Doohicksie

For those who don't think UPL is any good: He led the Sabres in wins last year, a mark that set the Sabres rookie goalie record. It's a bygone conclusion that Levi will break that record this season, but we'll see. I don't think UPL is as awful as some people say. If the Sabres had won as often with the rest of the goalie corps as they did with UPL they would have made the playoffs. I think he's exactly what Kevyn hoped he was getting in Comrie.

We have grout

When I worked at Roma's on Genesee Street in the 1970s the dough was made by 16- and 17-year olds according to the recipe of, and supervised by, Ricci, the owner (or his brother-in-law who was the de-facto kitchen manager). We made some of the best pizza dough around, if I do say so myself.

Yes, the franchise has moved.

Why didn't he sign earlier OMG OMG OMG

Kinda like the Sabres did with Taylor Hall, eh? It's all speculative anyway, but I just don't see him as a huge upgrade.

I think you're overselling Tarasenko. I don't think he's clearly an upgrade over Olofsson, especially with his injury history which seems to be impacting his play still. In fact I think if you put Tarasenko in Quinn's spot he wouldn't score as much as Olofsson in Quinn's spot. I wouldn't be surprised to see Tarasenko miss 25% or more of the season due to injury.

Word. 😉

Right. There you go again, oozing the moral superiority of your choices. It's off-putting.

.... while paying ***** wages and diverting the money into their own pockets when they already have more than they will ever spend. I can respect the woman who opens a local bakery and puts several people to work but I can't respect someone who makes billions of the labor of others but doesn't pay them fairly for their contributions.

In my field (aerospace and defense), we're actually in a pinch for SWQA folks.

I would say it was more that, well, taking out modest student loans worked for boomers and it was assumed it would work for millennials. It wasn't lies so much as simply not understanding the economic changes that occurred over a generation. Minimum wage is ***** these days and even a lot of professional wages are literally not enough to pay the bills. College and university tuition has greatly outpaced inflation; many states have cut back in their investments in community colleges and state schools. Financial deregulation has allowed predatory loan practices. You really didn't have to work *that* hard to handle paying off student loans back in the day. We struggled a bit but got over the hump. Students these days face a nearly impossible task when trying to get an education and then trying to pay it off.

I'm a boomer/Xer (right on the line, used to consider myself a boomer but share little with that demographic these days). I was apparently an early adopter of student loan hell. It took a long time to pay them off (my wife still has some but they're manageable). It was definitely a financial weight that hindered our spending and more importantly our ability to put money in savings. Knowing what a burden it was on us, there's no way I would wish that on someone else. I'd much rather invest in working people by forgiving student loans than give Elon a tax break that gives him another billion.

Virtually everyone I know who has a degree took out student loans, and a lot of people who never managed to finish their degrees too (and most of the time the reason they didn't finish wasn't that they were lazy, it was that life happened- major illness, parent who needed care, etc.) And really, smirking at other people's troubles is bad form. I lost some respect for you over that remark.

Are you done looking? Totally retired?

Shocked. Not really shocked.

Yeah, that jumped right out at me. I had one internal interview for a promotion at my current company (on a different team) during the pandemic. It was Skype with cameras. One of the senior managers was basically wearing a housecoat and had her hair up in rollers! I had professional attire including tie for the interview. (I didn't get the offer but did get promoted a few months later on my current team which I preferred anyway. My boss's organization is growing and so is the support I provide to him so he was able to justify a rare promotion in place for a senior position.) I'm getting more aware of the age thing, having turned 60 last year. Things look good for me to hang out here for another 5 years. I would hate to have to look for another job at my age. Yeah, I've been through that training too.

Listening to Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger. The star of the album to me isn't Willie's lyrics, nor is it his voice. It's his guitar. He plays in a way that is uniquely his, and it utterly touches my soul.

I don't open threads with fancy-pants words in the title that I've never heard. Just sayin'.

I remember seeing Dallas Mavericks player Shawn Bradley in a restaurant with his family. It's hard for basketball players to hide in public. I just googled him to make sure I spelled his name right and learned that two years ago he was riding his bike and was hit by a car and is now a quadriplegic. 😞

I've told the story on Sabrespace several times, but in June, 2000, I was flying back from business from LAX to DFW and Brett Hull was on the plane. I was in coach, he was in first class so I didn't want to bother him, but then I noticed he was waiting for his bag in baggage claim. I walked up and started talking to him about hockey generalities, the recently completed season, etc... then I finally asked him about "the goal." He rolled his eyes a bit and said the puck was there, he put it in the net, it just happened. He said the following season, he'd be lining up for faceoffs and the player from he other team usually greeted him with, "That wasn't a goal, Hull!" He would have preferred a "highlight reel" goal but it is what it is and once it was in he couldn't take it back. I asked him if he could sign his boarding pass; I had him address it to my nephew who played youth hockey. He wrote, "To Matt, Good luck in hockey" and signed his name. I told Hull I would give it to my nephew when I went up to Buffalo to visit him that summer and he was all like, "OH! A Buffalo fan!" But it was all good. He seemed like a pretty decent guy.

I once went to play racquetball with my brother at some club on Transit Road. Afterward we went into the sauna and Gil Perreault was in there. HUGE.... calf muscles.

It's kind of like eating wings with ranch. It's frowned upon but some people do it anyway.