UConn James

I once had the little square chewing gum pieces in one that was ~15 years old. Rock hard. The food in those things have enough salt and are designed for a fairly long shelf life. Might be a little nasty in consistency, but if cooked, should be safe. I don't think you quite need to call hazmat or the bomb squad. The prof just said to throw it out. My guess would be with other kitchen waste. I'm sure it won't be the first bulging can they've ever seen. (Insert Pam Anderson joke here).

As Trent shows improvement this season (and his individual performance so far has been very good), I would expect him to re-sign long-term either sometime during this season or in the off-season. Getting a new contract worked out is in both parties' interests. TE has already had a concussion scare, so there's some motivation there to get some security rather than the possibility (knock on Wood) of a bad injury making him a 3-year starting QB who's made ~ $1M total. Bills have the upper hand in this no matter how you look at it. It would be smart business for both sides to get this done.

Just as a precaution, Pooj, and for everybody in general... Per a NUSC/food safety class, if you have a can that's swollen, throw it out. I wouldn't even open it. That's just screaming botulism.

It was in an article a while back, but Bobby April has said that Lindell routinely puts it right where April wants him to kick it. Would be nice to have a guy that can boot it in/past the end zone every time, but that's not realistic vis-a-vis saving a kicker's leg. As it is, Lindell has done a very good job of doing what April wants. All that said, kickoff coverage so far has been a bit of a worry.

The oddly-timed hand-clapping is Dick's signature move.

Emmy win is dream realized for LOST's Emerson He won it for "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" alone. Benjamin Linus, as written and performed, is one of the greatest characters in history. Well deserved.

All the investment in the secondary in the draft the last three years and carrying 12 DBs has really paid off, no? We have a dude who's a zero at WLB to go along with zero depth left. Buggs didn't look bad. But If we have another LB injury, it isn't going to be pretty. He also made some scrambling decisions that, with his history, were inadvisable. Referencing particularly the one where he decided to slide down headfirst and got popped. Was rolling his forehead back and forth on the ground while wincing that brought shades of Arizona. Besides that, much progression from TE shown yesterday wrt silencing the Captain Checkdown people for a week.... Some nice throws deep to Evans and TO on the TDs, and several passes that were spot-perfect but dropped (the big TO drop was the start of a huge momentum shift in the 2nd). The tentative play after halftime is concerning... don't know if that was more on AVP's calls or a bit of TE tentativeness. Regardless, it's a continuing issue of not making good halftime adjustments. They recovered, but that leads into the next point gmac makes.... Yep. Nice showing today. But what does it mean to beat this year's TB team? Before we all get giddy, it might be prudent to remember last season when we thought we were world-beaters after Seattle, eking past the Raiders and Jags, and the Rams. People, when we win against good teams, then we'll know. So far, this is typical Jauron-ball --- getting wins against teams who beat themselves.

Bengals can explain it as an odd bounce of the ball. Our D caved b/c we have crap for front-7 depth and a near-useless starting WLB who was covering Watson on both TDs iirc. Ours was a much more pronounced cave-in. Doesn't matter who we were playing. But we DO have like 29 DBs from the last three drafts thanks to Jauron's man-love for them. Still waiting for Dick to explain the payoff. At the time, he explains that we have to draft lots of DBs to compete in a division w/ NE*, MIA, and NYJ. And then when it counts, they come up small. That's a large part of why I blame the coaching for the loss. It wasn't so much the gameplan that failed --- it was the continual staunch unwillingness to draft decent depth at spots other than the secondary, or to do something to get Ellison off of the field full-time.

It'll be next to impossible to find a switchplate with that configuration. If you have a router --- or a coping saw if you don't want to go all Tim Allen "More Power!" --- would it be possible to trace the pattern of the dimmer switch into the middle section and just cut it out? The box would be able to clear, then. Need to be precise with the measurements.

Posted a link the other week, to the NFL Distribution Maps site. Handy thing to bookmark. To find outside of the contiguous USA, you need to click on the text links to the full maps (in the light green fields), and it's highlighted below the map. Alaska FOX stations will be carrying the SeaHags / 69ers at 4 p.m. Sorry.

3rd, It's an issue of money, also, b/c few people seem to want to pay for deeper stories. I think that most papers will be moving to a mostly online presence w/in the next 5-10 years. Seems better for the environment (less paper consumption, waterway pollution from ink), and it's less costly for the publication (e.g. for the Sunday NYT, the paper alone cost ~$9. Add in ink, the pressworks, renting warehouses, route drivers, etc. That's all on top of paying reporters/editors for content). The future is mostly electronic b/c it cuts down on costs. Will this savings deliver an better commitment to "dig deeper" for stories? Dunno. The way things are going in the dumbing down of America, I don't see much of a market for it. Much of the stuff you're looking for wrt "investigative reporting" (J-school taught that this was a redundant phrase. After seeing a waterskiing squirrel a while back on 5 seperate newscasts, I'm not so sure) now comes in either topical magazines or books for higher-profile stories. Lower-profile in-depth pieces are still out there... you just see them a lot less. You also see some online. Not too much, but examples do exist. (ON EDIT: Lori pointed out a couple... yep, including that one about my alma mater.) All this said, I can still see a place for actual newsprint. One day a week. Sunday papers still don't sell too badly; it's a day when people have time to sit down with the paper. To say nothing of the fact that people will always need paper --- handy for painting/staining, good compost material, birdcage linings, wrapping fish, washing windows (they actually say newsprint is best for this), etc. They're also still a major ad-delivery mechanism. Ad buyers still evidently want total-coverage campaigns. I.e. with the Courant, everyone who is not a subscriber gets a supplemental ad section in their mailbox.

Overheard in the 2009 NFL draft Bills 'war room':

D2D, You are living in a dream world.

Simon, aren't you happy now that we drafted, like, 5 DBs this year!?! I mean, they really helped stop Brady from picking the D apart when it mattered. Oh. Wait. Thanks, Dick J.

A question that's been answered in the resoundingly negative in the past 3 years. Actually, the past 8 years.

All those DBs sure helped us contain their passing game, didn't it? Second half, especially. Brady shook off the rust and our DL started to run out of gas... combined with injures for which we have next to nothing for depth. But we've got DBs! Thank God Almighty, Dick, we've got DBs!!!! How about the way Wilfork is still going after QB's knees like it's going out style? Dude deserves a knee injury of his own, and just like Dirty Player Harrison I wouldn't feel the least bit sorry if it were a career-ender.

Perhaps some blame could be reserved for the people who pulled the levers and put Bell in that spot? Oh, wait, the latest incarnation of a Dick Jauron lovefest isn't over yet. My bad.

Sure glad we developed some LB depth from the past couple of drafts or UFA. Oh. Wait. But we've got DBs!! And look how great they did tonight! Oh. Wait.

I don't think the Pats* were ever really scared tonight. They know what they can do... pull it out the hat. Especially against Jauron-ball. Brady was picking the D apart in the 2nd half once he shook off some rust. Even with all of our shiny DBs that Jauron loves so much. Where were these DBs that were supposed to stop us from getting picked apart? We came into this season needing LB depth (and, some would argue, a starting WLB) in the worst way and we got... more DBs!! Well, now POZ is out for stretch. Whaddo we do?

I don't want to pin tonight all on him, either. But, yeah, making the decision to put Bell in there burned the team pretty badly. That said, when this team has games like this time and time and time and time again... There comes a point where you've gotta realize that the symptoms you're having are indications of a bigger disease.

Well, Ralph was exactly right when he re-signed Jauron. He said we'd get "continuity." To wit, tonight we got continued dumb penalties, game mismanagement (time-outs), general "keep it close" small-ball, continued to play our CBs 10 yards off the LOS, and continued to "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory." The offensive play-calling seemed to improve under AVP... but we'll see how quickly that changes now that teams get some tape. I don't think DJ had much of anything to do with any success the offense had tonight. An offense works in spite of DJ's guidance. You wanted continuity Ralph. You got it.

* sigh * I hate that I love this team.

We all knew it was coming....

WOLVERINES!! RIP.

Some of us don't have cable.... The sh-- of it is, the game is on locally on the Boston ABC affiliate, WCVB. Used to get it as my strongest station before the transition. Then, a station out Hartford was assigned the same channel frequency (called co-channeling), which results in interference and the inability to get either station in ~20-mile swath where the coverage areas intersect. There are two other stations that do this as well. Does the FCC give a sh--? Nope. F--- THE FCC!!!