The Czech Republic

I think Dreamer should've gotten one last run at the Rumble in Philly, let him rack up an elimination or two for his people. Would've been cool.

Gravy is gross. I eat my fries with barbeque sauce.

I swear. This is pathetic. It's bad that it's happening at Yankee Stadium, but if it touches Wrigley Field, I will be wicked mad.

We should merge to become The Chave Republic. Maybe one is "The Chave Republic A" and one is "The Chave Republic B" I don't know but give it a chance.

Flames and Flyers would be a good Cup...

Can someone clarify this whole Rasheed Wallace "both teams played hard" thing? Everyone is mentioning it.

"What does that C stand for on your sweater? Selfish?" -Claude Lemieux

Steve Yzerman should just play it safe and call it quits. It's probably not worth the risk at this point. Shame, because Yzerman's great but he's one of those "forgotten players," overshadowed by his teammates. If Legace doesn't start, let him start in another town. It's a travesty what that guy goes through.

0-0 overtime in Calgary.

Okay, ESPN's graphic just said "Robert Esch."

"And that's about the time the drinking problem hit" --- Airplane -=Mike I see great minds reference alike.

Why not just every other day all the way through, with rest days between home games and travel days between a home and road.

So for the Cup it's basically Tampa Bay against, at this point, Calgary, or San Jose, or maybe Detroit, or even Colorado. hmm.

It just occurred to me that the entity known as Velocidential is gone! Awwwww!

Pizza trophy? More like a cup of Brunswick stew.

"When do you think you'll be ready to play, son?" "I can't tell." "You can tell me. I'm a doctor." "No, its that I'm just not sure." "Can you make a guess?" "Well, not for another two weeks." "You can't make a guess for another two weeks?"

So this is what, summer #6 of Kyle Farnsworth on the cusp of being good? He blows everything. He's terrible. I wish he'd get traded but there's nowhere to unload him to

"That, more than anything, is what led to my drinking problem."

If the state gives up the cash, which hasn't happened yet. But it's only $30 million dollars. If that's all the gap is, why can't Loria throw in the rest of the money. He's insanely wealthy. It would be like signing a free agent. WHOOSH

Well all I know is that finally, the Florida Marlins can be competitive.

I've never seen that part. All of my friends either understand it, ignore it, or were fans themselves in the mid-90s or so. Nobody I know is a fan of it now, because they become so tasteless in their attempts at being edgy and XXXtreme and fresh and in your face and whatever else. My friends and I have always tried to keep it on the DL. We don't discuss it in front of others.

Holy crap! RSPW closed?

You know you're from Chicago when: The "living room" is called the "front room." I know people who do but I never did. You don't pronounce the "s" at the end of Illinois, and you become irritated at people who do. Capital offense. You measure distance in minutes (especially "from the city") and you swear everything is pretty much 15 minutes away. This is true. And in the city, those numbers can be awfully large. You have no problem spelling or pronouncing "Des Plaines" or "Lisle." I love when people try sounding smart and saying "Day Plenn." Your school classes were canceled because of cold. Your school classes were canceled because of heat. Yes. Also, a closing for subzero wind chill is MUCH worse than one for snow. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day. It's a good thing this isn't the only determinant of these lists. BTW: Thursday was 78, Friday was 38. Splendid. Stores don't have sacks, they have bags. The inverse of many other places, evidently. And we get our bags from the Jewel-Osco or Dominick's, not Safeway or whatever. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "Where's my coat at?" or "If you go to the mall I wanna go with." Guilty Your idea of a great tenderloin is when the meat is twice as big as the bun. "Everything" is on it and a slice of dill pickle is on the side. Yep You drink "pop." Yes. But in Wisconsin, it's not pop. It's not even soda. It's "sohh-da." You understand that I-290, I-90, I-94 and I-294 are all different roads. You know the names of the interstates: Stevenson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dan Ryan, and the Edens. But you call the interstates "expressways." I have an encyclopedic knowledge of the greater Chicago highway system. I've been arguing with somebody over where the Ike actually starts...he says Woodfield, I say Lake-Cook Road. I know I'm right, even though it's still only IL-53 at that point. You refer to anything south of I-80 as "Southern Illinois." Or "Downstate," but hey, it's a party. You refer to Lake Michigan as "The Lake." It is. You refer to Chicago as "The City." It is. "The Super Bowl" refers to one specific game played in January of 1986. GO BEARS!! Yes. And you can probably also sing at least a few verses of the Super Bowl Shuffle. (If you're super-creative, you can reassign them to WWE superstars.) No matter where you are, when you hear the term "Downtown" you immediately assume they're talking about Downtown Chicago, which really is "The Loop." More or less. You have two favorite football teams, The Bears and the Packers (love to hate them). Go Bears Packers suck blah blah blah You buy "The Trib." Well yeah, I'm not settling for that Sun-Times tabloid crap, I don't care if they have Jay Mariotti. Traditionally, the south siders go with the Sun-Times, the northwest suburbans go with the Daily Herald and Chicago Tribune, and everybody else just gets the Trib. You think 35 degrees is great weather to wash your car! Even I have standards. You what goes on a Chicago Style Hot Dog. Sure do, and will make sure that everybody knows that ketchup is not meant for hot dogs. You know what Chicago Style Pizza REALLY is. And love it accordingly. Good chains: Rosati's and Lou Malnati's. You know why they call Chicago "The Windy City," and it's not because of the wind. You understand what "lake effect" is. To say the least. You know the difference between Amtrak and Metra and know which station they end up at. I have a general clue. Riding the trains late at night = much fun in a creepy way. You can distinguish between the following area codes: 847, 630, 773, 708, 312, 815. And you can remember back when the 847 area was still part of 708. You respond to the question "Where are you from?" with a "side." Example: "WEST SIDE," "SOUTH SIDE," OR "NORTH SIDE." You know what the phone number is to Empire Carpet (588-2300). Shut up, Massholes. Empire is ours. Not yours.

Obviously it didn't like being called the Mattmobile.

That would mean you were facing thirty batters. Perfect game just means 27 up and down. A perfect game is a no-hitter, but a no-hitter is not neccessarily always a perfect game, because you could have walks or errors in there.