Doohickie

Has anyone mentioned Kansas City- the City of Fountains?

Oddly, there's actually a Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas. Actually I think pretty much any city in OK is Cowtown in practice 😛

Panther City comes from a dig from a 19th century Dallas lawyer who came to Fort Worth and claimed it was such a lazy little town that a panther was sleeping in the middle of a downtown street. Fort Worth and Dallas hate each other so it was only natural that Fort Worth adopt the intended insult as a badge of honor. How much does Fort Worth hate Dallas? The original Fort Worth mogul, Amon Carter, who started the newspaper that is now the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, would sometimes have business meetings in Dallas. He would pack a sack lunch so that he wouldn't have to spend a dime in Dallas. Panther City is becoming a common name for businesses around here. There is a Panther Island brewery for instance; the ironic thing is that it's not on an island.... yet. At some point it will be because Fort Worth is going to dig a diversion channel for the Trinity River that will cut off a loop in the river's course that will allow Fort Worth to develop the resulting island into something like San Antonio's Riverwalk (the new channel will provide flood control, isolating the loop and preventing flooding to allow development right up to the river as was done in San Antonio almost a hundred years ago). Fort Worth also has the nickname of Funky Town; in some ways it has that Austin vibe embodied in the "Keep Austin Weird" motto. Austin is moving on and becoming a big city so some of the "weird" people are making Fort Worth funky instead. We went to J&J's Oyster Bar for dinner yesterday. Being a seafood place, there's a bit of a Louisiana vibe. The Professional Bull Riding championships started yesterday at Dickies Arena, so there were some (real) cowboys there in boots, spurs, jeans and cowboy hats. There was a preppie couple from TCU there on a date, and a couple of hispanic families where there too. That diversity, I think, is what Make Fort Worth Funky (and the associated "Funky Town" moniker) means. Besides Panther City and Funky Town, Fort Worth nicknames include Cowtown (because of its history as a trail head for cattle drives) and Queen City of the Prairie. Speaking of Queen City, I found this list of Queen Cities in the US: Gadsden, Alabama Selma, Alabama or Queen City of the Blackbelt Tuscaloosa, Alabama Anchorage, Alaska Camden, Arkansas or Queen City of the Ouachita River Eureka, California or Queen City of the Ultimate West Denver, Colorado or Queen City of the Plains Gainesville, Georgia Hazard, Kentucky or Queen City of the Mountains Bangor, Maine or Queen City of the East Cumberland, Maryland or Queen City of the Alleghenies Marquette, Michigan or Queen City of the North Traverse City, Michigan or Queen City of the North Virginia, Minnesota Greenville, Mississippi or Queen City of the Delta Meridian, Mississippi Sedalia, Missouri or Queen City of the Prairies Springfield, Missouri or Queen City of the Ozarks Helena, Montana or Queen City of the Rockies Manchester, New Hampshire Beach Haven, New Jersey Plainfield, New Jersey Buffalo, New York or Queen City of the Great Lakes Elmira, New York New Rochelle, New York or Queen City of the Sound Poughkeepsie, New York or Queen City of the Hudson Charlotte, North Carolina or Queen City of the South Fargo, North Dakota Cincinnati, Ohio or the Queen City of the West Ada, Oklahoma or Queen City of the Chickasaw Nation Allentown, Pennsylvania Olyphant, Pennsylvania Titusville, Pennsylvania Sioux Falls, South Dakota Clarksville, Tennessee Del Rio, Texas or Queen City of the Rio Grande Fort Worth, Texas or Queen City of the Prairie Burlington, Vermont Staunton, Virginia or Queen City of the Shenandoah Valley Virginia Beach, Virginia Seattle, Washington I've heard Fort Worth and Oklahoma City called Cowtown, but Columbus is a new one to me.

I heard that about you.

If I was hanging out I would want to know.

I don't think it's that strange. The league is a relatively small enterprise. If you go back 15-20 years, the amount of time you might expect a player just passing his prime (i.e., seasoned vet) to progress through the ranks, you could probably draw a similar relationship between most groups of 4 former players/current GMs, especially considering that most players play for multiple teams. It's also tilted in favor of the players who played on the better teams I think. So you take about 1/2 to 1/4 of the teams, look at the players that became GMs, and it's probably pretty easy to find these kinds of relationships. It's probably similar (in a statistical sense) to the Birthday Paradox: Wherever you are, if there are 23 people in the room with you, there is a 50/50 chance that two people have the same birthday.

I guess so, yes.

...and I think last year Kevyn said that is his intention.

My knee-jerk reaction is the same. But then I look at what people thought of our GM when he came on board. I'm trying not to judge what I don't know. This kind of cynicism shows how emotionally wounded all of us on Sabrespace are.

Yes, what you said.

Let's see how this works for them.

Damn, Nurse is a savage!

I think I would too, but I don't think the feeling is mutual.

He throws 'em dodn't he?

I happened to trip across this nugget from four years ago:

Same.

We went with cast iron, white, drop in. It practically cleans itself. If you see anything on the bowl, just rub it a little with your finger or a sponge and BAM perfectly white again. When I realized how much cast iron weighed I talked to my wife about stainless steel steel and she nixed that right off. I'm glad she did.

They even have panthers on the police badges.

Different trade. But just you wait until Stiven Sardarian hits.

I don't believe so. Not any more than Pilut will find his way to our blue line as anything more than (deep) depth defense.

Go Nads!

As an aside, there is a bar that is vaguely Buffalo-themed here (as it looks like an "old men's tavern from Buffalo") called Nickel City. In speaking to people drinking there, most have never heard Buffalo called "Nickel City."

It's a long story*, but it's kind of like Nickel City is to Buffalo, a nickname the city picked up along the way. *A quick summary is that a 19th century Dallas lawyer said (tongue-in-cheek) that Fort Worth was such a sleepy little city that a panther came up from the Trinity River and fell asleep on a downtown street. Fort Worth ran with it and started calling themselves Panther City. You can find all the details here.