quarter23cd

Sure, no problem. And thanks for the "gift" at the end of last football season.(well, sort of thanks, anyways) And thank you for removing Bob Huggins from our fair state. and...

I'm looking forward to seeing a few new wrinkles in the OSU/UM rivalry in the coming years. Here's hoping the whole league is on the upswing. Wisconsin is reliably solid. Illinois needs to replace a bunch of people but looks talented. Penn St and Sparty appear to be on the cusp of good things, so if they can avoid melting down this could be a much improved year in the ol' Big11.

It is really weird to think that football is starting up in a few weeks. This offseason wasn't really as hard to take as the one before it, but the last few years have definitely been a lesson in humility for us OSU fans. (Well, some of us. There's still plenty of yahoos in this town who act like those BCS fiascos never happened--I can't decide whether I admire them or fear them. ) I'm sure that everybody outside the state is sick to death of the sight of sweatervests by now, which is kind of a shame because this might be the team we've been waiting for. Won't take long to find out...just

Jupiter Just outside Columbus, OH. I think my problem is that I get a lousy terrestrial signal, so if the satellite signal is flaky at all due to weather/sun spots/migratory birds/a small child releasing a balloon into the air/etc, then the whole thing just blips out on me. Pretty frustrating. Same thing in my wife's car--she doesn't receive a reliable signal until she is within city limits. Seems like it might as well be a terrestrial radio service around here. I can't imagine why the satellite signal is so lousy. Some kind of Bermuda Triangle type thing happening or something.

I may have to check out those DPs at some point, as I've never really been able to get into latter-Dead. I only have a handful of 80s/90s shows in my collection and rarely listen to them--I think I keep them around for the sake of feeling "well-rounded". Many people seem to have a sentimental attachment to whatever era of the band in which they became a fan, but I guess I'm really more of a posthumous fan in that I wasn't old enough to be around until the final years and by then I didn't really see the big attraction. It wasn't until later when I started listening to the old archive recor

This is helpful, but still doesn't answer my biggest question of whether I will continue to need something like this to receive a reliable signal at my house... You cannot get a more clear view of the sky from where I am, so why the heck can't I ever get more than a single bar of signal? Screw satellites. How much would it cost me to run a cable from my house up to the sky?

I try to play Highly Suspicious wherever I go and like to laugh along to the weird laughing parts. Especially if I'm wearing headphones at the time.

I like Caribou's dark roast. It has a bitter edge, which I like, without tasting like burning. And no, I don't think I've ever seen anybody buy the desserts at Starbucks. The occasional muffin or scone, sure, but most of that stuff? No way.

Something from Russell Banks would have been nice.

I always just assumed this place was the Wacko Introvert Support Group. That's why I'm here, anyway. If this was the real world we'd all have to actually talk to each other.

It took me like 3 or 4 posts to figure out what this thread was about.

John: "Its a free country, Bruce. Our country. I wrote a song about it...wanna hear it?"

Who says music can't change the world?

Definitely pretty lame towards the end. Although in terms of the overall sound of the band, his exit marks the dividing line between the era of the band that I love and the era of the band that I like but only occasionally really love.

I downloaded this from emusic last week on a whim because I've heard the name thrown about here a lot. There is a haunting quality to it that makes me want to like it, but I'm not too into the whispery folk thing and it starts to get a bit tedious to me. Maybe I need to find a lyric sheet or something because I'm only half-hearing what he's saying and I think that's part of why I zone out on it.

I don't mind slumming it from time to time. Last weekend I found myself beerless and made my way to the local convenience store/bait shop/bar/pizza place (yeah, you read that right, and yes, that place is awesome) that is within walking distance of my house, and with the few dollars in my pocket I opted for the new Bud Light with Lime--which I bought, laughing to myself and totally expecting it to taste like absolute piss. And the thing is, if you go in with low expectations, sometimes you'll find that it ain't that bad. Ah, Bud Light. The Aquafina of beers. On a hot summer day it goes

Exactly. I have weird luck in that every company I have ever worked for--large or small--has been bought during the time I was employed there. In every case there has been at least some layoffs and restructuring--just the degree varies depending on the case, ranging from negligible effects to outright closure. Time will tell. As for InBev's motives, it sounds like Becks and Stella Artois are their biggest sellers and those are fairly common in America, but I wouldn't be surprised if the A-B purchase had more to do with wanting larger-scale North American distribution for their existing be

I think I read that they are planning on keeping all the current breweries operating. Of course, that could change, but I don't see why. A-B has a large North American manufacture/shipping infrastructure--it seems reasonable to believe they'll keep the current system in place...although they will undoubtedly do some tweaking, so who knows? The Budweiser and Bud Light "towers" at the Columbus plant are landmarks to my kids. (don't know if that is sad or not) They love to point them out when we drive past them on the highway.

I'll reiterate what I said earlier--all snarkiness aside, I'm far more concerned about what this means for their theme park division than what it means for their beers. The Busch Gardens and Sea World parks are a strange pursuit for a beverage company, but AB put a lot of effort into them and ran them surprisingly well. Unless InBev shares a similar quirky passion for such pursuits, I imagine these are either going to go seriously downhill or get sold to Six Flags or something.(which is the same thing) That makes me sadder than worrying about who owns Budweiser.

Wait, does this mean that Budweiser is an import now? Shit, so much for going slumming it when cash is running low and the bar is running a $2.99 for like a 62oz bucket of Bud Light special.

My first thoughts: 1) maybe the beer will taste better 2) don't f#@k with Busch Gardens

I'll preface this by saying I'm not really a Beck fan--I haven't bought a cd since Odelay got played to death and haven't really been able to tolerate him except in small doses ever since then. But I am actually liking this album. Its understated and doesn't feel like what I would expect from Beck. It didn't immediately grab me, but it is growing on me quickly.

I always thought the band wasn't happy with their performances. (one of those "We always blow the big ones" things)

I am Jack, your post was beautiful. What's childhood for if not to romanticize it and be endlessly nostalgic for it? Still, I also kind of agree with the sentiment that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Having little ones of my own, I guess we're kind of doing the All-American ChildhoodTM thing in that the neighborhood we live in is just crawling with kids and far enough out from the city that there are tons of open spaces to explore. Its part of the reason we fell in love with the neighborhood and decided to buy a house there. There is never a shortage of other kids to

I used to work in Greenwich and totally would have been out there playing wiffleball on my lunchbreaks if it weren't for the fact that I thought everyone knew that "fun"--not to mention children!--are expressly forbidden in Greenwich. This is a pretty cool story about what the kids tried to do. They may have crossed a line with the pouring of concrete and creating a permanent structure and stuff--I can see people getting their panties in a bunch over that. Besides, any good kid/hooligan knows the importance of keeping their fun simple (and portable) for quick getaways when angry adults,