Bill Shein

Bill Shein Picking up on comments below about old-time marbles, and simpler times, did anyone ever (or still) play APBA baseball? It's a baseball simulation with cards and dice; I spent an insane number of childhood hours playing it - http://www.apbagames.com). Any other games you played as a kid that you're nostalgic about?

Fri at 7:08am
Mary
Mary
The boys in seventh grade used to play "oyster." This consisted of waiting in the stairwell for a girl to show up lower down the stairs, then hocking the juiciest loogie you could cook up into her hair.
Fri at 6:39pm
Kevin Hayden
Kevin Hayden
'Kick the can' and 'Mother May I?' Played much differently than similarly named adult habits. I also recall a fallen leaning tree that we used as a rocketship. And a jar that was our 'science experiment' that largely consisted of adding bugs and poop together. All we lacked was a research grant.
Yesterday at 7:57am
Bill Shein

Bill Shein You may have already seen this, since it's a month old, but it gave me a much-needed chuckle tonight.

Source: vimeo.com
Ladies and gentlemen, your President is a robot. Or a wax sculpture. Maybe a cardboard cutout. All I know is no human being has a photo smile this amazingly consistent. On Wednesday, the Obamas hosted ...
Michael Szuflita
Michael Szuflita
...still better than the last 8 years of smirk...
Fri at 10:28am
Stacy Costello
Stacy Costello
One man's smirk is another man's smile. In the olden days, when someone showed their teeth, it was a sign of aggression. It is only in modern times that smiling/smirking and showing teeth became a friendly form of communication.
Fri at 9:05pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Grim observation: In the last couple decades, the word "shooter" has become part of our everyday language. Growing up, I don't recall hearing that word on the news, or uttered by folks in conversation, with such regularity, if at all.

Thu at 7:44pm
Stacy Costello
Stacy Costello
Make fun, but you'll be using it by Monday and/or next time you hear someone use "parent" as a verb, for example. If only I had a dollar for every dollar I have.
Fri at 9:10pm
Kevin Hayden
Kevin Hayden
I stand conjuncted.
Fri at 9:37pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein My fav graf from Kristof today: "Moreover, there is one American health statistic that is strikingly above average: life expectancy for Americans who have already reached the age of 65. At that point, they can expect to live longer than the average in industrialized countries. That’s because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage: Medicare."

Source: tinyurl.com
The greatest distortion about the health care debate is that reform will destroy the best health care system in the world.
Bill Shein
Bill Shein
I'll close out this thread by disagreeing on all three points ;). As long as we treat health care as a just another market-based commodity, we ain't gonna solve the universal coverage/cost problem. P.S. We're already rationing and denying coverage.
Fri at 6:18pm
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
( Rod Serling steps out and says a few final words. cue theme music. commercial )
Fri at 6:53pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Dear Wealthy Commodities Speculators: Please continue to run-up the price of oil as winter approaches. Your pal, Bill Shein. * * * Dear Commodities Regulators: Please do not change anything about the ability of speculators to trade "paper barrels," and not real oil, as doing so might mean the price of oil remains in line with actual supply/demand. Thank you. Your pal, Bill Shein

Thu at 9:29am
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
Me not worried. ( roars, pounds massive hairy chest, throws refrigerator through sliding glass door )
Thu at 2:50pm
Bill Shein
Bill Shein
Wait a second: Are you the guyl from those old Samsonite-can't-even-be-destroyed-by-a-wild-ape commercials?
Thu at 7:58pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Sarah Palin Book Tour Update: Let the substantive discussion of public policy begin! "Palin ... indicates that other interviews may be scheduled with "Bill O'Reilly, Barbara Walters, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Tammy Bruce, and others, including local Alaska personalities Bob & Mark and Eddie Burke."

November 4 at 8:42am
Andrea Miller Cohen
Andrea Miller Cohen
How did she miss you?.....and she writes?
November 4 at 6:16pm
Brenda Holtzclaw
Brenda Holtzclaw
Aw, ya got me missin the last election or so......
November 4 at 7:28pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein
"Dude, was the election today, like, a 'referendum on Obama?' Because that's what some blathering idiot on TV keeps asking the people paid to blather in response to blather-y questions while seated at the shiny TV Blather Bar." (That's dialogue taken from the film treatment I just wrote -- in three minutes -- for an ep...ic movie called, "TV News Made My Head Explode, But Somehow I Lived to Post About It on Facebook.")Read More

November 3 at 8:57pm
Brenda Holtzclaw
Brenda Holtzclaw
you are hilarious.
November 4 at 4:11am
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
I knew TV. TV was my friend. Sir, you are no TV.
November 4 at 6:31am
Bill Shein

Bill Shein FYI: I did not spend $200 per vote in the race for NYC mayor, as Michael Bloomberg did. For that reason -- and something about "not being on the ballot" or "being a resident of NYC" -- I have not been elected mayor of NYC. Thanks, though, for your support and all your hard work. We gave it our best shot. There's always next time, when we'll hold, like, 45,000 bake sale/fundraisers.

November 3 at 8:35pm
Kevin Hayden
Kevin Hayden
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.... Read More
Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir?
November 3 at 9:06pm
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
Mr. Bloomberg... are you trying to seduce me ?
November 4 at 12:00pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Reminder: National Popular Vote forum streaming live NOW (12pm ET): http://demos.org/event_list.cfm?currenteventid=77BAE958-3FF4-6C82-5B179A37BA50FAE0. Enjoy the election-reform NerdFest 2009!

November 3 at 9:02am
Bob Haslet
Bob Haslet
It would take PCP to make Rahm more paranoid!
November 3 at 12:07pm
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
James Carville won't invite him aboard the Mothership to see the new Orgasmatron.
November 3 at 12:10pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein YESSSS!!!!! Say hello to the always predictable, super-lazy story/headline that appears EVERY off-year Election Day -- and which is ALWAYS filled with meaningless "analysis" about the "political winds" and "implications" of random elections that actually are largely nothing of the sort. Enjoy this year's winner!

Source: www.nytimes.com
In this supposedly quiet off-year election, what to look for Tuesday as results come in from New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
Bill Shein
Bill Shein
Hmmm. Should we expect to see Bob and Stacy on an upcoming episode of "Neighbors Gone Wild"?
Fri at 10:04am
Bob Haslet
Bob Haslet
Maybe an episode of Cops... I swear the hose thing was an accident! The dog started crapping just as I turned the sprinkler on. Iif the owner hadn't been standing in the middle of my lawn he wouldn't have gotten soaked.
Fri at 3:15pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Webcast alert! Learn more about the National Popular Vote campaign (the state-based effort to create a presidential election in which every vote is equal, and the candidate with the most votes wins - crazy, eh?). Tuesday at 12:00 noon, streamed live at http://www.demos.og. Featuring the New Yorker's Rick Hertzberg and a few folks I used to work with at FairVote.

Source: tinyurl.com
"The promoters of a National Popular Vote, as they're calling themselves, have come up with an elegant finesse. Instead of trying to change the Constitution, they propose to apply it, one bit in particular: ...
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
>>I always heard it goo goo k'joob<<
I think that's the Good News Version, but I always go by the Revised Standard Version.
November 3 at 12:27pm
Mary
Mary
The King James Brown version goes "Good GOD y'all."
November 3 at 12:32pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Big news: Like Ford, I just posted an "unexpected" profit of $997 billion for the last quarter! So, bottomless drinks and all-you-can-eat jalapeno poppers on me, everyone!

November 2 at 3:34pm
Beverly Lynn
Beverly Lynn
Laughing at Dianne's comment
November 3 at 2:58am
Mary
Mary
I thought Ersatz was the name of the desk seargent on Hill Street Blues. "Let's do it to them before they do it to us... and hey, let's be careful out there."
November 3 at 5:45am
Bill Shein

Bill Shein This is promising: Sen. Feingold and Rep. Ellison introduce national Same Day Registration bill. Long overdue. Working great in the nine states that have it -- broader participation, no problems with fraud. It's been in use for 35 years in some states. Nice to have federal legislation while progress is also made in the states. http://tinyurl.com/yknhnqm

October 30 at 10:43am
Bill Shein
Bill Shein
I'm heavily invested (financially) in companies that make those "I Voted!" stickers. If only they gave 'em out for casting a "ballot" on "American Idol," too. I'd be retired already.
November 3 at 11:47am
Carl Youngdahl
Carl Youngdahl
...And when you see Chicago people walking around wearing four or five of them... I mean, come on people...really !
November 3 at 11:49am
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Today's FB game (that I just invented): Provide evidence that with each FB post or comment (or Twitter tweet), we lose a tiny, tiny bit of our soul. Yes?

October 30 at 7:50am
Judy Langer
Judy Langer
Great, so now we're paying for Bob's free health care?
If he hadn't eaten all that candy he wouldn't be sick.
October 31 at 12:44pm
Cherie Lewis
Cherie Lewis
<----- CLChateau I see, <looking to the left with one eyebrow lifted> So first you just want a bit of funny = good and we, like lemmings broughtr forth our best, and sometimes worst for you on the Buzz Boards. NOW, now, you want a piece of my soul? Ha! After we were abandoned like orphans upon the cobblestone alleyways of the dingier side of D.C. My soul? Hmm. How-much you gimme for it leedle boy?
October 31 at 4:24pm
Bill Shein

Bill Shein Back at the ol' typewriter after a pleasant, procrastination-filled Berkshires afternoon manually pressing apple juice at a nearby hilltop farm/orchard. Good stuff. And now: The 14.5 month Berkshires winter begins! (SFX: Sound of uncontrollable sobbing, mixed with cursing, combined with the indescribable sound of mad scanning of house/apt rentals within 25 miles of the Equator...)

October 29 at 12:50pm
Rhonda Sleister
Rhonda Sleister
Come to Florida. It's still 90 degrees here!
October 29 at 2:39pm
Linda Michela
Linda Michela
Wuss, all you gotta do is get yourself some thermal underwear and some flannel shirts. And you've overstated the Berksihire/aka Upstate NY winters, they're only 13 months long.
October 29 at 4:20pm
Arlene Mellifluous
Arlene Mellifluous
What about doing a seasonal home exchange with some crazy people who love to ski?
October 30 at 5:38pm