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

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by str8outavannuys
I think this season will be quite short, perhaps 25 games.

At this point, isn't any "season" something of a joke? I'd like to see them settle, but why not just give it up and come back next year, without some hastily concocted "regular" season plus playoffs.

Anyway, other than GWNK, who will go to the games? Will the players even be there?

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Ultimate Fighter

I'm bored, so here are my rambles.

I am not watching this show - in fact, I'm not watching that much tv these days at all because of work and wanting to sleep so I can get up in the morning. However, this is what is puzzling me.

I went to a kickboxing tournament on Friday to watch my friend fight (she won - 1st round knockout) and the difference between traditional kickboxing (where you can only kick above the groin and below the neck) and muy thai, where you can kick anywhere and actually hang off the person and knee them, was striking. I found the muy thai boring because it looked like grappling most of the time - no real skill, and the kickboxing very entertaining. So the appeal of no holds barred ultimate fighting is kind of lost on me because how hard is it to just grab someone and whale on them.

On the other hand, the weekend before, I watched the Spinks/Judah match which was technically beautiful but quite boring, and the Beck/Barrett undercard which was more of a brawl and pretty entertaining. So skill doesn't rule - I just don't get the appeal of naked aggression without rules. Is it just the violence that makes this appealling?

[Replaced_Texan]

I am told that this is an awsome website, but my work's filter won't let me see it:

http://wetmen.provocateuse.com/

(spree: what more spree do you need than the URL and my earlier comment)

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
At this point, isn't any "season" something of a joke? I'd like to see them settle, but why not just give it up and come back next year, without some hastily concocted "regular" season plus playoffs.

Anyway, other than GWNK, who will go to the games? Will the players even be there?

Fucking Gary Bettman.

Anyway, I was thinking something along the lines of a round-robin tournament. They *have* to award the Cup if they are going to save the sport -- as some columnist noted the other day, no one really remembers the fact that the football seasons were shortened in 1982 and 1987 (or whenever), or that the 94-94 NHL season was shortened, or that baseball has had seasons affected.

All anyone remembers is the year without a World Series. Baseball is still suffering greatly from that fiasco. One can only imagine how screwed hockey will be in the US after a Cup is cancelled.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by Not Bob
Fucking Gary Bettman.

Anyway, I was thinking something along the lines of a round-robin tournament. They *have* to award the Cup if they are going to save the sport -- as some columnist noted the other day, no one really remembers the fact that the football seasons were shortened in 1982 and 1987 (or whenever), or that the 94-94 NHL season was shortened, or that baseball has had seasons affected.

All anyone remembers is the year without a World Series. Baseball is still suffering greatly from that fiasco. One can only imagine how screwed hockey will be in the US after a Cup is cancelled.

The league has already sent out memos saying that the season is cancelled. Bettman is set to announce that at 1pm (10am pt).

Can't we change the subject? Talk about something uplifting? I'm just going to go to my happy place.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Why is it that sometimes a hard-boiled egg peels really easily, and other times the shell sticks so badly that you rip the whole egg apart and you can only eat what you can scrape with your teeth unless you want a mouthful of shell?

Is there a way to control this, by cooking them a little longer or putting them in cold water or throwing some secret ingredient it? Or is this just the cruel randomness of existence at work?

I'm hungry.

There is a lost art to eating an egg in an eggcup. While the art reaches its highest form with the soft boiled egg, it also works for the fresh but hard-to-peel hardboiled egg.

Slice the top off, shell still on, with a hard whack with a sharp knife, and eat it with a thin spoon.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Can't we change the subject? Talk about something uplifting? I'm just going to go to my happy place.

Were the wet men hot?

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
I went to a kickboxing tournament on Friday to watch my friend fight (she won - 1st round knockout) and the difference between traditional kickboxing (where you can only kick above the groin and below the neck) and muy thai, where you can kick anywhere and actually hang off the person and knee them, was striking. I found the muy thai boring because it looked like grappling most of the time - no real skill, and the kickboxing very entertaining. So the appeal of no holds barred ultimate fighting is kind of lost on me because how hard is it to just grab someone and whale on them.

On the other hand, the weekend before, I watched the Spinks/Judah match which was technically beautiful but quite boring, and the Beck/Barrett undercard which was more of a brawl and pretty entertaining. So skill doesn't rule - I just don't get the appeal of naked aggression without rules. Is it just the violence that makes this appealling?

No, it's not the violence that makes it appealing. Grappling involves an enormous amount of technical skill. It's harder to understand than straight-up kickboxing, but it is in many ways a lot more dependent on technical skill. Years ago, when this sort of fighting was just being introduced, the Gracie family made their name because of their grappling/ground-fighting skill. Many of them were relatively small guys, but they were consistently beating much bigger and stronger fighters because of their far superior technique.

Ultimate Fighter from a couple of weeks ago showed the same thing -- a very skilled ground-fighter decisively beating a much stronger fighter because he closed the distance and put the guy down, then worked him into a choke.

The appeal to me is that the "well-rounded" aspect of the really good fighters. They are not just good boxers or kickboxers or wrestlers, they have complete skills. That, and the fighting approaches real fighting. Unfortunately, certain rules that have been added over the years diminish this -- for example, you can make a really stupid lunge at someone, miss, and in a street fight he would kick you in the face but in UFC he can't.

Anyway. I like it. It's fun.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Not an erect nipple in the lot. None of them even look at all perky. I'm afraid I give this a C at best.

I don't know what to tell you. Numbers 1 & 3 would make Tom Sizemore's fake penis hard.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Not an erect nipple in the lot. None of them even look at all perky. I'm afraid I give this a C at best.

Never thought I'd say this, but your standards muct be WAY higher than mine.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Why is it that sometimes a hard-boiled egg peels really easily, and other times the shell sticks so badly that you rip the whole egg apart and you can only eat what you can scrape with your teeth unless you want a mouthful of shell?

Is there a way to control this, by cooking them a little longer or putting them in cold water or throwing some secret ingredient it? Or is this just the cruel randomness of existence at work?

I'm hungry.

Often, the age of the egg will play a big factor. As the egg gets older, the albumen increases, and that's one of the things that causes the egg to stick more to the shell. It also helps to run cold water over the eggs immediately after boiling them.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by bilmore
Never thought I'd say this, but your standards muct be WAY higher than mine.

The issue being directly addressed was nipplage. And I've always known that my standards were higher than yours. But I can reach the top shelf without a step ladder, so that probably has a lot to do with it.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by taxwonk
The issue being directly addressed was nipplage. And I've always known that my standards were higher than yours. But I can reach the top shelf without a step ladder, so that probably has a lot to do with it.

Is blatant nipplage safe for work? My take:

Topographical nipplage through the shirt = OK
Visible nipplage (for example, through a wet, white t-shirt) = not OK

YMMV

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
Is blatant nipplage safe for work? My take:

Topographical nipplage through the shirt = OK
Visible nipplage (for example, through a wet, white t-shirt) = not OK

YMMV

What about yesterday's painted nipplage?

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Not Bob
Fucking Gary Bettman.

Anyway, I was thinking something along the lines of a round-robin tournament.

Other than generating revenue, I've thought for some time that the NHL should give up on the fiction of a meaningful regular season, and simply conduct a 30-team bracket tournament (give byes to last year's finalists). Play best of 9 or best of 11 (15?) or something.


How do you not remember scabs or the 9-game season? And how do you not forget the 1981 cincinnati reds with the best regular season record not even making the playoffs? By comparison, 1994 seems like merely a nullity, unlike the tainted "full seasons" of other strike years.