UConn James

Hammer --> Nail

Where I live, dubbed the Last Green Valley, there was quite a selection of birds this past fall. Hooded Mergansers (my favorite to watch), a blue heron (I think they're on the endangered list. An absolutely beautiful creature), the usual Canada geese (the dirtiest, loudest creatures ever. I hate them), wood ducks, mallards, and for the first time I've seen them en masse so far from the ocean, seagulls. It's nice to see the numbers of bald eagles, hawks, and these birds rising, but the fact that they're hovering around cities isn't surprising. Lots of food sources.

Hey, don't knock it. *Hic* It's sure worked for Bob Kraft!

KH just made Ty Law a rich, rich man.

MM = Waste of Time

What's even more incredible are the mouthbreathers here who think that this man deserves to start. Me, I don't like a QB who's 22/30 for 23 yards.

Nice one, Kelly!

FG contest against the second-worst team in the league. Is this enough to show TPTB that a real change is necessary?

Oh, how wonderful KH's 3- and 4-yard checkdown passes are! Dink-dunk here and a dink-dunk there....

Wait and see the jack he's going to be offered by some team on overblown reputation* alone. * Read: the My-yami game a few years back where he had 3 INTs on... Ray Lucas.

1) So MM can beat up on a team that is the dregs of the NFL in an effort to make Ralph say, "Oooo! Trick play! Shiny!" in an effort to save his job? 2) The BRILLIANT(!) philosophy of using the pass to establish the run? Even tho this is a so-called "power rushing offense"? 3) God, when Daimon Shelton is near the goal line, how can you not throw it to him? They'll never see that one coming, even when we've done it 10 times this season! 4) To keep Drew Rosenass from demanding an extension for WM this offseason. 5) Holcomb has to pad his stats somehow.

Your first suit? Sh--. Even I've got two. And despite what flitty amateur fashion designers or my s-i-l say, a brown tie looks pretty damn good with a gray suit and a white shirt. Yes. Brown!

Sophmore slump, tho with OL as a plausible reason/excuse? Combine that with iirc he's now in the third year of a four-year deal (one of them spent not playing). No incentive to bust his a-- this year when it won't help him out. Watch out next year. I hate those kinds of players who only bother to really play up to their potential for their contract, tho. Too bad it's not realistic to sign those types of people to a string of 1-year contracts.

You know, he's getting awfully good at this retiring thing. Maybe he should do it professionally.

Your rooster crows at sunrise? Hmm. Mine just lies there.

The throwback jerseys might replace the abortions that we call the blue-on-blue and the white-on-white. McGee isn't the type of player who signs the fat contract then doesn't show up. He is a pure gamer.

Apologies to BlueFire, but I'm hoping that Texas loses in the Rose Bowl so Young might stay. And from what I have heard, including when his parents were interviewed, he's heavily leaning toward staying for his senior year -- but the allure of NFL money could seduce saints. I don't know what kind of dream world others live in, but he's not going to be there in the 3rd or 4th. Depending on his performances from now 'til the draft, he could go anywhere from early 1st to early in the 2nd. You naysayers can say what you want, but I like what I've seen from him. Michael Vick with an arm. I'd like it if he stayed another year and if JP doesn't show progress next year, we might consider Young in the '07 draft.

Well, the sh-- of it is that when you look at what it was like, essentially it'd be like knocking on doors in New Orleans, Gulfport, etc. and asking them to fund a war. Not surprising that people might start sighing when the army was requisitioning a goodly portion of what they did and made. But by and large, from the town minutes, (to read some of the wording and to try and decipher the handwriting, and you question whether this was really written ~250 years ago and not in the Bronze Age, but I digress...) when the soldiers needed or asked for something, the townspeople tried their best to provide it. To wit: "April 7, 1777 -- Voted in sd meeting that the Selectmen shall provide 3 blankits for ye 3 men now ready to march into ye Conentall service & deliver ye same. December 8, 1777 -- Voted to supply the families of those non comm. officers and soldiers now in Contin. Service." Those are just two of numerous entries, just that I don't want to be typing all day. Other entries for "20 pounds lawful money" paid to each man for three years of service. There's additional provisions later on too. A quartermaster complaining about not having enough supplies for his troops? Perish the thought! That comes with the job no matter what period of human history warfare you're talking about. Just the same as a farmer will complain about bad soil and no rain, and a banker will complain about robbers and interest rates. This ain't a perfect world, and ain't nobody gets everything of what they ask for.

My favorite character of the Revolution has to be Thomas Knowlton. At age... I think it was 36... he became a Lt. Col, one of the highest ranking soldiers at the time (Aaron Burr said of him: "It was impossible to promote such a man too rapidly"), and formed the Knowlton's Rangers, the forbear to today's Army Rangers, and served as the chief intelligence/recon officer for the army. I lived (note: I did not say that I "grew up" heh heh) in the town he came from. And with such varied terrain in that town, combined with a Yankee practicality that thrives there to this day, it's not surprising that he left his farm to go on to such heroism. The regiment from the town was the first support to arrive at Lexington and Concord --- about 60 miles away --- in 2 days, I believe. He was the one who sent Nathan Hale (another local man, a schoolteacher iirc) on the mission where he was caught. Knowlton was killed at Harlem Heights and is buried there, but there are two (count 'em 2) grave markers in old cemeteries in town. I lived nearby one of them and would often pass it when walking my dog, and I'd think about what he'd say about us today, and it always went something like, "Exactly what did I fight for? To have a different word used for the title of the despot? King or President, as so much power has shifted to the Executive Branch, what is the difference?" I've tried finding out more about him online, but at most, it's a few paragraphs. There's more to be read in the town anniversary book and even that's not much. That's a shame b/c his life seems like it was fascinating even in its brevity. OTR, it's pretty interesting to read through all of the town meeting minutes from that era as well. That is mainly what the anniversary book consisted of, and you'd be surprised how much the town contributed to the soldiers. They were not paid with federal funds. The people were asked to sacrifice and pay higher taxes and to support the war materially. And it is like Mickey said, they paid for things and tried to preserve the ledgers, mostly b/c it was necessary to do so. Quite the contrary from our contemporary situation.

The commercials are part of the territory and it gives you pee-pee time after drinking all of that coconut juice at the TBD Lost party. It's the long hiatuses that are really starting to irk me more than they did last year. Nine eps in, and we've seen them all twice or in some cases, three times. The spoilers didn't bother me either, and then in the lead-up to where Shannon died and then when the double-wide exploded killing Wayne, it's gotten to the point of 'OK, just shut up and let us watch the show and be surprised.' The Arzt exploding scene was so shocking and so friggin' great b/c absolutely no one saw it coming.

"I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this."

There we go, everybody. Nothing more convincing than the arguments of: 1) Everybody else is doing it, so why can't I? 2) VABills doesn't have a problem with it (those 290 million other people can stuff it). Narcissism much? Truly, the cornerstones of determining U.S. policy.

Two more weeks. But I am looking forward to seeing the "What Kate Did" ep next week. Some things I'd like to see again. I think coming back from this hiatus, the plots are going to get much better now that most of the background has been taken care of. Remember that the last scene was with Michael at the computer screen.

Isn't in the sentence, but to be fair, read the topic title. "Federal." The federal gov't isn't spending time discussing smoking in bars, to the detriment of putting our country in deeper and deeper deficits b/c we have a president who calls himself a fiscal conservative and yet refuses to make serious efforts to balance the books. This country is headed for some SERIOUS trouble when the accumulated bills come due.

After re-watching the Season 1 finale... For people bemoaning the lack of the Monster this season, bear in mind that Kate threw the dynamite down the hole, there was the black-smoke inhalation and then it was gone. Perhaps it was injured pretty badly? Dynamite can do that, yaknow.