UConn James

I was just about to post that. Rivers Cuomo went to my high school. About 10 years before my time, tho.

"Long a Patriot[*] killer" Hmm. I must've missed something. AS may have gotten to Brady more than anyone else, but that doesn't make him a "Paytoilet* killer." It means he could get coverage / garbage-time sacks when the main draft investments in the past 15 years --- the secondary --- could hold their own for 6 friggin' seconds until Schoebel, Kelsay et al circled around after getting the matador treatment by so many Left or Right Tackles. Not saying that production will go up w/o AS, or that it'll even stay the same b/c even his clean-up technique was the best we had with a FO busy drafting CBs, Safeties, and RBs when we didn't need them. Just another symptom showing that 93 percent of the NFL's product is hype. I'm sorry to break this to you, but despite whatever numbers on the back of a football card and the popularity contest that is the Pro Bowl (and which the NFLPA primarily uses to "make the boats float higher" for Franchi$e and Tran$ition Tag purposes (see: Jason Peters)), Mr. Schoebel was not a consistent game-changer and above all was definitely not a game-changer against good teams.

I was expecting / hoping for a series of shorts like the 'mobisodes' from a few seasons ago, that would give us a peek on what happened to our characters after Jack died. The ending of it leaves the door wide open for the future, if TPTB decide to go for it. Vouchsafe that they'll let some time pass. The LOST prop auction is scheduled for 21-22 August, with a lot of nice items. Despite the many tags of expected bids of "$200-$300" there are some serious lowballs and probably will all be too much for me to even think about bidding. Also, with that first clip, some of the doubts about being able to make any kind of sequel after getting rid of so many of the props is much less dire. Hurley's reign really starts fresh... minus the VW van. Waiting for the DHARMA failsafe key to be included on some more reputable shopping sites. And I think I'm going to be trying to make a large ankh (e.g. the one in the guitar case) to put on my wall.

I have some experience with that and many on avsforums say that's a piece of crap. The Zenith or Insignia converter boxes (they are the same design with different labels) have given me good results in several installs. I got the Insignia at Best Buy. Don't know if they're available anymore. At full price ($80 at the time of the switch), you're creeping into a cost-benefit decision of just getting a new HD teevee with a built-in tuner. Much better picture, fewer boxes, fewer wires, and to tell the truth, less hassle. I've installed both ways. It's the owner's choice.

You'll need either a newer teevee with a built-in digital converter, or a set-top converter box. You'll also need an adequate antenna to receive broadcast signals. Use TV Fool to enter your street address and determine your channel line-up and the compass directions to the broadcasting tower(s). In the city, suburbs, etc. a set-top antenna can be adequate. Doing a rough entry, it looks like the signals in Anchorage are all over the place. Try smaller first. You can hook up an old-style antenna and get an idea of what you'll get. There's nothing fundamentally different about digital, it just generally uses UHF and needs a consistent, fairly strong signal (our converter box has a "digital cliff" of ~ 68%) and if it doesn't work try a bigger antenna until it does. A double-bow-tie antenna like the Channel Master db-2 or the newer-design 4220 are pretty good models for inside ~30 miles. If you're a DIY-er, you can also make a good-performing one with instructions here. As you get more rural / farther away from the tower(s), bigger antennas and/or pre-amplifiers may need to be used. The three general rules are bigger is better, outside mount is better than inside, and higher is better. You can actually use your current sat wiring to hook an antenna up outside and get one more thing off of the TV. Put up a pole, stabilize it, connect the wires at the F-connecters. Then follow the directions on the converter box or teevee (if it has a built-in digital tuner) manual. We dropped cable about 15 years ago. It was a lot of money for a lot of crap. We mostly watch PBS (and lucky, in our corridor here in the northeast, we have 8 PBS channels (some are redundant, tho). On the whole, digital has been a big improvement. Antenna signals for HDTV broadcasts are actually better than cable or sat picture, as they are wholly uncompressed. As Dean noted, you can supplement antenna viewing with Internet sources (for example, we watched our rooting interest's entire World Cup via ESPN3.com). Frankly, I don't know why more people don't drop cable/sat... doing that might force them into a-la-carte pricing, where you just pay for the channels you want rather than subsidizing crap channels in the "tier" plans. Good Luck.

Thanks, guys. Planning on making some French bread pizzas and ice cream/cookie sandwiches tonight. Happy to report that nothing has creaked, snapped or broken off yet, now that I'm getting old and decrepit. Is that confirmed? Or is he like... 95? That might mitigate some of my ire from his second term with the team. Didn't remember TFB being that old. Your words to God's ears!

Matthew Fox was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, where they sifted through some of the Complete Collection stuff (they included a blacklight for Easter eggs). There's also a short backstage clip involving Foxy, Jorge and a sandwich. Part the First Part the Second Part the Third Doc Jensen's third part of The Island = Carrie was supposed to be there a while ago.... As for me, I've still got the idea in my head that Christian Shepard knew what was going to happen for some time. I've cataloged this before in a previous season thread (S5?). But in view of what we were shown in S6, I'm more convinced now than ever. Let's revisit the Lighthouse. In the mirror for 23- Shepard there was the reflection of Jack's father's house. Now, for all the other candidates, it showed where Jacob touched them (James/Sawyer's was the church, Jin&Sun was the pagoda where they were married), and funny enough we weren't shown the hospital where Jack was touched near the vending machine after the Count to 5 scene. Set up CS as delving into the drink as a way of dealing with his Island Enlightenment. Perhaps Jacob came to CS, perhaps CS was enlightened by contact with someone w/in the framework; but how it happened doesn't matter as much as that it happened. He knows that fate is totally in control, whatever's meant to happen will happen, so why not sit back and get sloshed? When CS was talking about "not having what it takes" a lot of people took that as him talking directly to Jack and being a terrible father. I... I see the relationship quite differently. In some ways you can contrast it to Eloise Hawking's relationship with Daniel Faraday. In "White Rabbit" (that was the one that started with young Jack getting beat up for defending Mark Silverman) there is a tropical photograph framed in Christian's study. There's also a weird sense from the scene in S5 with Jack's grandfather, like Ray had some knowledge of what was going to happen. And it just seems right considering that CS is the one who Jack needed to connect with to finally let go all the things that Fate had to do to "fulfill the book" to borrow from Bob Marley.

Wasn't sure whether to start another thread, but I guess I'll just post it here, as this thread seems the closest in pertinence. WSJ article from earlier this month. Look at the graph. Then read what broad govt policy changes caused the "'38 Recession w/in the Depression." You realize we're taking the same road, right? Guess nobody marked the map back then. It's a little joke of history that even those who do learn it are doomed to repeat it.

America is going at twice the speed, too. I'm reminded of the woman who was videoed dancing like a fool and saying that now BO was president, she wouldn't have to pay for rent, food or electricity anymore. Yes, those people exist in numbers that are hard to believe, and yet there they are....

Newsweek: Salinger like you've never seen him

Actually, that is defined as a clot that has reached the lungs. When it has progressed there, it is often a fatal condition. David Bloom of NBC News died of one in the early days of Gulf War 2, for instance.

Tommie Frazier is the only one that rings a bell. It effectively ended his career, as he wasn't drafted. Then again, one could adequately make the point that if he didn't get the clot, he still wouldn't have been drafted. Nebraska's Option/Wishbone QB didn't fly in the NFL then, nor has it with Frazier's successors at the position there. If he had played a decade later when Wildcat came around.... Like many others, I wasn't a fan of his time here but I wish MW good health.

Does this qualify him for the Madden Curse?

Don't they know that a bird pooing on ones head means good luck? This happens a lot at venues... the rigging and stuff provides good spots to nest. Anybody who's not a complete diva tool shrugs it off. That'll be a deduction of 50 points on KoL's man-cards.

But in that neighbor city of Bell, Calif., mentioned in the article, there is a pay scandal afoot. The mayor makes $800K --- twice POTUS's salary, among others who get a very comfortable pay grade that the incestuous board/council got to vote themselves. CA town outraged to learn of officials' pay There needs to be a nationwide initiative for salary increases of public officials -- local, state, federal --- to be voted on by the people. Situations like this will always happen as long as the foxes are allowed to run the hen house.

Fully expect Al Sharpton to be picketing Webb's office for speaking out and threatening to end the minority gravy train.

Actually, the Penguin's phrase was "Gotta admit, I've played this stinkin' city... like a harp from hell!" How do I remember this, but I lose track while counting cups of flour in the dough recipe at 4? (Sorry to be all nitpick-y.)

Haven't really listened to Morning Edition, etc. since my commuting-to-college days, but NPR did/does tend to include loooooong stretches of the interviewees talking, so there is less of a filter. That being so, they're a step closer to objectivity than any of the Big 5 of TeeVee, and any number of e-zines and papers that like to digest everything for you and say generically what they think the interviewee said. I'd rather hear it straight from the horse's lips. This all, of course, depends on how they select their interviewees. The danger is that they can be cherry-picked... but that's true of all media, it's true of statistics, it's true of Cheerios and it's true of cherries.

NAACP hard at work again defending the indefensible. She says she didn't do as much as she could have for this farmer b/c he wasn't black, and told him to see a banker who is 'one of his own kind.' How is her choice of words FOX or CNN's doing? They defend the indefensible b/c they believe that an admission of fault for one of "their own kind" is an admission of fault for them all when they say the same racist things. Chastising / firing one of them would be the thin edge the wedge.

First photo glimpse of the Hurley epilogue. Seriously, dude. And, obviously, it's spoiler-y. Link

It's debatable whether Juliet's sister's cancer re-appeared, as Ben claimed. I come out on the side that Ben made it up to manipulate her into staying b/c he knew she was a part of the works, and had to be there. With that line "She looks just like her" it seems apparent that he remembers her (and the other time-travelers) from his childhood. Despite Richard's "He won't remember any of this" I am of the firm belief that all the while, Ben knew that these people would be going back in time, somehow, some way, but he never let on. Regardless, all the lead-up was the Dharma (literally, the Path) that the Candidates had to take. Juliet had to stay --- she was thwarted from leaving 3 times --- and that was the particular way it was accomplished. Ben's tumor appeared as part of the Path. Michael delivering that group into the Others' hands had to happen (and yet, as Ben said, within that it was Michael's choice to shoot AL and Libby). Otherwise, the Ajira landing site isn't built, Jack doesn't meet Juliet, etc. None of that would have happened. But then again, other things would have happened to bring about the circumstances, as part of the "course correction." To a certain point, the Island does grant the wishes of the current Protector. It makes wishes / beliefs come true, no matter how seemingly cockamamie they are. Ben's metaphor of the Box wasn't about an actual "box", it was more like the Island itself --- if it's within the Island's powers, the Protector / the Candidates/ "special" people can bring events, people or items to pass, just by wanting it badly enough. It was stated by Darlton that the Protector can influence the weather. (Along these lines, was it Jack's rooting for the Red Sox what made them win the World Series? In the Island world, maybe.)

Didn't get a chance to post after I read it. But, yeah, I can buy into the Island as 'Carrie' concept. Still, it would seem to be like that "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" clip that he linked to. It wouldn't really matter who made what happen.... It happened, whether it was the island acting as a VALIS facilitated it all, or something else. I also take a little umbrage with his writing that the deterministic scope of the island takes away the heroism of the main character, that Jack's sacrifice was lessened b/c it hadn't been his free-will choice. We'll see in the epilogues whether some of Doc's contentions about the Protector are true.

I didn't claim to know Ralph's plans. As I said, it is the leaving the fans in the dark on succession that denotes a major difference b/w the men. GS took care of his fans by ensuring a smooth transition, not making them worry about whether they would still have a team 6 months after the big guy kicked it. Comparing NFL to MLB is apples to oranges re: the cap. Stabilizing a franchise to exist after the death of an aged owner for sure isn't dependent on market size. RW has refused to stabilize the Bills. In fact, it's like everything has been done to ensure that the next owner will have no tie-downs to the Buffalo area. How many times have Erie, state and national pols talked about starting the process of building a new stadium and they're shot down? It's being set up so the next guy's first act will be to call the Mayflower trucks.

+1. A good owner like Steinbrenner was knows when it's time to step back, and has a firm succession plan in place. Big Stein did both, laid the groundwork for building a new stadium for this century that will keep it in its city, and by grooming a successor left no question about who would own/run the team in the future. Ralph has done neither. Despite the musings of his former top knight that the castle will hold together, it really looks like the kingdom will vanish with the king.

A lot of those teams have put more than 10 cents of their own money into their stadiums, etc. in recent years. As much as he may spend on player salaries, in an NFL neighborhood full of McMansions and other people in the process of building, Ralph is content with a double-wide up on blocks. There are no public plans for the future of the team (beyond the instability of "selling to the highest bidder," no stadium that would effectively tie the team to the area and attract good players. Player salary comparison is a little skewed when paying a ton of Benjamins to the likes of Chris Kelsay, et al. Bear in mind, also that the team doesn't have a QB who's making $12M per year, nor seem to be interested in getting one who in time would command that much... maybe on someone's orders. Good owners create a legacy and see their franchise into the future. Beyond their own lives.