UConn James

That's something one learns more and more as one gets older. Add in the caveat that this applies only if you know what you're doing in the task at hand, and there's a high likelihood that you won't f--- everything up. I would say that with a viking funeral, there's a host of factors that you need to get right. Ensuring adequate fuel (no "this pile of brush should do it" estimation), calculating drift, assessing fire conditions should the vessel ground, etc. There's always the chance that such a rite can end up as "'Viking Funeral' Forest Fire Kills 4; 50 Acres Ablaze." That would kind of suck. I wonder if there's any private companies that do this.

And some dude named Miller won the Vezina. Can only hope this pays dividends next year, the FO gets a couple of pickups, and that the window stays open long enough.

Just a bit of info about the DVD release. The epilogue's title is... "The New Man in Charge" and will run 11 minutes. There is a video of Darlton being interviewed by Diane Sawyer from just before the finale that's very interesting. Lindelof says specifically that "before all is said and done," there will be "significant illumination" about Walt, the fertility problems on the island, and the polar bears. Since we saw none of these in the finale, it looks like these will be areas covered in the epilogue. (I have also read that the DHARMA food drops will be explained). BTW - here's part 1 of that interview. ----- Forget if it's been mentioned, but Emmy nominations will be announced on 8 July... usually ~ 8 a.m. ET iirc. Special dispensation was granted for "The End" to be considered for nomination. I believe "Ab Aeterno" is also one that's getting a lot of heat, mainly for Nestor Carbonell. I really hope this show gets its due. ----- Vozzek69 was always the best read on DarkUFO, and for some reason, I never saw this post. Comprehensive in its scope. Here's a link to his or her website, featuring a 250-page LOST book titled "Things You Never Noticed About LOST." Among the things in the free .pdf sample is the bit about there being more to it than black and white --- black, white and red. This owes to several examples s/he gives, most notably Michael's card joke, "What's black, white, and red all over?" I had never made that connection. And, before reading all of that section, I'm going to write here that one of Hurley's main colors was red --- t-shirt in this last season, the gold course flag, the flower he put on Libby's grave, the Camaro(?).... ----- I've also read shortly after the finale (but never got to it) that MIB essentially chose suicide. And when you think about it, there may be a case for this. We know that peoples' deepest wishes/firm intentions come true on the island. So when Jack said, 'I don't know how, but I'm going to turn out the light and then I'm going to kill you' might have given MIB/FLocke pause. Yet, he says, "Let's get on with it then." Perhaps after learning that the island had a new protector, he may have been a little resigned and was ready to go for broke against the odds --- say, 5 percent that he can best Jack, and 95 percent that whatever kept him there for ~2,500-2,000 years is conspiring to keep him longer. Some might understandably choose to take those odds, as "life" as MIB knew it was grown unbearable, and if he couldn't get release from the island / the Cerberus entity, he could get some release in total death.

I would prefer to have just a simple pine box and be buried in a small plot our family started for our dogs, located on a 3-acre wood lot across town. Next week will be two and three years (they passed on the same day - the same hour - exactly a year apart) respectively since we had to put them down. Dug the graves ourselves and placed them on their favorite beds. Similarly, I want no frills, no fluids, no nothing. Just stick my remains in the hole and let the carbons, hydrogens and other elements spring forth into new life. I've stated this to a few close friends and family. At this point, I don't see myself having kids or stuff like that... our dogs are like my sons... and if I do, I don't think my wishes will change. Don't know whether that will fly with whatever authority controls these things. As I understand it, tho, the body can be released for private burial, and a number of people do this in so-called "green cemeteries" where the landscape isn't disturbed into a cookie-cutter flat lot of grass and marble. We've been to a number of funerals over the past several years and walking out of these places, I just have the feeling that I wouldn't want to be in a place like that, nor are those especially good for the environment. Better, I think, to keep the open space of a wooded area and tuck away graves here and there, with appropriate markers/planning. If this isn't feasible, I suppose cremation and similar placement would be an option... I just want to be with my boys when I go. There's a hay field a short walk away, and while I think it's just a void, I certainly hope death is like the end of "Gladiator"... or "LOST."

'Better training' means sh--. There will always be bad calls, for one reason or other. Malfeasance or mistake. The only way to fix it and ensure a level playing field, especially in the int'l competitions, is to allow video replay. Similar to the NFL system, have three challenges. If you're right, you retain the challenge; if you're wrong... you lose a substitution, say.

Do you not get the level of USA-hate there is in the world? Soccer doesn't sell in the US. Even when we have advanced in the Cup, what has it done, really? Largely, we become disinterested again until the next WC starts.

I can certainly understand why some refs get physically attacked. That was shameful. The commentators mentioned this ref was also on the wrong side in a Spain match earlier. Wonder why Americans don't take to soccer? Right there. (The wuss diving trying to sell fouls doesn't help either). Soccer has needed replay for a long time. Too many grudges (especially in int'l play), and too much opportunity for bribery. The technology is there, other sports have shown that it doesn't infringe on time too-too much in the interests of making the right calls. But for FIFA to keep the bribery train going, they'll never do it.

You've never heard of post-crash nookie?

That's on Blu-ray? Sweet! They definitely used the tunnel rowing song with purpose. I think it went over most peoples' heads. To further the comparison, in WWATCF, for the people who complain that LOST didn't give enough answers, what did we get out of Wonka? Did we need to know how he found the wherewithal for the Everlasting Gobstopper? How does his elevator work? Entering the factory, they went in a door and went out the same door into a completely different room. We never find out so many things. That doesn't detract from the essential story. The essence of Wonka was trying to find a kid who could move past wanton behavior and make a morally right choice.

Yeah, emotionally stand-alone would describe most characters as well. With LOST, it always seemed like we were right there, like we were one of the "socks" watching it all happen.

Only if you eat the husks. Got whole fresh pineapples the last few times we cooked a ham. Don't know how I'm ever going to eat the canned Dole anymore.... Taking a nutrition, then a botany class in close conjunction was really cool. Developed a whole appreciation for fruits and veg that I had never had before. In the time since, working with and eating them has taken a new tack. Cutting open tomatoes, sectioning an orange, and taking off from there, seeing the honeybee in such a different light.... I mean, I try hard not to sound too wonkish when explaining these things to my niece and nephew to try to get them to see beyond their video games, but how else do you describe the sclerids in a perfectly ripe pear or the hesperidium sacs in citrus? Nature is so beautiful. And, yes gringo, that may have something to do with it with the mangos, but even so.... Cantalope has never been a favorite either. Just don't like the taste.

Favorite? Kiwi. (Tho, some people classify rhubarb as a fruit, in which case.... that's a moral dilemma). Ooo, but a good Cortland apple hits the spot, too. Least favorite, mangos.

Also, I am pretty keen on making a copy of the Cerberus door in Ben's secret-room-within-the-secret-room. Maybe make it the bathroom door. I think this is going to take years, tho. They actually had a small video up on how it was made out a Styrofoam-like material.

Yeah, like when a boa swallows a whole antelope, the past three weeks has just been a digestion period for me. Not strange that we feel connection to many of the characters. LOST is definitely on par with great classics of fiction that way. It is connection that is very hard to establish in the TV/movie medium b/c it's dependent on having spent a lot of time with that person and really knowing them. But that's not it... I mean, there's been how many seasons of Law & Order and for me, Sam Waterston or any of the badges are like automatons. Even worse for many other shows. It's not weird or disturbing, either. In fact, it's very human. I really have a hard time reading people who were "disillusioned" / didn't "get" LOST. That wasn't my experience at all, and reading their complaints gets very boring and exasperating b/c I want to reach through my laptop screen and slap some sense into them in a "No, no, no. You are entirely wrong about X! Were we even watching the same show?!" I can't stand people who just have to piss in everyone else's cornflakes because they're not 100 percent happy. Doc does meander quite a bit, but there is always some usable stuff. Not sure if I follow on his whole Island-as-Carrie thing, but I'll try. This has some teeth, tho: And that sequence on page 6&7 about the chronological order of the wells during the time flashes was illuminating. They flashed to ~2,500 years ago. Perhaps those first Romans who dug the wells found the rope that Sawyer had been holding and just dug. Hmm. Another piece just fit into the puzzle. And this made a lot of sense during the show's run, but makes even more sense now. For me the over-arching theme of LOST was the characters, as Darlton always said. It was their search for family. They didn't find their true family anywhere else they looked, in their flashbacks and flashforwards in the real world... As much as they may have wanted a relationship with someone there, almost all of the eps told about a search for connection/family that failed and reinforced that they had no real family off-island; they were Others who "walked among us, but are not one of us." You can see this any number of ways... but seen most poignantly through John Locke. Here was a character who was so spurned by so many groups and individuals it wasn't even funny. He had anger therapy, tried religio-commune life where he learned to "stop being so angry all the time," to Helen who he could have had if he'd only given up giving Anthony Cooper a fifth chance. All of the characters were like this, with the possible exception of Boone (tho, we didn't get much of his story, and none of his life unrelated to Shannon). Another thing I forgot the other day, on DarkUFO, they had a poll of "What body of work was most influential to the writers of LOST?" I didn't want to sign up and have my real name on there... so I'll put it here. It wasn't among those listed, but I would say "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (1971) only without as many musical numbers. I recently watched this on Netflix for the first time in a long time. But seriously, that was a story where 5 candidates were selected randomly to take over as head of Wonka. If the company was allowed to die or if the secrets were sold/stolen for the candy competitor (who was a plant by Wonka), children around the world would've been less happy. Now, LOST takes this concept and makes it a lot less benign, but I'd have to say it's closest. Also, I totally missed it before, but... was the white shoe hanging from the tree right near where Jack woke up and died, one of Christian's?

Sorry this has taken awhile to get back to. Have a few things here.... merij, I'm just falling on the side that says Hurley wasn't crazy / mentally ill. Hurley always had the "gift" to see ghosts (similar to Miles' ability since childhood to read the final thoughts of the dead), only it manifested later and when it did --- coupled with the grief of feeling responsible for the deck collapse, etc. --- Hurley doubted his own sanity. I'm going to stick to my guns on this. I don't think Dave was MIB. MIB was not every ghost we saw, as you say. I can dig that the ghosts Hurley saw as an O6 period were from the Sideways. Which gives a little more ammo to the Dave contention. Why could all the others speak to Hurley from the Sideways, yet Dave couldn't be from the Sideways? Yeah. That last paragraph has something interesting, too. As much as these people took their pasts with them to the island, their island experiences affected their past. For many of the castaways, I think there was some "bleeding over" of their consciousness (likely through dreams) b/w pre- and post-crash. The most telling of these was that incident of Richard's visit and tests of Young John Locke. It reminds me of Walt and how Tom said the Others' tests showed he was "special." And it's got me really looking forward to those 12-14 minutes of epilogues (by the by, these will be included in both the collector's set and the single-season 6 sets). My prediction, whether it's shown in those or not, is that Walt will take over as Protector after Hurley. Also, Widmore was on Team Jacob, as he explained in the secret coat-room that shortly after the freighter exploded, Jacob came to him. And so, with Ben landing in 2005 after he turned the FDW, he (a little) misguidedly set out doing MIB's work, through Sayid. The other groups are all very loosely connected, if they're connected at all. Mostly, I think it was just Jacob positioning some pieces on the board, independent of one another, yet all linked to him.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread... but prior to working as chairman of ABC, Mr. Braun was Seinfeld co-creator/writer Larry David's attorney and that character was named after him. It's detailed in his lostpedia entry.

Kelly, it wasn't a movie, so it's a slightly different animal.... but the only reason LOST got on the air initially (with an astronomical $12M pilot episode) was b/c Lloyd Braun wanted to stick it to ABC b/c he knew he was about to be fired. Otherwise, I've been inside a movie theatre three times in the past 15 years, and even for those, I was goaded into it by somebody saying, "I want to see a movie tonight." Movies are 95 percent sh-- these days. Best thing to do is get Netflix and relive better days of the industry.

Could you provide a link to the Big East joining the ACC? All I see is this article on Google News. At this point, it's just speculation. And for most of the Big East teams, there's not even much speculation at this point. Kinda waiting for the big dominoes to fall, and then we'll see what happens to the smaller dominoes. Wouldn't be surprised or disappointed for this to happen, tho. It has seemed inevitable since Miami, BC and VT left. Per the link above, they're speculating that the BE could be split among the former Big-10 (PSU/OSU/Mic et al.), and the ACC. Big-10 wants access to the NYC market in the worst way, so they'll try to court Syracuse and Rutgers, and also go after Pitt and WV. Would be interesting to see UConn in an ACC-North. And for Basketball, that would make for a hell of a conference. Re-alignment is tough, what with possibly losing some long-standing rivalries, but something had to happen. If done right, it could be great for all parties to form some bigger, more cohesive conferences (with encouragement to have 16 members) that can propel the system (especially the football post-season) to where it should go. Whatever comes out of this, tho, they need to not use numbers in naming the new conference make-ups: Big 12 ==> Great Plains Conf. Pac-10 ==> Pacific Conf. Big-10 ==> Mid-West Conf. et cetera, et cetera.

I've been on the search for a foam/whatever DHARMA BEER cozy for awhile (something like this) but have come up empty.

He once was LOST, but now he's found. HB, dude!

Gee, I wonder why the Soviets didn't tell anyone about these? Couldn't be that they wanted to become imperialist pigs themselves, could it? No, I don't believe that. Can only hope that this could provide an income and badly needed jobs for the people there, esp. as an alternative to growing/producing opium. A close relative who is serving there currently and will likely be promoted to Master Sergeant after this deployment (as high up as you can get as a non-comm) wrote last week, "It's like Vietnam all over again here." A good majority will. Yep. The duality is that they hate us, but ~70 percent of the citizens say that they still need us right now for security. Lots of tension that rides along with that duality, tho. Literally, 700 years from now, they will still be bemoaning the cats who died in an airstrike that took out the Al Queda #3. These people 'forgive and forget' nothing.

'Enough to fund every Americans' health care for the next 12 years' Uhh... not quite!

Nike had better get on that!

Well, that's what happens when you let them off the leash....

Link Let's see if I get this right. It's OK for Mexican cops to indiscriminately kill Americans who cross their border, but it's not OK for American officers to shoot a Mexican border-crosser when it became a matter of self-defense. Nice logic. Or perhaps it's perfect logic, just depends from which vantage you see it. Innocent Americans need to allow themselves to be maimed/killed, and Mexicans' mellows can't be harshed for any reason. There was a time when these people would be dead for this act. No questions asked, no investigation needed, no apologies given. In the Ford era, we went into one country... I forget where, I just remember the circumstances... where Americans had been taken captive by a private group --- and we bombed the sh-- out of the city on the way in, rescued the people (there was intel on exactly where they were), and bombed on the way out just for good measure. Now, we apologize for living.