I’ll call foul on your assessment of Monopoly and Risk - those games, perhaps, are declining, but board games are actually surging (by board game standards) in the current market. I can excuse that, though, because I’m pretty dialed into the nerd community *pushes up glasses* and it’s not like everyone’s out here…

Even people who seem relatively progressive and understanding of that relationship do this. To me, it’s that, but also an effective and appealing form of propaganda by the richer class that deflects blame from them onto others. It’s the sports equivalent of criminalizing poverty (OBVIOUSLY none of these players are…

Possibly as a result of the fact that the league doesn’t do enough to market and focus on its minority players and fun youth? I imagine it’s more of a chicken and the egg thing, but all it takes to break that cycle is to change something. Can’t directly change the viewership, so change the focus.

Minor edit, but FFVII is available as a PS1 Classic, so it’s out on PSP/Vita/PS3 as well.

This won’t get the appreciation it truly deserves. +1

That’s what he said.

Am I the only one who thinks the accusation of negative tactics is way overblown? France bossed that game and had a pretty hefty bunch of chances well into the second half before retreating and protecting their lead. Like Barry said, if Giroud is less profligate, it’s 3-0. Hell, if Courtois is less Courtois, it’s…

Fraudaos

I don’t understand the impulse want to know everything about a celebrity’s life...but I have felt that impulse. It’s very weird.

I’m betting that’s a fancy public statement way of saying “we told her to stay home for a while.”

RDR, Arkham City, and FFVII for me, I think.

Counterpoint on the taste of medication: the shell on Advil tablets taste like M&Ms.

My first professional baseball game (I’m from RI so it was the Red Sox) was the game in 2004 when Varitek and A-Rod fought and had the benches-clearing brawl. It’s broadly thought of as the turning point in the season that ended the Curse of the Bambino. I was very, very spoiled by that first game.

GMG’s situation is a little different, given that the austerity measures are a product of Univision leveraging themselves out the ass and then failing an IPO. Corporate mismanagement and the cannibalistic nature of hedge fund capital is dooming them, not a dying industry or the weight of supporting union workers.

If a union only bargained on behalf of union members, and there was not widespread union membership, the employer could effectively freeze out the union employees and only hire non-union. In most cases where an employer seeks judicial assistance in kneecapping a union, they need to demonstrate compelling economic…

Nothing wrong with bitching about your union. Nothing wrong with bitching about anything, really. The difference is having the awareness and attitude you clearly DO have, which is that you might always have something to complain about, but you know enough to appreciate what you have.

Congrats, Kate! MORE BOOZE EXPERTISE IS MORE GOOD EXPERTISE.

Please don't look at anything we do in Rhode Island as indicative of anything else in, well, the world. We are strange, insular, and largely dumb. (I no longer live in RI for several reasons, and stuff like this makes me not miss it.)

It was not. This was a very good World Cup showing. They beat Germany and lost to Brazil. They’re fine. I haven’t the faintest idea what Lauren is thinking there.

Billy?