UConn James

Seems that way. I was reading on EW that the cast may include people from other (English-speaking) countries --- hence the name "One World." Interesting dynamic to put the tribes so close together. Could form some inter-tribe alliances that will affect the merge. Because let's face it, the merge is the most important part of the game and if you're tied going in and then lose that one challenge round, your tribe is royally screwed and will be picked off one by one. Look at Cochran's move; it defined the season. Looking forward to how it'll play out. I also didn't get the deal with food supplies and how they're going to determine that, but I imagine that can get really personal, really fast. I liked RI and it might be worth revisiting. But it's interesting to see them trying different things to shake up how the strategy game must be played. Yeah. Besides it being completely retarded, fan voting for Survivor is like technically impossible. I was rooting for Ozzy. Just enjoyed how he killed the challenges (up until that last one...) and his attitude toward pretty much everyone that he interacted with because I saw them the same way he did. His fatal flaw was the animosity toward Sophie. Coach basically lost the game from the moment he crushed the egg with blue paint. Got put into a group with enough Jesus-freaks who were so shallow and hypocritical that he was bound to not be able to keep the 80% of the promises he made. No matter how much you invoke Father-God, that doesn't make you a righteous person above the fray of what needs to be done to reach the later days on Survivor. As Probst said... not knocking the religion, but there's a sizable portion of the fellow competitors and the audience who saw it as too over-the-top --- praying for this one to find the idol and then it's orchestrated that Coach 'finds' it. That was a pretty damning reveal by Sophie. Coach's 180 during the last tribal --- in his opening speech that he played the game honorably and with integrity, and then in the Q&A when he admitted that he lied to a lot of people and was sorry --- probably helped turn the tide, esp. WRT Edna's vote at least. I think not playing the hidden idol at the final tribal that he could made Coach look arrogant and gave the impression that (he at least thought) he controlled the game.

Looks like Rasmussen was on the cutting edge of Newt Gingrinch's fall-off once the voting public in Iowa, and in general, found out what he espouses. Link

Even when I put up my Bad Fan 'Randy Quaid in 'Major League'" avatar, I still love the team. I just hate what's being done to it / how it's run, from the top down. As they say, the opposite of love isn't hate. It's apathy.

Link This Frontline reporter intimates that Manning's lawyer is arguing that an actual harm has to be proved by the government --- that the leaked information was used by a terrorist. I wasn't under the impression that this was a requirement....

I'm sorry.... I also am of the belief that this team needs to go back to the 4-3. But even with that line-up at DL, we would get and were getting ZERO penetration. They need to add an elite DE. Not some mid-tier schmoe. An elite DE. The LBers can be mid-tier. (Hell, this team's LBers, besides Barnett, look up from the gutter and aspire to be mid-tier.) And we know with this Owner and FO, that isn't happening unless we trip over one in the draft and he magically gains 5 years experience from great teacher-coaches overnight. Moreover, as I've said all season, with the league neutering defenses, smart teams would put their $ into their offense.... Which means it's going to be another offseason of all defense all the the time for the Buffalo Bills.

Rasmussen poll from the 13th has Newt slipping in the Iowa polls, according to a survey of 750 likely voters. Ron Paul placed second, and it has Romney leading the field by 3 points. Interesting, since Rasmussen was the first to note the upswing for Newt a few weeks ago... maybe he's also the first to note the downturn. Looks like Gingrinch may be the latest Not-Romney to fall by the wayside. In true history-repeats-itself narrative, Reagan wasn't well-liked by the GOP establishment for some of his shifts in policy views (not the least of which were his changed stance on abortion and worries re: his actor's-union presidency) and yet he's now the party's standard. Anyway, this election is looking to be almost a carbon copy of 1980.

Like this?

Yeah, ESPN3.com, which does streaming of live sports events (college football/basketball, majors tennis, every World Cup match among many other sports) has a "Game cannot be shown in your area" message for blackouts, when I tried to watch a UConn football game awhile back. You get that that's illegal, right?

This is why English majors take the stairs. But seriously, that is just incredibly horrible and sad. Lawsuits ordinarily don't begin to make up for the damage caused, but this situation is utterly more-so.

I heard they're going to Hawai'i for a couple of weeks during the holidays.

1. Brandon is totally frickin' retarded. As I've written before, I hope Russell is slapping him upside the head after each episode. You kinda feel sorry for him with that 'The gang would get something going with another, but when it happened, I was the only one standing there.' This kid needs to put down the bible for a moment and seek professional help. Maybe now we can keep the God-talk at an appropriate level. For all his words, Brandon is as constant as Beyonce's stage wardrobe. I missed a lot of seasons, but there can't possibly have been a more bipolar player than him in the history of the game, and the fact that he survived up until now is owing more to people clinging to some sense that they have to be loyal to their original commitments (especially in consideration of jury votes) than in who they really wanted gone. So here we are: two of THE STUPIDEST decisions ever in one season. 2. How !@#$ a move was that by Albert not to give Immunity back? Even if he gets to the jury, there is no way he wins, based on that move alone. The necklace slipping off him at the end of tribal was an appropriate metaphor. 3. Bad form on picking up that log, Rick. Doubling over Drew Bledsoe-style will absolutely KILL YOUR BACK in short order. Bend your knees, keep your back straight, & lift with your legs. Dude is a farmer/cowboy and he doesn't know this?!?!! 4. Sophie had an excellent point WRT Ozzy being the last impression these people get before they each get put to sleep with a soft voice in their ear and go into the jury pool. Of course, the jury is allowed to talk and mingle all the time they're in sequestration at whatever local watering hole, so all the things that happened to them gets watered down, but the fact that they went head-to-head with Ozzy and he's won so many of these things can't be bad in their determination, if they're voting based on who outplayed, outwitted and outlasted. But, even if Coach was speaking truthfully a few weeks ago saying him and Ozzy at the end, the moment Ozzy comes back, he's gotta win immunity or he's out. That line Sophie said to Coach may have influenced a change.

My mum's side of the family is Dutch. I can aver that this article is spot-on, and it goes far beyond just Christmas.

Gingrich Breaks [Another] Commandment And Tom, Gingrinch himself here called Fannie Mae a GSE. Your pedantic side is showing off again.

Wouldn't be a wise move by Freddie, given the concern a knee injury always is for a RB. The team should resign him and give him some recompense for his performance this season, but then again, contracts in the NFL are not based on what a player has done, but what he will do. It's like FJ can't get a break when it comes to actually having leverage in a contract situation. Given that and given Spiller's performance, I would not be surprised to see an early RB pick (2nd or 3rd).

There hasn't been much at all on network broadcasting, and looking ahead on tvtitan.com, there isn't much to come.... Disappointing. A few years ago, ABC had Christmas movies (Santa Clause series, Polar Express, etc.) on both weekend nights of every week in December. Now I guess it's all on ABC Family channel. Looks like I'll be cranking up the Netflix and DVDs. The Sound of Music on Christmas Eve on ABC? Are you friggin' kidding me?!? I hear that NBC is showing the colorized version of "It's a Wonderful Life" this year. I remember from gen-ed film classes, it looked like stevestojan.

Newt's thing on teevee last night was that since Romney's calling for him to give back the... what was it... $1.5 million that his 'consulting firm' got from Fannie/Freddie, that Romney ought to give back all the money he made at Bain Capital. I guess it slips Newt's mind that his earnings in question came from the PUBLIC till, while Romney's came from, you know, making money based on the core principles of capitalism and trying to get companies focus on what they do best. (Note to Newt: It isn't always pretty how macrocosm capitalism happens, nor is it always successful. But long-term it's the best for the company, and the best for the country.)

How 'bout a wafflemaker? My dad told me he got my mum a battery jumpstarter this year. Most wouldn't appreciate this, but for anyone who's ever left their lights on and come back to their car at 5 p.m. and it's near freezing and work is closed up. I experienced myself at the U in desolate parking lots where no one's even there to give you a jump when you have cables. I'd have the lights on when it was dark in the morning, get there and it's daylight and couldn't see them on, I'd be thinking about the hot chick in my English class... and remembering to push the light switch in would often enough totally slip my mind. One of those battery packs literally saved my ass several times.

I'll add it to my list....

I'm borrowing this.

I have to agree with this. Ralph's decision to step away was the right one. Unfortunately, he gave the keys to the wrong guy. And now Ralph/Littmann/Overdorf are once again penny-pinching this team into oblivion.

Why, are there usually no 'equalizer' flights, etc. in the last leg?

Meh.... For a handful of deserving teams to not even have a chance to play for all the marbles.... it's wrong. If someone claims to be the best, then they need to win or they're not the best. We're not asking for a 64-team bracket here. An 8-team playoff that will mean an additional 3 games (well, an additional two games... b/c one would take the place of a traditional bowl game) for a NC that is determined on the field among teams that have won their conferences and/or have an at-large bid --- is that too much to ask? Apparently, when you're forced to ask a bunch of good-ol'-boys, the answer is always Yes. Can't risk letting go of Their Precious.

No.... No, it doesn't. Or is that, like the Bills' startling lack of OL/LB depth going into the season, just my lying eyes?

Yeah, that NCAA Basketball Tournament that adds a possible 6 games for the winner? Totally unpopular!!! The big-time schools want it this way, where they can get by on their legacies and what they've done in the past few years rather than possibly taking them out of their comfort zones and making teams prove it against any and all comers.

Wow. Unbelievable that Andy and Tommy got bumped out. While I get that this is the general concept, there've been WAY TOO MANY instances of hidden clues, no matter how many times the camera pauses and highlights the words "___ Viejo" woven into the fabric of a fluttering dress. This is a race and competitions of doing tasks, not a fuggin "Where's Waldo" book. That was a little bit cheap where all the necklaces said "Balboa" and the one dress said something entirely different. But, ultimately, it was on them. They should have stayed, taken all the clues like the picture of the building and talked to cabbies like Justin and Sandy (NICE PURPLE STRAP-TOP, BTW!!!! Panama can't be that cold, right?) until they knew where they had to go. Sometimes you've gotta pore over everything that you're given (think the Snapple bottle cap a couple-few seasons ago, or the French bread with the clue baked inside) to find it. I like the remaining teams. They all deserve to be there. They've all come back from near-disaster. AR is about speed, but it's more about perseverance and not giving up when something goes wrong. I hope Andy and Tommy are invited back in a future Second Chances season.