the max

Hey! I picked Nicky Lids!

It's been fucking retardedly hot down here lately. I had to get my work notebook out of my truck at around five this morning and was greeted by 85 degrees and humidity like mud. It's terrible.

They had a security guard at the Denny's that the ex and I went to a lot. He looked exactly like Michael Chiklis so much so that I took to calling him "Vic" every night when we got there and again when we left. I don't think he ever figured it out.

He may not be a great filmmaker, but he's an entertaining guy. Liked him on Opie and Jimmy yesterday.

His injuries were almost all from blocking shots, which tells me that he's still in the game well enough. Missed 2 games after getting his bell rung by that pussy Brisebois. Missed 3 with an ankle injury after blocking a shot. Missed 8 with a broken foot after blocking a shot. Missed 4 with a bruised foot after blocking a shot. Missed game 5 against the Scabs with a knee injury. None of the injuries are Glen Murray injuries, like missing 19 games because he skated too hard. Plus, the money's not bad for a guy of his skill who is still able to play at a high level and can play whereever. I think they'll lock Stuart up long-term, and he'll be given the chance to anchor the second pairing with Ference.

The Hawks also have Petri Kontiola. He's a Fin. Hopefully they end up better than the Tuomo Ruutu experience.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=238329&amp...s=headlines_nhl Bruins re-sign Aaron Ward to a 2/5 million dollar contract. He probably would have gotten more on the open market, but he liked it here. More gooder on Chiarelli.

It has been a very close game, for your information. I'm pretty sure the pecking order goes No-Hitter in Progress > Nationally Featured Baseball Game > Everything Else in the Fucking World > Arena Football, so there was no reason why one game or the other could've been aired on ESPN2. Because it's a different sport and ESPN has, like, millions of dollars invested in the arena football league. The Astros/Cubs play the same sport as the Royals/Red Sox, so their game was bumped for a little while. BFD. If it was a game in september that had anything to do with anything besides being another number in one column or the other, I might see your way. Otherwise, bumping a baseball game to play the end of another baseball game that happens to have something historic happening there...makes sense. Certainly makes more sense than: "Sorry football fans, I know you're enjoying [Whofuckingcares Team 1] and [Whofuckingcares Team 2] here at the Arena Football, but there's a no-hitter going on in Boston. We're going to that."

Yes, bump another sport on another channel so as not to take away from Astros/Cubs. We obviously never see enough of them. I mean, we see no-hitters all the time, never the drama of an Astros/Cubs game in mid-May.

Well, three outs to go here. I have faith in you, Kansas City Royals. EDIT: Oh cool, now I can't watch the Cubs game. Now I want a Royals hit just to spite ESPN. They should've put this on ESPN2. Okay, he got it, now please take me back to the game you were contracted to air. There's a close and important game going on and we're lingering here on Hot Ass-Slapping Action. The Eastern Seaboard Programming Network strikes again. That's a bit inaccurate as every no-hitter and subsequent celebration gets broadcast. Don't you know? Any and all people or teams associated with the city of Boston are terrible. Their very existence is loathed. All no-hitters should be celebrated with firm handshakes (no hugs!) and leaving the field quietly and in an orderly fashion so as not to distract from the other games. Edit: Not to take away from the usual complaining in these threads, but Jason Varitek has now caught four no-hitters. Hideo Nomo, Derek Lowe, Clay Buchholz and now Jon Lester.

I guess if Baron isn't making picks that I'd better get to stepping. With the...next picks in the draft: Nicklas Lidström Aaaaaaand Dominik Hašek Building from the net out, motherfuckers.

So since we skipped Baron, does that mean it's my turn? And I pick twice, right?

Agreed. Tastes kind of like flat lemon-lime soda that you take a sip of with citrus-y gum in your mouth. I was hoping to be wowed and ended up leaving it out to go flat and dumping it.

Any chance of ol' Max getting in on this? I've never felt as alive as I did when I made Niskie's pick for him.

Garlic Bread. I helped it get this far and I'll be goddamned if some shitty potato pieces are going to out-do a favorite of mine. I made some the other night when the girlfriend and I grilled up some steaks. Butter, fresh garlic, a little bit of cheese and some parsley. I almost forgot I had a steak. Garlic Bread > *.

I just don't see how this affects people so deeply. If you're not gay, and aren't planning on being gay, how does it concern you? The religious objection to this is always laughable.

On behalf of Niskie and the [Team Name], we would like to thank [insert City] for their hospitality during draft week. With the ninth pick, we are proud to select: Ken Dryden, the Four-Story Goalie. As comedian Nick DiPaulo, a lifelong Boston Bruins fan once said, "Ken Dryden ruined my childhood."

niskie, send them to me. I'm not in this thing so I don't have a decided interest. And I'm always online because I have no life.

5th grade: Had probably the worst assholish teacher I ever had. For whatever reason, he really didn't like me. I got horrible grades from him, which sucked because he was my english and history teacher. I don't know how other schools were, but we had a three teacher "team" based on where the homerooms were. The three teachers would trade classes within the team, each teacher being responsible for one or two subjects. Well, I had this guy for english and history, two subjects I was (and still am) good with. I remember we had to write stories, any kind of stories, they had to be two pages hand-written. There were no other guidelines except that they obviously had to be written properly as far as spelling, punctuation and grammar. Well this one time, I wrote this fantastic four page story about a superhero who got his powers from drinking soda from a special soda machine, his powers depended on what kind of soda he drank from it. It was awesome for a fifth-grader who was nine years old. He basically graded it like a fucking high school term paper, gave me a C- for being too wordy and "not following directions". I don't think I said a word for the rest of the day. My mom told me during the summer that he was probably being hard on me to "push me harder to do better" which makes sense NOW, but to a nine year old, I don't think that makes much sense. 6th grade: More of the same since I had the same three teacher team, now all even more cranky. 7th grade: Had a two teacher team, with a brand-new teacher, fresh out of college and a cranky old bitty stuck in her ways who I think talked to my fifth/sixth grade nemesis because she was just as hard on me. Her favorite thing to do was send me to the office. For anything. Talking out of turn? Office. No warning. Stay there for the period. Forgot homework? Office. And so on. It got to the point where the secretaries would just plan to use me as an office aid for most of the day, delivering notes, attendance reports and so on. Not surprisingly I failed most of her classes, still don't know how I passed to eighth grade. 8th grade: We moved from the school built in 1912 with walls and ceilings falling down to the brand new, state of the art school. We moved in March. We got out of school in June. So, for three months, we got to enjoy it all. Cruel. Very cruel. Highlight of eighth grade was writing a comedic pro-Confederate Civil War play for a history assignment that featured numerous prat falls and off-color jokes about Lincoln and the north. It ended when the Confederacy actually won the war handily, turning numerous Union soldiers, generals and even Lincoln's vice president into Confederate supporters. However, the Confederate's downfall was their love of moonshine which the Union used to get them all hammered and sign the Appomattox papers. We all (the group) ended up getting a B because our play was the best-written and most original, but we weren't allowed to perform it at the big recital that they had for us. I'm still surprised at the grade because there was very little historically accurate about it, outside of us throwing in a date or name every once in a while. It was a complete farce in a The Producers sort of way. We expected it to fail but it ended up being successful. I heard that the teacher kept it and showed it to some of her later classes, and a friend of mine from high school who went on to teach at that middle school after college said that it was shown to him during his first month there. I wish I still had a copy of it, because for a 12 year old eighth grader it was phenominally written.

Bruins sign Kobasew to a three year extension. Salaries 2.0, 2.5, 2.5 means a 2.33 million dollar cap hit. Not bad for what he brings to the team, he fits the system well as well as Chiarelli's mold for the team. I was fearing that he would get more, but it's certainly a great deal for the Bruins, who have a few more signings to make. EDIT: From nhlscap.com: ALLEN, BOBBY D BOS UFA AULD, ALEXANDER G BOS UFA BROWN, MIKE G BOS RFA CHISTOV, STANISLAV R BOS RFA* COLLINS, CHRIS L BOS RFA CURRY, SEAN D BOS UFA, VI HOGGAN, JEFF R BOS UFA KOBASEW, CHUCK R BOS RFA* METROPOLIT, GLEN C BOS UFA NOKELAINEN, PETTERI C BOS RFA PELLETIER, PASCAL L BOS RFA SAUNDERS, NATHAN D BOS RFA SIGALET, JORDAN G BOS UFA SKINNER, BRETT D BOS UFA, VI STUART, MARK D BOS RFA* THOMPSON, NATE C BOS RFA TREVELYAN, T.J. L BOS RFA WARD, AARON D BOS UFA WIDEMAN, DENNIS D BOS RFA*[/b] Some of the names are Providence players who will likely be back. Unfortunately, the signing of Kevin Regan (goalie prospect) will likely end Jordan Sigalet's time with Providence. You may have heard of Sigalet's story. He has MS but works through it to be a pretty good goaltender all things considered. He'll catch on somewhere. The bolded names are the players who saw NHL time this season. Wideman might be tricky. Metropolit may be interesting, as he played well, but Krejci's emergence might make him expendable. Nokelainen will be back, as they paid dearly to get him. Allen is gone, and Auld might be as well, as if Fernandez actually stays healthy this season, it'll be a Thomas/Fernandez duo and Auld would be the odd man out. Still, Auld played well this year outside of a few starts and I think he'll find work somewhere.

Garlic bread. Corn loses for getting stuck in my teeth. White rice.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=237147&amp...=headlines_main Brunnstrom picks...DALLAS!!!!

And Mike Komisarek for that matter. I wonder if Komisarek hid behind a linesman when she broke up with him.

1st grade: Don't remember much. Got into the usual trouble. 2nd grade: I actually remember even less about second grade. The one memory I have is being thrilled when my mom volunteered to be a chaperone for a field trip. 3rd grade: We had a spelling bee with only baseball words, which I was arrogant about since I knew more about baseball than anyone in the class. We even got to go to the field in front of the school with the baseball diamond, divide up into teams and the teacher would "pitch" the words to us and based on their difficulty it would be a single, double, etc if we got it right. So, I was batting third, had two "runners" on, both of them getting on with the words "fielder" and "error". My word? "Tony Conigliaro"...I knew who he was, I spelled the word right, but was "out". Why? Because when I correctly spelled the name, I didn't say "capital T" or "capital C". The teacher played that bullshit with a fucking seven year old . 4th grade: I was a master of double digit multiplication. We would have races as a class for extra credit where everyone in the class and the teacher would race to finish a worksheet with 50 multiplication problems on it. I got so much extra credit from these sheets that halfway through the year, I wasn't allowed to win anymore.

Hate the Flyers, but hate the Scabs even more. Glad to see them knocked out. They had no business making it out of the first round.