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This is really odd....news out of Pittsburgh is that Big Ben played Sunday with two broken toes. Supposedly it happened in the first quarter, but with the Steelers who knows??

Why do the Steelers insist on being so mysterious about this sort of stuff. If true, I can't believe Ben was even able to stay in the game. Your feet are the foundation of a proper throw.

I knew something was up....

I caught Monday night's Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night and for those of you who didn't see it, it was a great show.

Jay Leno paid tribute to Johnny Carson with an excellent monlogue and then had on Johnny's sidekick Ed McMahon and then two old show biz friends of Johnny, who even hosted the show in his absence, Don Rickles and Bob Newhart.

Even though they have aged, and their timing is a bit off, Rickles and Newhart can be quite funny. Rickles was hysterical. What was even funnier, was watching the old clips of Rickles on the tonight show.

There was one episode where Carson had Frank Sinatra on as a guest and Rickles came out as a surprise guest. Rickles then went to shake Sinatra's hand and knelt before him to kiss his hand as if he were the godfather! ROTFLMAO!!!

Rickles then proceeded to say to Sinatra, "well they rubbed out so and so with two shots to the head, you know." It was hysterical.

I saw Jay's tribute. It was well done. The most shocking moment was when Rickles raised his glass to Carson at the end. Not so much for what he said but I think it was the first time I ever saw Rickles in a sincere moment.

Pram & Falc

I didn't see the tribute but I read about it. The general consensus was that it was done in very good taste. IMO, Don Rickles is one of the funniest comediens of his generation. He had a very good repoire with Carson.

My mother-in-law saw Don Rickles about 20 years ago doing standup on Long Island. She said he was absolutely hysterical. He had alot of racial jokes and no one was spared.

Intersting that Jay leno did such a good tribute to Carson. It was David Letterman that Carson wanted as his replacement and both Letterman and Carson thought it was in the bag. But it was Jay Leno and his people that in some way, shape or form strong armed NBC into taking Leno instead of Letterman. This infuriated Letterman and Carson and probably explains why Carson never made an appearance on Leno's show but made one on LEtterman's.

Falc - I have ALWAYS enjoyed Don Rickles on any show. Be it with Letterman, Leno, Carson, on Comic Relief, wherever.

He is hysterical.

Another funny line was when he referred to his old show "CPO Sharkey" on NBC in the 70s. He said "It was a show that probably was on air, what? Six minutes?" LOL!

Casati - It was Leno's PR person that got Leno the job at NBC and he was able to keep it because when Carson left, Letterman was still under contract with his late show with NBC.

Leno only had a two year deal at the beginning and it was to expire when Letterman's contract was up.

The problem was that NBC would have had to have paid millions to Leno if they would have given the job to Letterman. Plus Letterman was getting a huge offer from CBS (42 million for 3 years). Translation: NBC didn't want to pay 60 million between penalties and salary to have David Letterman.

NBC had not calculated the possibility of Letterman going to CBS as they never had a late night show. They figured they were going to keep both.

But Letterman was very upset at not getting the job and therefore when the offer came from CBS, he jumped ship and he did it after he called Johnny Carson who had said to him: "If they would have done what they did to you, to me, I would leave."

It's interesting that letterman is doing repeats--at least last coupple nights. Maybe he'll come back next week.

Those old clips were great--he pushed the envelope even back then.

Pram

I'm still not sure what happened. David Letterman's show (that followed Carson's Tonight Show) was produced by one of Johnny Carson's production companies. Therefore Letterman was employed by Carson, not NBC.

So if NBC offerred the job to Letterman he would've had to have left Carson's production company. You don't think Johnny Carson was about to just give up on Letterman without NBC paying the price especially after NBC told Carson to take a hike.

But didn't both Letterman and Carson's contracts with NBC expire at the same time?

Casati - IT doesn't matter who produced the show. Letterman was an NBC employee and was under contract at NBC. That's what I read in the NY Times.

Letterman's show on CBS is produced by his own production company called "Pants". I believe he is partners with Ray Romano. It doesn't matter anyway. Letterman gets his 35 million dollar salary from CBS.

To answer your question, no. They did not expire at the same time. Letterman's contract expired a year or two after Carson's. Which is why Leno's original contract was for 2 years.

Don Rickles

He has always had me in stitches. I laughed when he did the kneeling bit and then the sign of the cross after breaking Carson's cigarette box. And then to see Johhny go after him the day after on his Sharkey set. That 6-minute line was funny too, especially when he compared it to his buddy Newhart.

BTW, I thought Rickles was very good in Casino. He played a serious part and did it well. More than just a comic but I think all of us have enjoyed his humor.

About this new forum

It looks that now that the holidays are over, we are getting a bit more active here. Between this and the regular calcio thread, we have nearly 400 posts in a month, more or less, of posting. I miss the simplicity of the old system but I do like some of the extra's we get with this place. I have a question for all of you. Do you like the separate threads, one for calcio and this one? Or would you prefer to lump it all together? For the most part, it is the same parties that post between these two. Let me know. Actually, I will set up a poll.

And No. 2 Goes Down

My Terps just beat Duke at their place. Brings us up to 3-3 in the ACC. It is frustrating to see this team play up and down as they have talent and as tonight shows, can win big games. Hopefully Gary gets them in gear for March.

Pram

I was under the impression that the production company owns the show (at Carson owned the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson) because I read the other day that Letterman's Late Show that followed Carson was owned by the same production company that owned the Tonight Show.

Niether here nor there since I guess the employees of the show could be employeed by the network.

BTW... I saw a replay of the 1979 60 minutes interview with Mike Wallace and Johnny Carson. It was actually a good interview.

This weekend promises to be very long and cold, so I hope there is a lot of figure skating and football on tv to keep me from going stir crazy!

Buzz

Well, there's no American football. Hopefully there's plenty of the European version.

Falc wrote:And No. 2 Goes Down

My Terps just beat Duke at their place. Brings us up to 3-3 in the ACC. It is frustrating to see this team play up and down as they have talent and as tonight shows, can win big games.

Yes. One writer in the AP poll voted Duke number 1 because Illinois went into overtime with Iowa. HAH. IL beat WI stopping the Badgers 38 home game winning streak (best in country 'til then).

Bineaz

Weren't Illinois stacked around 88/89? I think Michigan and the Fab Five won it that year.

The Illini look strong, but I wonder if they have the same killer-instinct as the Blue Devils...

Dezz,

Yeah, they beat Michigan both times in the Big 10 that year but on the third try, the Final Four game, they lost. That IL team had more stars; this team is strong anyway you look at it. They took care of MO already this year.

Duck Fuke and the ACC --except MD

We'll see come the end of March.

FORZA

bineaz wrote:Duck Fuke and the ACC --except MD
FORZA

Bineaz - Kissing ass is not becoming of you. But Forza DePaul anyway!

LOL -- actually my undergrad is Loyola -- still the only school from Illinois that has ever won the NCAA basketball championship ('63).

bineaz wrote:LOL -- actually my undergrad is Loyola -- still the only school from Illinois that has ever won the NCAA basketball championship ('63).

Well Forza Loyola then for winning the NCAA the month after I was born!

See what comes around goes around.

U munu gira

"At Davos, a no-tie rule has recently been laid down. But not everyone cooperates. At my table, one morning, a couple of Italians are dressed beautifully — no surprise. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Italians have to dress beautifully, ties and all."

Jay Nordlinger

bineaz wrote:LOL -- actually my undergrad is Loyola -- still the only school from Illinois that has ever won the NCAA basketball championship ('63).

And is that the year you graduated? hehehe

Buzzz wrote:

bineaz wrote:LOL -- actually my undergrad is Loyola -- still the only school from Illinois that has ever won the NCAA basketball championship ('63).

And is that the year you graduated? hehehe

Actually, it is an event that did not even occur during his lifetime!

hehehehehe I was only kidding

Marat Safin beat Lleyton Hewitt to win the Australian open. good on him.

Safin - Hewitt was tricky. By the time I decided which player to support; i.e. which player I hated least, the match was over Can't stand either of them, especially that sickly sweet stuff at the end (complimeting each other). My gf thinks Hewitt deserved to be spat on by her boy Chela lol.

Super Bowl

So... what are your pics? I'm pretty convinced that the Pats will win. But I'm not sure by how many points. The spread is 7.

The Pats have never won a Super Bowl by more than 3 points. But those Patriot teams rarely covered the spread. I believe I saw some stat this season that showed the Patriots covering most of their games. I believe their record is 12-6 against the spread.

At first I thought that in no way can the Patriots cover the spread. But now I believe they can.

Safin is a cutie. So he got my vote over the guy from downunder.

A blog, Waiter Rant, dedicated to assorted shout-outs and grievances afflicting New York City's oft-disgruntled bars and restaurants workers...

Snippets from the front lines:

I was thinking about writing this long involved essay on tipping. I struggled with it for hours and then gave up. You know why? Because most of you are smart enough to know a waiter is supposed to get at least a 15% gratuity. Just let the following horror stories speak for themselves...
--A table’s bill is $208.85. It’s a four top. They have a $100 gift certificate. They ask me to deduct the gift amount and split the remainder between two credit cards. I present the men with credit card slips for $54.42 and $54.43. The tips are $8.16 and $8.17 respectively. They screw me down to the penny...

--A couple’s on a first date. The check is $150. The man leaves me $12. I’m pissed. His date passes me on the way to the ladies room.

“Just out of curiosity what did he leave you as a tip?” she asks.

I happily show her the credit card slip.

“What a cheap *^*&^,” she exclaims. She goes back to the table and angrily tells her date what a cheapskate he is. I guess he’s not getting lucky tonight. Come to think of it I saw her at the bar alone later.

--My all time favorite. A Birkenstock shod hippie couple’s check is $55. I present them with the bill.

“Waiter we don’t tip because we believe that would force owners to pay you a living wage,” Deadhead proclaims proudly.

I stare at him silently. My look says, “And you should tip me if you want to keep on living.” He squirms uncomfortably.

“Well maybe just this once” he says counting out a few bills.

“Thank you sir.”

hehehehehe

Just for the record I always tip between 10 & 15 percent when I eat out. But of course the quality of service has a lot to do with it as well. For instance my fave friday buffet stop sometimes has this waiter who would bring me a coke every time, although I asked for coffee! hehehe I always except the coke because I did not want to give him any trouble. But be assure he always gets the 10% minimum. LOL

I think some of the hunters will get a chuckle or perplexed look from this guy's story:

The strange-but-true story of the saw-wielding cop, the angry ironworker and the headless deer

By John Keilman, Tribune staff reporter. Freelance reporter Carolyn Rusin contributed to this report
Published February 3, 2005

In the woods, the rule is simple: You kill a deer, you take it with you--hooves, hide and head. But when it happens along a busy suburban road, things can get messy.

A deer struck by an SUV on Golf Road several weeks ago set off a nasty dispute between a cop with an eye for an impressive crown of antlers and an ironworker with a stubborn belief that the code of the forest holds true on the streets.

Their disagreement over the ethics of harvesting roadkill ended with the ironworker, Michael Cox, 30, of Glenview, angrily heaving the deer's headless carcass onto the doorstep of the Des Plaines Police Department.

Though he was promptly charged with littering and ultimately pleaded guilty, Cox remains unrepentant.

"I have no regrets," he said. "If that's what it took to get my point across that this was wrong, that's what had to be done."

The drama began about 7:30 a.m. Dec. 13, when a Honda Passport driven by a Skokie man slammed into a 10-point buck--a mature male with antlers branching into 10 tips--near Camp Pine Woods Forest Preserve in Des Plaines. A police officer who arrived shot and killed the mortally wounded animal.

Under Illinois law, a driver who strikes a deer is entitled to the carcass, but the Skokie man didn't want it. That made it a case of "first come, first served," said Jill Willis, a conservation police officer with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Des Plaines police said an officer back at the station heard about the accident and put in the first claim. After getting a supervisor's permission, the officer drove to the scene in his personal car, bringing a saw so he could remove the deer's head and have it mounted.

But before the officer arrived, Cox, a bear-sized ironworker with a bristling beard, got a call from a friend who had spotted the buck on the roadside.

Cox, a hunter since his youth, went through the recent deer season without a kill. He said he needed the venison because an injury put him on disability. So when he heard about the buck, he hopped in his Chevy Suburban and roared to Golf Road.

After he was told a police officer had already claimed the deer, he said, he backed off--until he learned the cop wanted only the animal's head.

"I was taken aback by that, because being a hunter since I was 12, 13, there's a certain code of ethics between sportsmen," he said. "It's not written down anywhere, it's just how it is. The ethical thing would be to take the animal and use the entire thing, not just cut off the head and leave the rest."

Some hunters agree that that is the preferred protocol for a deer taken in the woods, though many lawfully leave the animal's entrails behind. But Jeff Davis, editor of Whitetails Unlimited magazine in Wisconsin, said the ethics regarding roadkill are muddier.

"Internal organs can be struck. [The carcass] can be so broken up that the meat is a little chancy," he said. "I don't think it's unusual when a deer is struck by a car to leave the rest of the carcass."

Roadkill rage

Cox said the officer made a similar argument, though the animal's trunk did not appear damaged. Cox was offered the meat, but said he turned it down because he was angry about the officer's actions. After the officer dragged the deer's body over a berm to remove the head away from public view, Cox drove off, seething.

That night, after attending a Boy Scout meeting as an assistant scoutmaster, Cox returned to see what happened to the body. Police said they normally notify public works staff about carcasses in the road, but the department has no record of a call that day. When Cox arrived, the headless deer was still there.

Cox loaded the remains into his truck, thinking he would use the carcass as evidence of what he saw as the officer's dishonorable conduct. But he said that when he arrived at the Des Plaines Police Department the next morning, he ran into a wall of indifference.

Incensed, he returned to his truck. Though his first thought was to drop the deer's body on the curb as a sign of his disgust, he decided to make a more dramatic gesture.

He said he dragged the headless body to the front door of the police station and dumped it, telling bewildered onlookers: "There's a cop inside who got the head. He's missing this part of it."

Cox was quickly surrounded by police cars when he tried to drive away and spent the next five hours in a holding cell, he said. Though a disorderly conduct charge was later dropped, Cox paid a $169 fine after pleading guilty to unlawful littering.

Des Plaines police would not identify the officer involved, saying it was a personnel matter, and the officer named by Cox declined to comment Wednesday.

Cops and carcasses

Though Deputy Police Chief Bill Schneider said an internal investigation cleared the officer of wrongdoing, the incident persuaded the department to create a new roadkill policy. Officers can no longer claim a dead animal, in whole or in part, while on duty.

"From a professional standpoint, I don't think officers need to be loading carcasses in their car," said Sgt. Nick Treantafeles. "I mean, dragging carcasses to the side of the road is something we do weekly. But to take it a step further and put it in your personal vehicle or squad car, that's a little different."

While city employees carted away the deer's body--laying it to rest in forest preserve woods behind the Public Works Department--the fate of the head is unclear. People who take roadkill to a taxidermist must get a permit from the Department of Natural Resources, but the agency has no record of that happening in this case.

Soon after the clash, Cox gave his side of the story on a local hunting and fishing Web site but got little sympathy. One posting read: "You wanted the meat, they offered the meat and you didn't take the meat? Why are you so ticked?"

Cox is still convinced he did the right thing. Needy though he was, he said, he would never take venison from a mutilated carcass.

"I'd rather starve than see this cop get away with something that's not right," he said.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 3810.story

bineaz

Very interesting story. But this guy's an a--hole, really. The deer was not harvested. It was killed by an SUV. If the officer wanted the head and left the carcass behind, who cares? Sounds to me like the guy was jealous that he didn't get there first to claim the kill.

Now if the animal was hunted and the hunter left the carcass behind, that's wrong, but that would still not make Cox's reaction justified.

Yeah, I agree--overkill really.

Killing deer is wrong in the first place (not including road accidents, of course)

That whole story is gross.

Monica Rosu has stopped training and the whole program is now is chaos over the resignation of both head coaches. I am so confused because I do not know what to do, put the article here or in the "Cut & Paste" section. So I will put it here....


Romanian Gymnastics Facing Uncertainty // February 1, 2005
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation has yet to act on the resignations of women's head coaches Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, who announced on Sunday that they were leaving their positions.
On Monday, Belu and Bitang held a press conference to confirm their resignations, the news of which continues to make headlines in Romania. "There are more media attending today than when the team returned home victorious from Athens," commented Bitang at the conference.

The Executive Committee of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation must meet to decide if the resignations will be accepted. When Belu and Bitang announced they were leaving in February 2003, the Federation rejected the resignations.

Belu and Bitang are currently facing a lawsuit from 2002 world championships silver medalist Oana Petrovschi, who contends that she was forced to train while injured. Petrovschi, who also claims that she was forced to pay 30% of prize winnings to Belu, is seeking $51,900 in damages from Belu and Bitang.

It is not an unusual practice for gymnasts to give a portion of their prize money to their coaches and national federation, say insiders. In many countries it is an unspoken rule that the gymnasts will share their earnings, though some federations have actual written contracts with their gymnasts concerning prize money.

Belu told the media that he asked the federation to draw up such contracts with the gymnasts. Adriana Stoica, Secretary-General of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, insists it could not be done.

"The federation can't impose financial arrangements between coaches and gymnasts," Stoica told Reuters. "Our previous attempts to set contracts failed because neither the families nor the gymnasts accepted them."

Belu's official coaching salary each month is $345 U.S. dollars, but he gets bonuses for medals won by his gymnasts at the Olympics and World and European Championships. Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei calculated that during the 2000-2004 Olympic cycle, Belu made $675,000.

According to reports, Olympic champions Catalina Ponor and Monica Rosu have stopped training. "All the girls are devastated," Ponor told newspaper ProSport.

At Monday's press conference, the coaches said their decision to leave is definite. However, Belu seemed to hint that the resignations could be hinging on changes being made.

"I can't continue my professional activity if the unfair accusations against me go on and as long as gymnastics does not have clear financial, professional and ethical rules," he told Reuters

False Trophy

Is not the point of putting the deer's head, or any head of an animal, is to present it as a trophy of the kill the hunter made? Or do people in Wisconsin find it to be decorative? Is the cop going to go around and brag that he killed this 10 pointer? Tells you a lot about the integrity of this cop. Guess why his name was not revealed. The local lawyers will find his name and they will use this shit to try to impeach his credibility. Everyone involved with this were idiots and assholes.

I have some money down on the Eagles. I'm not 100% confident, but I think Philly will surprise some people.

Philly has waited long enough for a SB...hopefully this will be their time.