UConn James

They don't respect simple copyright law for movies. Yet, when it'll come to mass-producing, say, cost-effective fuel cells that our "American innovation" designs, Obama et al. expect Chinese companies to play fair and not rip our patents. Perhaps someone could print up a background banner for him with the theme of "Losing the Future."

Here in the NE corner of CT, it's a little more than you guys have, wrt actual snowfall and not much cumulative melting (I was down there yesterday - 38* in Manchester, 30* here according to my Jeep thermometer). With this next storm, the squirrels aren't even going to have to jump/climb to get to the feeder! Roads are in pretty bad shape as well. It's scary just trying to pull out of the driveway or around corners with the 8' piles. Let's just hope Phil doesn't see a shadow Wednesday!

Fez, I think you need to get to the gym.

Changing a breaker isn't very hard or dangerous.... Trip the main, take out the old, put in the new (minding to put the wires in the same configuration), throw the main back on, replace panel. Checking out a DIY book can save quite a bit of coin. But I can appreciate someone who feels it's beyond their ken, especially when it gets into things like electricity, furnace or plumbing.

It adds another layer of taxes and bureaucracy. Yay! CT got rid of county services b/c it was rife with corruption (most of all, the county sheriffs).

The Romans used to make people save up their pi$$ so it could be used as a cleaning agent. It has a high ammonia content, after all.

Not likely. Adams (the old cooter who gave Buffalo fans the double-barrel-middle-finger a few years back) has said they're both gone.

"Pet Parent: Belinda" , AD.

J.D. Salinger letters show "warm," "affectionate" side

Sorry, but you're way out of line wrt what your moderation duties are. If this is an indication of your methods, maybe you need a talking-to by senior mods. It was not overtly political and was fair comment on something that was part of the endorser's statement.

And I just saw that PBS "American Masters" piece about him a couple of weeks ago. I'd blame the hour, but.... As I wrote before, I'm just now catching up on a lot of movie-viewing. Never saw Bardem in anything, and now that I've moseyed to IMDB, it seems all the more impressive the performance that the Coens got out of him and that he gave. Tropic Thunder has been added to my list. Memento, We Are Marshall, and The Triplets of Belleville are up next.

Just saw NCFOM a couple of days ago and it's what prompted me even harder to see True Grit. Tommy Lee Jones personified that sheriff, and I think I'm always going to hold that first impression of Javier Bardem. I was watching that and especially in the conversation with the garage owner, thought immediately of Loughner in the Tucson, AZ, shootings --- cuckoo conversation, machine-like, no remorse. I didn't follow there toward the end --- what happened to the $2M? I'm not going to ask whether Shugar [white-fonted for spoiler]killed the girlfriend, as that seemed obvious. Anyway, I'm recommending TG to anyone and everyone. I don't know if the academy has given Best Actor to someone two years in a row, but Jeff Daniels in this would be a very good time to start. The Coen Brothers' dialogues can lend themselves to an awful rigid delivery (they seem very high on annunciation of every syllable; people just didn't/don't talk like that) and in this sense, their movies are somewhat like watching a Shakespearean play in Olde English. Which is what made JD's job all the more great, b/c the lines flowed out of him with ease.

"Olbermann left the way all my men have: abruptly and with no explanation, but with a lesbian to take care of my needs." Some people are making innuendos that Olbermann should run for Joe Lieberman's senate seat in CT. I would normally laugh this off, but then again, Minnesota elected a comedian* in the previous go. * - Debatable. Being a comedian implies having an audience that laughed

It's been a long time since I've seen a movie this well-done, all around. I've seen most of the others in contention, and TG blows them away. Coen brother films are sometimes a little odd, but it's usually a great ride.

UConn Donor Robert G. Burton Demands Return Of $3 Million Donation So, this is Connecticut's introduction to the kind of boosterism that demands a large say in what happens in the AD's office. With his 5% of the total cost of the practice facility on campus, I guess Burton thought he was buying access and that he was an important player in the football program. His letter --- which he sent to the AD, the governor, the current and incoming UConn presidents, etc. --- just makes him look like a petulant child. There are methods of making ones' case that a certain hire was not good for the program. As it stands, Paul Pasqualoni has an extensive resume with success at both the college and professional levels. Evidently, Bill Parcells thought enough of Pasqualoni that he brought him in at Dallas and then when he moved on as a quasi-GM in Miami. Burton, it seems, fancies himself a football man more knowledgeable than Bill Parcells --- he was, after all, a former 19th-round NFL draft choice out of Murray State --- who then somehow was successful in business. He chose to go with an argument that reads, "I'm taking my ball and going home!" Not the first time in the history of the world that a donor isn't happy, and it won't be the last. Asking for his money back now is like asking the Marines' Toys for Tots for his Battleship game donation back because he doesn't like the kid the Marines gave it to. That's not how a donation works, Mr. Burton. I'm not enamored with our AD Jeff Hathaway, either. But I give him credit on this for not allowing a donor to think that a few million dollars within the whole budget of a D1 school grants him any kind of hiring influence or veto power.

1) I want to "redouble" what the stimulus did... but simultaneously freeze spending. 2) I'm now totally *against* earmarks, after I was totally *for* earmarks. 3) Let me be clear. I'm willing to enact tort reform during my speeches, but unwilling to enact tort reform when it comes to actually enacting tort reform. 4) We must do what the Fiscal Commission proposed to reduce the deficit...... by not doing anything like what the Fiscal Commission proposed to reduce the deficit. Thank you to the members of this valuable group for sharing this plan --- that nobody read, no one wants to hear about, and which only potentially-suicidal politicians would want to follow --- at a few million dollars of taxpayer cost. 5) Social Security: 'Reduce benefits? No. Increase retirement age? No. Well... I'm sh-- out of ideas!' 6) Iran hasn't responded to sanctions, but my peeps in the White House told the NYT they sure as heck responded to the Stuxnet virus. Oh... wait, did I say that!? *AHEM* Let me be clear, that totally wasn't us! But still, I apologize on behalf of the American people. I don't know why I'm apologizing, but it usually makes me feel better. Quick... someone cue McCain for a cover version of "Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran (2008)." ‎7) Don't fear India and China --- they're partners for American innovation! When they steal our designs, infringe on our patents or reverse engineer our products and make them cheaper, people around the world will *still* buy American... because... it's... wait.... Are you sure about this, TelePrompTer? OK... if you say so! 8) Let me be clear. Jobs *will* come back to Main Street. When companies can't buy any more machines that do the work of five people --- without payroll tax, no Social Security tax, no HR costs, no health care coverage mandate.... Scratch that. Let me clear. Jobs will *not* be coming back to Main Street, at least as long as I'm president around here! 9) Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! 10) I'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like I'm going to in 2012.

It doesn't take Encyclopedia Brown to wonder why the au pair didn't just pay for the hotel with her cash. Taking six steps when there was a way to take two usually means something's not kosher. Your friend is taking a trip down a river called De Nile. **** like this can hit the fan very quickly, and its landing place is indiscriminate. So yeah... I would update and send out my resume while I still have a job.

AH in "Love and Other Drugs".... meh. I think it was more the simplistic storyline and how the people are total caricatures (not that any number of other movies are not; "Black Swan" for instance). But there is a large amount of nudity.... I went into "Rachel Getting Married" not expecting much. I was completely floored. AH did a wonderful job with her wedding toast scene as Kim was spiraling downward. I think, most of all, it was the father's performance that was the key, and some of the best lines. The two daughters trying all along to win approval from their mother, when they finally realize that won't be coming, and all the nurturing they're going to get must come from each other (the bathing scene was a beautiful way to show the healing of their rift, catharsis, forgiveness/washing away of the past). All along, the camera was/we were like a ghost in the room watching something happening in real time. We proposed a movie discussion thread here on OTW, with RGM as among the first selections, but it never materialized....

First words after he steps through the pearly gates... 'All right you slackers! I want to see some bicep curls! You, Jesus, you've been up here 2,000 years with a nary a pushup. Get down on that cloud and give me 20!'

... and to add, has anybody ever seen the damage these little f---ers do when they get into attics? As someone who experienced this, my uncle in Maine has a big smile when he plinks them off with his Daisy air rifle.

Same here, and yet, with my bird feeder having become a squirrel feeder (scaring all the birds off in the process) I have less sympathy for this species in particular.

We'll have to see what actually happens to know what's happening. IIRC, when Dick LeBeau came in, Jerry Gray was still the DC in name, but.... Then again, those teams were Cleveland and Carolina. It's too early to say exactly what DW's role will be. I wouldn't assume anything based on a title. Remember that Bobby April was Asst HC in addition to ST duty... that didn't mean jack wrt his input in the offense or defense. As many teams define the role, it basically means that if Chan is out sick, DW acts as HC, and that others around there should respect his advice all the more. Not necessarily that he'll have a heightened input into play-calling, etc. Teams try to keep that very simple --- one guy calling plays. We'll see what shakes out.

Maybe it's the fluoridation! Link - Fluoride-Gate "Dr. Strangelove"

Whatever.... That was a pretty large assumption on your part. I don't think there's anyone who would describe MLK's assassination by saying he "left" rather than "he was murdered." There's nothing magical about it most of the time. Keep violent criminals in jail for the duration of their sentences! E.g. What doesn't happen in M!@#$chusetts among other places.

Now you're bending over backwards to mistake my meaning. I didn't mean "after MLK left" in the spiritual / when he died sense. That would be obvious to most people who can read without putting words into other peoples' mouths. I mean, after he left (and in some cases, while he was still in town) Albany, Birmingham, Montgomery to Selma.... This was at a time when the de facto Jim Crow practices were still going on in the early to mid 60s. I don't blame them for causing unrest, disobeying police and crowding the jails. They were fighting against bigoted unfair laws with a lot less verve than I would. The riots near and after he was killed stemmed more from economics/poverty and Vietnam than the overarching civil rights era. And anyway, this is the typical PPP thread where it starts talking about one thing and then drifts. As I've written before here, Alan Alda's Republican Senator Vinick character on "The West Wing" wrapped up my general thoughts on religion's place in governing: Now, this wasn't a situation where the governor was tip-toeing about a religious issue to gain votes. He was speaking out of ranks and from the heart, which is a very good strategy if a person's goal by the end of the speech is to end up putting their foot in their mouth. But I guess this governor figures it'll work for him. And it being Alabama where they love their preacher-politicians, it probably will. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulk3hDwxnmg