Netiquette

As the regular TOR reader knows, the editorial board has two hard and fast rules

1- We hate everybody and everything
2- We invite everybody and everything to use the platform to pitch and bitch


We got an entry for our regular 'Relief Bitcher' section yesterday from TOR reader (and soon to be groom) as the starting bitcher has gotten a bit gassed late in the game it's time for the manager to call in his big-guns.

The stereo-system blasts U2's "Beautiful Day' as righty Philphy Ryan jogs in from the dugout.   Ryan's got a 2-5 record, a 4.13 ERA, a crappy haircut, a hot fiance, 6 holds, three blown saves and a 1.29 WHIP but it's a 1-10 blowout game and the fans are looking for some excitement so here it goes:

I’ve got quite a few serious pet peeves when it comes to netiquette but there are two that drive me insane:

Evite and two things within Evite. People who look at the evite and don’t respond. Why look at it multiple times and say not even say maybe? You know the organizer can see that you’re looking at it every day right? It’s like the young teenager who goes into the magazine store and loiters near the porn mags pretending to read fly fishing monthly! That’s why I never open an evite if I’m not ready to respond. The other thing I hate in evite is when people make changes (picking the actual location or changing the time or whatnot) and send out an ‘I made changes’ email. Why can’t you make a note of the changes in the email so we don’t have to click on the bloody link? Seriously!


BCC – Staying on the party scene, why do people send out invitations to meet up and BCC everyone? I make a point of not replying if I don’t know who else has been invited. Is it an intimate affair or a blow out party? What if there’s some idiot I want to avoid? Probably the one sending the damn email to begin with. You see, the distribution list is critical in making an informed decision about attendance. This is especially true in NY where there always seem to be conflicting parties and dinners. It’s somewhat similar to sending a text message and saying ‘hi everyone, wanna meet up?’ This gives me no details and doesn’t even get a response. Also, I’ve noticed the BCC crew (I’d use an acronym for BCC but the first C rhymes with runt and the second one rhymes with hunt), do this BCC thing for everything! Articles, requests for info, filling in a survey, etc. Is there some secret BCC society where nobody knows who else is a member cos for obvious reasons?!?!?

TakeOnTheSess.com

On an email chain between a couple of buddies the other day, one guy asked the following question

Anyway, isn't Bruce a sell out? I thought you could only buy his new album in Walmart. Which pretty much goes against everything he sings about.

The response features today's Relief Bitcher

at 6'6" the Big Sess comes huffin and puffin out of the bulpen with a record of 2-6 and a 4.19ERA, with his flaming fast-ball he does have 80 K's in 60 innings but also has walked 80 guys.   Wild Thing has nothing on this guy



I was on the road yesterday so I didn't get a chance to comment on this Springsteen sell-out thing, I just listend to the cuts of the new album, not too impressed and I probably wont rush out to buy it, nor will I be rushing out to buy tickets for the  new world tour, not going...

Springsteen up to Tunnel of Love was a broke jersey guy working crap jobs, fightin with the old man and such. Even though he was rich, he came off as one of us. I used to be that jersey guy and springsteen used to embody that guy. Love every minute of every album up to that  point.

Tom Joad on my walkman freezing my a$$ off waiting for the bus in college. Reuinion tour at the garden was the best concert I have ever seen, The Rising came out 3 days before I go married, fantastic album.

I am pretty confident in saying that springsteen was the soundtrack of my life from the time I was 16.

Now however, The last 3 times I saw him, I had to listen to his rambling politics, politic annalysis from a guy who washed out of ocean county college after 1 semester.

Springsteen has gone from the voice of every dude who breaks his a$$ in an effort to "get a little something for himself" to a guy who has won and forgot where he came from. He once said live on stage that"blind faith in your leaders can get you killed" Now he stands side by side with a president who wants to sit down and talk with regimes that think the holocaust didn't happen? The president who is earmarking 4 billion

of our money for ACORN to pay back the folks who helped him get elected?

Don't you see it Bruce? This Government is the same hypocritical mess you have railed against for years, but now you throw your lot in with them. 

Sad, a guy you think of as one of your heroes, rich guy who was the same as you. You knew he lived behind iron gates in a posh community but it didn't matter, but the fact that he now comes off as that guy who lives behind iron gates as opposed to an everyman changes everything.

You think 1978 Springsteen plays the Super Bowl?

TakeOnTheLad.com

So with the demise of Dubya was supposed to come the demise of Fox News
(though getting rid of Lou Dobbs may have been an even better idea).
However, it seems that Fox have figured out a new way to control public opinion
and push forward their evil agenda - Jack Bauer and 24. Now I'm a big fan
of 24 and a huge fan of Jack B, but this season has been so focused on using
torture (or radical methods) to get information out of suspects that it seems
somewhat coincidental that this emphasis is happening at the same time as Obama
is sweeping into office with his promises of shutting down Guantanamo.
Even funnier is that it seems to be working. Public opinion, which was so
anti-Guantanamo and the flouting of the Geneva Convention, has suddenly turned
to support for whatever methods are necessary to get required information.
Even the gray lady appears to have changed its tune! What next? Is
Ryan Seacrest going to convince us that we need to attack Iran? Will Homer
Simpson espouse the need to reduce taxes and increase government
expenditure? I know it's too much to think that Fox can change but I
really hope the rest of us do.

TAKEONBUMP.COM

With a 3-3 record, a WHIP of 17.8 and an ERA of 5.68, here comes relief bitcher Bump Wendell making $3.99 and a club-sandwich for his services

So everyone is up in arms about the Obama Presidency so far. I mean, it's been three days and no change yet!. But all in all, Obama doesn't need to even do so much to look great compared to our outgoing President. I liken it to the situation with our beloved New York Knickerbockers. At 17-24 they are 4 games better than they were at this point last year. At this pace they will win 34 games and probably not make the playoffs(I say probably cause the east is more miserable than sitting next to Righetti at a foreign film). If you read the media, however; it's another story. Everyone is talking about how well the Knicks are playing, how well the young guys are doing, even talk of David Lee as an All-Star. The way I look at it is Isaiah Thomas=George W. Bush and D'Antoni=Obama. Isaiah ran this team into the ground. Instead of Guantanamo Bay he the sexual harassment trial with Anucha Brown. D'Antoni doesn't need to accomplish much right now. 34 wins, much to the chagrin of Dan Patrick, would be great. Obama just learning the job and not screwing up, much to the chagrin of Keith Oberman, is fine right now. We don't need another Eddie Curry nor Dick Cheney. So all's I am saying is that rooting for the Knicks is rooting for America. It is your patriotic duty. Go Knicks! Go America!

I'm Proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free

Relief Bitcher The Ryan Express comes in with a 3-4 record, a 3.14 ERA and a three strikeout to 2 walk ratio. He's coming into the 7th inning with 2 on and no outs.

Got a flight from NY to LAX the other day for a wedding. I was looking forward to my second trip out to Cali Cali, especially after the first was to San Diego last month. The San Diego flight was Delta. They made you pay for booze but they gave out free snacks, as many as you wanted, and had screens in the back of the seats which also had free stuff (movies in this instance). So…I was looking forward to a similar flight on the way out to LA. Thought I might check out Get Smart if it was on. As it transpired, I was flying goddamn American and was on a plane from the 80s. I literally think I was on this one as a child. No personal screens. Not even the drop downs from the ceiling. This had a projection screen way up in the front which I would have been able to see if I’d brought my telescope (I hadn’t as it wouldn’t fit in the stupid handluggage size checker). It actually wasn’t bad that I couldn’t see the screen seeing as they were showing some Kit Kittredge something or other movie. This plane was pretty old. It had those huge no-smoking signs above your head (I almost expected there to be a no-smoking section). The sound and music was controlled with dials instead of the digital buttons (I almost expected there to be a two-prong plastic headset jack – remember those). Yup, the plane was pretty 80’s, though this would all have been forgivable if they’d kept the best thing about flying 20-odd years ago – the air hostesses. Not flight attendants; air hostesses. This was back when serving in the skies was a glamorous profession, akin to modeling. They slinked up and down the aisles and were straight out of that Leonardo Dicaprio movie about planes (not the Howard Hughes one). I yearn for those days. Now I get either bumped by incredibly large hips or have to put up with some dudes cheap cologne! The only thing 80’s about the ‘flight attendants’ on this flight was their age! Bad life – but at least the tickets were paid for with miles!