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i would tend to agree. i cover the LPGA once a year. and once Michelle gets near the leaderboard and i have reason to talk to her, i'll ask. don't think that's going to happen today, though. jw

thanks, beer for posting this. i've had a long day, dealing with this story, the sabres trade and covering the LPGA in Rochester. i'll be on WBEN on Monday morning to talk about the labor situation (terrible plug, sorry), as i'm part of the AP team covering this thing. and after 100-some days, there's a belief this thing will be over sooner than later ... but as George said, they're not there yet. jw

ok, now let me get this straight. a poster questions whether your initial tirade was but yet another sign of the public school's system's failing. and you respond by saying you've in fact read dumber posts and proceed to follow with ellipses, and what comes across as an incoherently incomprehensible attempt at a putdown. are you saying you've ready dumber posts, and that the "hotshot's" post in question isn't as dumb as some of the dumb one's you've read? and, without having read your posting history, might you include some of your own posts as being "dumber." this response certainly might rank up -- or might it be down -- there. you see, i've read this "jackass" post of yours several times in an attempt to make heads or tails out of it. and the only conclusion i can come to is that the poster questioning the state of the public school system might be on to something. jw

this thread just got entertaining. on the verge of a deal, and you come up with this and then question posters' responses. welcome to the board. long may ye amuse us. jw

now, remember, i didn't say worried. there is no reason to be depressed. as i've written through this thread, there is a chance the Buffalo Bills could relocate. there is a chance they stay. i still don't see the NFL giving up on this region. unfortunately, when i state "region" that includes anywhere from North Toronto to Orchard Park, and maybe a point or three inbetween. it is not a vibe. i respond to your post, MattM, because you seem to appreciate my position. thanks for providing me that respect. jw as for others ... for someone who proports to be in the business, well, you should know better. jw

i would be concerned. jw

so it was one guy. a guy you deal with, and "we" in the media get all lumped in as a band of pot-stirrers. Florio is well connected, thus can be regarded as someone having informed speculation. what did Sully write that was off the wall? he wrote Bills fans should be concerned about these predators. how is that wrong. if i were someone wanting to keep the Bills in Buffalo, i would be concerned as well. the Bills may leave. they may stay. jw

day off and just got back from a workshop in atlanta last night. thought i'd view the board to see if i've missed anything when saw this thread. turns out, i haven't missed anything. jw that part's clear, John. my post specifically was in response on the OP's notion that we in the sports media simply like to stir the pot. there's enough pot-stirrers out in Bills nation without us in the business having to pick up a ladle. jw

it's the media that stirs the pot? uhhh, right. over the past three months, this board has featured eleventeen dozen threads in regards to the status of the team in Buffalo. these threads have popped up whether there's been a report or not, whether some one has expressed interest in buying the Bills, whether Terry Pegula sneezed, whether the sky was blue, green or yellow. i also happen to work in the media and on or off the record, in a bar, in a car, with or without green eggs or ham: i do not raise this topic to stir the pot. i will also say this: there is a chance the Buffalo Bills could relocate. there is is a chance they won't. this thing is far from certain. jw

though there are no numbers, here, this story in the Globe and Mail helps confirm my belief that this was a bunch of entitled suburban kids. ... well, entitled rich kids at least. The sad, painful truth about the Vancouver riots jw

there's truth to this, Bill. the draft picks have been terrible inconsistent, and a significant reason for the team's lost decade. the coaching carousel didn't help. Jonas was a good player and emerging team leader, but if i recall correctly, there questions about several injuries when he entered free agency. as much as i did like Jennings, the injuries eventually dogged him for the rest of his career. too bad. jw

Merry-Go Round: The Replacements.

for what it's worth, i don't think the bills were wrong for refusing to pay Nate Clements the lucrative contract he got from the 49ers. Nate was a very good CB, but he was asking for the moon and the stars above. the biggest regret Bills fans should have should regard the loss of Pat Williams. jw

well aware, but there are doubts. here's a well-written opinion piece from a doubter. Bruce Arthur: National Post what's funny about the mayor's comments is they evidently had "no advance warning." ... uh, how do you respond to that? 1. well, after all the damage, would you admit that you actually HAD advanced warning? 2. is there some form that the rioters were supposed to fill out? 3. maybe it got lost in the fax machine. these things happen, you know. 4. not only are they anarchists, but the worst kind of anarchists: they're impolite! 5. maybe you didn't check their facebook page. jw

the APEC riots were minor. i was there in the midst of them. and it was a bunch of out-of-town protestors who tour around to attend these things. it's much of the same folk who ripped apart Seattle a few years back. there is an extremist fringe of nutjobs out there, but to have the VPD chief pin all of what happened on "20 or 30 well-organized anarchists" is quite specious to me, and self-serving. it was these "anarchists" who did some damage at the Bay store during the Olympics, but i don't know. rebels without a clue is more like it. as i noted, anarchists aside, from what i saw in the pictues, this looked like a bunch of hopped up kids -- many of them who had ridden the skytrain down from Surrey, Coquitlam, Richmond and Burnaby -- along with a bunch of rabble that hang out downtown that decided a hootenany was in order, and took advantage of those who couldn't handle their beer, which is another reason to question how Canada's gone soft. of course, this couldn't happen in most places in Canada, because there's just not enough people to go around, which is why i think you see this stuff happen in major cities, Vancouver and Montreal. i'm leaving out Toronto because, really, the Maple Leafs haven't given their fans reason to be passionate for 50 years. but i could see the Scarboroughites going nuts. as for calgary and edmonton, i don't know. it would be like people in Boise or Des Moines rioting, or Mizzoula. jw

that's my point, the world's a less happier place because Canadians have attained an over-bloated sense of ego, and gone all uber-patriotic. was a point in time in the nation's history when simply being Canadian was good enough, and the only time anyone really noticed is when Quebec scratched its separation itch. now, Canadians are pretending like they were invited to big-league parties, and not simply crashing them. i think it all started with Mulroney, but it's definitely grown now that the loonie has strengthened. it's bad enough the beer's so expensive, but now we've gotta listen about how great the country is. follow Marv's motto: "act like you've been there" when it comes to success. too many Canadians aren't. as for riots, really, do you think there's enough people in the Prairies to hold one? i spend a month in downtown Edmonton one cold Sunday night, and there weren't enough people around to play a round of euchre. as for Ottawa, it's not a bad town. the tulip festival's kind of quaint, and the market used to be cool before the yuppies started cleaning it up. used to be a great bar down there called "Tramps" of all things. as for riots, where were Ottawanians planning to hold one, given that their team plays half-way to Pembroke, and it's too pricey to live downtown. ... cul-de-sacs and riots don't generally go together, eh? jw p.s. i'll exlude the Maritimes from my sweeping generalition. those folks know how to drink, man.

one suburbanite down. youth turns himself in to Burnaby RCMP. Burnaby is the first ring suburb of Vancouver. jw

don't know about you, but hypocrisy don't fly in my book. canadians had a lot of gut-busting fun making jokes about americans and their sports antics, the USA, USA, USA baloney back in the 1990s. they were loud and they were ugly, canadians had said. and so once canadians turn around and pull the same arrogant schtick, some -- you -- refer it to as 'embracing a bit of patriotism.' what hooey. canadians were patriotic and rooted for their teams politely and encouragingly for quite some time, which gained them a reputation for being polite if not boring sportsmen. but that's not enough in this day and age, where canadians must join the crowd of boorish, arrogant maple-leaf peddlars. what a bunch of baloney. so yes, suddenly canadians have become obnoxious. not all of them, but enough. and really, ottawa? i wouldn't expect a bunch of suburban-living beaurocrats to start a commotion, so let's not go there. that place is as quiet and as relatively dull as the senate chamber. what actually struck me about the Americans that i met in Vancouver were how proud, supportive and gentlemanly they were. during one of the Canada-US games, a group of Americans had saddled up to a bar on Granville and enjoying the game in good company with Canadians. one of the Americans said something to the effect of "We're rooting for the U.S., but really, we understand how big this is for Canadians so ..." of course, shortly after the game ended, one loutish Canadian elected to attempt to burn a plastic American flag just outside the bar. thankfully, he was an idiot as he couldn't get the thing lit. and fortunately, at least two Canadians then stopped him from having another try. there used to be a difference between Canadians and Americans. and that was never a bad thing. it's good to be distinct. now all i see is too many Canadians who have turned into wannabe Americans ... and i apologize now for slandering Americans, because that wasn't my intention. it's not the same country anymore. the mood's changed, grown as cold in some places as the north winds. jw

bah-loney. canada is a different country now. i saw it first-hand at the olympics where the win at all cost crowd was Canadian and not simply from Vancouver. i saw the smugness and "we're No. 1" attitude during the world juniors here in Buffalo last year, and found it quite enjoyable to see that balloon pop. no one rioted over that loss, but i know the police had a big workout dealing with a bunch of drunk canadian yahoos (before the Russian junior team attempted to board its flight). canada's changed. i don't know when it happened or why. it's carrying this big superiority complex chip on its shoulder. i don't understand it and i don't like it. as for a city of entitlement, Toronto remains the center of the Canadian universe, hands down. do the papers there still compare themselves to rust-belt cities like Detroit as they did back in the 1980s? or is that too easy, and maybe they've moved on to, what, Tacoma, perhaps. the worst was living out in vancouver and having to deal with all these Toronto-centric stories. the worst was back in 1994, when the Canucks had elminated the Leafs and were actually in the Cup finals, and yet the lead on TSN was how the Blue Jays were doing. puh-leeze. jw

i'd say it's about half and half. jw

the two don't equate, actually. i'm hating on Canadians because i am one. i'm not trying to make this political. all i'm saying is that despite many Canadians thinking they are "superior," they actually have faults. jw

hate to disagree with you DC, the Canucks played just as foolishly and with equal lack of character AS THEIR fans composed themselves following the game. stupid is what stupid does, no? jw

i'm partial to Vancouver, having spent 12 years of my life living there. and those actions by a bunch of numbskulls last night is further proof that Canadians can be as ugly and stupid as anyone, and that any claim to cultural superiority -- a smug belief that resonates among many Canuckleheads -- is pure blind bravado. Canada has a lot of good things going for it, but it is far from a perfect land, and easily and eagerly capable of writhing in the filth of foolishness at a moment's notice, as blatantly evidenced last night. shameful. jw

buncha suburban, entitled yahoos giving a black eye to a pretty city, a nation and the nation's national sport. sad, but not surprised given they did the same in 1994 after losing to the Rangers. this is the ugly side of Canadians. spoiled brats. jw

see, and this is the thing. smoking causes cancer. duh. i hate to sound insensitive, but of all the people that i've known, one has died directly as a result of smoking. my dad didn't smoke, and yet he died. my stepdad smokes, and he died as a result of smoking. friends/colleagues of mine have died, none of which had to do with smoking. my old aunt is dying but it is the result of her body wearing down. a close friend of mine's dad died while having what was supposed to be a routine procedure. my wife's dear aunt died six months after her husband died. neither of them smoked. they lived in the country no less. hunter s. thompson died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound after he was essentially forced into a wheel chair after he broke his hip in a bathroom in hawaii. bob stinson, the guitarist for the replacements was found dead of an overdose, if i recall correctly. i've covered plane crashes and murder trials, fatal car accidents and overdoses on the seedy streets of vancouver. i remember going to a funeral when i was young for a family friend who was killed while hunting. i went to a funeral of another family friend who died only to have them discover another member of the family died en route to the funeral. what the? life and death are funny that way, and by funny, i sometimes mean strange. whether i smoke or stop smoking or never smoked in my life, i know one sure thing: i will die. it might not be pleasant. it might be quick. i might fall out of a building for that matter. people die. the minute we're born, we come closer to death. that's the truth. how it happens, why it happens, whether it can or can't be prevented, well, the clock's ticking people. and to me -- and this is my personal opinion -- i shall not spend time worrying about that time coming, if it's tomorrow, if it's the next moment. life's too short on that whole end, so i'll bang away at this keyboard for as long as i can, and continue dealing with life on my terms. i shall abide by what laws are important, and bend as many as i can, because in the end there are far too many rules bearing down on us to count. i'll rip off the goddam tags off pillow cushions, i'll go 5 maybe even 10 miles above the speed limit, i'll drink too much, smoke too often and howl as much as i can at that twisted moon. i might even not wash my hands every time i go to the bathroom for cripes sake. and when the time comes, i shall pass. so then go have a party, play "Here Comes a Regular," followed by "Can't Hardly Wait" and then move on with your lives. because i shall be forgotten soon enough. that's life. that's death. apply the choke hold if you want. i'll fight that sucker to the end. jw