NYU

Okay, I'm not getting the Hill-Rod thing. Was that supposed to be like Hot Rod? Because if so, that doesn't even SOUND good, not to mention she's about fifteen years late with the reference. If she was going to pander like that, she might as well just called herself Hillswoggle.

Now see, fried calamari -- that's a main dish.

Mac and cheese should definitely be considered a side dish. Hash browns....good pick. I forgot about that.

Au Gratin Potatoes.

That was brilliant. Agreed, all of the gimmick posters there did great.

Heilman does a good job getting out of the inning only giving up one run, but I also need to question why Willie wouldn't place Wagner in that position. Considering he's hardly been used this season, there's no reason Wagner couldn't have worked five outs. I'm often critical of him -- but good grief, he's better than Aaron Heilman.

Okay, I can't even begin to fathom why we would bring in Aaron Heilman with the bases loaded -- the same Aaron Heilman with a 5.56 ERA and the one that gave up a three run homer yesterday that almost cost the Mets the game. And Angel Pagan misplays the fly ball. Defensively, they've been horrid in the field today.

Wouldn't be a Mets/Phillies series without the Mets bullpen starting to implode upon itself.

"You know, they say that to tack on runs is often the difference between winning and losing" Quite the McCarverism there. I am so glad the Mets/Phillies game is on FOX.

Seeing as how I've gotten yet another PM complaint about this thread... This has gotten far, far off-topic from the original "Parents Fight Over Gang Ties" topic and seeing as it has now shifted to a conversation about Annie being a transsexual, Marney being a lesbian, and Jamie Lee Curtis's chromosomes -- and let's be honest, considering how enticing the first two are as topics, it's going to be damn near impossible to change this back into the original subject -- I'm moving it to The Chocolate Socket. Argue till your heart's content.

Huh?

Meh.

The Benoit thread has been done over and over and over again. It never leads to anything good. We had a topic about it that went on for nearly nine months and it eventually degenerated into a mess that consisted of three different opinions repeated ad-nauseum. Either: 1) To hell with Benoit for killing his family. He is evil. 2) Guys, Benoit isn't evil. He had dementia. We just don't know what he was thinking. I will remember him as someone who loved his family even though he violently murdered them. 3) Who cares if Benoit killed his family? We should separate that from his wrestling ability which made millions of fans happy. The debates sparked bad feelings with posters attacking one another for their viewpoints -- and really, in these types of threads, NOBODY is going to change their opinion, regardless of the talking points from the other side. Furthermore, some just came out with the most asinine points -- last time, it was comparing the situation to Hitler. Even in the post that was just created, he talked about some fictional scenario involving John Doe who rapes 17 year old girls and compared it to Benoit who he just KNOWS loved his family although, unless he spent personal time with Benoit and his family to determine their daily interactions and the environment of their family life, he is unqualified to say such a thing. So yeah, the Benoit threads have a steep downside and really, not much of an upside at this point. Until some kind of relevant news comes out that makes the presence of such a thread necessary, there is no reason for it.

Moved to General Wrestling considering this is roughly fifteen years old now.

Oh no you don't. If there was anything in that post even resembling a shred of new news about the Benoit situation, I might have allowed it. But this is unnecessary. You've all made your thoughts about Benoit known by now -- and if you haven't, well, you missed the boat -- and until a reason comes up that we actually NEED a new Benoit thread, we're not entering the seventh layer of Hell here again.

Venkman, why did you change your avatar? I demand you change it back. Don't make me abuse my power to change your avatar back to what it was.

Guys, this argument is going nowhere. Bruiser feels four hours is too long for a baseball game -- and to be quite honest, so do I, but that's neither here nor there -- regardless of which teams are playing. Brooklyn Zoo does not. That's the basic summary of the last page of discussion, and I have the feeling that these two opinions are not going to change anytime soon. With that being said, it's time to drop it and move on. So, since we're already on April 14th, we should all do ourselves a favor and move to the next This Week in Baseball topic.

ForumPro, I can't recall seeing another poster here at TSM that was ever so helpful. I can tell you really do like forums. With your enthusiasm, I think you would make an excellent admin. What do you think?

Since I liked the Town Hall topics that Cheech and Dandy were starting, and I don't want to see the idea fall by the wayside, I'm going to pick up the idea for the time being. So away we go. FORMAT First, discuss the topic and your general thoughts about the item. After discussing the topic, check the additional questions located at the bottom of the post. Remember, the idea is to discuss the topic; the questions only serve as a guideline for what you might want to cover. TOPIC In June 2006, WWE decided to bring back Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand. It gave Rob Van Dam the Heavyweight Championship to kickstart the federation as the titleholder, and it signed superstars like Sabu and the Sandman to contracts to give the idea more credibility. It became evident from the first night though that they did not plan to bring back the ECW of old. As the months wore on, matches increasingly ended in disqualifications, the Main Events were regularly contested between guys that hardly had any connections with the ECW of yesteryear whatsoever, and the title was shuffled from RVD to the Big Show to Bobby Lashley to Vince McMahon. Use this thread to discuss whether you feel WWE has successfully adopted ECW as its third brand and whether the changes they made to the federation were for the better or worse. Additional Questions 1. Would things had gone differently for the brand -- i.e. would the brand look different altogether today -- had RVD and Sabu not been pulled over for drugs, with Van Dam having to give up both Heavyweight Championships only a few days later? 2. Do you feel making an established WWE star in The Big Show the unstoppable heel ECW Champion helped or hindered the brand in its developing months? 3. Would adding a secondary singles title and tag titles make the brand more legitimate in your eyes? Would it help you place ECW on the same level as Raw or Smackdown? 4. Do you think young wrestlers like John Morrison, CM Punk, and Elijah Burke would be more prevalent or less prevalent in the WWE if only Raw and Smackdown existed? Would they even still be in the federation at all? 5. Has this reincarnation of ECW ultimately sullied the legacy of the ECW of the 1990s in your mind?

I'm not looking to turn this into a long debate about what constitutes an ace and what does not, but look. How can somebody be considered the ace of your staff if you can't expect him to pitch well in Away games? Your ace is the guy you trust handing the ball to when you really need that win. Not the guy you can only hand the ball to when you're pitching in your own stadium, but if God forbid you happen to play away, you look to hand the ball to somebody else, anybody else, even the guy who's still an unproven minor leaguer more or less.

Whoa whoa whoa, hold the phone. Wasn't it primarily Yankee fans that criticized Wang for not being an ace last October for giving up eight runs and nine hits over 4 and 2/3 innings in Game 1 against the Indians, followed by a rousing start of four runs and five hits over 1 inning in Game 4? In fact, Zoo, in the Divisional Series thread, it was you who said: and You don't say an ace sucks ass on the road, and you don't say an unproven, unestablished pitcher should start Game 1 of the Divisional Series instead of an ace. That's why he's an ace. I understand Wang has had a stellar start so far this year, but let's not pretend as if it was always Yankee fans who believed in Wang as their ace while everyone else criticized him. Following the playoffs last year, Wang was essentially criticized by all for his shoddy pitching and inability to throw in the clutch. If I were a Yankee fan, I'd be thrilled with how he's looking right now, but to turn this into some revenge fantasy of "Yeah Wang, let's avenge those who ever doubted you" when it was pretty much everyone that was doubting him -- Yankee supporters and non-Yankee supporters alike -- after the series with the Indians is silly.

I don't understand why these Town Hall threads have to have such a strict format. People should be able to express their opinions on a topic briefly rather than writing an analytical essay. Sure, people discussing things in the same manner and order as each other is nice, but it's stupid to get upset with someone for writing things their own way. These topics should be about content, not form. You don't have to answer every question or provide elaborate answers. But your responses in this thread are meant to evoke discussion. One sentence posts rarely do that -- and especially when it's a single point that's been repeated ad nauseum by many for the past two years. That's why I provided five specific questions, in addition to a general sweeping opinion of the rebirth of ECW as a whole. foleyfan, I don't mind if people leave short answers, but I do mind the quality of those short answers.

Mike, did the format of the thread throw you off or something?

Damned forum reset....

Guys, just so we're perfectly clear, it is appropriate to have alternate viewpoints in the Current Events folder. Just as in the real world, some have liberal opinions and some have conservative opinions. While I understand that many of you now aren't used to having Republican posters visit the forums anymore, the mere fact that they are conservative is not a bannable offense. So no, I do not want any more PMs from posters that ask me to take action simply because Cancer Marney is posting in the CE Folder again. As long as flaming is avoided, and people can get along civilly without getting personal and offensive with one another, everything should be just fine. Healthy debate is encouraged. I would hope that if we're grown-up enough to have an opinion on the War in Iraq, then we're grown-up enough to deal with criticism from others who might have a contrasting viewpoint. So yeah, Marney is welcomed back, as is Vyce, Dr. Tom, and anybody else who have stayed away from TSM that wishes to post in the Current Events folder. When someone truly steps over the line with an offensive insult or a racial slur, you can be rest assured either myself or another hot rat will step in and take the appropriate action. But until then, it's best to learn that conversations are obviously going to get heated at times but hey, that's politics.