Friday, January 4, 2013

Online Gaming's Own Version of The Wizard? - Topless Robot ...



Remember The Wizard? Of course you do. Road-trip movie starring Fred Savage and Jenny Lewis, about a cross-country trip to participate in a Nintendo competition, mocked at the time, loved semi-ironically by hipsters nowadays.

Noobz, starring Jason Mewes, promises a look at gamer culture from the inside...and a cross-country trip to participate in an online gaming competition. Judging by the trailer, though, my guess is that its best hope lies in semi-ironic rediscovery twenty or so years from now.

Noobz opens theatrically January 25th, and hits DVD/On-Demand four days later.

More links from around the web!

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Source: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2013/01/online_gamings_own_version_of_the_wizard.php

bill o brien portland trailblazers will kopelman dakota fanning casey anthony video diary lamarcus aldridge justin timberlake engaged

The Quaz Q&A: Tom Verducci | Jeff Pearlman

* Welcome to the 83rd installment of The Quaz Q&A. This feature?a question-and-answer session with a person from sports/entertainment/politics/whatever?will appear every week on jeffpearlman.com. If you have any suggestions/ideas for people to speak with, hit me up at anngold22@gmail.com. I?m listening.

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from a reader named Luke Martin, who suggested Tom Verducci as a Quaz. Tom and I had worked together covering the Majors for Sports Illustrated, and while I thought the idea was a good one, I also figured it, oh, 97-percent unlikely.

Tom is a guy I?ve always liked and always respected. He?s often noted as one of the best baseball writers of his generation, and that?s struck me as a nonsense compliment. Tom isn?t merely one of the best baseball writers of his generation?he?s one of the best writers. Period.

And yet ? Tom is guarded. We?ve always gotten along very well, but working alongside Tom came with the knowledge that personal conversation would be kept to a minimum. When I arrived at a ballpark, I enjoyed chatting with fans, chatting with other writers, grabbing a bite to eat, checking my e-mail. When Tom arrived, it was business. No nonsense, no wasted moments. Business.

To my great delight, Tom was open to being Quazed?and then put forth a fantastically detailed and insightful session. Here, he talks about what separates top-shelf reporters from mediocre ones; why he never follows the pack and how the biggest PED story of the last 20 years came to be. Tom never feared Albert Belle, always liked Mark McGwire and rated himself a ?poor man?s Henry Cotto? as a college player.

Ah, Henry Cotto. Where have you gone?

Tom Verducci?welcome to the Quaz ?

JEFF PEARLMAN: OK, so Tom, we worked together at Sports Illustrated for five or six years. I?ve always been a huge admirer of your work and your approach. And yet, when people have asked, ?What?s Tom like?? I don?t really know how to answer. What I mean is, you always seemed to be sort of guarded and protective. Not in any sort of mean or jerky way. Not even remotely. More like a guy who had a job to do, intended to do it extremely well and didn?t need the endless distractions of small talk and inane banter. Is this a misread? Am I off on this?

TOM VERDUCCI: Pretty good scouting report. I really, really love what I do, but for me to do the best I can requires a lot of focus. That?s just me. I love noticing the small details within a game, for instance, and sometimes you look around in the press box and you can count the heads that are down?playing solitaire, checking their fantasy football team or buried in Twitter. Whatever works for you.

My dad was a legendary football coach and teacher and I don?t ever recall him talking about himself. I do remember him working at getting better all the time. The house was filled with game film and projectors, and chances were any loose sheet of paper sitting around had plays and defenses diagrammed on it. I don?t need or like a lot of noise. The reservoirs within us that we need to tend to are humility and empathy. When they get depleted is usually when we fail as fellow citizens.

J.P.: I?ve never told you this, but I learned more watching you work a clubhouse than any other journalist I?ve been around. You seemed to have a v-e-r-y patient approach to reporting; let everyone else gather around the hero for sound bites and snippets, and I?ll catch him at the end, solo. It also seems like you get the value in backup catchers, long relievers, etc. So, Tom, what is your postgame reporting philosophy? How do you go about getting the goods? And, in this day of 100,000 media outlets, is it still possible to ?get? things others don?t?

T.V.: Patience is a requirement. Anybody with a credential and a pen or a microphone can get ?a? quote. You?ve seen it, Jeff: the scrum around the star of the game and the stock questions that typically feature phrases such as ?how surprised were you . . . ,? ?the mindset,? and ?what pitch.? The worst are the non-questions. They almost always start like this: ?Talk about . . . .? It?s sheer laziness. The point is that you ask a stock question you get a stock quote.

I don?t want mere quotes. I want information. And I want what?s true. You have to be patient if you?d rather drill closer to bedrock than the surface layer. I?ll tell you a story that illustrates how much of what comes out of clubhouses is pablum. Many years ago I covered a game in which the manager made a pitching change with two outs in the ninth inning and a big lead?something like five runs?to get the matchup advantage over the hitter. After the game, with the media crowded in his office, the manager was asked about the move. He provided some explanation about how no lead is safe and he takes nothing for granted. One of the requirements of this job is to have a super-sensitive baloney detector. Mine was blowing up upon his answer. Okay, here?s where patience comes in. I waited quite some time to circle back and get a minute alone with the manager. I told him there must be something else to changing pitchers with two outs in the ninth with a big lead. To be honest, I thought he might have been covering for an injury for the pitcher he removed. He told me I was right, that there was something else. It wasn?t an injury. He said he had such disregard for the hitter who came to the plate with two outs in the ninth that he long ago vowed he never would give that hitter a comfortable at-bat, regardless of score.

What he told me was off the record. I couldn?t use it. But it informed me that the explanation he put out there for public consumption?the explanation that would appear in most game stories?was baloney. His strategy is deployed all the time, especially with how coverage of baseball has grown bigger and faster. They figure it?s better to be safe than honest.

There is another component to this story that you probably figured out: I knew the manager well enough that he felt he could trust me with something he didn?t want printed. Patience is great, but if you don?t develop trust with your sources patience is nothing but a waste of time. Trust takes time, work and honesty. The media-athlete relationship too often is a one-way street. The media takes, takes, takes. ?I need a quote.? ?I need five minutes.? No wonder the athlete becomes wary or, worse, regards the media as the ?Gotcha? police?just waiting to twist a quote or a moment from the heat of battle into a headline to get them noticed. Establishing trust means having conversations with the notebook closed so that not every encounter is an ?I need? moment. I try to connect with players as people. You mentioned the value of backup catchers and long relievers. I don?t let salary or skill define a person?s value.

So yes, establishing that kind of trust is always important. You could argue it?s even more important these days with so much noise (and baloney) out there. As with nutrition, the closer to the original source you get your information the better off you are.

J.P.: You?ve been covering the game for more than three decades, and seem to genuinely have a love for baseball I, regrettably, lack. Where does that come from? How did you develop your appreciation of baseball? Was it your dad, Tony, who coached football and baseball at Seton Hall Prep? Your brother Frank? And were you, initially, a guy who loved baseball and thought he could write, or a guy who loved writing and thought he could do it on baseball?

T.V.: I?ve always loved baseball. My two older brothers, Frank and Anthony, are successful football coaches (NFL, college, high school), my dad was one of the greatest high school football coaches in New Jersey history (as well as a very successful baseball coach), and I played football, basketball and baseball in high school, but baseball always was my first love. I think I developed an early appreciation for the fairness of the game?that you took turns batting, for instance?and the physical perfection of the size and weight of a baseball for throwing. And when I watched my father?s baseball team play, I watched through his eyes: the eyes of a coach, not a fan. I appreciated the nuances of execution and team play. I?ll never forget when his team lost in the state final when the umpires missed a balk call on a first-and-third play when the opposing pitcher didn?t step off the rubber properly. I was probably about 9 or 10 at the time, and gaining an understanding on the finer points of baseball.

But I loved writing just as much as baseball. I liked the craftsmanship of words and ideas. I loved essay tests. I wrote a middle school newsletter (on a typewriter) just for the fun of it. I knew at a very early age (middle school or even before) that I wanted to combine baseball and writing. I?m just so blessed to be able to say that it worked out for me?that I was able to know at an early age what I was passionate about and to be able to pursue those passions.

J.P.: You were 24, in 1985, when Newsday asked you to cover the Yankees in spring training. I have a hard time envisioning a nervous Tom Verducci?but were you nervous? Hesitant? What do you recall from the experience?

T.V.: Let me start with how I wound up there. One day in early February I was sitting in the Newsday office. I was covering high school sports and had been a backup writer on the Mets and Yankees for a couple of years. The sports editor, Dick Sandler, a great guy and the kind of smart, fair editor every writer hopes for, walked up to me and basically said, ?Can you get to Fort Lauderdale next week to be our beat writer on the Yankees?? This was when Fort Lauderdale still was the spring break capital of the U.S. I looked out the window. It was cold and miserable. I probably had an Oyster Bay High hoops game to cover the next week. I was 24 and single. So here was the sports editor giving me the chance to spend seven weeks in sunny Fort Lauderdale while covering the Yankees and staying in a condo one block from the ocean with an expense account and driving a rental car that had to be better than my 1973 Plymouth Satellite. I practically ran to Fort Lauderdale on the spot.

So now I get to Fort Lauderdale and my fellow beat writers included heavyweights such as Bill Madden, Moss Klein, Murray Chass and Mike McAlary. This is the toughest beat in all of sports: Steinbrenner?s Yankees. And it?s pre-cell phone and pre-email beat work. It?s the Camp Lejeune of beat writing. I?m just some kid who last week was covering Nassau County high school hoops. But I was too excited to be nervous. If you had sent me to Washington to cover politics or London to cover foreign affairs, yes, I would have been nervous because I would have had no comfort level. Covering baseball was exactly where I wanted to be.

The Yankee beat was particularly cut-throat. I remember once there were rumors about the Yankees getting Tom Seaver, and the sports desk called me and told me they wanted a Seaver-to-the-Yankees story; they even had a doctored picture of Seaver in a Yankees uniform to run with the story. I was naive, thinking a reported story comes before the headline, not the other way around. But what I remember most about that spring was how kind McAlary was to me. He introduced me to some players and said, ?He?s okay. You can trust him.? It meant the world to me, especially in an environment that didn?t exactly bring out the kindness in some people.

It was like getting thrown onto a treadmill going 10 miles an hour. You had to get up to top speed immediately covering the Yankees or you were toast. Steinbrenner ripped his team from the roof of Fort Lauderdale Stadium, called the third game of the season crucial after losing two to the Red Sox, ripped his team at an exhibition game in Columbus, fired the legendary Yogi Berra as manager (I can still see Yogi?s son, Dale, an infielder on the team, dabbing his tears with a sanitary sock in the clubhouse of the old Comiskey Park) and hired Billy Martin?and that was all before the season was three weeks old. When Martin was hired, McAlary told me, ?Get ready. You?re about to spend more time drinking in bars than you ever have in your life.?

He was right, of course. With Martin as manager, a beat writer?s night only was beginning when the game ended. You had to find Martin in the bar. It was a competition issue. Martin would talk about his team and his players in brutally honest terms when he drank, and if another writer was there and you were not, well, you missed not only the information but also the standing of being a ?Billy guy.? Moreover, there was the high probability that Martin just might wind up in a fight with somebody. To survive, I had to borrow a trick from Buck Showalter, who loved to learn from Martin?s baseball intellect: the only way to keep up with Martin was to occasionally dump your drink into a potted palm.

J.P.: You wrote what many consider to be the first groundbreaking PED story, your 2002 cover piece on Ken Caminiti and drugs in baseball. I?ve long wondered?how did you get Ken to talk about such a taboo subject? How did that unfold?

T.V.: I remember before the 2002 season we had an SI meeting, with writers and editors, to talk about story ideas for the upcoming season. I said, ?Guys, the next big story is about steroids in baseball. I guarantee you it?s going to be written. And it better be written by us.? The issue became obvious to me in 2001?not just innuendo or rumor about a few renegade players?because clean players were coming up to me and saying, ?It?s an unfair game. There are so many guys using steroids that now I am at a competitive disadvantage.? The excuse makers today don?t want to acknowledge what it was doing to the game. You either had to stick a needle loaded with illegal drugs in your butt?God knows where the drugs came from or what it would do to your testicles?or you were at an obvious competitive disadvantage when it came to your job and your earning potential.

SI encouraged me to begin reporting the story. I was making good progress, but nobody wanted to give their name. For instance, I spoke to a minor league player who defined for me the insidious nature of a game being turned over to drug cheats. He wasn?t a power hitter at all?in fact, he was a speedy outfielder. He told me he was totally against steroids?knew they were illegal and wrong. His wife was against them. But he compromised his own values because others were getting ahead of him. He juiced up and he immediately felt the difference. His bat was quicker. He got to pitches he otherwise wouldn?t get to. And if he started to wear down, if his bat started to slow, he went back on the juice.

It tells you something about how wrong steroids were that nobody then?and even to this day, so few players?would go on the record about their steroid use. Until Caminiti. A producer for CNN knew I was working on a steroids story. She had interviewed Caminiti for a totally unrelated subject and he had mentioned steroids rather casually in their conversation. She thought it was worth checking with him. I knew Caminiti from his playing days. He was a great guy and one of the most respected teammates I ever encountered. I called him up. He lived in the Houston area. I told him what I was working on and I would like to talk to him. He immediately invited me to his home.

I flew to Houston. We sat in his big garage on folding lawn chairs, surrounded by the cars he loved to customize. It was a long conversation. All afternoon. He never flinched. Ken had problems in his life with substance abuse, and it seemed like he was working his way through his problems with counseling and support groups. I imagine he was at a time in his life where honesty with himself was a priority. He told me he had nothing to hide. Not once, not even off the record, did he mention the name of any other player. His personal accountability was stark and courageous.

That night, accompanied by a friend of his, we went to dinner. It was nothing fancy. Just a diner where he could order ?the usual? and they knew exactly what to bring. At one point he looked at me and said, ?This is pretty big, huh?? I told him yes. He said, ?I have nothing to hide.?

J.P.: When you started doing TV work for the MLB Network, I was surprised. You?ve always struck me as a traditional journalist, and working for MLB while covering MLB seems, well, pretty new school. And yet ? it?s 2012. Rules seem different, etc. Curious: Why did you take the gig? Is there a conflict, even in perception? Or, in this age, have things simply changed?

T.V.: All very good questions, and questions I needed to ask myself. I have been with MLB Network since Day One: Jan. 1, 2009. The first question I needed answered was this: how much editorial control will they have over what I say? Anything other than zero would have been a problem. I can tell you there has been no editorial directives to influence what I can or should say on air. Of course, before I could even consider it, I had to make sure that SI was okay with the arrangement, and it was. Moreover, I was convinced that the product would be an elite one, just like SI?and it has delivered. MLB Network is the most successful channel launch in the history of cable television, and it?s for reasons of substance, not just distribution, that make it so.

One of the things I really enjoyed when I got to SI was the expectation of nothing short of high quality work. Newspaper writing is full of compromise?budgets, time and space. Writing for SI, the compromises are peeled away. You generally have enough time, space and resources (though as writers, they are never enough) to produce something of outstanding quality every time. I like that. I have found that MLB Network aspires to similar high standards.

Finally, I liked the new challenge it presented me. I don?t come to cameras naturally, but I wanted to get better and to see how much fun I could have with it. The gig has been great. MLB Network even gave me the opportunity to work as game analyst in the booth with greats Bob Costas and Matt Vasgersian, which has led to game analyst work on national FOX Saturday games. There was no map to follow for a beat writer to wind up in the national TV booth as an analyst, but I found out it?s something that I really enjoy.

J.P.: I have a lot of aspiring journalists reading these interviews, so I?d love to focus a bit on writing. Specifically, how do you think of your ledes? Do they pop in your head as soon as something happens? Do they hit you as you sit down to write? Do you state them aloud initially? How? And do you know as soon as they come?

T.V.: I?m glad you asked. One of the disappointments for me when I first started writing was that I had many places to go to learn more about baseball but almost none when it came to learning more about writing. I thought baseball writers loved writing and talking about it, but I found that wasn?t the case. The constant pressure of deadlines and competition can quickly dull the craftwork from the job.

I?m always on the lookout for ledes. It?s always in my head, and here?s why: every once in a while you hear a story or observe a scene that you think could be a great lede, so on the spot you have to search for every detail, flavor and scent to make the lede more alive to the reader. Imagine Johnny All-Star tells you his father used to throw bottle caps to him to hit in their basement to improve his hand-eye coordination. Great story. But now you?ve got to ask him to describe the basement, to tell you what drinks the caps came from (Yoo-Hoo? Root beer? Ginger Ale?), to tell you if he ever nailed his father in the eye with one of those caps?all the things that turn a generic story into a specific time and place for the reader. The time to think about those details is not when you?re sitting down to write, but as you?re listening and reporting. There are great reporters who are not great writers. I can?t think of any great writer that?s not a great reporter.

Ledes come from anywhere, and sometimes they do pop into your head as you sit down. Sometimes they take maddeningly long to show up. We?ve all been there. The best thing to do when that happens is to review all your notes, then write something . . . anything . . . to get started. You?re essentially daring the gods of ledes to show up with something better?and usually they do.

J.P.: With newspapers on their death hook, magazines vanishing?what do you tell the high school or college kid who says, ?I want to do what you do??

T.V.: Go for it. I never stopped to think about how darn competitive journalism is?and specifically, baseball writing. I never stopped to think about it when I first applied to 30 or so newspapers as a graduating senior at Penn State and received rejection letters from every one of them. Why? I wanted to write and so I knew that was what I was going to do. And if you are working at something you are passionate about, you are going to do it with enthusiasm and curiosity, which are the requirements of improvement, which will continue to propel you forward. I hate those lists that come out every spring around graduation time about ?where the hot jobs are.? It?s a moving target, and it may be in a direction to which you have no interest. You can?t know where publishing will evolve and what the market will be. But you can know what?s in your heart. I tell them to pursue their passion. And I tell them that ever since man came back from a hunt and painted pictures on the cave wall about it, people are interested in a good story well told. Sure, how that story is delivered may change, but the innate need to connect to one another through stories does not change.

J.P.: You covered the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa chase for Sports Illustrated, and covered it brilliantly. I?m wondering, in hindsight, if you ever had any PED suspicions at the time? I?m also wondering, in hindsight, if you feel, well, duped? I mean, we all thought we were witnessing this magical, amazing, natural moment that would go down with the ?27 Yanks and DiMaggio?s streak as seminal moments in the game. And now, well, it?s sorta nonsense.

T.V.: Let me take you back to an interview I did with McGwire at his house before the 1998 season. We sat in his living room and I looked him square in the eye and asked him about steroids. The speculation that I heard on McGwire was that his body had been breaking down?especially foot and knee injuries?because he had overloaded his muscles and joints through steroids. Essentially, he had become too big for his own good. I told him this. Now, did I expect him to just reply, ?Well, since you asked, yes, I?ve been juicing for years.?? No. But I bring it up to give you some context?that there was a steroid subtext to the Home Run Race of ?98.

(McGwire told me when I asked then about steroids that he didn?t use them but that he took ?anything that?s legal.? Quick aside: while in California with McGwire I worked out with him at a local gym. Guys would come up to him and ask how he got his forearms so big. McGwire told me his forearms were 17 1/2 inches around. My goodness, I thought, this man?s forearms are bigger than my neck.)

The whole ?the media looked the other way? stuff is overblown. You had to nail such a story on the record, as with Caminiti, to write it. Many stories referred to steroids in baseball, but how to tie a specific player to them without proof? You don?t.

I remember hearing some writers in the press box in St. Louis when McGwire finished with 70 saying it was the greatest thing they?d ever seen. I just don?t get personally wrapped up in what somebody else does as an individual player. I did think the back-and-forth between Sosa and McGwire?the chasing of the record and the personalities?was fascinating and that was a great story. I did think how each of them handled the attention and pressure was impressive. I spent a lot of time with them that summer, especially McGwire. I always remember him talking about how proud he was of how strong he was mentally. Looking back on it, I now think there were places in his heart where McGwire didn?t fully buy into it because he carried the secret of steroids. But he was totally committed to what he accomplished mentally?to hold up to all the attention and pressure.

McGwire is a good dude with a good heart who made a wrong decision and he knows it. I don?t feel personally duped. Same with Alex Rodriguez. I asked him about steroids in 2002 while working on the Caminiti story. It was in his hotel suite in Chicago after a game one night. He looked at me like I had two heads. Steroids? Gee, why would anybody take them? What do they do? I don?t know anything about it . . . I walked out of the suite shaking my head about his complete and theatrical lack of knowledge about the worst kept secret in the game. It would be seven years later that we all discovered, by his own admission, that he was loaded to the gills on steroids at that very moment.

J.P.: Absolute greatest moment of your journalistic career? Absolute lowest?

T.V.: Everything I?ve tried to do is bring people closer to the heart of the game and the people who play it. So it doesn?t get any better than playing a week with the Toronto Blue Jays in spring training in 2005. I wouldn?t call it as much of a journalistic triumph as much as it was more stinking fun than any journalist could ever have. The lowest might have been watching the 1989 World Series at home on television. I had covered the NLCS, and remained in San Francisco with a couple of off days before the World Series. So I did what I often did with some free time: found a gym to play pickup basketball. I broke my foot?felt and heard it break?and like a dummy I finished the game on it because we had exactly 10 players at the time and I didn?t want the game to end on my account. I went to a hospital, had the foot put in a cast and flew home, and watched as the earthquake hit.

QUAZ EXPRESS WITH TOM VERDUCCI:

? I used to get a kick out of how Dick Friedman (our baseball editor back in the day) used to refer to you as Tommy. Like, does a-n-y-o-n-e else call you that?:?Yes, you might be surprised, though most of them are my mom and brothers and sisters.

? Five greatest baseball beat writers of your lifetime?:?Impossible and unfair to be so definitive, but I will say I?m probably no different than most people in that you are most impressionable in your youth. I grew up reading and impressed by Moss Klein and Dan Castellano of the Newark Star Ledger. I later was fortunate enough to work with them, and gained a greater appreciation for how they maintained their enthusiasm and professionalism for the job after doing it for so many years.

? Rank in order (favorite to least): Kerry Lightenberg, Tim Tebow, cold rain, Appetite for Destruction, Celine Dion, Hilton Honors points, Shea Stadium, Christmas music, the Newark Star-Ledger, Twitter, D.J. Dozier, Takeo Spikes, Dr. Dre.:?The Newark Star Ledger was my gateway to journalism. I delivered it as a kid?getting up at 6 am to get my paper route done before school?but made sure I read the sports section before I delivered it. It also improved my arm strength. I loved throwing it from the street to the doorstep (though those with aluminum storm doors that often took the impact, maybe not so much). Shea Stadium. (Especially upper deck, doubleheaders, with my brothers and a sub from Tower?s, a deli near home.) D.J. Dozier. (PSU baseball/football). Takeo Spikes (played with Bengals and Bills when my brother was coaching there). Christmas music. Tim Tebow. Kerry Lightenberg. Dr. Dre. Twitter. Hilton Honors points. Cold rain. Celine Dion. Appetite for Destruction.

? We give you 500 major league at-bats in 2013, what?s your line?:?Terrible. Maybe .020 if a few bloops fall. Maybe.

? What would be the scouting report of your baseball career at Penn State?:?I used to think I was a poor man?s Henry Cotto, which is overstating it. My greatest skill was persistence. I was a walk-on who first got cut but I refused to leave. So I stuck around?until I graduated in 3 1/2 years. Fortunately, I was a better student.

? Would Mookie have beaten Buckner to the bag?: No.

? ESPN offers you $2 million annually to co-host an hour-long debate show with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith. You in?:?Nothing against those two gentlemen at all, but no, thank you.

? The five nicest ballplayers you?ve ever covered?: Uh-oh. List time again. In no particular order and off the top of my head: Greg Maddux, Ron Hassey, David Cone, Mariano Rivera, Rafael Santana.

? Did Albert Belle intimidate you? Why or why not?:?No. Seriously, what was he going to do? Punch me? Maybe it?s because an Indians official once told me a story (true or not) that Belle thought Italians carried luck and he would have one of the equipment managers, who was Italian, walk around the clubhouse clicking two of his bats together to bring him luck.

? Five reasons for one to make Montgomery Township, N.J. his/her next vacation destination?:?Golf at Cherry Valley Country Club and Mattawang Golf Club. Hiking in the Sourland Mountains. Shopping, dining and arts in Princeton. Easy commute to Philadelphia or New York. Conte?s Pizza.

QUAZ DATABASE:

Quaz 1:?Wendy?Hagen?(Former child actress, The Wonder Years) Quaz 4:?Russ Ortiz?(Former Major League pitcher) Quaz 11:?Phil Nevin?(Former Major League slugger) Quaz 12:?Jemele Hill?(Columnist and commentator, ESPN) Quaz 29:?Jake Black?(Comic book writer, cancer survivor) Quaz 30:?Brian Johnson?(Major League scout, former Giants catcher) Quaz 33:?Jenny DeMilo?(Professor escort/erotic specialist) Quaz 35:?Seth Davis?(Sports Illustrated writer, CBS basketball analyst) Quaz 37:?Mike Sharp?(Former world-class cyclist, accident victim) Quaz 41:?Rick Arzt?(Lead singer, Love Seed Mama Jump) Quaz 45:?Cameron Mills?(Pastor, former Kentucky basketball star) Quaz 46:?Jim Abbott?(One-handed former Major League pitcher) Quaz 56:?Liz Scott?(Executive director, Alex?s Lemonade Stand) Quaz 61:?Bev Oden?(Olympic volleyball player) Quaz 64:?Shannon Bex?(Singer, former Danity Kane member) Quaz 68:?Steve James?(Director, Hoop Dreams and Head Games) Quaz 69:?Doug Glanville?(Former Major League outfielder; ESPN analyst) Quaz 78:?Marty Appel?(Former Yankees PR Director, Author) Quaz 82:?Amy Freeze?(ABC Meteorologist, on-air personality)

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Source: http://www.jeffpearlman.com/the-quaz-qa-tom-verducci/

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Bigger fights loom after tax deadline deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans looked ahead on Wednesday toward the next round of even bigger budget fights after reaching a hard-fought "fiscal cliff" deal that narrowly averted potentially devastating tax hikes and spending cuts.

The agreement, approved late on Tuesday by the Republican-led House of Representatives after a bitter political struggle, was a victory for Obama, who had won re-election on a promise to address budget woes in part by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

But it set up political showdowns over the next two months on spending cuts and on raising the nation's limit on borrowing. Republicans, angry the deal did little to curb the federal deficit, promised to use the debt ceiling debate to win deep spending cuts next time.

"Our opportunity here is on the debt ceiling," Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said on MSNBC, adding Republicans would have the political leverage against Obama in that debate. "We Republicans need to be willing to tolerate a temporary, partial government shutdown, which is what that could mean."

Republicans, who acknowledged they had lost the fiscal cliff fight by agreeing to raise taxes on the wealthy without gaining much in return, vowed the next deal would have to include significant cuts in government benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid health care for retirees and the poor that were the biggest drivers of federal debt.

"This is going to be much uglier to me than the tax issue ... this is going to be about entitlement reform," Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said on CNBC.

"This is the debate that's going to be far more serious. Hopefully, now that we have this other piece behind us - hopefully - we'll deal in a real way with the kinds of things our nation needs to face," he said.

Obama urged "a little less drama" when the Congress and White House next address thorny fiscal issues like the government's rapidly mounting $16 trillion debt load.

The fiscal cliff showdown had worried businesses and financial markets, and U.S. stocks soared at the opening after lawmakers agreed to the deal.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 262.45 points, or 2.00 percent, at 13,366.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 29.79 points, or 2.09 percent, at 1,455.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 77.45 points, or 2.57 percent, at 3,096.97.

The crisis ended when dozens of Republicans in the House of Representatives buckled and backed a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate that hiked taxes on households earning more than $450,000 annually. Spending cuts of $109 billion in military and domestic programs were delayed only for two months.

Economists had warned the fiscal cliff of across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts would have punched a $600 billion hole in the economy this year and threatened to send the country back into recession.

Obama Praises Deal, Says There's More to Be DonePresident Obama is praising the bill that staves off the fiscal cliff tax hikes and spending cuts. The House of Representatives followed the Senate's lead, and passed the bill late Tuesday. (Jan. 2)

RELUCTANT REPUBLICANS

House Republicans had mounted a late effort to add hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts to the package and spark a confrontation with the Senate, but it failed.

In the end, they reluctantly approved the Senate bill by a bipartisan vote of 257 to 167 and sent it on to Obama to sign into law. "We are ensuring that taxes aren't increased on 99 percent of our fellow Americans," said Republican Representative David Dreier of California.

The vote underlined the precarious position of House Speaker John Boehner, who will ask his Republicans to re-elect him as speaker on Thursday when a new Congress is sworn in. Boehner backed the bill but most House Republicans, including his top lieutenants, voted against it.

The speaker had sought to negotiate a "grand bargain" with Obama to overhaul the U.S. tax code and rein in health and retirement programs that will balloon in coming decades as the population ages.

But Boehner could not unite his members behind an alternative to Obama's tax measures.

Income tax rates will now rise on individuals earning more than $400,000 and families earning more than $450,000 per year, and the amount of deductions they can take to lower their tax bill will be limited.

Low temporary rates that have been in place for the past decade will be made permanent for less-affluent taxpayers, along with a range of targeted tax breaks put in place to fight the 2009 economic downturn.

However, workers will see up to $2,000 more taken out of their paychecks annually with the expiration of a temporary payroll tax cut.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill will increase budget deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the coming 10 years, compared to the budget savings that would occur if the extreme measures of the cliff were to kick in.

But the measure will actually save $650 billion during that time period when measured against the tax and spending policies that were in effect on Monday, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent group that has pushed for more aggressive deficit savings.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Richard Cowan; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-republicans-weigh-last-ditch-challenge-fiscal-deal-005743252--business.html

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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Essential Tools and Cleaning Supplies For Your Home

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Posted on by Sarah Lipoff ?

We all love saving money, making these budget-friendly items must haves around the house. You might be surprised with the ways you can use these basic things to save you in a pinch while keeping a few dollars in your pocket at the same time. Plus, you probably already have a few of these savvy items already in your home. Click through for our favorite tools and more that will help you save time and money around your house.

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Source: http://www.savvysugar.com/Essential-Tools-Cleaning-Supplies-Your-Home-26433953

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Sunday weather forecast: Overcast, chance of thunderstorm | NOLA ...

Overcast with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain. High of 73. Winds from the south at 5 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Tonight: Overcast with thunderstorms and rain showers, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain after midnight. Fog overnight. Low of 63. Breezy. Winds from the south-southwest at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40% with rainfall amounts near 0.4 inches possible.

Source: http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2012/12/sunday_weather_forecast_overca_1.html

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Safeguard Yourself And Your Belongings With These Bankruptcy ...

We are in a hard economical condition these days. The outcome of the dreadful market is that quite a few folks are dropping their work opportunities and falling into uncontrollable debt. Debts commonly stop in personal bankruptcy which isn?t great. If you would like to know how to get oneself or your friend out of filing for personal bankruptcy, read through on for some feasible answers.

When submitting for private personal bankruptcy you must always be informed of your rights. Do not depend on your debtors data about no matter whether or not specified loans can be involved in your bankruptcy. There are incredibly couple debts, these kinds of as child aid or university student personal loan debt, that can not be bankrupted. If the personal debt collector attempts to inform you that your debts, which do not drop into these classes, are unable to be bankrupted, consider a notice of it, search up the credit card debt type, and report them to your state?s legal professional standard business office.

Pick out a bankruptcy lawyer correctly. Many modern attorneys enjoy this sort of legislation. Make sure that the law firm you decide to employ the service of has decades of experience and is adequately licensed. By hunting on-line, you can discover qualifications information about attorneys along with consumer rankings and any disciplinary history an attorney could have.

Don?t fail to remember to take pleasure in your daily life after your funds get preset. Following filing, a lot of men and women come across themselves stressing more than their predicament and how to deal with it. This anxiety could morph into medical despair, if you fail to sufficiently deal with the difficulty. Existence is heading to get far better once you get via this.

Make certain bankruptcy is truely your only alternative ahead of submitting. Consult with a personal bankruptcy legal professional to see if an interest charge reduction or financial debt repayment approach is an alternative to filing for bankruptcy. If a foreclosure is your reason for submitting seem into your selections with your financial institution very first, these kinds of as a personal loan modification. A good lender will be equipped to help you in a assortment of techniques, from obtaining rid of your late prices to cutting down curiosity premiums. You may well even be in a position to get a bank loan extension, supplying you the extra time you will need to pay out your debt off. Collectors want to recoup the most funds possible from debtors, and they can usually get more by way of personal debt reimbursement options than bankruptcy treatments.

Usually bankruptcy is submitted when a person is going through insurmountable financial debt. If you?re in this placement, it is a fantastic thing to familiarize oneself with the legal guidelines that implement in your place. Individual bankruptcy principles fluctuate by jurisdiction. In certain states if you file for personal bankruptcy your property continues to be safeguarded, but the laws differ based on exactly where you reside. You must be common with the laws for your state ahead of submitting for individual bankruptcy.

When searching for a lawyer or attorney to handle your individual bankruptcy assert, the very best way to go is off of a private recommendation alternatively of basically flipping by way of the mobile phone ebook. There are different businesses that prey on the fiscally desperate, so you need to uncover somebody you can have faith in to guarantee the approach goes effortlessly,

You must not be ashamed when submitting for personal bankruptcy. A lot of individuals really feel depressed and as if they have failed when they seek out individual bankruptcy. If you?ve done your research and determined rationally that this is the ideal choice for you, attempt to see it as taking a action towards money good results, instead than as a failure.

As you?ve examine, you can file individual bankruptcy numerous methods. Do not get confused by the myriad of info offered to you. Acquire some time to figure issues out. Then you will be ready to make informed selections about individual bankruptcy and your financial foreseeable future.

Tips To Improve Your Understanding Of Personal Finance And Its Benefits

Source: http://www.optionstradinganalysis.com/2012/12/15/safeguard-yourself-and-your-belongings-with-these-bankruptcy-guidelines/

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Rice withdrawal sparks gender concerns on Cabinet (The Arizona Republic)

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