JohnF

It must be really cool watching them work the ball in wooden shoes. JF

So hockey is just like soccer, only without the cards? JF

I've never been able to get into soccer(spent my formative years in hockey & football) but I've kinda caught the bug (no hockey ya know) and I'm finally getting it just a little. I've never noticed how much it's about controlling the ball and field position. It's pretty neat to watch at this level anyway. The individual skill levels are crazy. I find myself just watching their feet to see what they do next. Very cool on the big screen w/HD. Haven't figgered out the red card yellow card stuff exactly yet but I know it's about penalties. That extra time at the end of 90 minutes is a tad confusing too. Seems to me like the ref can pretty much just decide how much of a chance he wants to give the losing team to catch up. The 5 minutes at the end of the Spain game was odd, for instance, almost like "Hey, these guys aren't supposed to lose so let's give 'em a good chance". So what games should I be watching for now? JF

Be interesting to listen in to the comments from the console snobs as that thing passed them by. JF

No. It was the casting holding the wire. It took a serious hit to break it. JF

I broke a titanium bail and had no trouble getting the part. Have you tried Jos? JF

So I guess yer saying the price isn't calculable in dollars, huh? JF

Probably a Silvertone, right? There's some interesting history on that. I was just doing some reading on Dobro guitars. JF

I'm looking forward to this. I've been trying to get myself started for a couple of years but I always seem to end up leaving the fly gear in the car cuz it's too windy or something. Truth is it's just easier to go with what I know and chase the bass with a spinning rod. Mebbe I'll feel more like I've got company on the river this way. So, are you starting wet or dry? JF

I was standing on my knees when I typed. Mebbe it was the weight that gave me away. No chance you weigh 220, huh Roy? JF

Nah. He's driving the big pickup. Hey y'all, have a ball. Wish I was goin'. JF

Won't let me have a name already in use though. I just tried to change mine to Roy. Thought I'd have a little fun but no way. JF

I gave up on buying guitars when I realized my son was just gonna confiscate them anyway. As he says "I'm good, you really suck." Not a very nice way of justifying theft but painfully honest. I really liked my yamaha acoustics when I played. My bro is a pretty darned good guitar player and despite using only Taylors on stage and in the studio he has a lot of cheap(ish) Yammies and others that he really likes in private. He says the trick is mostly in setting them up right. The first thing he does is tear the guitar apart and tweak the neck, reshape the nut(?) and make sure the screws (machines) are working properly. Then he fiddles with the height of the frets (unless it's fretless of course) and finally uses decent strings. If you're really serious about smooth action & a sweet sound for not much money you might ask around the music world wherever you live and see if there are any player/mechanics like my bro who can suggest a good sleeper brand that for a few more bucks can be made sweet. I picked up a no-name 12 string about 25 years ago (Sigma) that was of course confiscated. Now my bro and my son fight over who gets to use it. Rick (bro) set it up and likes the tone for the studio and Matt (son) really likes it on stage for his occasional breaks from the bass. Rick says it's the best feeling/sounding 12 string he's played since his Ovation (black round body) which he still kicks himself for selling in a poverty stricken moment. From listening to my bro I've come to the conclusion that there's always the chance of finding a silk purse masquerading as a sow's ear (in guitars that is) that with a little work can be a pretty nice guitar. Sorry if none of this is helpful but I was sitting here sipping coffe and it just seemed the right time to expound on something about which I know next to nothing. JF

My big concern is what they'll use to replace the sesame seeds on the buns. When those things get burned in the toaster they look just like mouse poop. JF

I understand that sometimes just pulling them off the nest is enough to do the damage. The Rock Bass etc are hovering just waiting for the nest to be momentarily abandoned. They can clean it out in no time while the mummy/daddy is getting unhooked. JF

I'm picturing McDonalds advertising a new healthy product, the "McDirtburger" with the works, or the McDirt Lettuce & Tomato, or the breakfast DirtBagle w/cheese etc. Might not fly. JF

Nah. That's why I won't let my wife cook for us. JF

High fibre. JF

Back stroking? JF

Sushi is best when fresh, and you can't get fresher than live now, can you? The key is to take 'em down headfirst so nothing catches on the way. Imagine a Rock Bass butt first, or the gill covers on a little perch swallowed bass-ackwards. Same as the big earthworms. They have those little stiff hairlike things that really slow down swallowing if you take 'em the wrong way. It's really nasty when the little worm is fighting gravity and peristalsis and those little hairs are helping him. But they go down like they're soaked in oil if you start 'em right. JF

Some fish seem to know that if they're in oxygen deprived water they can get an extra shot this way. Some fish do it routinely due to the type of water they inhabit. The Siamese Fighting Fish (Beta) can breathe air directly, a necessity because they often find themselves in rainwater filled ditches with so much mud they can't get O2 from the water in the normal way. Some goldfish will actually surface air breathe so I assume carp will do it too. Apparently they gulp down air bubbles and somehow then extract O2 from them within their stomach. That's how goldfish can survive in such lousy water conditions I suppose. There's actually one of the mudminnows which are relatives of Esox that can breathe air. I remember reading about other fish that suck in air at the surface but can't remember the species at the moment. JF

I think that's what a lot of the guys are saying, that they're just telling themselves it's actually 4-6 weeks later than it really is and fishing the way they would then. JF

Looks to me like some I've seen down near Findlay Ohio in flooded quarries. JF

At the risk of over analyzing this, is it possible that we're victims of circadian rhythms (or something akin to that) in both fish and ourselves? What I mean is that are some of the more knowledgable among us relying on experience to say the fish will be acting a partiular way at this point on the human calendar while the fishies, being a tad less technologized, are saying when the weather has been this warm for this long according to their built in fish calendar, at this point in the sun's trip across my lake each day I am going to respond this way. Are us humans looking for behaviour consistent with a more normal much later start to summer? IOW if we try the methods that should work in about another month will we do any better? Just a thought. JF