Whites Bay

This is more difficult to answer than a question on wine preferences. Seriously! What's your palate? "How low will you go?" If you're adventurous, I'd recommend a goat cheese. Not a BIG piece, but it's the most distinctive flavor out there. My wife does a Brie melt with walnuts and brown sugar. Fantastic. The kids inhale it with lavash bread. "Hot Fun in the Summertime" - Sly and the Family Stone

Life imitates art. "Falling Down".

Hey Mike, First and foremost, thanks so much for the training camp reports. Far more detail than we get from the mainstream papers! I'd like to focus on the lines if I could. 1) How was Bell, and how was Wood? From what I've read, Wood's been getting a good amount of rest. 2) Is anyone aside from Troup and Williams playing NT? How's that kid Harvey? Again, many thanks.

Hello Lori. Although it's highly likely that you're not reading this material, I wanted to tell you - speaking as someone who takes the written word very seriously - I wanted to tell you that I miss your clear, but very rich, writing style. You're one of the few people on this board that I wanted to meet in person.

Certainly not as snarky as he could have been. Not a bad read at all. I'll pick nits with his nit-picking, however. I don't see how he can say that "Facing the Pats* aerial show might be a bit more difficult for these guys" in one breath, and then conclude with "[McKelvin] paired with Byrd, it looks like this deep, talented secondary could be in good hands for years to come". Logical asynchrony, methinks. Or homerism.

Actually, a major political stink in Canada at the moment is a $9 billion (U.S. or Canadian, it doesn't matter - it's a lot of salsa) proposed purchase of F-35 all-purpose Lockheed fighters. This purchase is being considered because their F-18s are getting a little long in the tooth. Don't discount the political impact of this "aerodynamic impact". This might be the clincher.

Speaking as one of the more optimistic posters on this board, I have to say that this season looks like it's going to be "Son-of-2001-Season". Not quite as many young, unproven players, not quite as many questions to be answered, but the only reason I'm feeling any optimism about this team is because it's ALL that I know how to do. Don't worry, I'll drink the Kool-Aid like I do every year, and I simply CAN'T WAIT until 1:00 P.M. on Sundays, but 2010 is only going to be a slightly more rosy version of 2001. Let's just hope the Bills don't whiff on another Mike Williams next year.

I, too, am growing more comfortable with Gailey as the HC (hate the accent, though). To paraphrase the Front Office, however,"Show me the baby". I'll start really believing in Gailey when he can not only go toe-to-toe with Beli-satan, but actually outcoach him. You want a measuring stick? Show me a coach that can actually devise an offensive scheme to put a TD on the board with short time on the clock after the Pats* have been playing 10 minutes of ball-control offense in the 4th quarter while protecting a field goal lead. Sounds simple? Well, the Bills haven't had a coach that can do that in 10 years. That, in my mind, is "Showing me the Baby".

And at the end of the game, the Bills have Jackson, Lynch and Bell. Most teams would kill for that backfield. Would I like to see C.J. Spiller? Absolutely! Will the Buffalo Bills move forward without C.J. Spiller? Absolutely! Will a potential holdout by C.J. Spiller change the 2010 Win-Loss record of the Buffalo Bills? Absolutely.....NOT. Too many other holes in too many other places. I'm one of the big optimists on this board, but trust me - C.J. Spiller's impact on Buffalo Bills football will NOT happen in 2010. Let's revisit this conversation in 2012. His holdout-induced absence only makes his potential room mate at St. John Fisher all the happier. Someone, after all, had to get the single room.

I haven't watched ESPN in years - so long now, in fact, that I can't imagine watching it. To that end, I couldn't give a rat's hairy @$$ what Chris Berman says about Spiller...or anything, for that matter.

I'm thinking "that trade idea" existed on this board, and on this board only. Like the old saying goes - "That, and $0.10, will get you uptown." "Uncle John's Band" - Oh, you know this one...

That's a fair statement, but I doubt that will happen. Parcells being at the top of that organization leads me to believe otherwise. This having been said, I'm starting to feel for the first time in a LONG time that this organization is assembling the FO/Coaching staff that can compete with those in the rest of the division. The players will come in time.

Hey WordByrd, a couple of players of note on the O-line, please. How looked Bell? How looked Wood? Thanks very much for the reporting. The news about Maybin is disturbing - not so much that he's either skinny or ripped. That's subjective. What's disturbing is hearing that he's getting tossed on his ass by the O-line. Getting tossed on your ass isn't subjective. That doesn't bode well.

I stand corrected in that hatred should indeed be reserved for someone other than a rich, self-absorbed owner of a professional sports franchise. But I do indeed concur with Jim's comment above. I would like front row seats to that action. Is that better?

You're right. I hate him.

Bennie Anderson has to be up there. Perhaps I'll start a thread of "Most Forgettable Bills" of the last decade. People like Lavuale Sape. Or Eddie Robinson. Or (as pointed out) Shaud Williams. Shaud Williams. Jesus. I must say, that was a tough exercise. Just try to put down a list of forgettable Bills...WITHOUT doing an internet search. What a blur of speed bumps.

I'm thinking of renaming my wife's cat "Watermelon". Lots of upside.

Glad you didn't take it as an attack. It's just a topic that gets very old around here, and I can do my best to apply logic to it, and it still ends up like BigGovernment.com. (That was probably an unnecessary comment, but I'm going to leave it in there). A million years ago, Bobby Sherman (or his record label) had a promotional gig with Frosted Flakes in which they would put a cheaply produced 45-rpm vinyl on the back of a box of cereal. You could pull/cut it off and it would actually play (schittily, of course). And there was Bobby Sherman's face spinning around on your record player. So what did WE do with it? Hell, we'd tack it to a post, stand off 100 yards, and use it for target practice with the .22! We were all pretty good shots in those days! The joys of growing up in Upstate New York in the 1960s! Kids in California just don't understand. Now, Farrah was HOT. Leave the Farrah poster alone.

I just don't see any way that Jerry Jones rolls over and lets another franchise drop into what he considers to be his secondary markets. I'm not saying this won't happen. I'm saying it won't happen without a fight. And that dude has a lot of money and clout to fight the fight. [i just re-read this before I posted it, and acknowledge the fact that it's turned into a long post. My apologies. Read on if you wish.] That's the part that posters on this board don't face when talking about "untapped" markets. There's a reason that markets are untapped. Screw the Rust Belt. Just look at the "growth" areas of the United States with respect to the NFL: Carolinas are done. Florida's done, and might lose a franchise in Jacksonville. Georgia's done. Arizona is done. California is done (this is obviously debatable, but I welcome the debate, since no team has landed in LA since Moses.) Los Angeles couldn't give a #*%@ about the NFL, the economy is in the #($%, and there's no public-sector OPM to fund a stadium. And San Diego is constantly scrambling to hang onto THEIR existing franchise. Texas is done. San Antonio and Oklahoma City are secondary markets for the Dallas Cowboys' VERY greedy and powerful (within the NFL) owner. Colorado is done. Lousiana is done (and Louisiana was not a growth market even before the oil spill). So...where are you looking to land a multibillion-dollar enterprise? Portland, OR? Little Rock, AR? San Antonio, TX? (Deal with Jerry Jones). Oklahoma City? (Deal with Jerry Jones). Birmingham, AL? As odd as it may seem, the Buffalo Bills may remain in Buffalo simply by dint of the worst economic downturn in modern history. Hell, it might not even be that modern. This one might stretch back to the 1930s. I'm not a rocket surgeon, but this recession seems to "have legs". Things may not get back to normal - "normal" being a situation where an entrepreneur can leverage him/herself to the ends of the planet to borrow a billion dollars on very little capital - for 3-4 years. Seriously. If RW passes in that time frame....oh, hell, I don't know. But looking at it as rationally as I am able, I don't see a whole lot of venues lining up to accomodate the franchise. Are there a lot of billionaires out there? Certainly enough of them. But - with the exception of Mark Cuban - they became billionaires by running the business properly. Perhaps it would make the most sense to keep a franchise - with a VERY SOLID brand loyalty, by the way - in the same market, rather than to move said franchise to (e.g.) Portland and start it all over. I mean, gee, things in Jacksonville and St. Louis have gone SO well. By the way, this is not a tirade directed at K-9. It's pretty much the same argument I trot out everytime this board rolls out the "OMFG, THE BILLS ARE MOVING TO (fill in the blank)" issue. Obviously, it doesn't matter that I trot it out everytime this board rolls out the "OMFG, THE BILLS ARE MOVING TO (fill in the blank)" issue. But, what the hell, it's always easier to panic than to deal with things. "Indian Lake" - The Cowsills

The wounds are still JUST below the surface, I guess. Anyone want to talk about Wide Right?

My most respectful apologies, good friend. But it is truly the Pats* that suck the big green weenie. Think about it. Only one - one - team has earned the dreaded "*". Now, that having been said - and I think I speak for the majority of this forum here - the Jets fans...the FANS...are perhaps the lowest form of bipedal life. And, that, my friend, is saying something. Because I work with many bipeds who are NOT Jets fans, and they're scab-picking-limp-wristed-nancy-boys on their best days. But Jets fans - most particularly those who troll on other teams' message forums - well, they fall eight levels of hell below THAT. "Something" - The Beatles

That happens, and I'll buy YOU the cold one to tip for Timmy. But I'd love it. Name your brew, kiddo.

I've searched my soul in depth, and upon complete review, I now realize I couldn't give a rat's hairy @$$, because he doesn't play for the Bills. If there's a god above, this will be the threadkiller post. He's gone. Move on.

I haven't been there in about 10 years; used to go there annually for business. I always stayed in the Fairmont Princess because it was right in the "business district" in Hamilton. Nice place, but downtown (Hamilton's a pretty small place, so don't let the expression "downtown" spook you). I heard that the nicer place was the Fairmont Southampton, which was out of town a few miles. THAT was the place at which I'd swore I would stay next time I got back, but unfortunately never made it. Five star for both places. Bear in mind that Hamilton is not cheap. Everything is about 10% higher than NYC, because everything is brought in by ship or plane.

Do we get to start calling out posters by name at this point?