Wmcmanus

Happy birthday, O' large one!

Birthday + travelling = good times! Enjoy.

Nice, about Terry Francona. As good as he is as a manager, he's also an outstanding color commentator. I've always had the sense that he's a "good vibes" kind of guy, and that he's kept a healthy perspective. Far too many people in his postion get all caught up in how important they've become.

Enjoy! Birthdays are anniversaries of life itself. You have much to be thankful for.

Burgman 400 or even better 650, would be great. They both come with ABS which a big plus if you're going to be on highways with them. They're definitely well thought of. Believe it or not, there is now a 800cc scooter on the market as well, although at that point... just get a bike already!!! http://www.visordown.com/features/five-of-the-best-big-scooters/18082-5.html#historysub The Vespa GTS 300 series (there are 3 different models) are extremely well built as well, but may be somewhat power limited (but still rated for 80 mph). It just depends on how much you want to spend and how fast you think you might need to go to out of jams. It's always good to have some headroom in that regard. You want to be riding something that responds quickly boh in terms of acceleration and braking if you're going more than 40 mph. What I like most about Vespa is that there really isn't much plastic on them. That gives them extra weight which helps a lot in terms of balance and just giving a more "planted" smooth ride. I've bounced around on many different scooters of 125cc or less and none of them give me the same illusion of safety. It is an illusion though, because you're totally exposed when you're on 2 wheels without a cage. In any case, I think you'll need to whittle it down to whether you're looking for something in the 300-400cc range or the 500cc and above range. The 300-400cc range with give you some heft/weight/sense of safety, but will still be a fun ride for your day to day tooling around at lower speeds. It will give you enough power to be able to get out on the highway on occasion without being totally terrified, but would not be a good "cruiser" type of bike for long trips. The 500cc and above scooters are essentially medium sized motorcycles without the need to shift gears. Great for long trips and highway usage. They'll go 100mph. In fact, a large part of this market is represented by older guys who either never rode, or because of their physical limitations with their legs (blood sugar problems and such) just want to be able to ride without the fuss of a shifting. So I'd imagine that most of these big scooters would lose a little of the fun factor if you're mostly just running around town in them. Oh, and stay away from anything less than 200cc. At least in my opinion, I wouldn't feel safe on them (as in having confidence of getting myself out of trouble) on an interstate.

Great news, Steve! Mike, it's interesting how your kids are going in such different and yet equally positive and exciting directions. You must be proud!

^ This.

Back in the day when such an occurrence was extremely rare and completely unintentional and punks were nowhere to be found, let alone tolerated.

The Toronto Blue Jays have now won 8 games in a row, and will be facing the Baltimore Orioles this weekend... prompting this post by some Canadian dude on the Blue Jays forum that I follow: "Do you think the Orioles hitters will suck when they get a taste of Dickey, Wang & Johnson this next series?"

So young, so sad, an apparent heart attack. RIP.

Honestly, as I read the question, I immediately thought of the answer even before I could read it. So true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxpyZtzvTJ0

Actually, the entire tribute to Zep was outstanding, from Jack Black's video documentary to the Foo Fighters (rock and roll, aka been a long time), Kid Rock (ramble on) and Lenny Kravits (whole lotta love): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBoXYCJ3MRQ

A good friend of mine from my grad school days, a Christian guy, got married to the 4th and final daughter of a Rabbi, who had refused to show up to any of his other daughter's weddings (all of whom married Christians). Jim was fine with having a Jewish wedding, so Aliza's father not only showed but presided over the ceremony. Only Jewish wedding I've ever been invited to, and although it was a small wedding, we all had a great time. Fast forward the clock 20+ years, and suddenly Aliza was dying of cancer. Her father, who had hardly spoken to her or to Jim in all of those years (because he never did truly accept him), told him one day at her beside so that she could hear him and remember it, "Jim, you were the best thing that ever happened to my daughter. I can never thank enough for making her so happy for all of these years. I'm sorry that I have misjudged you." End of conversation. She died a couple of days later, but at least she was able hear it with her own two ears, and that meant the world to her. She just said, "Thanks, dad. I know." Of course it probably doesn't hurt that Jim is a Senior VP of a major international bank and makes North of a million dollars per year, but that never mattered to Aliza. She just loved him "because"... as it should be.

Seth Myers was photographed the other day wearing a 1988 vintage T-shirt for a local state's attorney campaign that I was involved with as a volunteer in LaSalle County, IL. http://www.usmagazine.com/hot-pics/weekend-update-reunion-201336 Below is the email I received today from Gary's wife, Lana: Dear Friends and Relatives, If you haven't seen this phenomena on FaceBook, we would like to share this with you. We are not quite sure how Seth Meyers, former Saturday Night Live star and next to replace Jimmy Falon on the Late Night Show decided to sport a vintage 1988 Peterlin for State's Attorney T-Shirt. We first were notified that it was on Hot Pics in "US" Magazine yesterday online. And we aren't sure why Seth decided to advertise GLP, when he buffered Obama's campaign with $4,000 in 2008. I'm sure he doesn't care that Gary is a Republican ; ) Amy doesn't seem to mind either. Anyway we had quite a few laughs with the sighting, especially by the many parade walkers, sign makers, sign erectors, writers, managers, chairpeople, and supporters. It's amazing that shirt was designed 25 years ago and it looks like brand new. They seem to keep popping up. I think I'll dig mine up and wear it to the YMCA! Hope this gives you your daily chuckle. We will let you know, if we ever solve the mystery. Love, Lana Here's a recent pic of Gary (he was much younger way back when): I'm pretty sure my copy of said T-shirt is long gone, but I'll have a look at the junk I have in storage back in my mom's basement the next time I'm home. My guess is that it was an XL as opposed to my present 4XL.

Nice game, uh... well from the end of regulation on. I'm a certified bandwagon Blackhawks fan. Always have been, always will be. "Go Chicago!" is about all I've ever really known about hockey. If I actually understood the game, I'd probably watch during the regular season, because it sure is intense. But you can always count on me to be there in the playoffs, even though I know that may annoy some people.

Some pretty cool shit here: http://clipnation.com/open-beer-ultimate-compilation/

When you have about 50 minutes on your hands, meet Kim Peek, the real life Rainman (which is to say that the movie was loosely based on his life): Part 1/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2T45r5G3kA Part 2/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJjAbs-3kc8 Part 3/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auufbu_ZdDI Part 4/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRPxMDj33S4 Part 5/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1aA5osvYgY It would have been interesting to "know" Kim before Rainman, which seems to have had a profoundly positive impact on his self image and socialization skills during the intervening years. I'd imagine that Dustin Hoffman's portrayal would seem much more spot on if we were afforded a glimpse of what he was able to observe at that time. Edit: I'm just learning about Kim Peek, and didn't realize that he died in December 19, 2009 at the age of 58. It was a Saturday. This year it will be a Thursday. He was survived by his father, who was his life long companion and care taker. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek

A customised 1911 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce owned by the Maharaja of Mysore. Want.

Beautiful stuff, and supposedly 21 of the dancers are deaf.

Life vs live. Amazing artist.

Happy birthday. Hope I'm not late to the party.