dpberr

Tip of the hat to the Clips. To be the man, you've got to beat the man. And they did. That game (Game 7) was one of the greatest NBA games I've ever watched. It was a prize fight to the very end. Came down to who threw the very last punch.

Two Marmalades and a Tuxedo.

That's a macroeconomic and demographic question and answer. The baby boom fueled a lot of the retail spending. Lots of boomers, lots of money, especially in the high times of the early 1970s and 1990s. A lot of it was financed through debt like mortgages, loans, credit cards, etc. Now that boomers are retiring, they aren't (shouldn't be) buying the houses, cars, boats, televisions, vacations, etc. at the clip they used to during their prime earning years. Instead of spend it on retail goodies, it's going towards healthcare. Healthcare is a determined, consistent, hungry little monster of consumption spending and overall portion of GDP. And it only goes up in the future. Another factor to consider - jobs "back in the day" were "better" than they are now. Current generations, already smaller than boomers in number, are faced with stagnant or declining wages....on top of unprecedented amounts of credit card and college debt. Makes it very hard to buy a house and first time homebuyers are incredible generators of retail spending. In short, people aren't spending because they are forced to. They either have to save for other things or simply tapped out due to debt load.

Way too much emphasis on retirement investments and not nearly enough emphasis on lifelong debt management. I get a kick out of baby boomer couples who "want" to retire but still have the mortgages (sometimes multiple, sometimes upside down), HELOCs, multiple car loans, credit card debt and kiddo college debt. There is no way they can retire and be financially secure. They do it anyway and find out they need to go back to work at an X rate because they are hemorrhaging cash or they run into some very expensive healthcare. They think they can maintain the very same lifestyle with their income restrained (retirement is like a parent with a strict allowance for 30 years) when they were making good money. Too many people say "well my parents retired when they were 62!" Well your parents probably had their house and cars paid off and the credit card spent most of its time in a drawer. And they didn't have the life expectancy and the expensive non-employer subsidized healthcare you're going to have to navigate. They may have retired during much better economic times than the present. My advice is consider debt first, retirement second because if you have a lot of the first thing, there is no way you're going to do the second thing.

No alcohol sales inside the stadium once the game starts. Contract the league by two franchises and discard the idea of a team in London, Mexico City, etc.

Philly is going to burn if he trades away both Cox *and* Kendricks. If you thought McCoy for Alonso was crossing the Rubicon...

Death, Taxes, Spurs. You're going to start to see the liability of a weak bench in the playoffs. I don't know if you watched the game the other night but Griffin, Paul and Jordan were utterly gassed in the 4th because Rivers plays them the entire game. Now they play a game every other day.

That Pelicans loss was such a Bills loss. Felt like it, and I'm not even a Pelicans fan. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

This movie looks tired. Isn't it really the same story about us creating dinosaurs that feast on the tourists? This movie series is in a tough spot - somewhere between Godzilla and Planet of the Apes. I saw a trailer for Iron Sky where Nazis are not only riding dinosaurs but underground. Now that's a concept.

A fundamental question - why is Batman fighting Superman in the first place?

"She'll be lucky to be broadcasting games on the Ocho." Dodgeball is a classic movie. Up there with UHF in the amazing amount of one-liners.

+1. If you play a modicum of decent, consistent defense against Golden State, you at least have a 50/50 chance. Everyone likes GS because it's fun to watch 3s rain down from all over the court but teams like the Spurs, Grizzlies and Hawks will close on Thompson and double Curry and make guys like Bogut and Barnes beat them. Spurs just blew the doors off GS at Oracle with both rosters at full strength. A note to Clippers: I'm not offended by your post. It will be a good series but your team has no bench and that's what's going to end the Clips season. Even if Manu goes completely bald during the series. He really should just shave it and give up that battle.

Long time (pre-Admiral) Spurs fan. Spurs will do it the hard way and come out of the West. They will have to pull a 1995 Rockets to do it. I think the Hawks will beat the Cavs and come out of the East. FWIW, the Pelicans are going to give the Warriors a competitive series. Pelicans, for the first time this season are at full strength. Wouldn't be surprised in the least to see the Warriors get bounced. I'm glad the Thunder didn't make it. Loathe that team like I loathe the Pats.

It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation and an instant to ruin it. Don't do the things that ruin it. You know exactly what they are. In any negotiation, avoid making the first offer. Always use the word "we" when referring to your favorite team, your country and your government. (Even if you don't like it.) Never tell your dad he's lost a step.

The problem is both consumer confidence and credit are at stall speed and the age of vehicles on the road remains at 11 years plus. I don't disagree the bailout "worked" in that it prevented certain doom for certain automakers then but today they face strong head winds on the demand side.

If I'm the Bucs, this is the perfect year to trade out of the #1 slot and feel good about it. No clear cut bonafide superstar to be in the draft, so why bother? I don't think Mariota has what it takes and Winston will always have off the field issues to contend with that put him in jeopardy of routine suspension.

I'm impressed with what they've done with teh F&F franchise. They have turned it from a rather formulaic series about outlaw car racing to an interesting hybrid of Ocean's 11 and Mission Impossible.

I hope both she and Jeb Bush flame out well before the conventions. I'm sick of having to vote between Clintons and Bushes and I've had my fill of Clinton and Bush presidencies. I hope both parties find more viable candidates.

Loved the show. Especially the insane pairing of compound bows, arrows and sticks of dynamite. And...one of the better theme songs made. Shows today can't even get a sniff of the creativitiy of 80s action television.

Everytime I watch Person of Interest my brain says "Hey, that's Benjamin Linus!" The problem with any JJ Abrams production whether it was Alias or Lost is that he gets bored and loses interest and the story just becomes a mess.

Another vote for Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen.

A fine tribute well written.

Much like the !@#$ that flew EgyptAir 990 into the Atlantic Ocean in 1999, you've got to really be one of the world's biggest, most complete !@#$s to take 149 other completely innocent people to their deaths during your suicide. Between the suicides, gross pilot error (Air France 447), and unanswered questions (Malyasia 370) the industry outside the US has some big problems with its pilots.

Tiup of the hat to the OP, I love polls like this. They are entertaining. For me it came down to Gailey and Marrone. Chan Gailey: Good tactician, hired lousy staff. Doug Marrone: Terrible tactician, hired pretty good staff. Winner: Gailey. As for quarterbacks if I had to take any one of those guys in his prime to win a single game, it has to be RJ.

So we're not interested in Flozell Adams now?