TetRefine

Ok, I'll resurrect this thread again. Look, I met Stevie Wonder when I was in Vegas this summer…..

Save yourself the time. George Clooney dies, Sandra Bullock lives. Not worth the time and money to go see. Why people are raving about it I don't know.

Just wait till she becomes a teenager! But don't worry, I'll let you borrow my shotgun to scare off all the boys who'll come a knockin'. Of course you'll have to send it back to me when I have my daughter and need it for the same reason. In all seriousness though, congrats on getting married. She's cute as hell too!

Funny you should bring this up, because I was in the city last night for dinner with my boyfriend, and after we ate we decided to walk around. We ended up sitting in Washington Square Park in the middle of Center City, and like a hundred other couples sitting in that park we just held hands and talked while sitting on a bench. This old black guy slowly walks by us and gives me the evil eye of homosexual disapproval. I stared straight back at him with the coldest look I could put on my face and eventually he just kept walking. When we left the park about 20 minutes later he was standing there handing out pamphlets and hollered something at us about how homosexual sinners were going to hell or whatever. The best way is to ignore them and not give them the time of day.

George Laraque was a thug with no talent who chose to be an enforcer. Key word: CHOSE. You don't have to fight in hockey. The only time you'll get jumped and involuntarily forced to fight is if you made a cheap hit and you deserve to get punched. Otherwise, the vast majority of fights are square off fights where both players agree by dropping the gloves. If you don't want to fight, you don't drop the gloves and keep playing. Its that simple. Therefor I have no sympathy for Laraque, nor do I take him seriously, because he defined himself as the Mike Tyson of the NHL. If you do not want to risk head trauma, then don't play contact sports, especially one where you know fighting is part of the game. And to answer your question, yes, I do want fighting to continue because every segment of the hockey community is for it, including the guys who have to suffer the physical punishment of it.

Agree to disagree. Although I disagree that rugby is more brutal than football. In football the hits are far harder and from much bigger guys. Yeah, they may wear protective equipment, but that only keeps things from breaking (most of the time), it doesn't soften the force of the blow. I've played both and I can tell you I always walked away far more sore from football then rugby. In response to the kids/families thing, my dad took me to UNH (college) and AHL (minors) games from the time I was 7. I saw fights a lot as a kid going to the game (and sometimes fights between fans). I cheered and yelled for my guy to win the fight just like everyone else. It was just an acceptable part of the game, and whenever I go to especially NHL games I see more younger kids with their dads then I do at MLB or NFL games. So no, I highly doubt the fighting in the game is keeping parents away from the game. I agree its not always emotional outburst (although sometimes it is). But it still serves a purpose, especially when your team is down and you need to pump some energy into the fans and the players. Theres nothing like a good ass whopping on the ice to send shockwaves of energy through the entire arena.

Actually that is not true. Fighting has been a constant part of the game since its inception, and was often far more brutal then it is today. The NHL implemented rules that actually decreased fighting and made it more safe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_in_hockey Again, the "ban fighting" crowd is nothing more then a vocal minority. The players, executives, and fans all want to keep it so they will. Its a tradition, plain and simple. Its one of the things that makes hockey players some of the toughest athletes out there.

I think a lot of people here are missing the point. Fighting wasn't invented in hockey to get more people to watch it on TV. It has been a part of the game since the beginning when it was just a bunch of amateurs playing on a frozen pond in Canada. Taking fighting out of hockey would be sissifying the game, similar to whats being done now in the NFL. The players don't want it, the fans don't want it, the club execs don't want it, and TV doesn't want it. So why would they change it? Just to appease the non-violence pacifist crowd? Please.

Totally agree. Have you ever noticed that whenever one of these letters pops up on the web, there is never a follow up story to confirm that the persons involved are actually real? That the story told to us in the letter actually did happen? I am willing to bet that its simply activists who create these letters and post them up on the web until they go viral to try and further their cause. Not that furthering the cause is a bad thing, but I bet 90% of the letters that get posted like this one are a complete sham.

Hockey has its roots as a blue collar sport. I know the PC crowd will throw a fit, but fighting is a perfectly acceptable means of solving a dispute in blue collar/lower class culture. That blue collar culture has simply followed into the multi-million dollar NHL, and its because of money. NHL fans love fights and they don't want it banned, so NHL executives are smart because they'd lose money if they did. Go to any NHL or AHL game and see how the crowd reacts when a fight breaks out and their guy wins. The crowd goes absolutely nuts and it energizes the team and the fans. My first Bruins game was back in 2008, and they had been on losing streak for like 5 games straight. They were playing the Caps, who at the time was one of the best teams in the league and we were just barely on the playoff cusp. Milan Lucic dropped the gloves right as the puck dropped against Matt Bradley and demolished him, and it got the fans and the team really into it. They ended up winning 2-1. My point is, there is a strategic purpose behind a lot of the fighting that goes in the NHL. Here's the video of the Lucic vs Bradley fight.

Yeah Red Storm Rising was amazing. I read it when I was 17 and it set off my fascination with the Cold War and the USSR.

I was really saddened to hear this. Some of my favorite books are written by him, including Red Storm Rising, The Hunt For Red October, and my favorite, The Cardinal of the Kremlin. Its too bad most of his stuff after The Bear and the Dragon was crappy, but I have a feeling he just lent his name to a ghost writer for everything after that. Anyway rest in peace Mr. Clancy. You have been and always will be the master of geo-political technothrillers.

Its 10:02 am and I just got back from class and I'm lazing around in my bed, thinking whether or not its worth the effort to go get breakfast.

Going from Beacon Hill to Dorchester must have been a bit of a change in scenery.

Its funny that over 3 million people is considered a "smaller" city for China, haha. It would be the third biggest in the US.

Another one I hate is the Taconic Parkway, that runs from about Albany to just a little north of New York City. Not only is it horribly maintained and very narrow for a 2-land highway, but driving when its dusk, dark, or dawn is dangerous because there are so many deer along the road that you are liable to cream one going 65 mph and get into a nasty wreck. One time driving around 4am on there, I counted seeing about 40 deer in a 20 minute timespan.

Maybe, but he's been so good for so long that one bad season (even if its his last) won't ruin his reputation as the king of closers.

I considered San Francisco as a possibility. Theres something about the diversity and glamour and vastly different lifestyle then the East Coast that always made me seriously consider California, whether it was LA, San Diego, or San Francisco. Only thing is, it would be really hard leaving all my family behind because everyone lives in 3 states all within 4 hours of each other. The nice thing about Boston, New York, or Philadelphia is that I'm far enough away to feel like I have my own life, but close enough to know its only a couple hours drive to visit. If I moved out west, it would a once or twice a year thing and would require a 6 hour flight just to get there. But who knows, maybe I'll take a leap. Theres something about California that just intrigues us East Coasters. Or Lawton, Oklahoma. I came very close to being born there and ending up an Army brat myself. Thank god that never happened.

I'm wondering how many of you have moved around in your life and lived in different places. What did you think of moving and were there certain places that you preferred over others? Did you move because of a job, personal reasons, or the living environment? I guess whatever you want to write about having moved around and for what reasons I'm interested in knowing. For me, I was born and raised in a blended suburban/rural area of New Hampshire, which I absolutely hated because it lacked just about everything. I then moved down to the Philadelphia Metro for college where I live now, and much prefer the hustle and bustle of the East Coast big city as compared to rural New England. I've applied for jobs in most of the big cities here (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC) so I'll probably stick around. I would love to move to LA or San Diego for a while, but it would be hard with my entire family and my roots back east.

Thats me. I guess I'm just a good 'ole piece of trailer trash.

I was comfortable around my boyfriend long before this point, but the point I felt really comfortable around him was when we started seriously discussing our future options for post-college life together.

8/10 = still top 20%. Disregard bitches.

I wonder what app that could be….

Of course there is, but it sure isn't considered a socially acceptable practice unless you live in Alabama.

And those of us hoping to get into the public/government sector, we either come into a great job market where municipalities and agencies are hiring like crazy…or…we come into a market where they are laying people off left and right and you couldn't get a job if you were the most qualified person on planet Earth. Luckily for me, government hiring is picking up. I just had a friend who graduated last year land a $90k/year job at FEMA, and he's only 22.