IMO, hockey should go to the 'Olympic sized' ice. I find Olympic hockey much more watchable than the goon-fests in NHL.

I also (and this is my fault) don't understand the penalties or lack of them when there is a major collision. I would watch some poor dude get slammed into the boards & think 'I guess that was a penalty', and they play on. I'd see someone else get hit from behind (a shot that in football would earn you a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty), and once again think 'that's got to be a foul' and nope, they'd just play on.

I also liked the glowing puck (easy to lose sight of it in the scrums around the net).

Finally, I think they need more than one person who can call fouls, etc. (my understanding is the 2 line judges can't call many of the penalties that the referee can call).

P.S. What a Preakness!! I was counting my money when Street Sense took the lead in mid stretch & then I see Curlin flying back & I'm pleading for the line. I thought it might be a dead heat when they went across (note to readers, when your horse is the one being gained on & at end you're hoping for a dead heat, you've lost). I do hope Curlin & Street Sense both go to the Belmont. Hard Spun needs a rest, IMO.

Just as in many other sports/challenges that require a lot of money for equipment & ability to fly all around the world, I go ho hum when I see the story about the lucky 18 year old who has scaled all the peaks.

If you don't have access to major money (or happen to be born a sherpa in Nepal) you can't climb all the highest peaks as a teenager. I'm sure many, many other people could have done what this young lady did (and if I had the desire & someone to foot the bill I'd go too, so I certainly don't blame her for doing it), yet the funds are lacking for them.

To me, this is like a story about a young (say 12 or 13) surfer who has already surfed all the world's great locations. How did they get there? Unless they already were on the BodyGlove payroll, someone wealthy got them there so they could do it. Lot's of other surfers my hypothetical someone's age could do those feats too (if they had the plane fares).

Ed Furey wrote: 'In a Catholic girls high school in Queens with which I am familiar, the straw ballot among the kids in 2004 went about 75 percent for Kerry. You will attend masses by the score, if not the hundred, without hearing a sermon that even mentions abortion. In fact, if it weren't for presidential elections, most Catholics would never hear abortion at all.'

Where I live down in Kentucky, abortion is a hot topic among the Catholics. Northern Kentucky has scads of Catholics & they vote Republican very heavily. I wish some of your Catholics could come on down & talk some sense into them :-)

I own two (one is hooked up to a resistance trainer) & I ride 4 or 5 times a week. I live about 4 or 5 miles from work, yet I don't ride my bike to work.

Main reason is that there is one nasty hill between me & work & although it's not hard for me to navigate, I will bust a sweat doing so.

Another commenter mentioned shower facilities at work. I wish I had them here so I could ride to work.

Bike riding is one of the greatst aerobic exercises you can do. Running might be a better workout, but you get the pounding on your joints. I have a messed up knee, so running is out for me.

Molly Picon advised: 'I just thought of a piece of advice- have you tried exercising your cat with a cat dancer or laser toy?'

Excellent suggestion there from Molly. The LW said the cat couldn't be bothered with the standard fake mice & furry balls & plastic BS that goes for cat toys these days.

I own 3 cats myself & I'm telling you I can run em up a wall chasing after the ole laser pointer. It gets to the point where I have to stop (thinking I'm going to stroke one out). This kind of high-excitement chasing can get the aggression out & tire him out so much all he wants to do is get a drink of water & sleep for 10 hours.

Good luck to the LW. I have never owned an angry cat myself (hope I never do). My relatives have had them & they just basically lived & tolerated the animal until it died.

As a certified geek, it looked pretty fun to me. If I was in college now (and was a Potterphile). I think that it would have been a hoot to get together with other obsessives & talk about the books we love. I have read all the books (they started getting good at #3), and I am looking forward to this last one.

I am more a Tolkeivick, used to hang out at AFT & RABT a few years ago & have had my share of arguments with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (because he has programs that search for his name & he's a dick), so I have been guilty of the same kind of literary obsessiveness the author of this piece recounted.

I personally think Hermiome (sic?) is a fine character & I don't think she is weird at all (considering she's a witch who attends a semi-supernatural school, etc. etc.), I think the people saying that probably think she's not as weird as they are & since she's a 'real witch', they think that is weird. If you want weird, there's a whole lot of it spread out among many other characters, IMO.