TheBostonStrangler

Why the hate for the Gamecube this generation? It's been a good solid system, with Metroid Prime, Zelda: WW, Zelda: TP, Smash Bros. Melee, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, Mario Kart, and a couple dozen other games. It also had some RPG support (Paper Mario 2, Baten Kaitos, Tales of Symphonia), increased 3rd party support, and a better controller. I'd give it more love than it's getting. My rankings (done for personal enjoyment only, not taking historical importance etc. into account) 1) Nintendo 64 2) Xbox 3) Super Nintendo 4) Gamecube 5) Game Boy 6) Sega Genesis 7) Game Boy 8) Playstation 2 9) Dreamcast 10) Game Gear (soft spot in my heart for whatever reason) Never did get the Sony love. It's never been my console of choice, and probably will continue to be on the outside of my rankings. I've generally been a Nintendo guy, although the Xbox has been great for me this gen. An Xbox/Gamecube combo brings the house.

I'd agree with NoCalMike, as that seems to be the angle the Times was playing up. On its own, I don't think it's a particularly big deal, but if the prosecutor finds other evidence to go after Cheney with, that small lie could end up being a big chink in his armor. And Libby's up shit creek at this point.

I love message boards. And now, as amazing as this might seem, I have something to say about Saturday Night Live. I didn't see this episode, but I'm glad to have Tina back on Weekend Update. I hate the Poehler/Fey combo as Bob does. What shocked me, however, was that when I watched the Heder episode, I actually liked Sanz on WU more than Poehler. I have hated Sanz with all my heart for about four years at this point, and he did a better job than Amy did on Weekend Update. I like Amy as a cast member (except for that stupid Rick Rick Rick sketch), but she needs to get her ass off the WU desk. And I think Lance could be a solid host. His cameo in Dodgeball was one of the greatest cameos in movie history (and ironically, in light of this thread, showed that he had a sense of humor about his previous struggles with cancer), and he could be a damn good host if they play to his strengths. Jeter's episode hosting was really good, and athlete episodes generally go over better than random non-acting celebrities (like Sharpton, Trump, etc.).

Actually, while St. Anger was a complete garbage album, it sold really really well. They went double platinum with it, and while 2,000,000 copies might be a little low by Metallica standards, it's still amazingly good sales. As for U2, I'm a huge fan. I'd rank the albums as such: - Joshua Tree - Achtung Baby - Unforgettable Fire - All That You Can't Leave Behind - War - Zooropa - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - Boy - Rattle and Hum - October - Pop Where The Streets Have No Name is my favorite song of all-time, and the Joshua Tree has (in my opinion) the best 1-2-3 punch to start off an album forever, with Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and With or Without You starting it up (and immediately followed by Bullet the Blue Sky). Overall, I'd agree with Edwin's assessment of U2: They always have a few stellar tracks on every disc, with non-offensive filler surrounding it. Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby are their most solid albums, in my opinion, so they get the nod over the otheres. Less filler, and more badassitude throughout. The real problem becomes ranking the albums after that, as Unforgettable Fire, War, ATYCLB, and Zooropa are all equals in my eyes, and ranking one of them as the 6th-best U2 album seems way too harsh. And bands are almost always as big as their tours. There are some exceptions, I suppose, when the Beatles and Nirvanas of the world come out of nowhere and just capture the mainstream's imagination, but if you were asked to come up with the biggest acts in the world right now, I'd probably go with U2, Metallica, and Springsteen. They've been around for 20 years at least, can sell out any show they put on, and have enough music to surprise their fans with. That's what differentiates them from a Coldplay, who have to play the same set every night because they've got three albums to choose from.

I'm alternating between "Laid" by James and "Do You Want To" by Franz Ferdinand

Shawn vs. Shelton this year was spectacular. I loved that match. **** on the nose from me.

MAIN EVENT SWF WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP "Deathwish" Danny Williams (SWF World Heavyweight Champion) v. El Luchadore Magnifico - I'm taking ELM since he's 2-0 in Genesis main events, and with such a massive sample size, it's clear that he will win each and every time without fail. SINGLES MATCH "Hollywood" Spike Jenkins v. "The Superior One" Tom Flesher - Spike wins, regardless of who writes. I'd like Spike to win it with his own match, though, just so I can stick it to Flesher for a year or so. SINGLES MATCH Landon "La Cucaracha" Maddix v. "Urban Legend" Todd Cortez - I have no idea....I'll take Todd, I suppose. SWF INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP "The Dean of Professional Wrestling" Jay Hawke (SWF International Champion) v. Zyon - JHawk to take this one. SWF HARDCORE CHAMPIONSHIP HOUSE RULES: WE DESTROYED IT ONCE AND WE CAN DO IT AGAIN MATCH Bruce Blank (SWF Hardcore Champion) v. JJ Johnson - No decision when FAO Schwartz goes up in flames again. But presuming it DOESN'T explode (unlikely, I know), then I'll take JJJ. SINGLES MATCH TORU v. Marcus "The Mastermind" Ward - I have never heard of TORU. Therefore, Ward to win. SWF WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS TWO ON TWO MATCH Wild and Dangerous (Wildchild and Johnny Dangerous, SWF World Tag Team Champions) v. The Crimson Skull and Ghost Machine - While it's very tempting to take the guys who sound like GI Joe villains, I'll stick with the guys who sound like a gay porn video. TRIPLE THREAT MATCH FOR #1 CONTENDERSHIP TO THE SWF WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP Akira v. Manson v. Devon Walters Please, PLEASE let Mansonosity run wild...

Madden was one of the first games where I thought "Oh man, this could be absolutely unbelievable". You get the snap and fade back with the QB, using the analog stick on the other piece of the controller to move around. You turn the QB left and right by moving the remote side-to-side. Suddenly, you see your man open down the field, but he's got two guys in front of him. You aim the remote a few yards past them and throw the ball by moving the controller back, then forwards softly for a lob pass, rather than a bullet. The ball arcs over everyone's head, five yards past the route he was supposed to run, and lands in the WR's arms for an easy touchdown. This is the type of thing that Madden Revolution could do. It's the next step beyond the Read and Lead Passing that NFL Fever introduced. It was a great idea, but the controller they had available to them wasn't intuitive enough to work with such a setup. This controller, however, would make it work very, very easily. I'm very excited about this console. I'm not totally sold on it yet, but it's clearly the console with the biggest upside this generation. PS3 will look beautiful, and 360 will do an awesome job integrating online into games, but this....between the completely new interface and the return of old NES/SNES/N64 titles, it's a way for the past and future to really come together and simplify a lot of things. This is the kind of simplification from Nintendo that I could really get behind.

121. John Kruger's radio transmitter in his head and his crippled arm 122. The Alley - a horrendous JL stable that somehow spawned myself and MVS 123. Mothernature says this list has gone on too long 124. Blowing off studying for finals to write a 14,000 word PPV match

48. No-selling getting hit by a car 49. Chat 50. Only one Pokemon-themed gimmick in five years

Tom Petty. I friggin hate Tom Petty.

There have been 18 World Title reigns and 44 HGC Title reigns since I held the belts. This makes me feel ancient. Ancient and hungry.

Supes in no way speaks for me, the rest of the SWF, retirees, hangers-on, his hot sister, wannabes, Chuck Norris, himself, or anybody else. Strangely enough, he DOES speak for William H. Macy. Not sure how that happened.

Listen to the Dropkick Murphys. A punk band with Gaelic influences, like a bagpiper, etc. Some songs to give a listen to in order to get a feel for the band: - The Gauntlet - Rocky Road To Dublin - It's A Long Way To The Top (cover of the AC/DC song) - Walk Away - Skinhead on the MBTA - Finnegan's Wake - Tessie Those should give you a feel for what the band is like. Awesome group with a big following, especially in Boston, their hometown.

JJ is a fool. I hope he chokes on his own vomit, then dies, then his angel chokes on the angel of the vomit, and his angel dies and goes to hell and gets tortured by evil vomit. Yeah.

Man, that entire period around Stubby's removal was ridiculous. I gotta say, I was kinda pissed at Thoth when he went ahead and made his move without really having everyone on the same page, although it was clear that Stubby had been in the wrong for a long time (I remember an incident involving LDP and a randomly changed stipulation for absolutely no reason weighing my decision a lot). At that point, I was booking the JL (I'm not positive if King was still head of JLCC at that point, but I think I was - not definite, though) and had a LOT of fun trying to get anything communicated to Stubby. You can't have a head of CC who prevents anyone else from booking, including a highly qualified Thugg, ignores direct requests, and can't be in touch with people. In the end, I was glad that the change got made, although I was absolutely terrified that Mark and King wouldn't get on board with it. The entire thing would have fallen apart without them on board. There really wasn't another option to join them on CC (we were making the change from two shows to three shows at that point), so I volunteered to do it, despite being the head of JLCC. I was absolutely terrified to be a WFCC member at that point. I had never been World Champion, which had been a prerequisite for WFCC membership before that point (Rane, Merc, Stubby, Thugg, Mark, King, and a couple other miscellaneous members), and I figured that people would look at Mark, King, and myself and notice that I was way out of my league. Marking the matches was nerve-racking enough, let along booking them. Still, things went better than I had ever expected. Thank god that King and Mark decided to take the job. Without that, the fed would have folded without a doubt, since I was nowhere near ready to do it, Thugg didn't seem to be involved at that point, and Thoth didn't want a position after demodding Stubby and starting the entire thing. It was an insane time, but it ultimately worked out very well for the fed.

I think you'd need to include the following people (in a world without egos, etc): - Vince McMahon - Stephanie McMahon - Paul Heyman - Jim Cornette - Tommy Dreamer - Arn Anderson - Dean Malenko - Al Snow - Eric Bischoff - Vince Russo In addition to this, I'd choose a random member from each brand, rotating on a monthly basis, to represent the views of the locker room. One month it's HHH, next it's Rene Dupree. Make it a way for the people in the locker room to make their voices heard and allow the writers to hear the wrestlers' perspective on the storylines they're coming up with. Beats the hell out of some phony "open door" policy.

I demand: - A five-leaf clover - A picture of the Blarney Stone, signed by Michael T. Blarney (he lives down in Kilkenny, and has no connection to the stone whatsoever - I've just been a big fan of his work down at Kilkenny Rail Station for a long time) - The heads of every resident of Ulster County - An "IRA Junior Solider" play kit, complete with My First Car Bomb accessory pack - Michael Flatley, the Lord of the Dance. - And, most importantly, a wee Irish miss to provide for the 23 children we'll have without birth control (red hair a must).

In reference to the whole "Biggest waste of talent" question, I'd agree unequivocably with Z's reference to K-Os. He's one of the best writers the IGNWF/SWF had ever seen. He would have been champ within three months of his bump if he had stayed at it. But instead he moved on somewhere else, and that was that for him. 'Tis a right shame indeed, 'tis. One other candidate is in his league, though: - John Kruger. He debuted the show before I did, and I lost to him 4 times in the first three weeks or so I was in the fed. I almost quit thanks to that bastard. He flew through the JL, got bumped quickly, looked great. Then he did a weird angle with the Clan where a transmitter was implanted into his head, he disappeared, reappeared very briefly to do an angle where one of his arms didn't work (which never made it past the second promo), and was gone for good. Truly a bizarre run for the character, but he was a guy who really, really could have been something huge.

Shut up, Toxxic. You're going to use Alex Zenon as the referee, and you're going to put him over like nothing else.

Austin Powers 3 - the only truly funny part of the movie was the fake opening with Tom Cruise, Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, etc. Saved the movie from having no redeeming qualities.

I truly loved the first season of the show, although I felt it slipped a bit in the second season. It didn't help that Fox was continually moving it around and making it impossible for me to catch it. This is a show I'd definitely consider picking up on TiVo, or at least renting from Netflix, at some point.

Notable artists (to me) whose albums I don't own: - Billy Idol - CCR - Elton John - Guns n Roses - Kinks - Marvin Gaye - Pearl Jam - Public Enemy Jay-Z, Elvis Costello, Pixies, REM, Wilco, and Pink Floyd were on that list for a while, but I picked up at least a greatest hits from all of them recently.

As someone who dealt with multiple ulcers this year, leading to days in the hospital sans food and drink, as well as losing 10 pounds the really really hard way, I feel your pain. I don't have a scar, but I got TWO hospital rides (and lost two quarts of blood), so I figure we're about even. Glad you're doing well, man.

And then the church will be overrun by beavers wearing fedoras and singing Glory Be To Christ while....um....doing the Cabbage Patch.....on acid....or something...... *gives up*