetious, and I was responding to your and Quilmes' little feud over Boston vs. Detroit. Just trying to make a joke there. Once again, my joke goes unseen by Parham but seen and understood by everybody else. Weird.

Second of all, after reading Quilmes' mention of Ty Cobb (and Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, Mickey Cochrane, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, etc.) and then Detroit having teams in all of the original MLB, NFL, and NHL leagues, and all that, I actually am starting to agree with him that Detroit rivals Boston in terms of Sport Towns. Detroit has fallen on hard times relatively recently, what with the Tigers sucking, the Pistons drought until the last couple of years, and the Lions poor recent years. That is combined with the fact that Detroit doesn't pull in 500,000 college kids a year who end up rooting for the Sox or the Celtics and then moving back to wherever they come from and continuing their Boston fandom, which certainly helps Boston's Sports Town status. Detroit is just unlucky that Japan makes good cars and that there is no Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, Northeastern, UMass, (and also Providence College, URI, Brown, too, which get all the Boston sports media). Detroit has what, UMichigan about an hour away? Can anybody besides Quilmes name a college in Detroit? There are reasons that certain cities appear to be more Sporty than others.

main posters

Jumbos
RTA
Parham
Quilmes


Why doesn't anyone else post regularly?

SIMEY come on dude, play along.

Hellbenders where are you?

SS, thanks for the computer help, but how bout some input out there.

Let's go people, plenty to talk about.

historically

I would probably agree that historically Boston is more storied than Detroit. But Detroit is definitely in that class, as far as history is concerned. It is among the originals in all of the big 4. Although I don't really know about NBA originals, I know the Pistons started as the Fort Wayne Pistons before the NBA started. Don't know what other teams were around then.

But I think (can't remember and too lazy to look) the question posed derived from your question about what have Detroit teams done since the 1990 bad boys. So it was more of a look at recent teams (post 1990). In which case the Celtics history doesn't factor in. But to be honest it's hard to look at a sports town without considering the deeper history if they have one.

But come on Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, Gordie Howe Detroit Red Wings, the Bad Boys, etc. etc. are all historic figures and teams that belong in the sports history books.

Keepin' it real

Okay, I am stepping away from the bullshit equations for a moment. To Jumbos:

How can you compare Detroit and Boston?

Historically and fandom-wise:

Celtics have the edge over the presently respectable Pistons
Patriots have the edge over the pathetic Lions
Red Sox certainly are better loved and historic than the lowly tigers.

I definitely agree that the red wings are a more storied franchise than the Bruins, but the Bruins have their own respectable history. In any case, the redwings can not overturn the other three sports becausen hockey is, after all, number FOUR of the four major sports.

there is no way one can justify saying that detroit is as good a sports town as Boston. You hear a lot about Boston area fans. Usually when you see Detroit fans they have bags over their heads.

waaaaaaaaaaaaa

I wasn't criticizing Jumbos, but merely clarifying that the first step should be to determine what is worth more in the scheme: evenness or dynasty. And I haven't heard anyone's opinion on that, except the opinion implied by Jumbos tentative weighting scheme in which he weighted evenness higher than dynasty. I guess I was looking for some support of that scheme or another scheme rather than simply a scheme.

And unfortunately I agree with Jumbos and RTA that the MLS is not in the league of the 4 major sports. I disagree with Parham though and think that hockey is a major sport. Obviously it looks like I'm saying that b/c of the Red Wings, but I stand behind RTA's analysis.

Thanks RTA

"Jumbos is just taking it to the next level." Nice to hear.

OK, OK, OK

I will acquiesce to Quilmes and Parham:

no MLS, no weighting, Boston and Detroit tied for Best Sports City in the USA.

What I wanted to index was

Championship-winningness, by town, across Major Sports.

I don't care if Boston has the best fans, bars, or cries the hardest when they fall short of the World Series, they don't fare all that well. We had the string about "best sports town" in that vein before, didn't we? It's very subjective, and not what I was after.

Why criticize JUMBOS for operationalizing an implied philosophical concern about 1vsmultiple sport championships? He's just taking it to the next level.

A cutoff of "3 sports minimum" certainly would prevent the San Antonio/East Rutherford problem.

So what's the score if you A) enforce 3 sport minimum, B) give a .1 bonus for each sport >1 that a town has won a championship in?

Here's where I cut off the "major league" issue, re: MLS. Does the league attract the BEST players in the world, by paying the highest salaries for that sport? NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL = yes, MLS = no. To be fair to womens' sports, I'll count any league that's been around and independently financially solvent for 10 years.

MLS??

No fucking way that MLS should be included. Next you'll want to include WNBA, Minor Leage Baseball, and the birthplaces and hometowns of junior olympians. I think even extending to Hockey is a stretch since most sportsfans I know consider it a step below the "big three".

Is Chicago the best sports town because it has 6 championships since 1990?

I don't think so.

I also don't think Detroit is a better sportstown than Boston just because the Redwings won the Stanley cup recently. We must be careful not to conflate mesaures of recent championships with subjective opinions of "sportiness". What are you actually trying to measure? If you are going to introduce weighted schemes you might as well just start throwing around opinions because each persons scheme will be different.

With all due disrespect Jumbos

My question wasn't how to operationally deal with the problem, but philosophically, what is worth more in the sports city rankings: 3 championships in the same sport (i.e., a dynasty) or 3 championships in 3 different sports (i.e., evenness)? Based on your system you seem to think that evenness is better. To play devils advocate, three NHL championshps has led Detroit to be called "Hockeytown, U.S.A". That my friends is definitely a moniker of a great sports town.

If we were looking at this from a biodiversity perspective, then we may consider the latter a more "healthy" community while the former is dominated by a single pecies. Thoughts to ponder, folks.

Weighting of Championships

Come on folks were all phylogeneticists here. Let's weight the championships, with the championships from single sport dynasties = 1, but championships in the same city but different sport = 1.3 (or something greater than 1 but less than 2; up for discussion). That would make Chicago less fantastic, it would raise Denver and NYC and Dallas, and weaken LA and Jersey.

P.S. Don't forget about the MLS... It may not be AS big as the other sports, but it is certainly major and I think the championships should be considered. San Jose (I say Bay Area category), DC, etc.

evenness vs. dynasty

First of all, there shoould be a cutoff for cities with only one or two pro teams. You have to have at least three pro teams to be included.

Secondly, I'm having trouble deciding whether I think that a city should be rewarded for evenness (3 championships spread over three sports means that no season is really that dull) or if they should be rewarded for the dynasty factor (3 championships all in one sport is a pretty big deal). What do you guys think?

it's quite right

I was kind of looking to see if there was anything to developing an "index" of town-winningness relative to a null expectation, and who would win according to that. It's kind of a lame exercise, 'cause the town with only 1 team and a coupla championships wins. Chicago (ok) and East Rutherford (dumb) come in 2nd, so I think my "index" fails to find anything other than a lot of teams and championships in the NY metro area. Also, most towns don't win shit, ever.

JP can have the beer for the persistent posting, and because I was unclear about the format for finding an "index" the way I was thinking about it.

I trhink this is mostly right CHAMPIONS 1990-2004

Detroit can move into an elite class of recent sportsdom winningness with another victory.

SIX

Chicago 6 nba
New York 4 mlb, 1 nhl, 1 nfl

FOUR

Denver/Colorado 2 nfl, 2nhl
Detriot 1 nba, 3 nhl
Dallas 3 nfl, 1 nhl

THREE

Los Angeles 3 nba
New Jersey 3 nhl

TWO

“New England” 2 nfl
Houston 2 nba
Miami/Florida 2 mlb
San Antonio 2 nba
Toronto 2 mlb
Tampa bay 1 nfl, 1 nhl
Pittsburg 2 nhl

ONE

San Francisco 1 nfl
Green Bay 1 nfl
Washington D.C. 1 nfl
Baltimore 1nfl
St. Louis 1 nfl,
Anaheim 1mlb
Atlanta 1mlb
Minnesota 1mlb
Cincinatti 1 mlb
Montreal 1 nhl
Edmonton 1 nhl

tie

between Chicago and New York (6)

The winner...

San Antonio-- 1 major sports team, 2 championships, 2.0, followed by
Chicago, with a championships/team ratio over the past 13 years (this year's not over, couldn't count it) of 1.5 (6 total championships, 4 major teams).

New York had the most (6) total championships, but was hurt by having 6 total major sport teams, giving a ratio of 1.0, which it shared with Denver (4/4), L.A. (3/3), and Green Bay (yeah, a weakness in methodology there, 1/1=1). A small handful of .75's (Detroit, Dallas) and .66s (Miami, Houston, Toronto).

One problem-- what to do with the New Jersey Devils/Nets. New Jersey is not a "sports town." It's a whole fucking state. However, they could be considered to be "tied" with Chicago if you'll count East Rutherford (3 championships/2 teams=1.5). No offense to any of you East Rutherford homers here... I'm gonna not to count it. If the home teams won't claim the home town neither will I. This could cause problems with Golden State and Colorado Rockies, but, they never win so it doesn't matter in the overall standings for now.

Q don't be sad

Consider this: with all 4 major sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL), with an average of 30 teams/league, if championships were assigned completely randomly, you'd expect about 4 total championships every 30 years. Thus, 3 major championships in the 14-year span of 1990-2004 is pretty good. Four would be very good. Detroit could then go another 15 or so without winning any, and still be average.

Somebody figure out what city is hottest in that span, in those terms. I will buy that person a six pack, if their facts check out.

RTA

what I understand

each team can only protect 8 players, and the bobcats can't take more than one player from any team.

I know at least these guys are available

Chucky Atkins, Boston Celtics
Juan Dixon, Washington Wizards
Derek Fisher, Los Angeles Lakers
Reece Gaines, Orlando Magic
Anfernee Hardaway, New York Knicks
Allan Houston, New York Knicks
Eddie Jones, Miami Heat
Kerry Kittles, New Jersey Nets
Aaron McKie, Philadelphia 76ers
Moochie Norris, New York Knicks
Eric Piatkowski, Houston Rockets
Jalen Rose, Toronto Raptors
Jerry Stackhouse, Washington Wizards
David Wesley, New Orleans Hornets

Select the Bobcats' forwards (check two boxes):

Derrick Coleman, Philadelphia 76ers
Marcus Fizer, Chicago Bulls
Rick Fox, Los Angeles Lakers
Brian Grant, Miami Heat
Jason Kapono, Cleveland Cavaliers
Christian Laettner, Washington Wizards
Ruben Patterson, Portland Trail Blazers
Aleksandar Pavlovic, Utah Jazz
Scottie Pippen, Chicago Bulls
Rodney Rogers, New Jersey Nets
Malik Rose, San Antonio Spurs
Antoine Walker, Dallas Mavericks
Gerald Wallace, Sacramento Kings
Jerome Williams, Chicago Bulls

Select the Bobcats' center (check one box):

Elden Campbell, Detroit Pistons
Antonio Davis, Chicago Bulls
Jerome James, Seattle SuperSonics
Ervin Johnson, Minnesota Timberwolves
Zaza Pachulia, Orlando Magic
Jahidi White, Phoenix Suns

if you get that list then post it on the blog. i am curious too.

ESPN insider

Does anyone have access to ESPN the Insider?

I wanna see the list of unprotected players that could go to the Charlotte Bobcats.

double whammy

I can understand not wanting to bet on one's own team. i almost never do.

redwings

Yeah, of course, I forgot about those guys. I always forget about hockey because I don't really like it that much.

But the pistons. If they win, greg should be a satisfied sportsfan for a few years.

A nice pair

Henke Larsson had two great goals.

Scandinavia

here I come.

The European Cup is going on is Portugal

And Sweden just beat Bulgaria 5-0! I wish I could have been there to watch......the soccer game.

yes

Jumbos was first on the bandwagon.

Wednesday March 31, 2004

I posted this:

---
NBA Champion
My Pick for NBA Champion: (and you heard it here first)

Detroit Pistons

I am starting to like that team.

- posted by Zero @ 9:05 AM
---

Now who's doing the predicting?

Simey/Parham

Simey, I'm pretty sure I'm a true fan. I get ulcers watching the games, and can't work on anything when they lose. And I pay attention to stupid blogs that only talk about Detroit sports (Lions, Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings).

But I don't really like betting on my teams. If they lose, which is still a possibility for the Pistons, you're hit with a double whammy--you feel horrible for the loss and for the $20 bucks you lost. If they win, I'm already so happy that I really don't care about the $20 bucks.

Parham, the only Detroit pro teams to win anything since 1990 are the Red Wings which won in 1997, 1998, and 2002 and the Detroit Shock (WNBA) in 2003 which most of you won't consider a real championship anyway.

detroit

Have they won anything from 1990-2004?

Faith

Quilmes,

if you really thought the Pistons were gonna win, you would have accepted my bet. You should have bet me even if you had doubts. That's what a true fan does.

;)

a prayer

just one more. That's all I'm asking. my sports year will be fulfilled. I don't care if the Lions lose 10 games this year, as long as the Pistons pull this off. Please.

yay!

no more k*** ads. I get cr**tion now. good thing. I was looking for some meaning in my life.