LouisEly

One of the main problems is that due to weather airlines won't just put you on the next flight (in regards to a competitor). Airlines keep you on their planes and then everything gets backed up. I think I can be somewhat of an authority on this as I have about 370,000 miles on United, 70K on Northwest (half of those on Continental though), 45K on American, a half-dozen flights on JetBlue (they also do credits), and one each on Delta and Southwest. The problem with weather and getting rescheduled has mostly to do with when you fly, more specifically capacity. The problem with putting you on the next flight is that they can't put you on it if it is sold out. There are only a certain amount of seats on a plane, and if every one is sold out and everyone shows then they can't physically put you on that flight. If you fly around the holidays you will be lucky to get rescheduled on a flight the same day; I had a similar experience with American around Christmas in 2006 and I couldn't get rescheduled on another flight for 3.5 days; not their fault - there just were not any seats available on any flights until then. (Part of the problem was some obnoxious putz from Chicago who couldn't get it through his head that he couldn't get on the next flight, or any flight for 3 days, because they were FULL.) Weekends - Fridays and Sundays - and Mondays because of business travelers are pretty full flights too. Also if you are going to a smaller airport with fewer flights it can be a while before you can get rescheduled too (and yes, Milwaukee is a smaller airport). Also, there are very limited flights after 7PM. On the other hand, today my flight was delayed for servicing, but if a flight before it had been canceled it wouldn't have been any problem getting on this one because it was less than half full. A Tuesday in January you won't have any problem getting rescheduled. A holiday or a Friday, Sunday, or Monday is a different story. Some other traveling tips to help you understand why this happened: 1) When there are delays or cancellations, they cancel or delay the shortest flights first. That is air traffic control, not the airlines decision. That's because planes coming in from further destinations may already be in the air, and it is very difficult to turn them around and go back to the airport. So why your flight from O'Hare to Milwaukee was delayed or cancelled could have been because it was so short, and shorter flights get pushed back first. All airlines do that. 2) Airlines will hold up flights for 10-15 minutes for passengers/baggage, but no longer. If you land after the departure time, by the time you get to the gate, get off the plane, and get to your next gate will probably take more than 10 minutes, thus why they left. They can't hold up the whole system to wait 30 minutes for a couple of people; the only exception to that is international flights and they'll give you 30 minutes tops. With all airlines, if your flight lands after the scheduled departure of your next flight they will not hold it for you. Again, that is with all airlines. 3) Because of limits of how many hours crew can work, crews don't just run the same route back and forth. In order to maximize their availability they have to run different routes, thus why your crew was stuck in Pittsburgh. Again, all airlines do that. Tired pilots make mistakes; thus they can only work so many hours in a day. 4) They don't de-ice until they take off because there could be air traffic delays - they need to wait until they have clearance to take off before de-icing. If there is a delay, it can ice over again and then they might have to do it all over again and miss their window to take off. Or you can take off and crash because of ice. 5) Once they push back from the gate, no cell phone use. The pilots need to communicate with air traffic control. So if they say no cell phones, how about people actually listen to them and follow the rules? I hate to say this, but other than rude flight attendants/customer service reps, this could have happened on any airline. It's just the way the system operates. Not American's fault at all, other than a few people needing some customer sensitivity training.

In one thread Craig will single-handedly double his post total over the last three years. Dan Castellaneta, voice of Homer Simpson?

Lipps, Inc.?

He's a guy I really wanted the Bucks to get if he was available when they picked, but apparently other GMs thought as much of him as I did. The bigger question is, what was he doing at Purdue and not Wisconsin or Marquette.

Tanita McFadden? Fupa DeCarlo?

Sir Boring Oldfart?

Edward Gibbon

It seems that the lesser dregs of society procreate at a much much faster rater then more responsible people. It seems, as a non-parent that allot of the issues stem from horrible parenting. People who do not try to teach their kids some kind of morale compass and social contract, who let their kids roam the street. I'm not saying fantastic parents can't produce horrible children, or fantastic children do not come from horrible parents. But it seems like a lot has to do with crappy parenting. How do you fix it? Got me. That's for smarter people to figure out. http://www.paragard.com Science still hasn't figured out an easily reversible non-hormonal contraceptive device that can be inserted in men, but requiring one of these (non-hormonal, non-surgical so it is almost free of serious side effects unless someone has contraindications to copper) to be inserted in any woman in order to receive welfare/Medicaid will solve about half of the problems.

A lot of good points, but I think Danzig is right on: The problem i see signing Prince isn't so much the yearly amount as much as the number of years. Boras will likely try to get Prince as many years possible once he hits free agency. It's one thing if Prince would take say 17-18 million per year over three/four seasons, it gets super dicey though if he wants and could get five/six years elsewhere. With Prince being a big guy, it would be risky for any NL team to throw five/six year at him. On top of that, my assumption is the Brewers will try to avoid very long big money contracts whenever possible. The Brewers will probably be competitive in the per-year salary, but someone will offer 7-8 years when the Brewers will offer 5 and that is that. But like someone else said, Prince could be worth a haul in prospects too. So let's just enjoy him while we have him and cross this bridge when we come to it.

I didn't watch it, but based on your comments it goes back to something I have said for a long time: in order for wrestling to be successful it needs to have at least some element of believability to it. Flair over MVP - not believable. Kind of like Mysterio winning the rumble a couple of years ago from the #1 or #2 position - not believable. Flair needs to become a full-time manager and leave the ring. He has no ring skills left, but great mic skills, which makes him perfect for a manager or... the GM role. I actually think it's a bad idea for the winner of the Rumble to get the title shot at Wrestlemania. I've always loved the Rumble, but having the winner go to WM takes away any element of an upset or surprise winner. I'm fine with them getting a title shot at the next PPV, but with the winner going to WM it means that only about 4 or 5 guys realistically will win it.

How is "boat gas" twice as expensive as car gas? It's the same thing. It's sometimes more expensive on a lake because it's easier for boaters to gas up, but it's not different gas. I assume that's what you're talking about, correct? 1) Most big yachts and high-end speed boats don't run on car gas. B) It's kind of physically impossible to pull a 100-ft. yacht out of the water and up to the local Chevron. Probably can't fit a 40-ft. speed boat there either. So yes, they have to fill up at the marina. And they charge a pretty premium there. My roommate has a 40-ft. yacht, and he routinely puts $1000 in gas in that thing. And that's for a little 40-ft; I'm assuming Shaq has at least a 100-ft. yacht if not larger. Trust me dude, I know boats.

Finally... jeez. But I got the sections I wanted. Right field box for Friday's game, Loge box for Saturday's game. Now I have to get a hotel. But I think in the future I will just pay the premium from a broker than try to deal with that again.

Here's a funny thing - IE refreshes faster than Firefox. A half hour ago my IE window refresher was 5 seconds behind my Firefox window. Now my IE window is 10 seconds ahead of my Firefox window.

I've been calling the ticket office too. So much that I ran out of charge on the cordless phone and had to put it back on the charger.

why are gamers paying for changing the "Charged As Adult Status" from 17 to 18 for some crimes and not society in general? Funny thing is, if kids are inside playing video games, chances are they are not committing any crimes.

The amount for clothes doesn't surprise me - he is so big that he has to get everything custom made. Custom made clothes cost a fortune; I know because I get custom made dress shirts and they start at $100/shirt (and that is for a basic shirt with a low-end fabric). I would say that for Shaq one custom made suit will run at least $5000, if not more. Custom-made dress shoes will probably run well over $1000. So for him, $17K/month in clothes is probably one suit, 4-5 shirts, 3-4 pairs of pants, 1-2 pairs of shoes, and some miscellaneous stuff (socks, shorts, underwear). Two suits will probably take him over the $17K mark. But keep in mind that he is still netting $1M/month; if I were netting $1M/month I would definitely step up my purchasing.

Has anybody been able to get through in the last hour?

I have 42 browser windows going all tiled. No offense, but people shouldn't be able to do that. Although outside of a lottery there will always be a way for someone to take advantage of the system.

Notice how there hasn't been an update since 11EST - they didn't do one at noon. I wouldn't be surprised if the system has crashed. Getting up at 6:45AM on a Saturday and by 9:15 still no tickets... seriously, I will never do this again. It's worth paying twice face value through a broker to not have to deal with this.

Looking for someone to potentially split a hotel room with and possibly tickets. Hotels cost an arm and a leg in Boston, but I can get a 4-star hotel in a great part of town near the stadium (Hilton Back Bay) for $439/night Thurs-Sat, which divided amongst two people is not bad for Boston; plus I'm Diamond level with Hilton so I usually get upgraded to a nicer room, free breakfast & happy hour. I'm coming in on Thursday because I've never been to Boston and I want to spend Friday daytime doing the tourist thing. If I don't find a roomie I'll try to get a cheaper hotel. Let me know if you're interested and what your situation is.

You would be surprised how much gas a boat eats up, and I don't think Shaq is puttering around Miami with an Evinrude 70 powering a little 18' fishing boat. My guess is that a 100' yacht and 40' cigarette speed boat are eating up most of that gas bill. And boat gas is almost twice as expensive as car gas. $3,345 in phone bills Yeah, that one gets me. An unlimited cell phone plan is, what, $200/month? $300/month tops? Any decent phone company you can get a home phone with unilmited long distance for $100/month. I'm guessing that everyone on both sides of the family has a cell phone that is linked to his account.

Now, one might argue in the NL, you need better bench guys, as you'll use them more, so I'll take an NL playoff team, the Phillies Abraham Nunez -- .600 OPS Wes Helms -- .665 OPS Jayson Werth -- .863 OPS (that's nice from a bench guy, yup) Chris Coste -- .730 OPS And two of the four are Brewers castoffs, one of whom was paraded out of town. I think the Brewers have a good bench (key word "good", not "great") because the key to a good bench is role players. Gross can be a starter because he hits righties very well, and 75% of all pitchers are righties; so either platoon him with Dillon or move Braun there and have Gross be the 4th OF and I'm fine. TGJ is almost a perfect 5th OF - speed, defense, good pinch runner and defensive replacement; that's the role of a 5th OF; a 5th OF is not an every day player and shouldn't be. Counsell, while on the wrong side of 35, is a good defensive player who can play both middle infield positions - another key of a good bench player is being able to play multiple positions. He's also a veteran who can teach the young guys some things about fielding. Dillon also can play multiple positions - 3B, 2B, 1B, LF; he's had great minor league numbers and in a small sample very good major league numbers so why not give him a shot? Prior to last season he was only given 36 major league ABs in 2005 to prove himself; now that the sample size is getting larger his numbers are getting better. Let him keep succeeding until he fails. And like others said, most teams struggle to find one good catcher much less two. I've rehashed this many, many times but most backup (and starting) catchers for the Brewers this decade are still in the league. The reality is that there are about 10 catchers in the majors who are above average offensively and defensively and the rest are interchangeable, and your backup catcher is probably going to be one of those interchangeable ones.

Louis -- before you spent the $3 / month to upgrade for improved Internet connectivity, did you experience a lot of disconnects? I do, and it's really irritating. I do have a wireless router. Not a lot, but I did get some, and yes it is a lot better now - I can't remember the last time I got a disconnect or ran out of buffer. I don't use a wireless router though - I connect via an ethernet cable to the router because it is next to my home computer. The sound quality of the $3/mo. connection is so much better that it is definitely worth the upgrade. I wouldn't say it is CD-quality, but it is very, very close to CD quality - you have to be listening on headphones to tell the difference between it and something on a CD.

I think XM/Sirius >>>> radio -- It's not even funny. Amen to that, brother. I have had Sirius for at least six years and love it. A couple of tips: 1) For best reception in the car invest $200 in a stereo that has an auxiliary jack or a satellite radio receiver. If you're going to pay $13/month (I spent the $495 on a lifetime subscription years ago - if you love it that is the way to go) you might as well drop $200 on a better car radio. 2) For in the house (like your basement), listen on-line. I pay an extra $3/month for CD-quality radio streaming through the internet. Just get a wireless router and run it through a computer in the basement. Or just get really, really long speaker wire or red/white RCA cable and run it to the basement that way. Or try a wireless speaker system in the basement.

Back to the original post - where was the company HR department in all of this, or is the company so small that it doesn't have an HR department? Have you talked to a labor law attorney? Are the customer complaints documented? The labor law attorney could at least give you some advice; if you can't do anything it will put your mind at ease, but if they violated law or your rights it could mean a nice settlement for you (or firing of the person who fired you).