FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 15, 2008 -> 03:53 PM) Ok so the government needs to bail out a total corporate financial failure. I don't think so. If there isn't going to be trillions eaten by the government let them work it out on their own, this bailout is dumb as hell and will only encourage this kind of reckless corporate activity. It takes out all the risk involved, if a oorporation knows they can make risky moves, as all failures will be covered by the government, they are going to take crazy risks and tax payers will end up getting jacked. Also, where are we getting the money to bail out these banks? The federal government is massively in dept, we don't have money. The government will be borrowing this money to cover other poor borrowing procedures. This really is an epidemic in the United states. Financial stability is totally out the window. I'd love for the feds to be able to say they're not going to bail the banks out, I really would. But how realistic is that if the worst estimates on bank failures (I've read maybe 150 banks over the next 18 months) turn out to be true?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 15, 2008 -> 12:05 PM) There are really 3 primary types of "Chicago" pizza. The famous deep dish pie of course... the south side, buttery thin crust... and the cracker crust Chicago thin. For those three, the best, IMO: Deep Dish: Lou Malnati's (Due's and Girodano's get silver and bronze) South Side: Home Run Inn (nothing else I've had comes close - and don't tell me Connie's) Cracker: Barnaby's (Jake's gets a silver) I love some deep dish and stuffed pizza when I'm home for a visit, but the cracker crust thin pizza is THE pizza fix I look forward to. I'm partial to the pizzerias from near my neighborhood, which seems to be the case with most of us. For me, Fox's, Chuck's on Western, and Vito and Nick's on 84th and Pulaski (and soon to be featured on Food Network!) are tops.

Go to a blues club.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 10:23 PM) I'd like to read a slightly less biased report. Just don't count on SS to post it.

My thoughts are with his family.

Happy Happy!

I'm jealous, you should have a ball. I haven't been in around 15 years, so the exchange rate was better and there was no Euro yet either. Right now, $100 will get you about 62€, so that's going to hurt some. I ahd no problem even back then making due with an ATM, but we brought traveler's checks as well. As far as things to do, it depends on where you're going and what you enjoy. Dublin is a classic city, but the highlight for me was the west coast. . . Galway, Cliffs of Moher, the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle, and Inishmore. If you get a chance to spend a night on the Island definitely do it. Biking down from a cottage to the ruins of an Iron Age fort perched on a cliff, and then down into town for a Guinness and some dinner is about as perfect a way to spend a day as I can think of.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 01:05 PM) Do you mean monkey in the middle or running bases? pickle was running bases.

QUOTE (juddling @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:41 PM) Don't forget the "Misfits of Science" Courtney???? So you're the other person on Earth who saw that show, huh?

I just remembered an important corollary to the "Get off my father's apple tree" gool rule. If the It person was too close to gool and you'd just be a sitting duck when you took your hands off gool, then you could call"wagon space" and It would have to take three steps back to give you a chance. Also, you couldn't just take your hands off of gool and then put them right back on. They had to be off for there seconds before you could put them back on gool.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:11 PM) Pickle was a classic game. I used to PWN NOOBs at that all day long. When we'd play at block parties and family picnics it would get to the point where there were like 10 little kids running at the same time, all running back and forth into each other and you're just praying you don't make a bad throw and nail one of them in the back of the head.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) Come on fess up... you were the "kid" weren't you. Shut up that's why!

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:24 PM) Pitcher's hand out! Yep, but tie goes to the runner. And don't bobble it.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:05 PM) to be fair, it's not like his jump was from ten things I hate about you to the dark knight. He had oscar performances before in Brokeback mountain, and even in a short role you could see the shift to serious actor in Monster's Ball. And, I think Ledger's performance might be a little better than cesar romero's performance. Don't knock Ceasar! You can knock John Astin's Riddler, or Lee Merriweather's Catwoman, but Ceaasar's Joker and Merideths' Penguin are above reproach. Even if Romero couldn't be bothered to shave his moustache for the role, and even if his hair was red instead of green.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) Kickoffs were preceded with "Warning - Kickoff!" We always settled the worst of disputes in football with a DGO - down goes over. DGO!!!

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:34 AM) We played fast pitch Whiffle ball. Whiffle ball required a large garbage can that was flat on one side ( like the toters that we use today ). The purpose of this was to provide a strikezone. Becoming a master of nicking the handle up and in which was unhittable was the hallmark of a Cy Whiffleball ace. The ball was the one that had holes all over, no using the one that was solid on one side and had holes on the other. The skinny yellow whiffle ball bat was the only approved version. The big fat bat was like using steroids. Right field, just like our beloved whitesox, was out unless you were left handed. The base paths were probably what 20 feet away. You could circle the bases in short order. Throwing and hitting the garbage can was considered the same as throwing to the catcher. If it hit, before you touched home you were out. Traditional Fast pitch with a rubber ball. Fast pitch at the local school. The best ball to use was the good old fashioned pinky. You would stay say 45 feet away, strikezone was painted on the wall. Seemed that all schools had that mark on their wall somewhere. The ball didnt break that much, but everyone was Nolan Ryan with this setup. Aluminum bats were allowed. If the ball hit the street on a fly it was a homer, Then it was based on distance for different base allocations. No one ran. Anyone play "Running bases". If nothing else teaches you how to execute a rundown. We played Whiffle and fast pitch almost exactly like you described, except we used the official Whiffle with the holes on one side only. I was thinking we used a blue or black handball or raquetball ball for fast pitch, but maybe we used a pinky too. We had to play fast pitch at the school yard over at one of "the publics" because a strike zone painted on the wall at one of "the Catholics" woulkd have been scrubbed off in a day. Sometimes we played using the steps of one of our houses (all Chicago bungalows) as the backstop, and the 2nd and 3rd steps were strikes. That was a pain because the ball would richochet all over the place when it hit the corners of the steps. Playing Whiffle in the street, we played at an intersection, and the four sewers were the bases and plate for our diamond. In whiffle and in "lob league" we also played right field out unless we had enough players. That was probably the nuttiest of all tese universal kid rules. Shoulda been a foul ball at worst, but if you creamed the ball but to the wrong field it was an out?!? It never made sense to me as a kid either, but that's how we played.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:23 AM) Did you guys ever play football in the street or a yard, and when you kick off (or throw off) you yell "warning, no false in, no no takes!" or something like that? Or was it just my neighborhood? We didn't yell that on kickoffs, but we had all sorts of other crazy street football conventions. You did have to yell "On-side" if you were attempting to throw/kick and onside kick. We played Nerf touch football, in the street, and the goals were either lamp-post to lamp-post or sewer to sewer depending on the parked car situation up and down the street. We also played no-pads/helmet tackle football on the grass at the park on Saturdays unless we were playing lob league" baseball. One blitz per four downs and one run per set, unless there was a blitz, and then you could run. When blitzing, you had to yell "BLITZ!!" In touch football, it had to be two-hand-touch, with "no pittty-pat", i.e., one hand and then the other. 3 completes was a first down. A touchdown was 7 points, there was no extra point. As soon as play ended on the third down the yelling began. Offense would try to yell "NO PUNT CHECK" before the defense would yell "FOURTH DOWN, PUNT CHECK!" If punt check won, then you had to tell the other team if you were going for it or if you were punting. If there was no punt check, then you could opt for the ever-popular "Pass-punt-receiver", or "PPR", or (inexplicably) "PPS". On a PPS, the quarterback could throw a bomb and if a receiver caught it, it was counted as a complete pass, but if he didn't, then it was counted as a punt and the opposing team would have to scramble to pick or up and play it. Dang, now I think I need to round up the kids on the block and play. I call official QB!.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 09:33 AM) We also said this, but I can't remember why. "Olly olly oxen, free free free!" I guess it was a way to tell people who couldn't be found in hide n' seek that the seeker was giving up, and we'd be starting again. Also, home base was gool, but we pronounced it "glue." We also used to play ding dong ditch, and to make it harder, we would line up seven or eight people at doors and all ring at the same time. Then we'd all run the same direction, so the last person would be running past all 8 of the houses that had been DDD'd. We had a guy chase us for several blocks with a broom. The combination of fear and laughter was exhilirating. And you can bet that guy became our favorite target from then on. Damn, we had pockets of kids who called it "glue" too! Mostly those kids from Leavitt and Bell who were sometimes deemed cool enough to play with the unquestionably cool kids from Hamilton and Hoyne. And I love that multiple-DDD variant. That's great.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 09:13 AM) hmmmm, we played a different version of ghost in the graveyard. The ghost went out and hid, everyone counted, and then went looking for him. If you saw him, then you shouted "GHOST!" and ran back to the gool before the ghost tagged you. If you were tagged, you were it for the next round. No, that's exactly how we played it as well. I'm running the Ghost/Kick the can variants into one for simplicity. If we were playing Ghost it was one hider and averybody else was a seeker. If we were playing Kick the can, then it was one seeker and everybody else hid. Either way, the booger-eater down the block got screwed.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 09:19 PM) Peanut Butter and White Wine are not a great mix. Yet I can't stop mixing. And you're the guy who gave me guff about liking that "lollipop wine" Beaujolais nouveaux ?? Seriously, are you talking about a food and drink pairing or about mixing in a cooking sauce. I can certainly see that combination in a sauce - like a Thai peanut sauce or something to put over baked fish. As for a food pairing, peanut butter anything paired with Auslese or Kabinett sounds like it would be great. I'm a sucker for the uberfruity dessert wines though (see "lollipop wine").

QUOTE (mreye @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 07:46 AM) But when the "it" guy wanted to quit he just did and never told anyone. What kind of crap is that? Would we let him play the next night? Of course. We had a kid on the block who either got stuck being It and we'd all pretend to hide but would really just leave and let him keep looking, or if he was a hider, we'd all pretend to be hiding or seeking but would just take off and let him keep hiding to think he had a really sweet spot. To the kid's credit, he would hole up and hide for a good hour or so before popping his head out. "Guys. . . hey, Guys. . . ?" Wow, were we a-holes or what?

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 07:24 AM) "Olly Olly Oxen Free!!!!!!" Again, no sense whatsoever. Did we yell that when everyone got back safe? I remember there was always someone who would never admit to being caught by the ghost and would cause some sort of a ruckus or spat about it. It probably was supposed to be oxen for us, but somewhere along the line some kid who didn't know what the eff oxen were turned that into ocean and it stuck. We said it when the seeker/seekers gave up and the hiders were supposed to come out of hiding.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 06:55 AM) I forgot about that rule! We used to make chains of people to reach out and get the last person getting chased to gool. And yes, we used the same word for the safe zone. I have no idea where it came from. When you guys did your countdown before everyone left gool, did you shout some wierd variation of "12 O'Clock Rock". We did. It made no sense, but we counted down "1 O'clock, 2 O'clock, 3 O'clock ROCK....." Yep, in Ghost in the Graveyard, we used that same chant when heading off to find the Ghost. What about the "ocean free"/"oxen free" thing? My wife thinks I'm nuts and I need proof it's not just me.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:52 AM) I love black and white memories of a long ago time Mine play back at 1.25X speed with a scratchy Our Gang music soundtrack playing over the top of it.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 03:58 AM) Brendan Fraser is the man. Rewatch the first Mummy, reazlize it's greatness, then learn never to critisize him again. Then watch George of the Jungle and Dudley Do-Right and go back to making fun of him.