MattPie

Bruins, Wild, Oilers, or Islanders, too. :) I will say the "JetBlues" are pretty attractive, although probably too close to he actual Jets sweater. I'd like to see it with the lighter blue replaced with Panthers red (even though I really dig that blue on blue look).

I'm confused: "As it has been explained to me, expect a circular logo (like the Blackhawks)". Like this?!?

The new owner may not relish the idea of coming in and saying, "I want to thank the City of Buffalo and the fans for the warm welcome you've given me, it's truly an honor to be part of Sabres history, and my goal is to win another 3 Stanley Cups as owner. By the way, I don't have $3B sitting around, so effective today ticket prices go up by 20% to get back to 95% of the league average. I'm sure you all understand, I have to run a tighter ship."

It's all over the news, but the American Atheists put a billboard in NC and CO that says, "Go ahead and skip church. Just be good for goodness sake, Happy Holidays". That pretty much nails it for me, I don't think a higher power is needed to tell right from wrong, just common sense and compassion.

I honestly believe Pegula is looking at the long game. For whatever reason, he my have to make an exit at some point. If he leaves behind a team that's spending well past it's income it's a less attractive business investment for a new owner, meaning the team would have to be taken on by another owner that wants to spend his own money keeping the team afloat. The pool of billionaire hockey fans in Buffalo is pretty small, there are far more in other cities with no particular reason to keep the team where it is. Keep the team at least near even and I'm confident Buffalo will find someone to buy it. Besides, the tickets go directly to revenue, which determines the salary cap, which determines how much money Pegula can throw around to get the right players in here.

Only on a plane. That was their Friday the 13th.

Funny, that Kenyan Muslim seems to have a better grasp on the US Constitution that Trump does. :) Side note: I learned today that in parts of England, trump == fart (presumably a shortened version of trumpet).

I love the exchange between Tim Peel and Fake Tim Peel.

Thank you for your well thought-out contribution.

Ahem, Lehner. :)

Didn't the Sabres gave up 4 when the Canes pulled the goalie with 5 minutes left like 1997 or something? Luckily the Sabres were up 5-0 to start.

Speaking of Excessive Mullets, this is a a classic:

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me.

Interesting, I'd think third parties don't exist due to the "winner take all" elections in the US. Generally speaking, any third party will appeal more to people that lean towards one of the two big parties, so third parties only serve to damage "the cause" by syphoning off voters and the other big party prevails. See: Ross Perot. In more contemporary terms, I could see Trump running as a third party candidate and sucking off 15-20% of the Republican vote, but very little of the Democratic vote. The election would be a landslide in the electoral college as even the "red" states you end up with numbers like 45% D, 35% R, 20% T.

I think it's entirely correct, there's a ton of casual racism and xenophobia around. You get little snippits of it from things like the recent hearings in Lancaster to things you hear when people don't think anyone else is listening. I remember someone in Maryland telling me, "the cops used to be able to keep those people (blacks) down in Great Mills (local town), but that doesn't happen as much now".

I've had other Blue Cheese (and Feta) olives, and they're OK. The Blue Cheese ones it I remember right were kind of slimy as the oils from the cheese leached out in to the brine. I have a jar of Feta olives in the fridge; MrsPie says they're also slimy, but I don't notice it nearly as much. I need to start eating them so they don't go bad. Now if you want to talk tasty I have a jar of these, but the Spicy variety in the fridge:

It'll be interesting to see if a team can "protect" a certain amount of salary, or if the expansion team can "draft" a certain amount. Or both. It'd be an interesting equation for the expansion team, do you draft a few higher value players and fill in with FA, or more cheaper, already in the NHL players.

I assume you're thinking I'm advocating another tank. I'm not. I'm acknowledging that, like every season in every sport that's set up this way, teams that aren't realistically looking at the playoffs at the trade deadline start planning for the future. And it would be easier for GMTM to have a clear direction at that time. In any case, I don't think we'll see any mortgage the future moves even if the Sabres are in contention.

The Sabres are still at the point where the trade deadline is an opportunity to trade anyone that'll be a UFA or anyone doesn't look like part of the solution. As much as I'd like to see* the playoffs this year, being more or less out of the race at the deadline would actually make it a little easier the make the moves that'll make the team better next year. * see is figurative, you don't get to watch the NHL playoffs unless you're paying big-Cable your dues. On the odds: If a team finishes last this year they have a 60% chance of picking 1-3 (3 * 20%), and will pick no later than 4th.

Holy cow, Lake Erie is awesome (in the "bringing about awe" sense): http://www.boredpanda.com/the-freak-liquid-mountains-of-lake-erie/?utm_source=iosapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=iosapp

I watched an episode or three, and it's pretty good. It might turn into one of those "everyone is good, then bad, then good, etc." type things (soap operas for men). I haven't continued on because it's something I want to Watch, not just have on while I'm doing other things. I've been mired in Longmire lately, which I started as something I wasn't that interested in but would put on while working or whatever. It's actually a pretty good show, FWIW.

Anyone know if it's just tradition or do they have some rationale for it? I suppose it makes it easier to see who is coming onto the ice during line changes, but that's all I can figure. OT, kinda: the way streaming works for most (if not all) online TV and radio is you're really getting chunks of content that are queued up and played back to back. Let's say 5 second pieces; you download the first 5-second piece and start playing it while downloading the next. Hopefully, you manage to get the next piece before the 5 seconds are up. Because the streamers figure people value uninterrupted video more than "real time", they'll actually wait until you have several 5 second chunks in place to start playing, giving more time to keep chunks coming if there's a network hiccup or something. Truth.

I'd have to think long about going with my local team over a Sabres that included Marchand. And I hate the local team here.

As long as the league dinosaurs win and they keep fighting in the league, I'm all for it. Actually, I wonder what polo fights look like. Is it something like a joust or simple melee with the two riders swinging their mallets at each other. I'm also now thinking about dinosaur polo (or hockey, for that matter).

Well, I was dancing around the fact that I've had it on two occasions: one I was in the bag enough that I can't recall much about it other than thinking it was really great at the time. The second time was at a liquor tasting event at the Philadelphia Flower Show (aka, something for the bros to do). I had many samples that day and didn't take notes so I can't give any details, but Dad's Hat stuck out as being something I'd look for again. Sorry I can't be more help. Based on my tastes, I'd guess that means very little bite, maybe a bit sweet, and medium smoke and oak. But I'm just talking nonsense, really. The other local find from that day was Pennsylvania Distilling's Bluecoat Gin. I still like Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction's Sage Gin more for my G&T, but if I were looking for something PA-local, Bluecoat is a nice option.