imaginary friends to fill the void that is your gaping gash. - Page 304

Did you just call me Coltrane? · 02-15-2005, 12:56 PM

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle...toryID=7628543

Shape Shifter · 02-15-2005, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mister_Ruysbroeck
Trojan Magnums.

Proof that marketing works.

Mister_Ruysbroeck · 02-15-2005, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Proof that marketing works.

[rimshot]

taxwonk · 02-15-2005, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
New black AE dress loafers,* bought at a Nordstrom in the Bay Area, $151. And I never had to set foot in Milwaukee. Suck. It.

*Yeah, yeah. Did you see the part about sucking it? You'll get to it soon enough.

I have an Allen-Edmonds a block away from me, as well as a shoe store that sells them and has a twice-yearly half price sale a half-block farther.

And I don't have to walk past noxious women's fragrance sample ladies. Sniff the glove, chump.

mmm3587 · 02-15-2005, 01:05 PM

So, I'm not really a hockey fan, but I've been reading about this whole lockout thing, and it looks like the season is lost. I find it really hard to even understand the owners' position, other than trying to use the massive leverage they have to do whatever they can do.

It seems like the players are ok with significant salary rollbacks, but that they're not willing to accept general salary caps or similar wage price controls. Sounds reasonable to me. I think that the Page 2 column a few days ago suggested that the owners are essentially saying "We are too irresponsible to run our own businesses, so we want to act like a cartel as much as
possible and set all sorts of artificial limits on wages without any correlation to our revenue. We also want to use shady accounting."

I'm not an L&E guy, and of course athletics is very different, but don't the owners and teams have contractual obligations that they will have to honor if the lockout doesn't end in some negotiated settlement? Will some of the players really start their league?

Also, what are some other good articles or sites where I can read about this situation?

ThurgreedMarshall · 02-15-2005, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mister_Ruysbroeck
Did the condom issue ever get resolved?

I don't think so. But let me be the first to congratulate you and fringey.

TM

Shape Shifter · 02-15-2005, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mister_Ruysbroeck
[rimshot]

Are you propositioning me?

So how was everyone's VD (Valentines Day, not vagina dentata, though perhaps both)? Speaking of Freud, I went out to dinner with -- my mother! She happened to be in town on business, so we met for dinner. Restaurants don't seem to get that there may be some non-VD celebrating diners, although the complimentary rose and poloroid picture were nice. Of course, the best part was after dinner, but I don't want to get fringe too excited so early in the day.

Shape Shifter · 02-15-2005, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mmm3587
I'm not an L&E guy

Law & Erdor?

Did you just call me Coltrane? · 02-15-2005, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by taxwonk
I have an Allen-Edmonds a block away from me, as well as a shoe store that sells them and has a twice-yearly half price sale a half-block farther.

And I don't have to walk past noxious women's fragrance sample ladies. Sniff the glove, chump.

Fuck Nordstrom. And I'm proud to say I've never stepped foot in the following overpriced stores (given the average quality of merchandise):

(1) Neiman Marcus (this store needs a good assfucking)

(2) NikeTown* (you suck, Nike; make a shoe w/some substance intead of trying to sell us on marketing)

(3) Brooks Brothers (not even a high-end store, but their suits just look cheap - much cheaper than the $700 they charge for them)

*speaking of Nike, I hate all corporations that have a market share that is much too large given the quality of their goods and/or obtained market share by brute strength instead of superior products. And I hate them even more when that market share approaches monoply. See Microsoft (how has no one taken down Windows yet? What a piece of shit), Nike (seriously, the shocks do nothing), GM (dead dinosaur making cars that can't compete with a '95 Accord).

That is all.

pony_trekker · 02-15-2005, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mmm3587
So, I'm not really a hockey fan, but I've been reading about this whole lockout thing, and it looks like the season is lost. I find it really hard to even understand the owners' position, other than trying to use the massive leverage they have to do whatever they can do.

It seems like the players are ok with significant salary rollbacks, but that they're not willing to accept general salary caps or similar wage price controls. Sounds reasonable to me. I think that the Page 2 column a few days ago suggested that the owners are essentially saying "We are too irresponsible to run our own businesses, so we want to act like a cartel as much as
possible and set all sorts of artificial limits on wages without any correlation to our revenue. We also want to use shady accounting."

I'm not an L&E guy, and of course athletics is very different, but don't the owners and teams have contractual obligations that they will have to honor if the lockout doesn't end in some negotiated settlement? Will some of the players really start their league?

Also, what are some other good articles or sites where I can read about this situation?

I think there is a hidden agenda. I think Bettman is secretly trying to drive some teams oot of business without having to give back the huge franchise fees. If he blames it on the players, he gets cost certainty (eventually, even if they use JV players) AND weeds out the sick.

I wonder why no one has sued yet. Fan class action, season ticket holder class action.

Word has it a bunch of players may form an all-Canada league.

pony_trekker · 02-15-2005, 01:25 PM

NHL Players Agree to Accept Salary Cap

NHL Players' Association Agrees to Accept Cap, but Talks Break Down Over Ceiling of Cap
By IRA PODELL
The Associated Press
Feb. 15, 2005 - In what could be a last-second breakthrough, both sides of the NHL lockout have given significant ground: The players' association will accept a salary cap, and the league has backed off its demand for a link between revenues and player costs.

Now they just have to figure out the money, and time has all but run out.

Even while the negotiations were going on, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had already planned to announce the cancellation of the season Wednesday, a source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday.

Bettman was slated to speak Wednesday in New York, but the NHL declined to give details beyond the time and location.

The NHL offered to give in on linkage, a "significant move in the players' direction" the union said early Tuesday following a meeting in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

But when the players offered to accept a cap at $52 million in return the first time they came off their opposition to a ceiling on salaries the offer was rejected by the NHL. The league insisted on a salary cap that topped out at $40 million per team.

"It is indeed unfortunate that with the major steps taken by both sides we were unable to build enough momentum to reach an agreement," players' association senior director Ted Saskin said.

The NHL had no comment Tuesday on the union's statement.

No new talks were immediately scheduled, but with the philosophical differences now bridged, there appeared to be room for the sides to negotiate dollar figures.

The 24-percent rollback on all existing contracts, originally offered by the union on Dec. 9, as well as more aggressive luxury tax rates and thresholds, were included in the players' counteroffer.

With the major stumbling blocks now out of the way, the sides are only $12 million apart on what each team's cap should be. With the salary rollback, only eight of the 30 teams would be above $40 million.

Until now, Bettman insisted that the 30 teams know what their costs will be each season. The only way, he said, that could be achieved was to tie to the amount of player costs to a percentage of league revenues.

That was a solution the players' association refused.

NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly was the only other person involved in the meeting that wrapped up early Tuesday. The NHL reported that no progress was made, but didn't reveal any details of what was discussed.

If a deal is not reached quickly, the NHL would become the first major professional league in North America to lose an entire season because of a labor dispute. The Stanley Cup has been awarded every year since 1919, when a flu epidemic canceled the finals.

But more than two-thirds of the season and the All-Star game already have been lost to a lockout that started Sept. 16.

Bettman said the sides needed to start putting a deal on paper by last weekend if the NHL was going to hold a 28-game season and a full 16-team playoff. The regular season normally is 82 games.

Even a session with a federal mediator Sunday in Washington couldn't produce an agreement. But it did lead to the breakthrough in talks Monday.

Bettman had said teams needed to have cost certainty to survive and the only way he could guarantee that was with a salary cap that linked league revenues to player costs. Now that position has changed for the first time since the NHL started gearing up for the lockout in 1998.

The league has said teams lost $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million last season, and an economic study commissioned by the NHL found that players get 75 percent of league revenues. The union has challenged those figures.

A cap had been an automatic deal-breaker for the union even though it agreed that the financial landscape was flawed. The players' association contended that there are many other ways to fix it.

"There is no question the system has to change," said New Jersey Devils president Lou Lamoriello, who took part in earlier negotiating sessions. "We just have to keep working to find a solution. It's unfortunate we have to come this.

"If the season does end, we can't stop. We have to continue working at this and get it rectified as soon as we possibly can."

Monday, the 152nd day of the lockout, was to have been the last day of the All-Star break; the festivities in Atlanta were called off months earlier. Through Monday, 824 of the 1,230 regular-season games have been lost.

"Everybody has to take responsibility," Lamoriello said.

The sides have traded proposals throughout the lockout, but the salary cap had always been the sticking point. Other issues such as arbitration, revenue-sharing, and rookie caps never reached the true negotiating stage because the sides couldn't agree on the big issue.

In recent days, the union and league seemed adamant that they wouldn't budge.

"We're done," Saskin said Thursday after talks broke off.

On Sunday, Daly said: "We will not be reaching out to them."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

Hank Chinaski · 02-15-2005, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
Nike; make a shoe w/some substance intead of trying to sell us on marketing)

You mean this as to running shoes, right? I haven't ran in Nikes since waffle trainers went away. But the b-ball shoes are still the best- I admit sold with tons of marketing.

Hank Chinaski · 02-15-2005, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Are you propositioning me?

So how was everyone's VD (Valentines Day, not vagina dentata, though perhaps both)? Speaking of Freud, I went out to dinner with -- my mother! She happened to be in town on business, so we met for dinner. Restaurants don't seem to get that there may be some non-VD celebrating diners, although the complimentary rose and poloroid picture were nice. Of course, the best part was after dinner, but I don't want to get fringe too excited so early in the day.

If she was still trying to cough up that pube at dinner time I apologize for ruining your meal.

ltl/fb · 02-15-2005, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
I don't think so. But let me be the first to congratulate you and fringey.

TM

He's very ass-focused. Excellent bc method.

pony_trekker · 02-15-2005, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
Fuck Nordstrom. And I'm proud to say I've never stepped foot in the following overpriced stores (given the average quality of merchandise):

(1) Neiman Marcus (this store needs a good assfucking)

The men who work in this store receive said assfucking while the women are too tigt to do ANY fucking

(2) NikeTown* (you suck, Nike; make a shoe w/some substance intead of trying to sell us on marketing)

MADE IN SWEATSHOPS BY CHILD LABOR

(3) Brooks Brothers (not even a high-end store, but their suits just look cheap - much cheaper than the $700 they charge for them)

Great suits if you want your suits to fall apart in one year

[B]