UConn James

Thought it pertinent to note Sarah saying that Jack "will always need something to fix." He takes on the toughest challenges rather than the ones that provide the most success. To wit, he stays with Boone when it's apparent that a miracle was needed rather than finding Claire and delivering Aaron. He fixates on Sarah in the ER and ignores Shannon's dad. He tries to fix the hardest problems and then, he moves on. I think people here are being too hard on Sarah, much like everyone thought they had Shannon pegged only to later see that she had a mitigating reason for her cons. Jack comes home from the unsuccessful surgery and kissing Gabriela to a cold dinner and a sink full of dishes, which he says he'll wash b/c it's "theraputic" (I can relate. It's satisfying to go from complete chaos and dirty plates to a rack full of clean ware. You feel like you control something). The dishes aren't the problem this night, and come to find out that he's grossly misdiagnosed the problem in his marriage, at which point he sincerely says he'll fix it, by working less, etc. But just like anything else, he'll fix it, then move on until it needs that kind of serious fixing again. Did Jack's father know about the marital problems and that's why he told him to go home? Maybe. I think he saw a son that was dedicated to his job in an unhealthy way (even tho Christian himself was on the other side of the coin). I am now trying to ponder how Jack's pattern of tackling problems is going to go down in the coming battle against the Others.

Government spending + Investment (business) spending + Consumer spending + Net exports = GDP. There's no point where you can spend more in one by taking the same amount out from another where it's going to change the GDP (or GNP or whatever you use). Not making excuses for TSA or whatever agency, but I know plenty of private business endeavors that do much worse or no better at managing their money and employees than gov't. Cost and efficiency b/w the two doesn't change all that much.

Most teams will allow other teams to interview their assistants for an upward-move job (tho not for a sideways move). It's a courtesy thing plus you don't want those assistants to harbor feelings such as "These $%#%^s kept me from getting the OC job!" Coaches aren't happy that their staff gets raided, but most accept that it's going to happen and they're happy that the person is getting an opportunity.

I can't tell, but that would surely be a zinger. Jack was staring at that photo really hard back in the premiere, as if he knew the girl....

Her watch? I didn't catch that part.... Could you ellucidate? I had a whole big write-up last season on Jin's watch=handcuff. Probably which no one bothered to read, but it's there anyway....

There's a section on the S1 DVD with Daimon Lindelof who basically says that it's ABC's call on how fast to advance the storyline and how long the show will last. If they don't like how the writers are doing it, and want more seasons out of it to make some money on a popular show, what Lola wants, Lola gets. I don't think the show suffers too greatly from it if this is what they are doing. Just that the payoff needs to be good. And I think it will. Have faith. Desmond probably doesn't want to be seen. He took off from the hatch quick after his 'repalcements' arrived. Plus, his knowledge of how things came to be the way they came to be is tapped. He has nothing to really add now except another furrowed eyebrow. Like everyone else. The monster was in the finale; it was dragging Locke down the hole. It certainly hasn't been missing since halfway through S1. As for Sayid, some people deal with death by becoming quiet. That would really throw me for a loop too.

I thought Gabriela was pretty hot. But I've always had a thing for brunettes. My money would be on the pilot.

There's a Sawyer-centric coming up in a couple weeks, I think. I would be surprised if no other major characters die this year. My money is on either Charlie... or... get ready.... Locke.

That's what the "centric" usually means. Should be good. Haven't had much depth from Jack in a while, and there's still a lot of questions revolving around him. How did the marriage to Sarah end? Also, I'm growing a little more convinced that Michael is hallucinating the messages on the computer. However, there is that breathy sound clip in the preview for tonight that, "This is our island!"

This is a Jack-centric ep.

I'm watching the repeat now and thinking about some stuff to fit into the framework of the ongoing use of Black and White that has gone unmentioned: Black smoke apparition of the 'monster' Black horse in the Kate ep Eko's brother preist clothing is black with a white collar Seems that each character is coming to find that something from their past is physically (or metaphysically) on the island. Jack and his white-haired father. Kate with the black horse, Eko with the drug plane....

Bear in mind that the sports media at this time of the year gets used as a weather ballon. A lot of times, teams float that they're interested in Coach A so Coach B might make a deal sooner (see: for less money) just so he can be assured of having the job. Question: do any of the coaching candidates even buy the rumors anymore?

The Steelers and then the Jags had to find a new equipment manager when they signed Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala. At least I can pronounce Hoosh-man-zah-dah.

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I used to read a BFinIndiana post, I always pictured him looking like Chubsie and screaming like a little girl.

If those two guys had their wishes come true, the entire NFL season schedule would go something like this.... Week 1: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 2: Dallas at Washington 1 p.m. Week 3: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 4: Dallas at Washington 8:30 p.m. Week 5: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 6: Dallas at Washington 9 p.m. Week 7: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 8: Dallas at Washington 1 p.m. Week 9: Bye Week -- everyone must kneel in front of their televisions and praise whichever God they pray to that Dan Synder and Jerry Jones were allowed to grace planet Earth with their presence. Week 10: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 11: Dallas at Washington 1 p.m. Week 12: Washington at Dallas 8:30 p.m. Week 13: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 14: Dallas at Washington 9 p.m. Week 15: Dallas at Washington 1 p.m. Week 16: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. Week 17: Dallas at Washington 8:30 p.m. Wild Card: Dallas at Washington 12 p.m. Divisional Playoffs: Washington at Dallas 4 p.m. NFC Championship: Week 17: Dallas at Washington 1 p.m. Super Bowl: Washington vs. Dallas 6:28 p.m.

In TB, Dungy led them to pretty impressive records in the regular season and got them to the playoffs a few times but never got them too far. 1996: finished the season 6-10, tho finishing 5-2 and showing what they could do on D. 1997: 10-6, won the wildcard game, lost to the Packers. 1998: 8-8. Missed playoffs. 1999: 11-5, won in the divisional, lost to the Rams in the NFC Championship. 2000: 10-6 2001: 9-7. Both of these seasons ended in the wild card game to the Iggles. Dungy was fired, and Gruden won the Super Bowl that next year. It's been bandied around here by myself that there are different kinds of coaches. Builders who can make a team good but not great and then coaches who can come into an established team, tweak a few things that the previous coach couldn't, or more likely wouldn't, change and make them into champions. Right now, the Bills need one of those builder coaches like Dungy, then when he's taken us as far as he can, we need to follow it up with a finisher coach. All I know is that the last two guys we had couldn't make up their minds in what they wanted the team to be or rather that they wanted the team to be all things to all people --- first it was attacking defense as the core and WCO with quick passing, then power rushing, then deep passing with the change to Bledsoe, then adding in Willis. This year, the previous/holdover core was shown to have been eaten by the worms and the offense was shown to be what it was, all tricks and no mirrors. We need to find or build another core either by a change in philosophy or an upgrade in players. We have all been clamoring for this to be in the lines. We need to hire a coach who comes in and has been hit by the cluestick --- Buffalo has and always will get success by establishing its running game even tho everyone knew we would run it but we ran it anyways, and working off of that. We can't try to be Tennessee, we can't try to be the Patriots, we can't try to be the Steelers. Anyone who comes here will have to realize that, dammit, we've been trying to emulate other teams for too long. We need to be Buffalo. Your word to God's ear.... But if Haslett is keen to running the team in the way a Buffalo team needs to be, mainly through a workhorse back with a capable change-up/backup, keep-them-honest-passing and a swarming defense, then it might not be the worst thing. The guy we hire next is not going to be the finisher; we need the builder.

Just to nitpick here, that's a lecturn. A podium is like... a dais.

Rollerderby, Pro Bowling Tour, and WWF were the most popular sports of the '70s and '80s.

And, on this show, someone can jump an actual DHARMA© shark.

Ditto. Anyone replacing April as ST coach would be a downgrade. If a HC coming in here desires a downgrade in performance just to satisfy a whim of picking his very own ST person, then I don't want him as my HC. And, this is assuming that April won't get the HC job. Which I'm really warming up to. He knows the rulebook (See him chewing out the ref on the onsides kick, and being proven right when the officials didn't know the rules of the game?). He works with almost everyone on the team and has their respect, b/c look what he turned our ST into --- best in the NFL.

Mr. Mangini would have to read a lot of Shakespeare.

Maybe Marv wanted to reduce the number of quadruple-reverse pulling-guard halfback options to 20 per game. Or maybe he was ordered to pick a friggin' QB and go with him. Maybe someone should smack MM with the cluestick. He's actually moaning that RW and TM don't live in Buffalo year-round? And that matters how in this day and age?

"600 Dead in Mecca Stampede" For a culture that mourns its dead by carrying the corpse through the streets, openly weeping for people they never met and don't even know the circumstances of death, all while shouting "Death To [Fill In the Blank]!!".... A culture that likely doesn't have a translation for "Calm down".... I can't say that I'm surprised.

I don't mean to sound like a-- here, but guilt is a theme in like, every episode.

Yes, the writers did have Charlie say 'What're you a priest?' multiple times. (Granted, tho, Charlie's observation about there being blood on the stick with scripture on it is a little weird to reconcile). There's more and better parallels in their two backstories, but I've spent the last three days taking care of my 5-y.o. to-be-step-nephew while my brother&fiance recovered from drill weekend. Fun is. I'd encourage myself and others to expound on this as we think it over, b/c the writers put these two characters together for a reason. The language on the computer seems too generic to be real. There wasn't anything on Michael's screen when he was typing all of the words in, was there? Why does it only show up when someone else initiates contact? Anyway, Michael went pretty loco in the preview for next week, even after he agreed w/ Locke that the 'Have Gun, Will Travel' thing was a stupid idea. Perhaps Locke was planting this idea in Michael's head, tho?