FlaSoxxJim

More often it's the people that do stupid s*** that make you do drugs.

My assumption is if you live in a cardboard shack in the Mexican wastelands your home refridgeration options are somewhat limited.

I got the biggest kick out of Koko. "Apple-Nipple-Hungry!!!"

Raoul.

That it is. But, as shocking and terrifying as these attacks are, what is never reported is that there are hundreds of drownings in the oceans worldwide for every shark attack. It is a vanishingly rare event on a global scale, but it's blood-curdling to consider when it does occur. And as far as the Jaws Syndrom thing.... the sharks were definately on the losing end of Benchley's book and Spielberg's film. There was such a primal fear stirred in people by those works that it pretty much became open season on all shark species worldwide and it hasn't stopped yet. Benchley's biggest success (the book) is also his biggest regret in life, and he's dedicated much of his subsequent years to educating people about sharks rrather than frightening tthem.

There's unbelievable stuff going on like this everywhere - in the name of national security. I feel much safe now knowing there is no longer an evil Iranian couple hell bent on... on... protecting people from occupational and environmental hazards...? A professor at my former grad school just spent 3 months fighting INS over their attempts to deport him for national security reasons. The guy is a white Anglo Australian coral reef biologist for crying out loud. It appears his frequent flights and several week stayovers in places like Indonesia and the Philippines etc. looked suspicious to someone. Fair enough, but when he politely pointed out that's WHERE THE #%$&^@! CORAL REEFS ARE, documenting the research he was doing, who he was staying with etc., you'd think that rational thought would kick in. Nosirree, INS forced the college to can him and forced him to pay back 6 months of salary that they say he may have illegally received, made him leave his new home, his wife and 2 kids, and fly back to Australia while the lawyers sorted it out. Long story short, he's finally back to work stateside, but only at great expense and not before his life was turned upside-down for 3 months. His classes were cancelled and his graduate students just kind of floundered for the semester hoping they'd let him back in. But I feel much safer knowing that, had he been an EVIL TERRORIST CORAL REEF BIOLOGIST (and not one of the OK ones), his ass would have been soooo busted.

Did I say the shark story was for the faint of heart? Well, that was before I found this one... http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=7114652

I dunno, I kind of liked some of the Wu-Tang stuff when it came out. At any rate, RIP to OBD who is SOL bacause the CME said he was DOA from an OD.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=335856 That's two shark fatalities in a week over there.

You didn't take the I don't like 'getting Johnson' (hehe) joke bait... Wow, you are really maturing. So stop it already!

That was just a dream. Besides, you'll shoot your eye out!

Well, it's still in early clinical stages, so in the end it might not even pan out. Plus, there's been so much backlash from recent suggestions drug cdompanies are rushing thinngs to market and disragarding health warnings, maybe the audience at large is somewhat skeptacle (sp?).

So you think Alberto "we can get around this pesky Geneva Convention human rights thing" Gonzales was a good pick?? I'm all for Hispanics in high level office, but this guy's a first-rate assmunch.

Yeah, that's what I recalled too.

I thought somebody had an offer of 3/27 on the table for him, and I thought it was the Angels.

Meh, somebody in an earlier thread probably nailed it when they said this quote was taken completely out of context to drive the piece home. That's the kind of cut up talk you'd expect to hear from anyone in the dugout or in the clubhouse and I don't think it means anything. As I said alsewhere, I like Cowley and think he does a good job following the team throughout the season. I see a bitt of sensationalism in the story, and maybe some of it was over the top - particularly ragging on his defense which I think he busted his ass to bring up to par. But I'm not going to stop taking stock in what the guy reports, even if this piece was kind of slamming Carlos on his way out the door.

#45

Yep, and it wasn't carbonated either. Jim Koch basically said it was one for the record books, and he wasn't actually all that happy with the flavor profile of the finished product.

Heather Lee must have been the lone dissenting vote.

Unless it's the bottom of the 10th, bases loaded, and we're playing the Cubs.

Yeah, that was the Sam Adams Millennium, and $150 for a bottle of it would not have been bad at all. It was basically what the Triple Bock evolved into, and they were able to get it up to 20% alc. by really working their yeast, so it is firmly entrenched as the strongest beer ever brewed. It was sold in 750 ml punt-bottomed cobalt blue bottles with platinum lettering (Triple Bock was mere 14k gold). There were only 3,000 bottles produceda nd most of that went to employees (each got one bottle). Sadly, I never had a chance to sample it either. More Trivia: Bottle #1 sold for more than $4,000 at a charity auction: More Here...

I think jackie's point, re small sample size is entirely valid, but as a baseball fan I also firmly believe there are clutch and non-clutch performers. That being the case, there is a a statistical impasse because there are never going to be enough of specific clutch situations to collect a large sample size for any player. Tangent: Thinking of the ultimate small sample size statistics in the game, I think hitter-pitcher matchups may take the cake. So, if a guy has only faced an opponent a dozen times in his career, the statistal validity of drawing conclusions based on that small sample size could be questioned. BUT, who are you going to PH in late innings against a stud pitcher - a guy who has had success in limited past matchups or a guy who hasn't? Sadly, sometimes small sample sizes are all you have to work with, but it doesn't mean you cannot gain any insights from them - you just have to be aware of the limitations. As for Cowley's piece, I've always liked him over any of the other beat writers so I assume there are valid points here. I loved Carlos but saw many of the shortcomings the piece brought up. And small sample size and all, Carlos' frequent inability to come through when something was on the line is a valid issue.

The Sam Triple Bock stretches the bounds of what is defined as beer. It is fermented, malted barley so it's clearly beer, but it's also up in the >>15+% alc. range (they used a very alcohol tolerant Champaign yeast to finish out secondary fermentation), and it's bottled still (even the Champaign yeast couldn't cope for bottle conditioning). So it's a lot more like a really high-octane port than any beer I've ever had. It has been at least 5 years since I opened one, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what cellaring has done for it. 1995 Samichlaus predate the sell off of Hurlimann by a couple years, so you have a fine rare beer there. I'm jealous. And kegs of Christmas Delerium a mere stumble away... I'm really jealous! Life got too busy and the homebrewing has been on hold for the past year, but before this year I liked to brew a corny keg or two of a nicely spiced gingerbread brown ale for the holiday party season. I wish I had bottled some of it last year and I might have some left.

My beer fridge is never so happy as around the holidays. I've not had time to be ultra agressive in pursuing Christmas tipples this year, but I still have enough to curl my toes and light up my nose: Sierra Celebration (the past 3 years are represented), Bigfoot (2 vintages), Sam Smith Winter Welcome, some Anchor Holiday Ale, a couple of bottles of Winter Hook, and a 4-pack of last year's Samichlaus. If we get really festive, we might bust into one of the last two bottles of the first Sam Adams Triple Bock vintage I've managed to hold onto for 10 years or so. God Bless Us (*hic*)... Everyone!!