NYU

Time for another of my predictions. Sounds like a ridiculous theory when I type it out, but it seemed good in my head. Besides that, once you remember that this episode is meant to be the first hour of a three-hour finale, it really was quite good. I loved the ending montage showing all the different situations the survivors in -- the music was perfect. I was glad they finally revealed to Jack that he and Claire were related. I liked how they did it too, with Claire's mother telling Kate the baby is beautiful without even realizing Aaron was really her grandson. And some good quotes in here from "Hugo, Jesus Christ is not a weapon" to "Ugh. I'm not gonna let you die alone" to "You do realize those crackers are fifteen years old, right?" Next week's episode looks like it has the potential to be excellent. As for predictions on who will likely die next week? I'd have to say Keamy might be a given. I think Michael's purpose for the island is finished, so he will die when the freighter blows up. I still think Jin dies, and I think that was further hinted at tonight with Sun telling her father that two men were responsible for his death (i.e. we haven't learned the second one yet, so where would she get that person from unless he really did die?). I think Desmond manages to stay alive despite being in the room with the explosives, because too many people have become wrapped up in the Desmond/Penny saga for them to kill him off just now. I say Faraday dies, just because they are doing so much to show how he is willing to save the other survivors, and there pretty much is no more reason he needs to stay alive for the show once they are saved. .

I should abuse my AWESOME MOD POWERS and send you to the Gulag! But I won't.

For the record Smartly Pretty, I blame you for posting about Pelfrey and he immediately gave up his first hit of the game.

Pelfrey's pitching an excellent game, yet the Mets have only gotten three hits and no runs off Bergmann with his sterling 7.85 ERA.

Uh, no. The McCain camp could bury Obama on the issue if they constantly reinforce the idea that Barack Obama supported the notion of their votes being excluded from the electoral process, while John McCain treats every voter as equals and seeks to earn the support of every single one. McCain could question why the Obama campaign didn't try to find a resolution to this matter with the DNC before the Florida and Michigan elections so this whole mess could be avoided, instead choosing to simply give up on them and wanting to withhold their inalienable right to vote as if it was no big deal. Doesn't matter how true it has to be -- it's how the issue is spun. And as we've learned in recent years, the Republicans are very tactical when it comes to this.

Yes, in Michigan and Florida at least. A number of people will either sit out or vote for McCain instead of giving the Democrats their support. It sends the message that the Democratic party can not afford to completely alienate two states who, in the case of Michigan they typically DO get support from, in the case of Florida can feasibly get their electoral college votes. This has been the biggest primary in years and years with record turnout, and there's a considerable amount of voters who were told they didn't count because the powers-that-be in their states tried to make a power play. I definitely think there's going to be some considerable backlash from this.

Do the Democrats even have a chance of winning Michigan and Florida in the general election? I don't see how. You disenfranchised their votes and rendered the citizens meaningless in the entire primary process. Considering Obama clearly said he did not want the votes in those states to count because of the violated election rules, why would the people feel inclined to vote for him over McCain? Prediction here: Obama will lose both Florida and Michigan to McCain in November, with Florida being a particularly critical hit because of its status as a swing state.

Garlic bread French fries

Only the Mets could make Bronson Arroyo, with his 7.14 ERA, look like Cy Young. They had a good win before -- although Santana was not dominating going six innings and giving up ten hits -- but the second game...yeesh. The bullpen collapsed, which is hardly a new story. And it seems they wasted all the offense in the first game considering they built up an anemic four hits and one run against Arroyo. One step forward. One step back. Two games over .500 just like yesterday.

....the thing about sand and the compass coming from the island, while the knife does not, is as good a theory as anything I could come up with. It ties in with Richard noticing the picture of the black smoke in the house too. Good stuff. Just a question though....was the comic book maybe the same one Walt read from the plane? Walt and Locke shared a special connection -- and it would explain why Richard casually placed the knife on top of the comic, hoping Locke would ignore the flashier knife in favor of the old comic book to show he was definitely connected to the island and his future. As for the Claire theory, I don't read Lostpedia and I haven't gone to any other message boards. So as far as I'm concerned, I came up with the idea myself, and a damned good one I developed too.

Okay...what was the deal with the scene with young Locke and Richard, with Richard getting angry that Locke chose the knife of all the objects. I mean, that scene just went way way over my head. And I'm offering the prediction now -- Claire is dead. She died when the rocket hit her house. This would be why Miles kept looking at her strangely during their walk, and Sawyer had to tell him there was a restraining order. Then the eerieness of her scene with Christian tonight coupled with her lack of concern about Aaron at this point....I'm calling it now, and I am eager to accept your accolades when it turns out I'm right.

Oh yeah. They're a stumbling, bumbling calamity tonight. And for the record, Rick Petersen should have been gone after the bullpen collapse last September. Somebody needed to be held accountable for that, and it should have been the guy that...you know...was in charge of all the pitchers that gave up all those games. Of course, the Mets held onto him and surprise, surprise...the pitching has been just as piss-poor this season as it was last year, excluding Santana, Maine, and Wagner.

Did McCain have a twenty-year history with Hagee, attend his religious services for years, allow his children to be baptised by him, and refer to Hagee as his "spiritual adviser"? Don't believe so. Guys, I think you're trying to compare apples and oranges here.

My ex-girlfriend dragged me to see The Bravery in concert at Irving Plaza last summer. One of the worst concerts I've ever been to.

I have no problem with stopping this at all, because I regretted saying I would do it for a month almost immediately. I told that to many people, including a few of the mod staff. However, how exactly do you classify this as spamming? I figure when you guys got together to figure out how you could officially get me to stop posting one word responses, you settled on "spamming" as the rule I was breaking. I bet you neglected the offer from one of the moderating staff to order me to stop so it would give me a way out. While I considered that (as I hated going through with the one word posts at least 5 times a day), I politely declined because I didn't want that moderator to look like he was abusing his power and have posters complaining about it. When I brought that up, he told me to just tough it out and keep posting. That was close to an hour before your mandate to stop. Also, you posted yesterday that I would not be gulaged or banned for what I was doing. So, I have a couple of questions and points that I feel are valid: 1. At what point did this become spamming? Up until yesterday it was not spamming, right? But as of today, it was. What specifically put it over the top? 2. Apparently, one word responses are spamming, right? So will everyone be warned in the future if they only post one word? How many can they post before they are spamming? 3. How many words does it take to reach the minimum limit before a post is a spam? If there is a certain number of words we can agree on, that would be nice. 4. What if someone started posting 32 word replies every time they posted. Is that spamming? They are doing the same number over and over again, right? If an exact high number of words for each post is not spamming, but one word is, we arrive back at the exact number of words that constitutes spamming. 5. Before we bring up that this is a gimmick that was used outside of the NSFW area of the forums, allow me to bring up the Wilford Brimley gimmick (a gimmick that I think was awesome, by the way). He posted, as a gimmick, outside of the NSFW area. Was he spamming? If he does it again, should he be banned or gulaged? Maybe we should give him an ultimatum publicly? Here is one example for you: http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?...t&p=2676940 6. We have brand new updated rules here at TSM. I see spamming is a bannable offense. Now, I stopped as soon as I was warned about this, but just for clarification, maybe we should include a definition of what spamming is. I would be very interested to read this so I will not spam on this forum anymore. I think we will set many precedents with the answers we give here tonight. Some of you, not all, are particular about not getting called out on mistakes that the moderating staff makes, and hate to have those mistakes pointed out. I am thinking of this in advance, so I would just like to have these questions or points answered or validated with this matter so that won't happen in the future. If we can get some set rules about what spamming consists of, surely no one can complain about spamming in the future. Thanks! So is this your new, new gimmick now? You talk as if you weren't someone that admitted this was a terrible idea yesterday and you simply wanted a way out that wouldn't make you lose face. And weren't you just a mod, like, three weeks ago? So why are you trying to portray yourself as one of the oppressed when you were the one to volunteer to step down from your title?

Am I the only one surprised at how badly Harold and Kumar has actually done? The first one really did have a big cult following among the 18-36 crowd, so I'm shocked it's only made $25 million through two weekends. All jokes aside about stoners not paying to see movies, yada yada, I definitely thought this would have no problem surpassing the $50 million gross mark, which it's not likely to do now.

And the Mets horrid bullpen strikes again. Just when the Mets come within striking distance of the Diamondbacks in the sixth to make it 5-4, actually scoring four runs off Brandon Webb who has possibly been the best pitcher the whole season so far....and Sanchez and Schoeneweis come in the eighth to give up FIVE runs! Awful. This team isn't built for success. Not with that sloppy Achilles Heel bullpen of theirs.

Or we're over the age of eight. I didn't realize corn on the cob was the epitome of high class and finer dining. My mistake.

I thought Maven could have been something once I saw the promo he cut at New Year's Revolution when he was going against Shelton Benjamin. He had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand and, for the first time in his stint in WWE, he showed a lot of potential as an over-the-top arrogant heel. I mean, they did release him a few months later....but we will always have that promo.

Corn on the Cob over Macaroni and Cheese....you all are insane.

Macaroni and Cheese. I've already talked about how much I dislike corn on the cob. Garlic bread. Cheddar biscuits are great too, but I'm a sucker for garlic bread. French Fries. All things considered, this SHOULD be the winner of the tournament. White Rice. Never had couscous so I can't vote for it. But white rice shouldn't be in the semi finals.

Never said it was hard to eat. I said it took a lot of effort. Have to use your teeth to chomp all the corn off from left to right, then up and down, constantly spinning the cob and rotating your mouth until you manage to extract all the kernels. And of course, there's always some you need to struggle with a lot more. Then, in the end, you have all these stray, stringy pieces stuck in your teeth. Not for me. Just give me a fork and let me get straight to it. I haven't done the whole roasting bit though so maybe that would make the difference.

Once again, Perez shows his inconsistency. He either has excellent outings or ridiculously bad ones. There is no middle ground with him.

YES! So far, that's the only thing that frustrated me about this game. It's nit-picky to be sure, but I don't understand what the purpose was of making the phone so dark.

The TSM Best Poster Tournament is coming up in about six weeks, so I'm building support now. Feel free to send me your contributions. The NYU Express can't be stopped.