bartshan-83

Hilarious. I miss Chuck E. Cheese (or Showbiz). I think I'll have my birthday there this summer.

I'll take care of the I-A Independents.

Good fix. My Camden comments were definitely tongue in cheek. The amount of police present when those concerts let out is quite okay with me. I just find the whole scene to be funny. Several thousand white people (mostly aged 15-30) dressed mainly in t-shirts and sandals walking cheerfully through one of the worst cities on the east coast at midnight. I've never felt for my safety because of how there are basically enough cops to hold everyone's hand on the way to their cars, but the thought of where I am and when still makes me laugh every time I leave a concert there.

Falstaff...you talkin about the Tweeter (now Susquehanna Bank) Center in Camden? The last lawn seats I ever got there were about 3-4 years ago for a Blink-182/No Doubt show. What topped off the experience was that, in a moment of genius, somebody running that venue decided that they would no longer be renting those $5 chairs. Fair enough...I've seen people abuse that privilege. But then they couple that with this amazing rule: NO BLANKETS!! :wallbash: So basically you were forced to sit on the GRASS unless you had some sort of bag to use as a seat. Of course it starts drizzling a little making it all the ever more pleasant. They quickly did away with that policy, but I've been lawn free since then unless I'm with a big group. Actually went and saw Pearl Jam last friday. Great show. And always a pleasure to stroll through Camden at midnight on the way back to my car. They've done such wonderful things with that area.

RIP Air Marshall Carlin....the world just got a little less funny.

Currently 60/40 in favor of "disapprove." I'm sure this place can widen that gap...

Why was this mess dredged back up?

Thanks, Kev! Though, I didn't realize Amtrak cutoff runs from Penn at 10pm. Damn...might be driving...

Any quick recommendations for the closest/best train station to Yankee stadium? Going to see my first and last game there tonight and figured I would take the train up from DE instead of dealing with what I've heard has become a shtshow of a parking situation. Any help would be GREAT! Thanks!

That's too bad. We all could have benefited.

Interesting. What did you learn?

I think McGee has the benefit of experience, but Greer has more potential. For the world-class athlete McGee is, I think we have seen his ceiling as far as cover skills. He's average, maybe a little better. Greer made his mistakes, but I feel more comfortable with him on a team's #1 WR than I do McGee. And if it's coming down to one play, I definitely want Greer there. I'm hoping he takes a step forward after a year of real experience. And I'm really hoping McKelvin blows them both out.

Why did you eat a rotten banana?

Billups is not as far as I have ever seen. Rip is a different story. He's a very "active" defender and a lot of the stuff he does would have been par for the course 10-15 years ago when the NBA allowed contact. But since they changed the hand check rule several years ago, the stuff he does (grabbing, chopping, swiping, etc.) is considered "dirty play" now. I don't think it's really dirty, but I'd like to see it called on him, which is very rare. Rip escaped the label of dirty defender for most of his career because he is/was such an incredible athlete. The guy had a motor that matched Iverson and the ability to stay in front of most people without fouling. He still did his stuff, but as his athleticism has declined in the last few years, he has had to step up the karate chops more and more and it is becoming more noticeable. Finally, he has had the benefit of playing on what it is considered a great defensive team. Now he is a big contributor to that, but once a team gets that rep, it is easier for individual indiscretions to go unnoticed. It's like once you establish to the league that you are a 24 PPG scorer, traveling no longer applies. I love Rip, but he is becoming a bit more irritating as he gets older. He flops A LOT but doesn't get called on it like some of the foreign players and he is becoming increasingly chippy in his older age. I wouldn't put him at Bowen status, but he could get there.

I had a Bills-related psychic encounter once. My mom saw a psychic a few times several years back and she insisted that I come once just so I could experience it. I really didn't know what to ask her so I just asked about my future, school, etc. But as I was leaving, I couldn't resist and I asked her if the Bills would win the Super Bowl this year. It was late August 2000 and the Bills were coming off the Music City Rimjob and a Super Bowl was not entirely out of the question. Now this lady was from southeast PA, knew nothing about football or the Bills. She says: "Sorry, it's not going to happen. I'm seeing problems with their coach...they will most likely fire him." I smiled politely and walked out thinking "That crazy old bat...no way does Wade lose his job coming off consecutive playoff seasons. Psychic my ass."

Uggghhh...if that play wasn't a perfect foreshadow of how the game would unfold AND a perfect nutshell of how that season had been in general, I don't know what is. I can't remember a more exciting and equally frustrating season in my lifetime as a Bills fan (albeit only about 20 years). The hype of RJ, the terrible start, the shocker over "unstoppable" San Fran, the magic of Flutie, the bootleg at JAX, Moulds' incredible breakout, the infamous "just give it to 'em" game and capped off with that torturous playoff game that should never have been played in South Florida.

Not that I know of...I don't really know too much about the security details of either. As far as I know, both can be locked down pretty tight and opened up completely depending on user preference. It's probably no more or less safe than myspace now. I was just referring to the sexual predator stigma that myspace garnered when it first came around. It never affected me personally, but I could see how it could slant a person's view of the application. Hell, when Meazza told people here that he had a myspace account, he was called a pedophile for like 2 years....

I got both. Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with old college friends. Find out who's coming back for what games, where people are living now, etc. It has gotten more cluttered with all the recent application changes, but it's still useful. Just a great way to stay connected. Myspace I don't use as much, but still fun to have around. I'm not sure why people hate these sites....either they work for you or they don't. But I can't imagine having strong negative feelings against either (aside from the predatory risks of myspace of course).

Blue, being in TX, you ever go for Shiner Bock or Blonde? My boy is from Victoria and he used to bring that sht up to school all the time. Kind of tricky (but not impossible) to find around me. The Bock was pretty serious...like eating a loaf of bread. But those Blondes are smooth as fck.

66% southern...born in NYC, lived in PA/DE all my life, school in IN. Don't know where that came from...

NFL records....I usd pro-football-reference. One of the best stat compiling sites I've ever seen. Accurate as far as I can tell...they have counterparts for NBA, MLB, etc. too. Pretty tight... http://www.pro-football-reference.com/ And just to make it easier: PR Avg. KR Avg. KR TDs

AJ, we're all sorry that the board crash deleted the story about your gay dogs, but we don't need a mental image to back it up.

Buftex, couldn't agree more with everything you've said. People that alienated the NBA in the last 10 years are now missing some high quality basketball. If you truly enjoy the sport, then you aren't gaining anything by not watching now. I'm more of an NBA fan than an NHL fan just because I grew up playing basketball and just never really got into hockey when I was younger. But the NHL playoffs are just awesome. I believe that the higher amount of scoring done in a sport makes it more exciting (to the casual fan) during the regular season but less exciting during the playoffs. That's what makes the NHL so intense in the playoffs, IMO. Each goal (and beyond that, each opportunity to score) becomes so important and tense. I didn't watch more than a handful of Sabres games this whole year that happened to be on TV around me, but I can't get enough of the playoffs. Its uncanny the percentage of high quality, down to the wire games you get in playoff hockey.

I can't say that I've ever met a non-AFCE ant-Bills fan. Most people view meeting a Bills fan as meeting someone living with a terminal disease. It's a reception of pity, respect, general good will and a distinct feeling of "I'm glad I'm not that guy." Of course I speak mainly of people in my age group whose casual knowledge of the Bills starts with "0-4" and ends with Flutie. I don't really hate too many other teams. It's torturous enough rooting for the Bills to win, you just set yourself up for more disappointment if you have a list of 15 other teams you want to lose. Having said that, I could do without the following: - Miami - NE (but that will fade after Belichick leaves I think...) - Dallas - Michigan - Southern Cal - UF (just football, and just Urban) - Boston College - Red Sox Speaking from too much personal experience, the home games are over-policed because the administration has a collective sphincter tighter than a vice. When you allow young looking, undercover police to patrol tailgates dressed in ND clothes and wearing backpacks like students for the sole purpose of checking IDs, you've officially lost your mind. I'm not talking about monitoring rowdiness or inappropriate behavior, I'm talking approaching a group of kids standing in a circle talking and demanding ID from each one followed by threat of a breathalyzer. Madness...if I keep talking about it, I'll just get pissed off all over again. My point is, the level of security is not a good barometer for the collective behavior of the students. They could cut the police force in half and the amount of problems wouldn't budge. Having said that, I respectfully disagree with you. There are @ssholes at every school, but I'd challenge you to find an overall more pleasant game day atmosphere at a big-time college program, especially one that draws such intense feelings on both sides of the fence. Sure people are gonna talk sht here and there, but opposing fans deal with a lot less at ND than they do at other big sport schools. IMHO, that is... Side note, I went to Purdue for an away game my freshman year and I'll say that the people I met there were some of the friendliest I've ever seen. Of course it was only 1 game and ND was I think 5-7 at the time, but I've got nothing but good things to say about the Purdue kids I met.

Everything I've read and seen about the guy obviously screams top-threat returner. He's the kind of rookie who on most teams, would be given the KR/PR jobs the day he put pads on in the summer. However, I just don't see how we can justify removing either McGee or Parrish from their roles. Obviously having too many weapons is never a bad thing, but I'd hate to squeeze out one of the most prolific players at returning kicks/punts of ALL-TIME simply to plug in the fast, new rookie. McGee is 18th ALL-TIME in KR avg. and 4th among active players. He is also one TD away from being in 1st place ALL-TIME in KR touchdowns!! The guy just has a gift for finding the right seam and even when he doesn't break it all, how many times has he given us the ball between the 40s multiple times in a game? Traditionally the argument for taking him out of this role was that he was too valuable to defense to risk injury. Ironically, I think McKelvin's arrival weakens this point. McKelvin will obviously be expected to exceed McGee's ability as a CB in a reasonably short time. And I think Greer played very well last year. Losing McGee to injury is not the blow to our secondary it once was. I shouldn't even have to make a case for Parrish. The guy is 3rd all-time in PR avg. and he is just electrifying. I can't possibly see McKelvin (or anyone not named "Hester" -- and even there it's close) duplicating or surpassing his production as a PR. So what happens? Who loses the numbers game? It would seem a waste of talent to leave any of these guys off the field on special teams, but I can't imagine messing with what we have now.