HopsGuy

When I saw the trailer for this movie last year, I thought, "Oh, this is the Kevin Smith movie. They changed the name on him again. ('Cop Out' was supposed to be called 'A Couple of Dicks.')" But it's a different film entirely. It appears to be basically the same premise, though. Didn't Mitch Albom co-write the song "Hit Somebody"? It seems as though he was involved tangentially.

Not yet and they've thrown in Stan's relation to the Polish mob in, along with some unidentified employee of Stan's with a Japanese anime tattoo. It's quite a mess. The elevator chick was just some woman from Don's past. She's never been on the show before. BTW, Anna Draper showed up on "Modern Family" last night. She seems to have been cured of polio, but ended up marrying a closeted friend of Mitch and Cam. Poor girl can't catch a break.

It was a weird for me because I almost never recognize a dream sequence, but this time I knew it right away. [Yay, me!] Don is now 40 and understands that he actually has it great, but is worried his past will destroy him... the same fear he had that his 'Dick Whitman' past would be discovered. Anyone think of Bobbie Barrett when he was choking out his elevator friend, or is that just me? As for "The Killing", I'm still with it. The cinematography, editing and acting more than makes up for the poor decisions with the story (for me). I'm waiting out the show to put Linden in something other than a heavy sweater. The payoff will be fantastic. Or not.

Yes. It draws attention to something other than a boring par. That's what they're trying to accomplish. I'm just guessing, though. The Royal & Ancient had no rules for such things.

I've heard those stories. Diving is serious business. You and your buddy need to touch each other at least every 30 seconds or so. That's how I was taught. Our guy said, "Hey, if you're not pointing out something cool in that interval, you're diving in a boring place anyway." Also, I have an irrational fear of dying poorly. That's me.

There's no agreed-upon specification. I've always learned to circle a birdie on a scorecard. TV is just trying to highlight birdies, bogeys, & "others" in some sort of way. This is an interesting tournament and I've watched every Masters since '94, when I was out in the woods (no pun) of Augusta at Ft. Gordon* when Jose Maria Olazabal won his first of two. * If your kid is in the Army, steer him/her towards the Signal Corps... we have the best golf courses.

Dingdingding! Tough making the dollar amount even out but if you can, this is ideal. But trust me on the bath-kit.

That's what I got once. It was a key-chain knife with a blade, saw and scissors. They were from Cutco in Olean, so they carried a "forever guarantee". I'm on my second one. I use it every day. Another favorite is a leather, monogrammed travel bag for toiletries, etc. It's a first-class item. Others include a beer stein with a engraved pewter disc. I never use it. The marriage lasted 18 months. I also got a monogrammed money clip. I lost it about 10 years ago, and I'm still sick about it.

I read an interview Alan Sepinwall did with the producers of HBO's new show "Girls". He mentioned how the comments section of his reviews for both "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad" contained so much vitriol for the wives of the protagonists while those same men were responsible for horrible deeds that were also cheered by those same people. It says something about our society... but I'm not sure what.

They didn't mention that but then again, they're all married with 2-3 kids each*. I'm scared of their wives because they all think I'm trying to corrupt them (I'm the only single guy here). *The most beautiful girl I've ever seen was the receptionist at the apartment complex where I lived when I did my Officer Basic Course at Ft. Gordon (Augusta GA, 1994) - a true southern belle. I'd make excuses to go talk to her... "What's my rent again?" "Do you have a schedule for the Braves?" "You ever use the hot tub here?" Yeah, I'm suave.

I agree. You have to be a strong swimmer just to get certified. I know I failed my first go around. I was out of shape and the guy (who was actually pretty cool about it) said, "Nope. I know it's hard, but you have to be able to do this or you're not diving." By the time I was certified, I was in shape - good shape. If you're not in shape, you'll blow through your tank way too fast and need to surface before the rest of your group. Maybe she was passed through w/o regard. Totally possible when you're certified by a dive shop that makes its money on selling you equipment. Currents? I supposed that's possible, but unlikely.

"Hey Henrik, how'd you make an 8 on 18?" "I missed my putt for 7." A few of my friends were down in Augusta for the practice rounds. One guy plays to scratch and was in awe of #11, the 505 yard par-4 that is the first leg of "Amen Corner". The view from the tee-box is incredible. His description of a photo he took there: "#11 Tee looks like a bunch of fun LOL LOL and you have to hit driver LOL.....". Did I mention that he's 40 but acts 14? With the early spring, there's been much discussion about how the azaleas have already bloomed and blown away. But it would seem the trees might be fuller and make the driving lanes appear that much more narrow. Could play into the psyches of these guys. Sure seemed like there were lots of tee shots in the woods yesterday. More rain last night will make the course play long, but take some of the break out of the greens. Today should be just as interesting.

I bought the MLB.TV app for my iPad and the season subscription. I've watched a couple spring training games and so far, so good. I think it's better than getting it through my cable provider (Time Warner) because every game is in HD. My greatest concern is that because I live in Charlotte, lots of Phillies games might be blacked-out because, get this - Charlotte is considered the territory of the Orioles, Nationals, Braves and Reds. That's nuts, but that's the way it goes. I'm sure I'll be back here to whine the first time I'm blacked-out. Bonus: The Phillies under 92 1/2 wins is a mortal lock. Still a good rotation with Halladay and Lee at the top and Hamels in a contract year. But Vance Worley had a monster rookie year with a rather lucky BABIP. He'll come back to earth. Kyle Kendrick is hit or miss. Middle relief is a question mark, but Papelbon should be quite an upgrade over Madson/Lidge/Contreras. The offense will probably continue to regress, especially when the right side of the infield is Ty Wiggington & Freddy Galvis rather than Ryan Howard & Chase Utley. The Nationals and Marlins are better, and 92.5 is a lot of wins, especially when we have an extra teams making the playoffs and that might be an incentive for Charlie Manuel to rest his aging lineup late in the season if it looks like they could cruise into the post-season with 87-90 wins. Just my $0.02. Anyway, baseball is back!

My nightmare from last night: I was a box of Bugles and Betty Francis was looking at me. Gluttony was on display in this episode. Harry Crane went through those White Castle sliders like Soviet tanks through Prague.

From memory: "In comedy, you have to start strong and finish strong. You can't be like pancakes... all exciting at first, but by the end... you're sick of 'em." Trivia: Mitch Hedberg and Marc Maron were both in "Almost Famous". Lock the Gates!

I'll have to watch it again too, but agree on the darkness. It's clearly implied that Don Draper simply doesn't know how to be happy. At least we know that he's told Megan about "Dick Whitman". I guess that shows some growth. The story with Layne and Delores might be interesting.

On "Talking Dead" a viewer asked via Twitter if we'd ever see Merle or Morgan & Duane again. (Morgan & Duane were the father/son survivors that Rick first encountered after escaping from the hospital in the pilot). Robert Kirkman answered, "I can definitely confirm that you will see 33% of those characters again. I would think that would mean Merle because why would you bring back Morgan without Duane? I hope it's real-life Merle and not another dream sequence for Darryl.

Here's a great (long) piece from Vanity Fair on how Diner changed the dialogue driven genre: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/03/diner-201203

I was going to say where Henry and Karen enter the Cocacabana, but since "Goodfellas" was already mentioned, how about Colonel Jessup's disdain for Lieutenant Caffey? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY

I'm not sure I could pick one particular episode over another, but this scene was the first one that came to mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zePQavforA

Not sure if this is actually a spoiler, but I figured I'd hide it just in case.

For all the folks craving more action, the finale was a huge payoff. The shot of the beams collapsing in the burning barn was incredible. It was like the plantation burning scene in "Gone With The Wind". Jimmy & Patricia became lunch while we finally will move everyone to a new setting. This was all about moving the plot along. Now what we know from the comics: I know a lot of people were starting to lose interest in the show because of it's slow pacing. Hopefully a new setting will allow the writers to flesh out the survivors a bit. Like I've said before, I'm interested in who these people are. The threat they face are mindless flesh-eaters, so you don't really care about that side of the equation. Like in "Jaws", the reason you were so frightened by the shark was because you cared about Chief Brody, Hooper and Quint. Those characters were developed and had some depth. We've had no scar-comparison stories like that in TWD to make us really know these people. The closest we've come is Hershel and his drinking and even that was thin. I'd like them to get on track next season, because this story has so much potential.

Yeah, those guys had a float in the parade. They got a bit out of hand a couple of years ago and haven't been invited back. Typical. About 5 years ago, I was back in Olean visiting friends. We were at a church festival and I was talking to an old friend of mine who is a middle-school teacher now. A woman walked up and joined the conversation and we talked about the teachers that were at the school back when we were there. The woman talked about her kid that would now be in my friend's class. She said her goodbyes and my friend said, "Do you know who that was? She's the wife of the new Bona's coach." Small world. Strangely enough, the Women's coach used to be the roommate of that same friend (nearly 20 years ago). Good guy, that Jim Crowley.

I'm from Olean, but went to Drexel. I went to the Bona-UNCC game a couple of weeks ago. Twin brothers that are Bona grads have made it their lives' mission to recruit as many Bona grads here. They had ~200 at the game with their group. They run a charity golf tournament that draws 100+ each year and raised money for a foundation dedicated to a childhood friend that pass all too soon. They're great guys. It was tough, but I feel more of a connection to Olean people than my school just because I spent so much of my youth at those games. When Bona beat St. Joe's in 2OT a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of 8-12 year-old kids ran on the court and I thought, "Yup, I would have done that." BTW, Olean is a basketball Mecca right now. Both the Men's & Women's Bonaventure teams are dancing and the OHS Boys are in the NYS Final Four.

The game was blacked out here in NC because CBS enforced its exclusive rights to force us to watch UNC play a listless game against FSU that they didn't care if they won or lost. Meanwhile, the SEC championship game had a crawler updating the SBU-Xavier score that included a note that if the Bonnies won, my Drexel Dragons would be the last team out. It was bittersweet. We had a group at a sports bar and we huddled around my friend's Kindle Fire watching the ESPN gamecast. It reminded me a story my dad once told about how the neighbors were over to their house to listen to a boxing match (might have been Louis-Schmeling?). They were all in the living room and leaning towards the huge radio in the corner. My grandma got upset about someone being knocked down walked over and turned the radio off. My grandfather was pretty upset because it took like 10 minutes for the tubes to warm up again to they could find out if the guy got up. Anyway, go Bonnies! Tomorrow we're having a 16-man tournament draft. Everyone will get 4 teams. The winners are based on the spread, so if I have the Bonnies +7 and they lose to FSU by 3, I win and get FSU going forward. I've never done one of these, but it sounds interesting.