MattPie

I think I've said here before, but any good team can (and often does) have 1 or maybe 2 small skilled forwards. The problem the Sabres have had in the past is that they've had 4-5 in the top six. Ennis will be an asset, either as a player or a piece in a trade down the road. He's plenty good to stay in the NHL.

My sincere hope is that someday, people will stop justifying players that come up through the Euro leagues with "But they play against MEN!". I don't have any problems with the players themselves, just that somehow the Euro leagues average age determines how good a player will be.

I get what you're saying, but to a casual fan there's not difference between the MLS and anything else because we don't really understand the nuances of the game. Realistically, the reasons I hear from everyone is: soccer is boring. American audiences are programmed that something exciting should happen at least once a minute in sports otherwise they lose interest. Hockey barely gets past boring to most casual fans because it's a bunch of guys skating around at least with a little hitting. Soccer is a bunch of guys running around, except there's even fewer shots and "interesting" parts. And if there's a collision, guys are writhing around in their death-throws afterward. And I actually enjoy watching soccer from time to time. The other thing you may notice is the most popular sports in the US tend to be dominated by US players and only really played in the US. I don't know if it's provincialism or coincidence, but football and baseball are #1 and #2, and #3 is arguably basketball (although there are some good European leagues from what I hear).

I've heard the sound of a pump-shotgun is one of the most recognizable sounds in the world.

Don't you talk about Terri Garr that way!

It's supposed to be a P?

Oops, I think I auto-translated GCOE to LPF (Last Pommer Fan).

Yeah, I'm failing to understand the logic in this discussion (and agreeing with LPF's post). Germany would have likely been better during the cold war years if they were united. I'd assume there'd be at least one player on the East German side that would have been good enough to make a combined German team and therefore make the team better.

You'll probably pay that much for the system and couple years of monitoring.

Bulk seems like a strong term, unless you figure 50% of the country is on government benefits. I guess that's just semantics though.

Things you'll want to consider: traditionally, alarms send signals via the phone lines to the monitoring service. If you don't have a traditional POTS phone (cable, FIOS, VOIP do not count), you'll need a unit that talks to cell towers. This will cost more money. The alarm person will talk about criminals cutting the phone line before breaking in. I'm not sure how much scare-tactic that is vs. reality. My guess is criminals will move on to your neighbor who doesn't have an alarm before going that route. Next, ask about how the triggers work. In my house, the front and garage doors trigger a 45-second "beep, beep" where you can walk over to the pad and punch in your code to avert the alarm. The windows on the first floor and sliding doors trigger the alarm immediately which is really annoying. The alarm is annoying in itself, but it's more annoying to have to answer the phone and admit that you're a dumbass and set it off again. This happens in my house 2 times a month on average; I really need to talk to my alarm company to see if they can change that. Other other "more cost" option you can do now is have your alarm linked to an app on your cell phone. That'd be cool, but it wasn't worth it to me. My house had the alarm when I bought it, so I figured I might as well use it. Even then, I didn't set the alarm much until my wife started living here. Even then, I probably wouldn't bother with it (I live in a pretty safe neighborhood) but it makes her happy so I roll with it.

But, Fire Darcy... good. Proof that two bads (or wrongs) make a good (right).

I'm not disagreeing, just pointing out that the CHL owners are trying to sell seats and merchandise (and TV ads? I don't know if they have TV contracts) just like any other team. They're not going to let the 60 best players (cause really, what team isn't going to move their two best prospects into the AHL?) walk away.

It's not about protecting the players, it's about protecting the CHL. If all the 18 and 19-year-old prospects that show promise moved to the AHL, the CHL's quality goes down. Personally, I could care less about the CHL's quality, but I understand where they're coming from.

Trump is closing up this summer. AC is interesting once in awhile, but realistically it's a pretty shady beach town with Casinos. Once the Casinos dry up, it'll just be a shady beach town.

I heard LeBron news on NPR over the weekend, I guess it is a big deal. They were also talking about World Cup, so that must have been the weekly sports half-hour.

That just gives us another day to celebrate.

This list is suspicious, I think it's really things you're mad about so by definition fscks are given. :) I tried to think of some, but I realized that if I could name something specific I probably have some thoughts on it and therefore give a fsck. Oooh, I have one: a food cart in Chaing Mai Thailand went out of business this week. I think that stuff is illegal in France.

I often wonder if the famous composers and authors from the past are truly the "best", or just the most famous. Is Shakespeare a 16th century Stephen King or, well, Shakespeare? Mozart might have been Britney Spears or The Beatles.

Heh, my 20-year is tonight and tomorrow. I'd go since having a few beers is always a good time. Unfortunately, MrsPie is due in 28 days and a 6-hour drive means no va.

No direct knowledge with brined pork, but unsalted water will draw the salt out of the meat generally. It's one of the prep things you can do when you're cooking a "country" ham if you don't want it to be extra-salty.

Best part is, unless I have it wrong, diesels work by squirting just enough fuel into the cylinder to burn. Those guys are shooting way more fuel in than can burn which causes the smoke, so it's the best kind of douche-move: one that irrefutably shows you're stupid.

I don't hate the shootout, but the theory is that 3v3 is still "hockey" moreso than penalty shots. I'm not sure which is more gimmick, but 3v3 has the potential to be fun.

People that dodge honest questions. :P

And somehow that makes you feel good?