BlueSoxSWJ

The Wizard of Oz was written in 1900. The first known reference to it possibly being a political allegory about the gold standard screwing over workers was in 1964. A bit of a stretch to think the "real meaning" stayed hidden for 65 years until some random high school teacher noticed it.

NBA quarters are only 12 minutes, so the game is 48 minutes. The problem with a seven game series in football is that you would either end up with the whole team injured, or you would keep the regular spacing, which means the 7 game series would take 7 weeks ... Meanwhile, the Canucks need one more win still to avoid the fastest playoff exit ever by a President's Trophy winner.

Updated picks: (1) NYR over (8) OTT in 6 (2) BOS over (7) WAS in 6 (6) NJD over (3) FLA in 6 (5) PHI over (4) PIT in 4 (8) LAK over (1) VAN in 5 (7) SJS over (2) STL in 7 (6) CHI over (3) PHO in 6 (5) DET over (4) NAS in 7 -- (1) NYR over (6) NJD in 6 (2) BOS over (5) PHI in 4 (6) CHI over (7) SJS in 5 (5) DET over (8) LAK in 7 -- (2) BOS over (1) NYR in 6 (5) DET over (6) CHI in 6 -- (2) BOS over (1) DET in 7

Cracked his helmet on the glass. NHL ruling: No suspension. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhjhBMGYEng Elbow to the head. NHL ruling: 3 playoff game suspension. Guess the NHL Wheel of Justice is back. Edit: The only player ever to take off his skate and try to stab someone with it was Happy Gilmore

3 days in and already one of my predictions is dead. I love the playoffs!

For both of you, if NYR, BOS, NJD, and PHI all win in the East, New York would play New Jersey in round 2. It is possible for New York and New Jersey to meet in the Eastern Conference Finals, but it would require Washington to beat Boston in the first round.

A quick note to those new to the NHL: the teams are re-seeded after the first round. This means that for both the East and West, the top remaining team plays the bottom remaining team. This is in contrast with March Madness, where an underdog that upsets a top seed "takes their place" for the rest of the way. For example, if Ottawa knocks off New York in round one, they do not automatically play the winner of (4) PIT vs. (5) PHI. They play the top seeded team still remaining. My picks: (1) NYR over (8) OTT in 5 (2) BOS over (7) WAS in 6 (6) NJD over (3) FLA in 6 (5) PHI over (4) PIT in 5 (1) VAN over (8) LAK in 5 (7) SJS over (2) STL in 7 (6) CHI over (3) PHO in 6 (5) DET over (4) NAS in 6 -- (1) NYR over (6) NJD in 6 (2) BOS over (5) PHI in 4 (1) VAN over (7) SJS in 4 (5) DET over (6) CHI in 7 -- (2) BOS over (1) NYR in 6 (1) VAN over (5) DET in 6 -- (2) BOS over (1) VAN in 6 Edit: picks revised in future post, but I'll leave this initial prediction here.

Rumor has it the NHL is really unhappy with Quebec for making a big deal out of their new arena. All it does is shine an embarrassing spotlight on the NHL's inability to make some franchises work where they are. A lot of media writers who go to things like the GM meetings say they wouldn't be surprised if Seattle gets a team before Quebec, hoping to capitalize on the NBA's move away.

Looks like a good number of Cardinals fans made the trip down to Miami. I mean, some of those sections have almost as many people as empty seats!

Well, things got a whole lot clearer tonight. We know our playoffs will include the Rangers, Bruins, Panthers, Penguins, Flyers, Devils, Senators, and Capitals on the East; Canucks, Blues, Kings, Predators, Red Wings, Blackhawks, Coyotes, and Sharks in the West. The East, at least, has only 3 spots undetermined: 1. NYR vs. 8. OTT, FLA, or WAS 2. BOS vs. 7. OTT or WAS 3. FLA or WAS vs. 6. NJD 4. PIT vs. 5. PHI The West is still a big fat mess.

From another forum, the trail was broken before me so I can't give you an author:

I hereby petition the administration to place a filter on posts to this section that stops anyone posting anything with the substring "sport's" and makes them confirm that they really want to have that apostrophe there ...

Rose is amazing and they have young talent and a deep bench in a condensed-schedule season.

It'll be nice to finally be able to update my facebook photo with this year's version in a couple months

On Sunday during the nationally televised Boston Bruins @ New York Rangers game (NBC, 12:30), Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke and Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke (father and brother of the late Brendan Burke) will be launching a series of PSAs featuring at least several current NHL players supporting LGBT athletes at all levels. So far details have been scant, and the only real publicity has been an ESPN hockey today podcast. We know several current Columbus Blue Jackets are participating - a couple weeks ago, Brian Burke made headlines in Toronto when he was seen in the Columbus team hotel shortly before the trade deadline. Columbus had one of the top trade deadline targets, so everyone assumed Burke was there to negotiate a trade, but we now know that he was there filming for the upcoming ad campaign. Yet another reason to love the NHL related:

On here, I've re-read DK's do over series and CJ's Let the Music Play. I used to re-read books all the time. Partly to re-experience the best books, partly because it was a pain to go out and get new ones, and partly because, at the pace I read, it would have been prohibitively expensive to always get new ones. Now, I will still occasionally re-read a favorite book or series (Honor Harrington or Dahak novels by David Weber, Chaos Chronicles by Jeffrey Carver, Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams come to mind right away), but mostly I just download some of the top selling free SciFi e-books for Kindle.

As long as it doesn't get so bad that I have to stop, go back, and figure out what the character is trying to say, I'll forgive almost any errors in speech. Far more common, I find that authors tend to make dialogue, especially if characters are exchanging long thoughts with one another, sound more like an e-mail exchange or something you would read on here. If a supposedly "spontaneous" verbal dialogue reads like a series of carefully crafted, edited, and proofread exchange of text-based messages, it can break up the flow of a story almost as thoroughly as a flagrant continuity error.

Normally, I'd reserve XKCD for the Games and Humor section, but this just happens to be today's topic, and it makes a good point: For applications that don't have a really small character limit, 4 common words shoved together (with no fancy punctuation, substituted numbers for letters, etc.) is about 65 thousand times more secure than a word-with-numbers-and-symbols password.

From 1994 to 2007, there was a high-numbered channel called "Nick GAS" (Games and Sports) that reran all the classic game shows, like Nick Arcade, Guts, Finders Keepers, Figure It Out, Get the Picture, Wild and Crazy Kids, and of course, Legends of the Hidden Temple.

Sometimes the most effective way to get through to someone is mockery. It's a risk, because you might piss him off beyond the point of no return, but sometimes turning his hurtful little remarks back on him can actually get through to someone. And really, if saying to him exactly what he's saying to you pisses him off that much, he's probably never going to get past your sexuality. It's all well and good to let it be the awkward elephant in the room when you're single and pretend things are still "normal," but what's going to happen if/when you do meet someone that you stay with for the long term?

Replace the chair you do your reading and writing in with one of those giant exercise balls. It won't seem like a big difference one you get settled in, but it'll keep most of your lower body busy maintaining balance while you work/read.

At least someone from Vancouver can score on the road!

Bettman gets soundly booed no matter which arena he's in or the circumstances. Had Vancouver won, he still would've been booed. I can't wait for opening day next year!