connoisseur series500

Exciting first half of Netherlands-Ivory Coast. What's with the stupid reffing? The Africans got hit with two undeserved yellow cards. Dutch seem to be a bit weak on defence, but are obviously talented on the offensive. Argentina looks exciting. They'll be a handful. My favorite team, Italy is in action tomorrow on TV against USA. I haven't been keeping up, and am just joining the action. Who are the playmakers for the Italian side this year?

you big dummy you were supposed to post that in the soccer thread.... "Sorry, Pops. It's just that we've been saving all this ripple for when football starts, and Aunt Esther will be hitting us up for a church donation shortly. We better start the season while the TV still works. You had to fix it after Grady broke it last week..."

Is it time for NFL yet?

The bearings in the tires are always first things to go. Can I be your auto mechanic? Why not? You've been f*cking with me since day one.

Agreed. I'd buy some more if I didn't already own them.

Sent pm on the Moncur and Weston Selects.

Nor did the couple appear to be very close or affectionate together. I suspected that they tagged along together as babes-in-the-woods from Ukraine, and leaned on each other for support as they learned how to get by in their new country. Of course, this is all conjecture, and I shouldn't talk that way about friends. Who knows the real story? I wish them both well. I have lost contact with both of them unfortunately, but I'll likely run into her in major chess tournaments.

Another picture of Valquiria Rocha, top board for Angola. Okay, her chess rating isn't that high--I've got her by around 300 points, but she looks a lot better than I do!

Nothing like some good old-fashioned wonkery to try and answer this question. Your source indicates that determination as to whether large banks benefit from economies of scale is mixed; but on the other hand, large credit unions do seem to benefit.

Where is this documented? Or is this just presumption based on what somebody else has said based on what somebody else might have heard about what somebody else may have read? Rachel, A coworker told me of this, though I didn't read or hear about it in the media. Notice I said "if that report is true" in my post. To me, it doesn't really matter; we'll kick their asses again when we play.

He's the ass for not wearing a helmet, Moose. Some car drivers have difficulty seeing motorcycles on the road, so it really doesn't matter how "safe" Ben says he drives. Steeler fans are asses too, in that apparently, they were upset with the New England Patriot team just because the elderly lady who hit Ben's cycle carried a Maine license plate. If that report is true, then those people are real asses. All I can say is, if we play the Steelers this year (haven't checked if we do), we'll kick their asses just like we did during their Super Bowl year.

As far as answering the question as to which is better, banks or credit unions, I would simply respond that the more cogent issue would be to judge each individually and on their own merits. Some banks are better than other banks and better than some credit unions. Some credit unions are better than other credit unions and other banks. Judge by the individual entity, not the genre.

But it isn't just about the inequity of the taxes. It's also about the potential inefficiencies generated by said inequities. Guy I think what I'm trying to say is: sure, inefficiencies are (generally) bad. But the consolidation of the banking industry that we have seen in the US indicates that a system of many small community banks is relatively inefficient anyway, compared to a system of a few banking behemoths. Clearly smaller banks are having trouble competing with the big boys - otherwise why would they be getting swallowed up right and left? Isn't this like the situation with many small coffee shops getting wrecked by Starbucks (which I think is a good thing as long as the workers get paid more and the coffee is better)? Or am I working from a flawed definition of efficiency here? Smaller banks don't necessarily have trouble competing with bigger banks. They get bought because the big banks offer to buy them at prices they can't refuse. Big banks buy little banks so they can gain a foothold in a community. When faced with the choice between opening a brand new branch or buying an existing one, the latter option proves to be the better way to go. I don't know if big banks benefit from economies of scale. It's not manufacturing afterall. They make money by applying other departments to their newly-purchased small bank: insurance services, financial investments, trust, private banking, commercial lending, etc. Oftentimes, a big bank is hurt by having too many banking centers near each other; which often happens after they take over smaller banks.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Evil mind. Her ex-husband is really cool. I found him more congenial than she. They both came over from Ukraine under visas for people with exceptional skills. Actually, they were both nice, but I could joke around with Volodymir a bit more. Anna was an assassin at the chessboard.

My favorite is Zepeda from El Salvador See also the other picture on page one.

A few more "lookers:"

I've got him considerably beat in the hair department.

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

At least you could have focused on these guys when they were younger....

Irina Krush from USA.

I'm picking out some shots from a Dutch photographer's website. He calls Sharevich, a "photographer's dream."

Okay, here's another one of Mira then....

Slovakian team at the Olympics.

Very possible. I was just going by last name. Thanks for the correction, AGG. The two women did look different....