Quincy

You were great in CHiPs!

Oh indeed. Whenever people play the "name your all-time starting 5" if you save the center for last (and it seems like most do) it really becomes about style & beauty. Amongst guards try to figure out if it's Magic, West, Kobe (so painful for Laker fans to drop one), Jordan, Oscar, or someone else. At SF James (or play him almost anywhere), Bird, Dr. J or Baylor? PF some to chose from are Barkley, Malone or Duncan. Or is Duncan a C? And if you think Russell is too small at C I bet he could play PF. But now here's where it gets fun, picking a center, and there's no real right answer (either). Do you want those gorgeous sky hooks and scoring from Kareem. Plus with the Bucks he was more of a badass than we remember. How about Hakeem and the dream shake? Sometimes I'm tempted to pick him just because it'd be so entertaining to watch. The immovable force of Shaq? If you're playing "all-time" and the game is just "best season" Walton becomes an option. He'd grab a board with both hands above his head and rocket a perfect pass down the court on the break. Of course there's Wilt, Russell, Moses...Such different styles (especially between Jabber, Shaq, Hakeem) yet all immensely talented. It makes the game fun. Okay, a 12 year old to sing the anthem? Bah! Go Spurs!

I'd like to add the 76ers team that faced the Lakers as another example of a crap opponent. Ugh! It's not just combos or big 3s though. You rattled off some important guys on those Bulls teams. For the Heat Battier & Miller are guys who know their roles and are good at what they do, and Haslem is a badass who overcame a horrific injury last year. And this year they added Ray Allen & the Birdman. Yes the Heat are light on a big bad center, and I'm not trying to diminish LeBron's greatness, but he's had a good deal of talent put around him. As far as injuries to the older players which might do them in, this is a risk of using older players, and as their opponent is very old, that's not going to work as an excuse for me if they don't do it.

I half agree. To get to the lull (10 years of LA sucking, so the league must not have been good ) they had to kill off the Bad Boys. You play who you have to play, and Seattle, Phoenix & Utah were all fine teams. Certainly as good if not better than the likes of the NJ Nets or that Orlando team the Lakers had to face. Or god, that Cleveland team the Spurs had to face? Sheeeeesh. I think the Bulls competition was just fine during the '90s thankyouverymuch. I have no problem whatsoever with not thinking that Jordan is the greatest ever, I don't even necessarily think it myself. One player isn't going to do it and there are different jobs to be done on the court. What the hell would Jordan vs. Jabbar one-on-one look like anyway? It's silly. And yes, ring counting is stupid. Plus some guys get so close, and fighting the good the fight is what sports is about. Malone & Stockton could easily have a ring each if you call a pushing off foul before "the last shot." And this is the sport with shakiest officiating too.

Actually Shaq & Duncan are tied with 4. Personally I'd love to see Duncan get 5 just to see him tied with Kobe. I'm sick of the ridiculous talk that if Kobe gets 6 he's as great or greater than Jordan, and by having Duncan tied with him it just blows the whole thing up. Btw, I respect Kobe's toughness and many parts of his game, but I just don't see him being the equal of Jordan. I think the whole counting rings as a measure of player greatness is silly, unless you'd really have Big Shot Bob on your team over Barkley, Jerry West, etc.

I thought you'd say that.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/2013/05/26/roger-clemens-still-dogged-steroids-case/ux10r465jTsYiTSu1alinK/story.html

I wonder about this too. I don't have an answer other than to suggest using the camelcamelcamel price tracking site. They have graphs for items sold through Amazon proper, new items through marketplace vendors and used items. Sometimes an item is of too limited interest to generate enough data (I've run into this with some blues titles) but it's a great resource for looking at past price movements and planning your purchases (and of course, setting your price).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGnY-axUH0U

Well thank goodness you're here in OR and don't have to inhale pesticides.

Spice it up and celebrate the old ABA by breaking out the red white & blue basketballs. Not that that would have sexed up the Nets-Spurs finals from 10 years ago. Actually I'd be more than okay with the Pacers in the finals (and that's not because they aren't the Heat).

My previous comment would be enough for Patrick Leahy.

Very little of what you buy on the street is grown indoors. Most of it comes up from Mexico, or from the tropics. Dude, I live in Oregon.

So much is grown indoors where pesticides aren't needed. Just another fear mongering bullshit story from "the man."

Hey, keep that Angel Pagan talk in the other thread!

Before I had Prime I always played the game of ordering $25 worth of stuff so I forgot that regular Amazon even charged for shipping. Duh, of course they do, my bad. Sorry 'bout that.

Make up your mind. I'm a prime member too but this is about marketplace vendor shipping prices which effect all Amazon castes. Not sure it's a "bargain" and it fits with the DVD box thread, but the Rome blu-ray is $43ish at Amazon and I bit, inspired by watching "I, Claudius" for the 5th time around. I don't want to leave togaland and it was that or watch Animal House for the 20th time.

Finally finished off the 70/69 Dave's Picks and I do believe that there are more tuneless out of pitch of backing vocals by the boys than anything Donna ever yelped. I thought Bob was through puberty by '70.

Carlton & McCarver in '72 didn't suck either. (Let's all be nice to McCarver as he's done the decent thing and let his hair go grey on his farewell tour). If one wants to go the All-Star Game route in '69 Bench caught Gibson & Carlton. In '70 he caught Seaver. I quit looking for any other examples than that. Posey is fine catcher and all, but let's see if he even has a career equal Ted Simmons before calling him a "bar none" great. Sheeesh.

Denied. http://tracking.si.com/2013/05/20/kobe-bryant-retire-retirement-rumors-denial-lakers/

Although it's not the only cause, if you've just adopted a cat from a shelter farts are a sign that the kitty probably needs another round of dewormer.

I discovered the shipping increase because all of the sudden I had a bunch of prices on used discs met via the price setting site camelcamelcamel. So it appears as if some sellers are making adjustments so perhaps as more adjust it won't be a full $1 increase for the consumer as some sellers will decide to eat part of it. That said I now have to readjust the prices set for marketplace vendors.

What is this? Some sort of electronic tin-foil-hat device that attaches via electrodes to our noggins? <john tesh music>"...You will veer into the bike lane no matter what, but you will remain remarkably calm about it while doing so, biker present or not..."</john tesh music> Mostly chicanes with islands and the day of my post I had some green van that came very close to getting me which is why I stupidly felt compelled to post in this thread when I should have searched for the bike safety thread (though I imagine it's one long rant about Lance with pages of personal attacks edited out by Larry. Uh, happy belated birthday). It seems like if a driver has a choice between hitting concrete or flesh & some moving metal they tend to choose the latter, even though theoretically if one uses the steering wheel the vehicle (as long as it's not something long like a hook & ladder fire engine) should be able to stay between the lines. If you really want to know this PDX site shows some of the silly crap we have in the Yuge. It's a shame but the law of unintended consequences is the rule with these things. http://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/35929 Heck, I don't care if they lower the alcohol threshold but like Moose I have a general complaint in that there are plenty of sober & incompetent & downright dangerous drivers out on the roads than just those who have some amount of alcohol in their system. Personally I would love to have po-leece be more aggressive against all of the bad drivers, be they sober, a wee bit tipsy or drunk, but especially the texters. Death to texters! because one these days one of those fuckers is going to kill me while I'm cycling (and I'm a law abiding cyclist btw). Maybe I should switch to a horsey on springs & switch from my helmet to a foil hat as it looks like I'd be a lot less grumpy. How long have you waiting to use that photo anyway?

I've only seen season 1 but I liked how they kind of grouped the accents to the fictionalized regions (there are some inconsistencies). I grew up in the US Midwest but have a father from the UK and have visited relatives scattered throughout and and don't have a problem understanding any of the actors (there are few relatives that are a different matter). I love the show as it's a change from the "one psychopath trying not to get caught" model of The Sopranos, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire and hell, Mad Men fits that too.

I just came back from a week of renting an apartment on U Street and absolutely loved my visit. Of course it makes a big difference getting to walk or Metro around and not be working. From what I see of your posts here & on FB I think you're in a very good place for you & your family. And you're reasonably close now to DC for when it comes time to expose the youngsters to the arts, museums and Good Humor trucks parked just outside of such places.