The spat-on-vets issue has always been portrayed as having happened to most, if not all, returning Vietnam Vets.

Bullshit. Nobody ever said it happened to most, if not all, of them. You might have a salient point, but I didn't read it. The above statement, in it's reckless hyperbole, disqualified you from playing diplomat.

The funniest comment yet.

being a Warriors fan? Try being a Hawks fan. We had Gugliotta, too -- ten years later.

Haverchuck trying to get laid by lecturing a girl on the misunderstood comic genius of Freddy Got Fingered is quite possibly my favorite scene-steal of all time.

looks like a South Park "real world celebrity" character. How hilarious....

I'll bite, though I'm no King Kaufman. In basketball, a individual player's actions and decisions are inextricably intertwined with those of his teammates. Do I pass him the ball? Can I count on his help on defense? In baseball, the shortstop won't field a grounder and throw it to the center fielder just because he doesn't like the first baseman....

I can't stop laughing at that SNL clip long enough to remember. Somebody needs to show it to Barkley, stat....

John Lewis (my representative) was the first member of Congress to publicly advocate the impeachment of President Bush.

I know that's not the issue here -- I just want to get that out front so that all subsequent efforts to impugn his character are filtered through this fact.

is that KOF has now inspired a spirited defense of Mary Worth. Also preferred are Sluggo's headwear and the flop sweat of Cathy.

It took me three readings to figure out that Buffalonian's letter was satire.

The strip sucked, but the skewerings were delightful, and I shall miss them. Once having KOF discontinued became the cause celebre of a few self-righteous ninnies, the fun was over.

As far as "not getting it" -- you have to explain what was not gotten before I'll believe there was anything to get. Until then, I'll believe that KOF was an exercise in hubris attempting (but failing) to cover for mediocrity. Such things exist not to be railed against, but actively mocked.

but I believe the list of players who have been continuously active from age 18 to age 40 consists of Ty Cobb and Herb Pennock, and that's it.

eom

I ran across while looking for 18-to-40s...in the last three years of Rusty Staub's career, he appeared in 236 games, and scored from the basepaths (meaning, excluding HRs) exactly four times. His final run scored from the bases came in the July 4, 1985 Mets/Braves game, aka the "Rick Camp Game".

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL198507040.shtml

while waiting for Herb Spencer to tell us about cultures that exist without drugs or troublemakers?

among thousands of legitimate and peaceful protestors, as mentioned above. I saw a skinhead kid throw a newspaper box through a store window and run away -- hundreds of people saw it happen, but it excited nobody. We pointed out to the cops what direction he ran in, then the protesters continued protesting, the gawkers gawking, and Falun Gong meditating.

That's what people missed from the aerial shots of teargas haze -- it was possible to stand around bemused at the goings on around you, and many people did just that. A few busloads of Eugene-bred "anarchists" caused almost all the trouble (until the rubber bullets started flying, that is).

got caught in a rundown the other day, and cracked up everyone by attempting to call time out. Now there's a guy who's not fighting for a job.

The end of the Xavier/Purdue game was indeed brutal, but the culprit wasn't free throws so much as an inept timekeeper who repeatedly let additional time run off the clock after the whistle blew, forcing the officials to huddle repeatedly (and endlessly) on the sideline.

I've accepted the reality of free throw bonanzas at the end of games. I've grown to appreciate how the tension focuses on one player at a time, and I'm frankly amazed at how often (during this tournament, anyway) they convert those pressure free throws. It leaves time for strategy discussion between the announcers, and a good producer (as CBS seems to have plenty of) can milk the drama during the stoppages in play.

And Simon Pegg is probably the least self-impressed and smug comedic actor around. He's the anti-Spade.

I'd like to know what your one exception is. Rounders was a fine movie, very much about card-playing, virtually all set in back rooms and dingy halls. Knish the grinder was mocked by Worm, but the viewer is left with little doubt which one of them could truly make a living playing cards.

The preoccupation with beef Wellington is bizarre -- the technique necessary to cook it properly doesn't really apply to any other dish as far as I can tell. But I suppose that's what's on the Hell's Kitchen menu, so you'd better know how to cook it.

I watch Hell's Kitchen and enjoy it well enough. But the BBC version of Kitchen Nightmares might be my favorite show on television. Who hasn't been in a workplace that needed Ramsay's brand of tough love every once in a while? It amazes me how often you see this gift fall into failing restauranteurs' laps, only to see them resist with every fiber of their being. Yet the basic lesson Ramsay teaches over and over again is the same -- if you're a small business, the key to success is to do something simply, and do it well, over and over again. If he's being an asshole, it's in service of this ideal. Get humble, build a customer base, then stretch if you've got to.