Flash Tizzle

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 25, 2009 -> 01:06 PM) nationalpost.com- He's gonna find a way to make this a mandatory event if you are asked to participate. Bud, you're a dumbass He sounds like he's back to working as a used car salesman, trying to unload one of his lemons on the customer. You can't motivate these players to perform unless there's some financial incentive. I'm sure everyone loves America, but do they love it enough to risk injury and possibly a paycheck? You damn well bet if I'm an outfielder playing this WBC I'm never leaving my feet to catch a ball.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Mar 25, 2009 -> 09:27 PM) Well some people on the board are business owners and some of them voted against it I could imagine. Regardless, there was a lot more cons than pros to this area. It's what I like about this area. If someone is f***ing with our neighborhood, we're going to do our best to get that person shut down. In this case the parade and the vast amount of people not from the area or even the southside of Chicago is our target. From all accounts, the committee is going to do something for St Patty's day, but on a much much smaller scale like a festival at the Beverly Arts Center is being discussed. The goal basically is to weed out those people from nowhere near Beverly over the course of a couple of years. Then maybe in 5-10 years, you might see a return of the parade. Also, it wouldn't surprise me if the city wouldn't approve a permit to gain more interest in the parade downtown. Think about it. They put a lot of money into it, but get nothing out of it. More people talked about the Southside Irish parade than the downtown parade which is a shock. As a resident, I'm glad they canceled the parade. I know a lot of neighbors who feel the same. It's understandable they'd be interested in pursuing a small scale event. The parade has been a travesty for atleast the last decade. People throw around this ideas of "tradition" and "honoring" the Irish, but we all know damn well there parade is the backdrop to the event. The Beverly Arts Center should actually have booths set up discussing who St. Patrick was, why anyone gives a s***, and perhaps throw in other items relating to the culture. Everyone is just upset their party is ruined. One damn day out of the year. Everyone still has the Gaelic Park Fest, Tinley Park parade, Irishfest in Milwaukee, unofficial at EIU/UofI, the parade along Madison St. in Forest Park, the downtown parade, and whatever other events local bars are sponsoring. Plenty of opportunities to act belligerent.

What's funny here is, come next year, there will still be activity on Western Avenue. I'll guarantee it right now. Sure, not as many people, but who can stop everyone from just going to bars, visiting people in the neighborhood, or otherwise just hanging around the streets? And if the parade ever does come back, it'll be even more crowded since everyone will think to themselves "this may be the last year!11" What's tough is trying to figure out ways to resolve this problem. I doubt the city will pay more money for additional police officers. There will never be enough porter-potties, so that doesn't matter. You can't crack down on underraged drinking or public urination because of the vast amount of people who do it. This again goes back to the lack of officers and their unwillingness to enforce these laws. Neighborhood folks will have problems telling Joe Fratboy from Naperville not to piss on their lawn. He doesn't care, he's not from around the area. I know I'd just hate to be the people on the board who voted against this. There's still a lot of people in Beverly who love the parade and probably want those members kicked out of the country.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Mar 25, 2009 -> 04:53 PM) Yep. It's pretty much unofficial at UofI, except up north. That's what it really has become. Doesn't matter if you're Irish or anything like that. Also, the main reason it was cancelled, a permit for next year's parade was not going to get approved for next year. That was explained to the committee. The only thing they were really voting on is if they would fight this. When 11 cops get assaulted, it's going to be hard to convince someone to allow a permit and for the residents to approve more of the same the following year. Really, I didn't know this. What is involved with having a parade permit approved? I can't believe believe the assault of 11 police officers means anything. First off, assaulting someone is a loose term. This could be someone just pushing you. I would bet my membership with Soxtalk that the Bud Billiken parade has far more arrests for assaults on police officers, with far fewer people overall. Why don't they cancel that? I was willing to believe it was the people of the community making this decision, since they have everyones concerns in mind, but now that you suggest their permit was denied I'm a bit more interested in this process. I would really hope this isn't the Chicago government looking at the parade as an unnecessary cost and are looking for bulls*** reasons to cancel it.

I don't think it's an issue of giving it a break. It's mainly a logistical issue of cramming 300K+ people into a parade route extending a little more than a mile, which has hardly the resources to contain it. People are mad at this decision for all the wrong reasons. A tradition? Really, getting drunk in the daytime and pissing in the neighborhood is a tradition? The parade is a front for acting obnoxious and everyone knows it. After all, it's one f***ing day out of the year. And there are a lot of Irish-themed events at bars all throughout the Chicagoland area around St. Patricks Day.

I NEVER thought this day would arrive. As someone who doesn't live in Beverly I'll admit I'm a bit upset, but I understand for everyone who lives around the area the take on the parade is different. These committee members represent people from the area, so it's not as if Daley is strong arming the community full of hated city workers to abandon their tradition. I'm kind of torn. I've been to quite a few Southside parades and have fun everytime, but even as someone who is half-Irish I know full-well it's not the parade that has become the attraction. I didn't go this year, but last I did and parked around 109th and Kedzie. So while we're walking to Western we pass near train tracks, as a train is approaching, and these underage idiots are attempting to climb aboard as its moving and they're obviously intoxicated. One made it, then jumped off a few hundred feet later; narrowly missing several people. After the train passed we walked through the cemetery along 111th and notice just the sheer amount of people stepping over graves, using them as beer coasters and trash cans, and no doubt irritating the people who came to see their loved ones. This is just a small example of what happens. It's not just the area around the parade route that is affected by these people, but damn near several miles in every direction. Anyways, Tinley Park has their own Southside Irish parade. Watch this explode in popularity over the next decade. It's more accommodating for commuters (Rock Island is literally right downtown), there are reasonable places to park (shopping center including KMart/Walts/etc. along Harlem), and if the south side parade is any indication it'll be awhile before the neighbors are fed up with everything!

I've noticed at some of these intersections the flash bulbs taking photos of cars passing through have the same effect as someone shining halogen lights in your line of sight. It's distracting to be driving at night and all the sudden seeing the light of God flashing before you. You just can't help but look, even if you're expecting it. I know personally whenever I approach an intersection with red-light cameras I either take extra precaution to stop (if possible) or speed even quicker to pass through the intersection. In the past I'd casually pass through while yellow, perhaps even as the red light went on halfway, but always thought if I'm pulled over by a police officer it's for running a red light and not speeding. Now, it's a toss up between receiving a ticket for speeding, or one for running a red led. And everyone who drives knows it's not as easy as "just be careful and don't go through intersections when it's yellow." Some intersections extend far; others have yellow lights which seem to switch quickly to red. Other instances you're traveling more than 40 miles per hour and it's not reasonable to stop in a short distance.

This was definitely the funniest episode of the season. There were more laugh out loud moments, for me, then the previous five episodes combined. The entire sushi restaurant conversation with April and moment where the Tampa scout talks to Kenny were hilarious.

So, no one watched The Knowing over the weekend? A friend of mine said he was shocked at how good it was. Ebert seemed to enjoy it to, if that means anything to anyone. I read through spoilers of the movie and it sounds interesting. If you walk in expecting only a disaster movie with a happy ending you'll be in for a surprise.

I usually don't remember my dreams, but when I do they're strange. I had a dream recently where there was this wide-eyed, scary looking doll at my friends house that seemed to be in every room I walked into. It was in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the bedroom; everywhere. And no matter what, it was always looking at me. . So I said to myself, I'll just close my eyes; but when I closed my eyes I still saw the doll. It was as if I couldn't avoid it. I'm sure the obvious message here is there's something in my life I'm trying to avoid but can't. What happens less frequently are moments when I'll wake up from a deep sleep and think to myself I'm seeing someone else in the room. Most of the time I'll come to my senses, but there have honesty been a few times I've freaked out and ran out of the room thinking someone else was in there with me. I want to say last year I did this, and I actually woke up my parents because I was yelling.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 06:53 PM) if anyone can dig up some of these famous NCORGBL threads I would love to spend a couple minutes checking them out. I think i got here right as he was ushered out, or shortly thereafter Here are some good old fashioned banter threads. http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?sh...c=9312&st=0 http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5467 The last thread reminded me of Heather. I believe she posts on WSI. http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22144 (briefly notes Ncorgbl's claims) There are probably many more out there.

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) Someone outted him on never being on the board for the sox. I'm almost positive it was JimH who exposed Ncorg. Baggio, I want to say, followed HSC off these forums and has never returned. Atleast under that identity.

QUOTE (tommy @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 03:13 PM) Jermaine scores Owens on a double. What a courageous sequence for Owens: Walk, SB, R.

It almost makes you want to purposely tank the season before he's eligible for the draft!

QUOTE (SoxFan101 @ Mar 13, 2009 -> 11:29 AM) Id really hate if we pass on a better player to draft a "leadoff" guy. In baseball you never draft on need in my opinion, atleast in the early rounds where the top talent is available. Unless someone drops to #23 overall due to signability concerns (which I doubt), there probably won't be a consensus top player available. After a certain point in the draft, even in the first round, it's difficult to judge who's better than who. It's always the same -- there are raw players with good tools in the latter part of the first round, but they're usually missing something or else they'd be lower. Minnesota drafted Ben Revere 28th overall in 2007. I recall many questioning this selection. If we do our job isn't unreasonable to find our leadoff hitter around our position, if that's what Williams is looking for. Last year's draft, even outside of Beckham, convinced me they're moving in the right direction.

Honestly, I've grown to appreciate soccer. I work at Toyota Park and have seen nearly every Chicago Fire game since 2006. When Chivas USA or a foreign national team (mainly Poland) arrive to play, and the stands are full, the players definitely respond. It's typical of Americans to suggest the sport is ruining our country, since we're the type of people that like to think of ourselves as unique and special. If we say something is dumb, it's dumb -- regardless of what the other 95% of the world thinks. I believe we'll know when soccer is here in America when hooliganism comes around. I pray everyday for this. I remember laughing last summer, I want to say, when fans in some midwest city had a large brawl during a soccer game. The stories read, "Is European soccer coming here" and everyone was speculating about the possible escalation of violence. This wouldn't even grab a headline in Europe. I hope it gets to the stage where, like in Europe, motes have to be created to act as a barrier for fans. Or to the point where teams are threatened to play in an empty stadium. All Chicago Fire fans do is ignite smoke bombs in the stands, throw the occasional piece of garbage, or on the rare occasion run on the field and experience a free ass-whooping.

Nice. It'll be easier traveling to Midlothian and paying $1 for parking instead of driving downtown. I heard before that if any station was going to be made near The Cell it'd be the Rock Island, since the Southwest Service Metra line (which I ride and passes directly near the park) has too much freight line traffic to guarantee a path near the platform. You wouldn't want people, possibly drunk, walking across the tracks -- especially with Amtrak and other Metra trains whizzing by at 50+mph.

Harrell has a good changeup. I've never seen him pitch but like what I see. Of course, forgetting the errant throw he just made or the single to lead up the inning.

Great, the epitome of a Chicago meathead Jim Belushi is signing the 7th inning stretch. The wrong Belushi died.

YES!!!! Extend the school year! Limit summer vacation! After I'm done with school next fall they can do anything they want!

I've thought about this before. I've been on Soxtalk for 5 1/2 years, and as long as myself and Soxtalk are alive, there should be no reason to think I'll abandon the site. Even someone with a busy career and family should find some time to browse. Many on here are doing exactly that. It'll be strange when, in the future, members start joining and we can truthfully say "I've been on Soxtalk longer than you've been alive."

With tomorrow being the first televised spring training game I thought I'd remind everyone of Soxtalk's chat feature. It's usually where many of us go to discuss the game, among other topics. If you're looking for intelligent baseball discussion, well, I can't always guarantee that; but I can guarantee a good time. I notice it's no longer linked on the main page, so here is the link I dug up from last year's thread: Tomorrow's game is at 2:00 ct. Many of you will have already returned from church, or however you waste your Sunday, so there is no excuse for not showing up. I guess the only excuse for not showing up is if the chat link above doesn't work. I'm on my downstairs computer, and it's crap, so I don't know if it does. EDIT: NEW CHAT FORMAT AS OF MAY 22ND. http://mike.westernave.net/chat/chatroom.html

Jesus, imagine how much sunlight that building would reflect. I'd hate to be working across the street.

I was watching the Godfather several days ago on AMC and noticed their shameless promotion of Breaking Bad, so I decided to watch the first season on OnDemand. I honestly believe this is the best show on television. Even for a cable network original series I was blown away with the subject matter they discussed. Just the idea of a chemist teacher dying of lung cancer, with his wife pregnant, and him having to resort to creating a high quality of meth to help finances after he's dead is a great plotline. Additionally, so were the issues facing Cranston of whether or not to kill to gang member in his partner's basement, and his families intervention to convince him to seek chemotherapy. I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow survives the disease, though. Or it atleast goes into remission.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 19, 2009 -> 06:15 PM) Don't like great actors? Not Spacey. I don't believe he's a bad actor, like Paul Walker, I just can't stand watching him. I'm tired of him playing the "arrogant, yet softspoken father/brother/criminal with a heart of gold who has deep secrets" character. Don't you have an actor that everyone recognizes as great yet you just can't follow?