FlaSoxxJim

They'll probably still end up w/Magglio by the deadline :finger

Or the %$#&*! Bumpuss' Hounds. BUUMMMPPUSSSSS HOUUUNNNNDS!!!!

Oh, and what about the "Kavorka," Kramer's super-sexuality to women of Latvian Orthodox faith?

Most excellent. How did 'comedian' ala' the Gymnast episode not make the list? "You may tell jokes, Mr. Jerry Seinfeld, but you are no comedian." Katya the gymnast

You can basically exchange for any available tix of equal value for non-premium games I think.

Not French, OR Indian... Italian Get it right or I'll sic the Bumpuss' Hounds on ya.

"Oh..... Fuuuudge..." "Only I didn't say 'fudge'..." But it wasn't Chicago it was Indiana (Even though narrator and co-writer Jean Shepperd was adiehard Sox fan). The film was actually filmed in Cleveland. So now you know. And I'm pretty sure the film was set in the pre-WWII (US involvement that is) early 40s or even late 1930s. There are no overt wartime or postwar references, Disney's Snow White (1937) is shown to be a contemporary film as it is shown in some of the window dressing, etc. The Daisy "You'll shoot your eye out" Red Ryder BB gun was introduced in 1939 but it was obviously still a big hit so that's at least circumstantial evidence for 1939 or 1940. When did somebody named "Bullfrog" play for the Bears - maybe between that and the sar models the date can be nailed down.

So how about those whacky Ulstermen?

You and me are 5x5, no worries. The "Bible Bowl" quip was directed pretty much at everyone here who is not Vince. Let me try something. The other day, I read a bit about Herman Wouk's new book on the decision to stop work on the Texas supercollider and end the search for the Higgs Boson (the "God Partocle"). There was actually another bit about the book on NPR this morning as well. Any way, a lifelong friend of mine (we grew up together, sleepovers, did science fair projects together, played in garage bands together, he was my Best man...) who lives out in Cali has got a brain the size of Studebaker. He studied astrophysics at Berkley as an undergrad and then did his doctorate work on ultra-low-temp particle mechanics at Stanford. Like I say, he's pretty sharp. Any way, I have a "Popular Science" kind of knowledge about quantum mechanics so I figured I'd give the boy a call and learn a little something about Higgs and mass and whatnot. We'll my head started to hurt after 2 minutes and I grasped the smallest bit of what he had to offfer on the subject. And to get even that, my buddy had to talk down at my level and spoon feed me the stuff. Bottom line, he's an authority on the subject and I am a not. To make me feel slightly better, I do the same to him when he calls me with questions of a biological nature. But the point is that CW is THE sole trained authority here on scriptural scholarship and we're all working with the "popular science" level of knowledge. That is the truth. The problem is that scriptural authority and relogious conviction have little to do with one another. And of course it is a basic truth for Christians that you don't have to be a scriptural authority to gain salvation. That's where the alogy to my quantum mechanics analogy breaks down. I can't build a supercollider with the fraction of a fraction of the scientific authority on the subject I have. But according to their basic beliefs Christians can gain salvation with a fraction of a fraction of the scientific authority that CW and other trained scriptural scholars posess. That gives CW no more authority than anyone else to tell us who's on the right path, but it certainly gives him the expertise to tell us we're full of it in terms of our critical understanding of the scriptures when we are.

Sure, it's natural to feel under the gun when different people seem to gang up on you over certain things. You either keep trying to have civil dialog (which I think you have reasonably done), you decide to stop the discussion, or you can go the inflamatory invective route - a little thing we like to call "going all Izzy4E" around here. But the CW bit you posted in your response where you claimed you felt mocked was JUST his compliment to you on your being "missional" versus "missions" post, and I didn't get it at all from that perspective. (And for that matter, I admit the nuance was lost on me at first but I get what you were saying - and I suspect "missional" is a made up word). If you ever sence any derision or mockery of "sacred" things in my writing, you're probably not far off the mark but it is usually the institutions or or tenet or their hypocracy that is the target for me. I don't care to personally attack anyone but I like to question beliefs I think are odd or at odds with other internal or external beliefs. I staunchly defend the rights of all to practice religion (or not) as they see fit, SO LONG as it does not impinge on the rights of others to do the same. That is what causes conflict for me and puts me at odds with Evangelical or missionary Christianity. "Going forth and preaching to all nations" does impact the way others pursue their spirituality, and at the same it is at the heart of some valid mainstream Christian movements so there is a difficult dilemma here. Lots of people think the Evangelicals should mind ther own business and worry about their own salvation, find the self-righteousness to be tiresome, and think Christian missionaries have been nailing lifts onto the feet of the natives for far too long. At the same time, the Great Commission is central to Evangelical/missionary Christian traditions, and the call is pretty much there in black and white in the Gospels. So there you go.

No doubt screwing some poor kid out of a Jannero Pargo bobblehead... Real nice.

They soooo need to fix that.

Well, "Dancin' Homer" worked wonders for the 'Topes didn't he?

That is a great idea.

Having sold beer at Soldiers for Bears games during college, both in the concessions and as a vendor in the stands, I can tell all you cheap-ass MF-ers to :fyou :fyou Not a particularly fun job and not all that high-paying either. Personally I did it for the rad polyester uniforms. When I go to a Sox game with a big family group outing, we tip really well really early on, and we are the first stop on the way out into the stands for the beer guy and the Margarity guy for the rest of the game.

Ah, a Quad City Madman! Welcome aboard, and hope you stick around.

You forgot the last part, where the believer says "then enjoy Hell, Sinner!" Seriously, that hypothetical dialog is a brilliant crystallization of the whole thing.

Are we all reading the same thread? CW is the one upholding that these different views are welcomed, encouraged, and actually required for true understanding of the totality of the message to occur. A large portion of his single substantive post in this thread said precicely that. Elsewhere it is he who reminds us all of the many rooms in God's House, and suggests a lot of folks are going to be surprised at the "riff raff" in the room next door. CW, knowing better, stayed well away from this for how many days? Everyone can say what they want, but there is noone else here with the scriptural scholarship (and not the "Bible Bowl" variety) pedigree the man has. That, combined with a deep-held love of justice and willingness to fight for it is a powerful arsenal in these debates and in religiuos life.

OK, I'll take a deep breath then... Christians have comitted some of the worst atrocities in human history in the name of some perversion of faith. Of course they are not alone in this, but they lead the hit parade, particularly when it is realized that all the "conversion by the sword" attributed to early Islam never really happened despite what we were all taught. A wise man suggested that "God is a concept by which we measure our pain" (guesses anyone?). But for so much of human history, man's perversions of the will of God has also been the measure of how we mete out pain upon one another. Select bad people yes, and certainly the majority of Christians are truly good people, as are the majority of Muslums, Hindus, Jews, mimes (maybe), etc. But, the refusal of the major faiths of the world to say, sonovab****, if all this crap has been done in the name of religous ideology then maybe religion has done more harm in the world than good? In a nutshell, that's the story of my departure from this circus.

Please read that again, PA. That is sincere compliment and not mockery. Vince toasted you and said drink whatever it is you drink, not assuming hoisting a beer to you is necessarily the thing. I'll hoist a beer, Vince a diet Coke. That's all. Deep breath everybody.

Hey, Ni! Have you seen these yet? "How are we supposed to not say IT if we don't know what IT is...?" or the one I really like. "Better get a bucket, I'm gonna throw up!" The Brits aren't all bad.

I do. I think spirituality is best when it's kept fairly personal. Hence my beef with the missionary ferver aspects, but viva variety!

I love me some Rooney and farmer (when he's not on a stupid tangent about golf or something else irrelevant). I got to really liking the through GamedayAudio for the last 4 years. Nice to get more Hawk with the Xtra Innings this year though, too.

Yes, very frustrating. And I didn't know about the conflict when I ponied up for Extra Innings. I knew the 6 Rays and 3 Marlins games would be blocked here, but didn't know the CIU gaqmes would also. Luckily for the Yankees games they used the YES Network broadcasts, but it is getting annoying. I have to listen to GameDay Audio and (*gasp*) with all the MF-ers on this site instead...