My family lived in Africa in the 70s, and newspapers came to us by container ship. So a fresh issue of the IHT, or Le Monde, usually brought by someone who had just flown in, was a godsend and a joy, to supplement what you learned on Radio-Canada International on a scratchy shortwave. Le Comte only spoke ‘la langue de…

Sofa king jealous... We had our subscriptions at roughly the same time, mine went 1982-1990, and I read episodically before and after that until the mag turned into a pamphlet filled with USA Today factoids instead of long pieces.

I’m happy to read you can maintain your tradition. I was disappointed that we couldn’t, but now fully understand why and support it. There are other ways to welcome new members and to build a team.

The White House and the complicit, ‘Be Best’ First Lady.

Reading is hard.

I’ve always believed that there is a clear defining line between an initiation ceremony or process or ritual, and a hazing ritual, but over time the last couple of decades I’ve lost the belief that all people, especially testosterone-addled kids, can tell the difference.

A good way to notice it is by looking at the replays, and how flat-footed Brandon Sutter (#20) is and how slow he appears. In Vancouver yesterday, there was a little uproar about how he, the putative #3 centre, who’s been felled by abdominal/groin injuries, focused on Pilates and core work this off-season, and how…

Firefighers.  Union members (brothers and sisters).

I’ll trust you on this one, and not scrutinize every step, and just move on to another dick in the vacuum thread.

I know broadcast rights-holders are contractually obligated to use certain terms, their crews can’t protest the name of the Washington football team, for example. It’s usually stuff like referring to an arena or stadium by its corporate sponsorship name, which in this day and age is a battle now lost, I’ve kind of…

‘Pal’ gets to me.  It’s never been used, in person or online, as anything but a passive-aggressive confrontation inciter, which is fine if that’s what’s intended, I can throw down, but I swear there’s a lot of people out there who believe they’re being at least superficially polite, that it gives them plausible…

The draft is also a realization of the fact that with free agency, players are inevitably going to move from small market teams to big market teams, so it’s important to help the small market restock to remain competitive.

It’s rarely black and white, I think that’s overstating your point and glossing over the nuance. I saw at least a dozen well-balanced posts explaining that yeah, you can/should expect to be splashed in these environments, maybe even be the actual target once or twice, but this seemed excessive, abusive, uncomfortable…

Are you implying that your post hasn’t been utterly refuted?

I take it to a more basic level: these jerks get to shower and change after all this in their clean dry plastic-protected ‘civilian’ clothing to go home. She doesn’t have that luxury. If she’s lucky she had the forethought to bring an extra set of clothes that she’ll change into, all sticky and stinking, in a dingy…

It’s so true that we’re quick to complain, but really need something extraordinary to ;happen to give someone special recognition. I supervise directly a good group of eager dedicated talented workers and I don’t stint on the “Good job” and the “Nice work everyone!”, but I constantly have to remind myself to give…

Another Sign of the Impending Apocalypse: three sentences is now considered a ‘long walk’.

I never believe anyone who says that, ever. The correct, honest answer is this order of preference: