HopsGuy

I sent a glib note to Jason Sobel, the ESPN golf reporter that does a live blog during the majors. He put it up: ---------------------------------------------------- 6:01 p.m.: E-mail from Pat in Charlotte, N.C., obviously sent before that last birdie: The Lions blue is taking its toll on Curtis. I heard he took four wide receivers in the first four rounds of his fantasy draft. I hope Matt Millen shares some of the blame. That one made me laugh. ---------------------------------------------------- Not my best work, but I'll take the mention. AD - you may now comment on how boring golf is.

I went for a week a LONG TIME AGO, but I did a few things that were pretty cool: (1) Space Needle. Not as cool as the CN tower, but I had lots of time to kill. (2) Walked around the UW campus. Very nice architecture. (3) Saw the Pike's Place Market (where they throw the fish). Meh. (4) Played Whirley Ball. (5) Hit Mount St. Helens. Worth the trip even though I was against it. (6) Rode the Bainbridge Island Ferry. Here's a live cam site. Had my first Starbucks coffee on it (it was 1994). (7) Drank lots and lots of beer. I especially liked something called Hale's Pale Ale. The Pioneer Square area was the happening place at night, but that might have changed. Keep in mind that I was 24 at the time, while you're an old Fairie. Have fun! Edit: Fairie? Really? That's what the term for the expulsion of intestinal gas converts to? Really? Wow!

Here is the episode for your viewing pleasure: Part 1 Part 2

I agree. Theresa's Bellissimo off-the-cuff recipe is what makes the wings so special. She needed to feed the boys quickly and the kitchen was closed. So she (I'll apologize in advance for this) had to wing it. The wings were used for stock and bleu cheese is the Anchor Bar house dressing. Like the wings, the celery was right there. Ever so rarely, there is a time and place in the universe where everything comes together and magic happens. This was one of those times. We're all so much richer for it.

I waved. You must not have been looking up at the time. We were bumped from our usual round at Bartlett, so we played at Holiday Valley this year. We considered a couple of Pennsy tracks (Penn Hills, Pine Acres), but my vote for Indian Echo was ignored. They treated us pretty well up in E-ville, though. We might return.

Funny you should mention Mike Abdo. I was at Angee's in Olean a couple of weeks ago and saw Mike's obit on the wall. I hadn't thought about him in a long time. He was a prince of a guy.

"You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming !@#$ be a father." - Tod (Keanu Reeves) in "Parenthood"

Congratulations! Sucker. Seriously... where's the open bar and which bridesmaids are single?

I'm taking the year off, but my old partner wanted me to name his team. I gave him a few suggestions and he went with "I Party With Leinart". My personal favorite was "Travis Henry's Judgment". Last year we were "Ceremonial Bra Hats" (a nod to "Weird Science) and the year before that we were "Count Choculitis" ("The Office").

I ain't often right but I've never been wrong It seldom turns out the way it does in the song Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right -"Scarlet Begonias", Grateful Dead Words by Robert Hunter; Music by Jerry Garcia

Yup - cool. Link

I sent that story to a friend that lives right down A1A from the Westin Diplomat. There's a sports bar across the street called "Rivals". Here's his response: "They were all at Rivals last night; it’s f**kin CREEPY!!! I promise, they are not a beautiful bunch…"

You could buy the Class B shares. It represents about 1/30th of a Class A share.

What's your feeling on the draft? The reason the government gets to stick its nose in these affairs is that the draft flies in the face of anti-trust laws. The sports leagues get anti-trust exemptions. Also, since the stadium is publicly financed, the people of Erie County deserve some sort of representation. I'm conflicted, too. I want the Bills to stay put, but Mr. Wilson should be able to do what's best for him and his family. While I agree that a laissez-faire attitude would be ideal, the NFL operates in a fantasy world that allows the guvmint to look behind the curtain.

I'm inclined to agree with 5 Wide & stuckincincy. When I hear that clicking sound, I usually go and clean the terminals/connectors and everything is fine. The fact that the cleaning caused this makes me think that there's something wrong between the terminals and the distributor. I'd get it out of their hands and have your guy (if you have one, if not get one - ask around) make the fix. File a claim and hope they'll pay it. If they do, great. If not, lesson learned.

When I read that, I immediately thought of .

I'm glad some others mentioned the pocketknife. The best I got was a pocketknife from Cutco. It has my name on one side and the date of the wedding (8-12-95; God I'm old! ) on the other. You mentioned Zippo, but go with Cutco. It's has a forever guarantee and someone I know will probably make it (Made in Olean NY). Here's the one I have. Yeah, yeah... it will be a bit of a pain to buy them because of the way they go to market, but that forever guarantee (free replacement, free sharpening, forever) will make it worth it. I'm already on my 2nd. The other cool thing I got was a great leather travel kit. The company that made it "El Portal" is apparently out of business. Here's one that looks like it. It's pricey. The other items I've received for standing are a glass beer mug with a pewter emblem for my name & the date and a nice money clip with my initials. The mug is in the cupboard and never gets used. That marriage lasted 18 months. I lost the money clip and I'm sick about it. In conclusion my advice is to not get married. I mean seriously, what are you thinking? Just kidding. Whatever you get, go with high quality. In a year are you really going to care if you spent a few hundred dollars more?

I say that he should be in based simply on the fact that his presence kept Mark Pike in the NFL for more years than he's was probably entitled. When someone tried to take Tasker out of the play by triple blocking him, who made the tackle? Pike! It was really ridiculous. His initials stand for Special Teams for cryin' out loud! I'm biased, though. He won't get in though. Most of the writers that vote know less about football than Michael Lewis, the author of "The Blind Side". All of them know less than Lori. BTW, Steely Dan... I remember that Dallas ST coach (name escapes me) saying that both Tasker and Bill Bates should make the HOF based on how they changed field position. When thinking of Tasker, the play that first comes to my mind is when he dumped Tim Brown on a punt return with a perfectly timed shoe-string tackle. Brown was on his butt looking around and when he spotted Tasker he pointed at him, smiled, and shook his head.

Great answer. Reminds me of the survey of ML players of whom they thought the best "clutch" hitter was. David Eckstein was the choice. But the stats proved otherwise. Here's a blog about it. 8-6 comeback with a 6 run rally in the in the 9th. So Taguchi with the big hit. He's So Taguchi (which is "clutch" in Japanese).

I can't believe I'm just seeing this thread now. Do you have something to support that or are you just winging it? I'm just asking. Howard is hitting .322 with RISP. .291 with men on and 2 out. That's nearly 90 and 60 point better than his overall average respectively. I'm just sayin'. I like Howard, but I hate his strikeouts/fielding. I wish he was Albert Pujols, but he's not. That BA needs to improve and it has been lately, but I don't think we'll ever see that 2006 form again. That was crazy. Nobody would pitch to the guy in September. I've been a Phillies fan for over 30 years and I have to say that I actually like this team almost as much as the '93 team and that's saying something.

I thought I'd add something here. I was home (Olean) this past weekend for some golf and the Festa Italiana. I saw a friend of mine that is a teacher at the Olean Middle School. We grew up together and I mentioned that I saw the ranking that had Olean #76 in WNY and that I thought that seemed pretty low. I felt we received a pretty good education. He shook his head and said that one of the contributing causes was the shrinking middle-class in Olean. "The rich kids do fine, but there aren't as many kids like us. There are more transients now. We had 4 kids show up at the end of the year that were probably kicked out of another school and they end up on our books. We have to take them. It's an accounting thing." He was still upbeat though. He had to be. The third person in the conversation was the wife on the Bonnies' head coach whose kid will be under his charge next year. Later we sang the Alma Mater at the Pulaski Club.

I'd be curious to know just how many charges of 4th degree possession stick, let alone 7th. Does 7th mean you were simply in the vicinity of it and said "That's not mine"? And nevermind the $1000000. I'm sure his wife is getting 1/2, then he'll have to pay the child support on 3 rugrats. I'm guessing he'll be left with just about enough for an 8-ball.

"Realizing that cross-dressing would not garner him the coveted Section 8 he'd always dreamed of, CPL Maxwell Q. Klinger goes for the 'Full Monty' and declares to COL Sherman Potter that he is, indeed, the 4077th first true nudist."

I think quite a few people are hitting that site and making it difficult to reach. When he was announced by Berman, he was booed a bit, probably by some NY Mets fans. He sheepishly said, "Boo? F*ck you." It was said in a joking matter to Dan Uggla. Now they're selling this t-shirt.

In the middle of the "Monster Mash", my buddy sent the following text: "Roy Hobbs here" I replied: "Ankiel is Hobbs. Behold Hamilton, he has become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Still, the best part of the evening was Chase Utley's reaction to being booed. Check out this blog site. The clip is also available here. He only hit 5 bombs, but as a Phillies fan that endured the aftermath of Bobby Abreu's misery following his derby win I was happy to see him take a seat. No need to wreck your swing in a skills competition.