#morgan… early season morgan might not be as high but he’s also well rounded

[maschotch]

for the opinion thing, if i ever hear someone say "reid carries the team" i automatically don't trust them. but if i hear "reid and garcia carry the team" then i automatically do trust them. like something about the vibes is so different. even as a reidgirl, genuinely do not trust anyone who thinks reid was the only important member of the team.

AKDHSLHD people really say that??

tbh the only indispensable person is garcia. they literally would not be able to function without her breaking privacy laws left and right lmao

i dont even think reid is the best profiler? if it was just one char and garcia for each case, this is the order i think would succeed the fastest: hotch -> morgan -> gideon -> emily -> walker -> tara -> elle -> matt -> luke -> reid -> blake -> rossi -> kate -> jj

not to say he isnt useful. but he’s not the most well rounded. he’s a specialist, like blake, and he’s lacking in some areas. akdhsk maybe a bit too harsh, but he could be replaced by google pretty easily. im

[sticky-wicket-urn]

IPL Round Up: Week 1

Toby Reynolds, 18/04/2021

It is one week into the start of the IPL and to everyone’s surprise, Mumbai Indians are not top! RCB have taken the tournament by storm, winning three from three under Virat Kohli’s leadership. At the other end of the table, Sunrises Hyderabad are propping up the table without a win. Although they have played two of the top sides, pundits and fans expected a much better start for Hydrabad.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB have always had a star-studded side but this seems to be the year that it has finally come together. Kohli has moved to the top of the order to replace Aaron Finch, allowing Maxwell to slip in at number four. Maxwell went all of last season without scoring a fifty or hitting any sixes. This season everything seems to have clicked for him and he has returned to the player we know him to be. Maxwell is the leading run scorer with 176 runs at an average of almost 60 with a strike rate of 150. He has been ably assisted by AB de Villiers, who has come in towards the end of the innings and really excelled with a strike rate of 190! He has played two match winning performances so far: taking RCB right to the death against Mumbai and hit 76 against KKR today.

RCB have also been helped on the bowling front by leading wicket taker Harshal Patel and New Zealand pace man Kyle Jamieson. Patel took five in the first match and has continued his form since. Jamieson has been more expensive than Patel but has also chipped in with some handy runs down the order. RCB also have a threatening spin trio of Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed and  Yuzvendra Chahal. All have had impacts on the matches but none with a match winning performance. As the tournament continues, I expect them to take more wickets and become more dangerous with the balls due to the pitches wearing.

Delhi Capitals

Last years runners up have had a varied start to season with a high scoring win and tight loss. They have an Indian packed batting line up with fifties for Dhawan, Shaw and Pant so far and have relied on Woakes in the first match and Rabada in the second to take wickets alongside opening bowler Avesh Khan. Surprise package of last season, Anrich Nortje is yet to play due to Woakes’ performances in the first matches while Nortje was playing for South Africa. It is likely he will come in for Tom Curran or Steve Smith as the tournament progresses. Curran has struggled to make a good impact on the tournament so far, being hit by Chris Morris to lose the match against Rajasthan and Smith can interchange with Indian vice captain Ajinkya Rahane as an anchor at number three.

Delhi will be hoping for their top order too keep making runs and converting their fifties into large scores and hopefully hundreds. Aussie all rounder, Marcus Stoinis has failed to score many runs yet and was hit for 15 in his one over of the tournament but todays innings bodes well as he guided Delhi to what turned out to be an easy chase after Dhawan batted very impressively for his 92.

Mumbai Indians

Rohit Sharma’s side were heavy favourites before the tournament started and since their first match against RCB have shown why. They lost a tight first match but have since shown they can hold their nerve against KKR and Sunrises in two matches that went right down to the wire. Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya have used the spinning wickets of Chennai well and are leading the attack well with Bumrah and Boult dominating at the death with perfect execution of their yorkers. 

Their three matches have been low scorers with no side passing 160 yet which hasn’t allowed for their long batting line up to show off its skill. Suryakumar Yadav has continued his form from 2020 and leads their side in runs scored and is the only player in their squad to pass fifty. The return of Quinton de Kock seems to have made their batting line up more rounded, even after Lynn scored 49 in their season opener but Pollard and Hardik Pandya have not managed to find their form from the last few seasons as finishers.

Chennai Super Kings

CSK are surprisingly high on this table in my opinion (even if it due to Net Run Rate). They have a very mixed squad. It is full of all rounders with Bravo and Thakur down at numbers nine and ten, but their average age is extraordinarily high. They have six players over the age of 35 and half of their squad over 30. Dhoni seemed to have lost it a bit last year in the UAE and hasn’t found the form he had in the early years of the tournament. 

Sam Curran and Moeen Ali are the two English players in the squad and have both been in fine form so far. Moeen Ali has shown why he was wasted sitting on the RCB bench over the past few years. He is their top scorer after two matches and is striking at 150, while Sam Curran is coming in lower down the order but still smashing the ball all round the park. He has a strike rate over 200 and won the battle against his older brother in the first match, taking him for over 20 in an over.

CSK failed to win the first match after a slow start meant they put up a score of 188, well below par and allowed the Delhi Capitals to chase it down with eight balls spare. In the second match, Deepak Chahar tore through the Punjab Kings top order taking 4-13 and limiting Punjab to 106 before they chased it down in 15 overs.

Rajasthan Royals

The English contingent of the IPL have had two ok first games. They have heavily relied on captain Sanju Samson in the first match, who blasted his third IPL century and was a few metres away from hitting a six off the final ball and carrying his side home to victory against Punjab Kings. The main controversy of this match was that Samson turned down a single off the penultimate ball to put Chris Morris on strike needing four to win. Morris was visibly angry to be sent back by his captain but in my opinion, Samson was more likely to hit a boundary (either the six needed to win or a four to take it to a super over) than his South African counterpart. The one criticism I have would be that Samson could have possibly come back for two and sacrificed Morris at the non-strikers end but would have risked running himself out.

Morris then showed why he Samson should have taken the single in the Royals second match, bludgeoning 36 from 18 after David Miller fell for 62. After the match, Morris said he knew his role was to slog at the end and was happy to do it for the team. 

The biggest new for Rajasthan was that Ben Stokes would be out for three months and the rest of the tournament due to a fractured finger in the first match. This allows fellow Englishman Jos Buttler to slide up to the top of the order and Miller to take his place in the middle order. Buttler had an outstanding tournament a few years ago after he moved to the top of the order for Rajasthan and dominated so it is not all bad news for Royals fans.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Before the tournament, I predicted KKR would just about make the cut for the playoffs due to Eoin Morgan’s captaincy and their world class overseas players. This hasn’t been the case yet. Morgan has failed to fire with the bat; Russel, one of the most devastating batsmen ever in both T20 cricket and the IPL, has been more use with the ball; and both Shakib and Cummins haven’t made the biggest impact yet. I am sure this will soon change though. 

For the first three matches, KKR have relied on their home grown talent at the top of the order to score their runs. Rana, Gill and Tripathi have all made runs at a good rate but KKR have failed to push on from being in good positions in matches with a lack of quick runs down the order. Against Mumbai, “DreRus” took 5-15 from two to slow Mumbai in the final few overs. However, he then struggled with the bat and scored a tentative 9 from 15 as KKR fell 10 runs short.

KKR have failed to win the tight matches so far which seems to be due to a lack of finishing ability from the middle order, if they can fix this problem (and with Morgan as captain, I am sure they can) then I think they have a good chance of finishing in the top four.

Punjab Kings

Even with KL “King Legend” Rahul averaging over 70 at 150, Punjab Kings (formerly King’s XI Punjab) have struggled so far this year. They have just lost to Dehli Capitals after setting an impressive 195 to win but their inexperienced bowling line up failed to defend it. Rahul and Agrawal put on 122 with Agrawal smashing 69 from 36, while his partner crawled along to 61 off 51 before Hooda and Shahrukh Khan came in to blast the ball round at the end. 

This was the second high scoring match they have been apart of. They have a strong and experienced top order but have a younger and less experienced bowling line up and almost no tail a Richardson bats at number seven. Arshdeep Singh is only 22 and this is both Meredith and Richardson’s first seasons in the IPL. Shami is their only seam bowler over 25, but is backed up by two experience spinners. You could see this inexperience in the match vs Delhi as Dhawan took the game away from Punjab. As the tournament progresses, it will be interesting to see how the younger players will adapt to conditions and deal with an increase in pressure and if Punjab try to lengthen their batting lineup.

Sunrises Hyderabad

David Warner’s side are sat at the bottom of the table without a win. They have lost three close matches. With three players in the top 11 for runs scorers so far, you might expect such a strong squad to be further up the table, but the lack of power hitters down the order seems to be catching up with Sunrises. Bairstow slotted in at number four in the first matches to accommodate for Saha up the top and performed well but struggled to stay at the crease during the key moments. He was caught slogging across the line when Hyderabad were in a commanding position, causing a batting collapse and loss against KKR and has since moved back up to opening.

Hyderabad have been changing their team a huge amount so far during the IPL. They have played six overseas players, as well as having Kane Williamson on the sideline. Hyderabad were often selected as the side most likely to steal the crown from Mumbai before the season started but unless they can find some finishers, it seems unlikely that this will happen.

Rashid Khan, as usual, has been performing very well. He has four wickets with an economy rate of 5.33. He hasn’t blown any teams away yet, but arguably more importantly, his economy is under six, building pressure and helping others in the side take wickets. If he can keep this up, it is likely Hyderabad will continue restricting oppositions to low totals.

Predictions

From the first week it is always hard to tell how the season will progress. I think it is likely that Mumbai, RCB and Delhi will progress to the knock-out stages but the fourth place is up for grabs. Right now I think I would go for KKR, just because they haven’t hit their heights yet and I can see them start winning matches they shouldn’t if Morgan and Russell get into form.

[willieloomissavescollinsport]

Hawkes Harbor Review

"Surely, Louisa, you are not suggesting I take Jamie to Disneyland."

After a bestselling author's work is rejected, in a move of irony & karma, Dark Shadows finds ITSELF the subject of plagiarism. And now, brought to you by the letter 'H', here is my review of Hawkes Harbor by S.E. Hinton.

  As the legends go, the novel 'Hawkes Harbor' was originally intended to be an entry in publishers HarperCollins' Dark Shadows series. What changes were made to the storyline & characters afterwards are hard to pinpoint, but for all pretense and purposes, I chose to read this book while mentally changing each character or location to its DS counterpart:

Jamie Sommers..........Willie Loomis Kellen Quinn............Jason McGuire Grenville Hawkes...Barnabas Collins Dr. Louisa Kahne...Dr. Julia Hoffman Sophia Marie........................Josette Katie Roddendem........Maggie Evans Richard..................................Roger Lydia.................................Elizabeth Ricky.....................................David Barbara...............................Carolyn Hawkes Harbor.................Collinsport Hawkes Hall......................Old House Terrace View....................Wyndcliffe

  This comes in handy mostly because, with the exception of the 3 male leads, not many details are given regarding the other individuals mentioned in passing or who enter the storyline from time to time.

  The plot itself more or less follows Willie's storyline early on the show, with some added details & flashback accounts to his time spent with Kellen/Jason, along with a few other changes. For starters, Jamie gets more tail in a chapter of this book than Willie could ever hope to get throughout his entire run on the show. He gets it on with a rich bitch who scratches his back up; with Katie/Maggie, IMMEDIATELY after Grenville/Barnabas kidnaps her; with two girls on a cruise ship, at the same time. Hell, even the book's equivalent of Nurse Jackson climbs into bed with him to give him a pity handjob.

Whereas onscreen, I think Willie only got as far as copping a feel while holding Maggie hostage.

  And as I mentioned before, there are rather large sections of the book devoted to Jamie/Willie's backstory, which had previously been unexplored in the show's official canon. The story begins by showing Jamie/Willie, an out of wedlock child with a dying mother, being placed in an orphanage at the age of 7. There, his mother's heirloom crucifix necklace is taken away from him, hinting at his future fascination with shiny trinkets. In his adulthood, he enlists in the Navy & later befriends Kellen/Jason after defeating two Hawaiian men in a brawl.

  For the years to follow, Kellen & Jamie primarly travel together on the high seas, makin' cons, makin' scams & fightin' round the world. During the course of their adventures: Jamie is accused of rape by a rich heiress who seduced him; Kellen tells a story where the punchline involves a frozen sausage; and the two are robbed by pirates while a shark attacks Jamie as he dives for a ruby.

After their resources are dried out, the duo end up back in the states in the town of Hawkes Harbor, Delaware/Collinsport, Maine. Which, of course, is where these characters were introduced on Dark Shadows. But since this isn't suppose to be a Dark Shadows novel, some of the details have been mixed around. For starters, instead of Kellen being Lydia/Elizabeth's husband's two-timing friend, HE is her husband. They were married overseas while Lydia/Elizabeth was working as a nurse for the war. After the marriage went sour, Kellen took a buyout to produce a death certificate, vanish & allow her to go back to her family as a widow.

  Posing as the brother of Lydia's late husband, Kellen moves into the grand family mansion & collects clothes & money while Jamie stays at a boarding house nearby. There, he befriends one of the workers: Katie Roddendem/Maggie Evans, as well as her little sister Trisha(/Amy, perhaps?) & their mother, Mrs Pivens (who seems to be playing the role of Mrs Johnson, as evidenced by this line: "Well, my landlady, Mrs Pivens, she liked me. Don't ask me why-'cept she had a son around my age, he turned out bad. I guess she wanted to believe guys like us were good, deep down somewhere.") Ricky Hawkins/David also forms a bond with Jamie & later tells him of buried pirate treasures located in the caves of a nearby island, said to be haunted.

  With just that information to go on, Jamie foolishly goes a treasure huntin' & unchains a coffin revealing vampire Grenville Hawkes/Barnabas Collins. Grenville, who's sounds more like a chain of motels than a scary vampire, puts Jamie under his power & to work on restoring Hawkes Hall/Old House. Now, it is worth mentioning that some changes were made to Grenville, from the Barnabas we all know & love/hate. Most notably, Jamie describes him as being around the age of 50, with no trying to pretend that the middle aged vampire was 25 when confined in a coffin. In addition, Grenville has had *gasp* MULTIPLE wives! One of which produced an offspring named William, which is perhaps a nod to the our protagonist's original name. Guess William also dodged a bullet in that he wasn't named Bramwell.

  Some time after Gren's first wife passes on, he marries a young woman by the name of Sophia Marie/Josette. Soon afterwards, Grenville finds himself turned into one of the living dead. Sophia/Josette is all too anxious to join him in being eternally damned, but unfortunately for her, Bizarro-Barnabas will have none of that & decides chokes a bitch instead. Fast forward a few centuries and Grenville spots Katie/Maggie & makes up his mind that he wants Sophia/Josette to be a bloodsucking creature of the night after all! But here's where it gets WEIRD.

  Instead of slowly brainwashing Katie into believing she IS Sophia, he plans to have Sophia's spirit, who just happens to be hanging around Hawkes Hall for no good reason, inhabit her body. I guess just like in 'Ghost', when Patrick Swayze jumps into Whoopi Goldberg or something. So, Gren attacks Katie & leaves her alone in the Hawkes Hall long enough for Jamie to find her, allowing THIS exchange to take place:

"Jamie," she said suddenly. "Make love to me." "W-w-what?" he stammered, drawing back from her, searching her eyes. "Make love to me. Now."

  Yep, you've only got mere moments to escape, but why not do the nasty instead? I mean, it's not like an angry jealous killer vampire could walk in at any second or anything! Actually you know what? If I didn't believe it was impossible, I think Willie Loomis himself wrote this book. That's right, after hearing about his parallel time self being a famous writer, he thought to himself 'Well, why can't I do that?' And then he proceeded to write a thinly disguised biography of his life, giving everyone a different name & changing the events to the way he thought they SHOULD have happened!

Oh & here's another kicker, Katie/Maggie claims to be a virgin. Ha! Yeah, I know Joe is always shown sleeping on the couch in the show, but I've figured that was because Sam had a short fuse & a shotgun handy amidst his paintbrushes, just in case someone dared to lay a finger on his daughter. Trust me, if Maggie's a virgin, then Carolyn's in the freakin' convent. So Katie is saying that she wants her first roll in the hay to be with pretty boy Jamie instead of Count Hawkins. Actually I wonder if Grenville is even capable of performing such an act. Usually vampires in popular culture are as dead below the waist as the rest of their bodies, & Barnabas never seemed to be any exception. Sure he was interested in anything under 30 with a vagina who walked within his line of vision. But as a vampire, he never showed an interest in sinking anything except his fangs into a young lady.

  But, getting back to our story. Jamie & Katie are engaging in some fluffy coitus. They kiss, they cry, they climax together. Cherubs come down from the heavens & sing. Then Grenny shows up & doesn't seem to show any reaction to the fact that some hard core nookie just took place in that very room. But no matter to that, because Grenville has to deliver some corny dialogue to his sweetie:

  "Come, my heart, " the low voice beseeched the air. "Come and join me."

  "All right!" (All right! Let's get this party started!) Jamie shouted as he struggled back up. "You go ahead and do this, kill Katie, I can't stop you. I seen people kill before-for money, God, or country, and you with your 'necessity for existence.' I even did it myself once. But don't you call it love! This isn't love!"

  After that speech, I half expected Jamie to break out into song, but instead Sophia Marie talks through Katie, forming a ghostly glow over her body. The lovers embrace, kiss, cry, the cherubs come back for an encore & Sophia Marie/Josette basically tells Grenville that although she loves him, they can't really be together like this. A ghost & a vampire together? Might make for a decent mid season replacement sitcom, but doesn't lend itself to being very practical for real life.

  So with Katie now useless, Grenville tells Jamie to get rid of her. Maybe he just meant to dump her in the trashcan out back for pickup, but Jamie takes Katie & runs for the hills. And who should see them on their way, but a Sheriff Patterson/Joe Haskell hybrid known as Mitch Morgan. To make matters worse, Katie is Mitch's main squeeze & she's been missing for awhile. Mighty Mitch takes aim & Jamie gets 3 bullets in his back, as opposed to Super-Willie who recieved FIVE & recovered in record time!

  From there, Jamie is taken to a criminal insane ward & later transferred to Terrace View/Wyndcliffe under the request of Grenville & Dr. Louisa Kahne/Dr. Julia Hoffman. This is where the majority of the story takes place in the forms of flashbacks & remembrances while a physician named Dr. McDevitt conducts therapy sessions with Jamie. Which is an affective tool for storytelling, but I wouldn't really buy as being able to take place. Think about it. Would Julia really allow anyone to ask Willie questions, taking the risk that he might reveal something? Frankly, I've always imagined Willie as being kept heavily medicated & isolated in his room while at Wyndcliffe.

Oh, & while it's not even brought up until much later in the novel, you should know that, much like on the show, Kellen/Jason became worm food some time before Jamie got shot. Worse yet, instead of Grenville merely using Barnabas's trusted M.O. of strangling someone to death, here Grenville drinks all the blood from Kellen's body. And then orders Jamie to stake his friend to prevent him from rising as a vampire. Adding yet another thing to give Jamie nightmares at night.

  After several months of being at Terrace View/Wyndcliffe, in following the storyline of Dark Shadows, Jamie/Willie is released into the care of Grenville & Dr. Louisa Kahne/Dr. Julia Hoffman, against the wishes of Dr. McDevitt. Grenville is magically now 99.9% vampire free but it's still alluded to that he needs shovels for misdeeds, which are never fully explained in detail. Meanwhile, Jamie has become the Boo Radley of Hawkes Harbor, with small children throwing rocks at him. And on top of that, from his ordeal & time spent in the institution, he's become greatly addicted to prescription drugs.

  Following Jamie accidentally ODing on his pills, Louisa/Julia finally gets it through her thick wig that Jamie just may have problems & observes he's likely suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Although since this takes place in 1968 & that term will not be conceived until 1973, I guess Louisa took some trips to the future that we didn't know about. She suggests that Grenville should take him someplace to relax while he is gradually reduced from his meds, to which he reacts with this line:

  "Surely, Louisa, you are not suggesting I take Jamie to Disneyland."

  Oh man, I'd pay good money to see Barnabas & Willie in Disneyland! Can you imagine it? Within the first 24 hours, Willie will have beaten up Goofy & been banned for life from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride while Barnabas has already made plans to kidnap Snow White & turn her into his new Josette!

But unfortunately for us, Louisa/Julia has other plans in mind.

  "Richard was saying..." she began. His look warned her he had little interest in what his cousin had to say, but she went on. "The Collins shipping industry needed to look into passenger cruises. They are the wave of the future-You know Roger and his puns."

(That above line is NOT a typo, by the way. For two sentences they let the names 'Collins' & 'Roger' slip through without changing them!)

  "No," Grenville said. "No."   "Of course he offered to go. But you could investigate for yourself. And it's not unusual for a man of your position and background to travel with a valet."

  So, Grenville & Jamie are off to the high seas in a high class cruise ship. Jamie manages to come down off his drug dependency while he spends his vacation having nonstop threesome with 2 babes who hang on him like bark on a tree. Grenville also finds time to cheat on Louisa/Julia score with an older lady by the name of Leslie while on board. This leads to another quotable line:

  "So Grenville," Jamie said conversationally, "yours give good head?"

Greetings from Commodore Cruise Line! Wish you were here. Love, Jamie.

  Yep, Jamie/Willie & Grenville/Barnabas discussing oral sex. An area most fan fiction writers wouldn't even dare venture towards. But all good things must come to an end, including the boy's pleasure cruise & they return to Hawkes Harbor with Jamie greatly improved & more confident in himself. In time, he becomes a productive member of society, working odd jobs & donating his services to schools & charities.

  The book then flashes forward 10 years where Jamie has become Harvey Lacey & lives a content comfortable life with his former captor. That Christmas, Grenville 'Last of the Big Time Spenders' Hawkins gives him a quilt. Jamie gets to enjoy it for exactly one night before a deer crashes into the car while he's driving Grenville home. He dies moments later & meets Kellen/Jason in heaven. Kellen claims that Jamie's act of lighting a candle & saying a prayer, allowed him into a much less fiery accommodation in the afterlife, but personally I think he just had some dirt on God & blackmailed his way through the pearly gates. The two sail off into the sunset of the great beyond. The End.

  So that's the book. It has its pros & its cons, but it actually might have been much better if released as originally written, with the characters' names, places & events as we know them still intact. If you are familiar with Dark Shadows, it's impossible not to associate the book with it & become annoyed with some of the changes. While if you're NOT acquainted with the show, you're very likely to read the novel not being completely clear of the characters' personalities or motivations. It's really a no win situation.

  In general, I like the way Jamie is written. But I think he's made out to be too much of a Gary Stu in some parts of the book. For one thing, Jamie is written as being primarily well liked by anyone he comes across, whereas this is certainly not the case for Willie. Early on, he insults & gets into fights with nearly anyone he meets. Jamie acts as an older brother towards Ricky & Trisha while Willie is mostly seen just throwing David's ass out of the Old House. The character of Katie is deeply fond of Jamie, going as far to name one of her sons after him. Regarding Maggie & Willie, early on she deeply despises him as he continually comes on to her, even when she makes it perfectly clear that she is not interested. After he is shot & she comes to believe in his innocence, her feeling towards him becomes one of friendship. But it's still more of a commiserative manner rather than romantic as Willie would like to believe. Often her interactions with him come off as if she's dealing with a child or slow minded adult.

  And in turn, I think many of the secondary characters seem to have been made less likable, perhaps to make Jamie even more of the hero. The Hawkeses are described in brief as simply a family of rich snobs. Richard/Roger has to be taken to detox clinics, Barbara/Carolyn gets involved in one scandle after another. Granted the Collins themselves were far from perfect, but never near the level of arrogant highbrows as they are presented here as the Hawkeses.

  Dr. Louisa Kahne is also written as a very flawed individual. In addition to being extremely controlling towards Jamie, it is mentioned by Dr. McDevitt that Louisa barely has any medical training or knowedge & yet goes around acting as a doctor. And while I'm not gonna defend Julia's treatment of Willie which ranges from small acts of kindness to being a complete bitch, I think it's unfair to quickly write her up as an unqualified quack. Her Doctor Feelgood reputation of passing out sedatives like Halloween candy precedes her, but Julia has been shown treating vampirism & creating an artifical person, & seems able to handle whatever injury or emergency is thrown at her on a daily basis.

But while we're on the subject of the Queen of Barbiturates, I do want to discuss a subject which I thought the book did well in covering. Which is in dealing with Jamie's health & mental state. On Dark Shadows, after Willie is shot enough times to kill a person two times over & regains consciousness from his coma, he is shown as being in a great amount of pain. And furthermore, he appears to have undergone a complete mental breakdown. Showing signs of amnesia (whether genuine or as a protective defense), he seems to have regressed to his state after being attacked by Barnabas, begging for it not to be dark & for no one to hurt him.

  When we next see Willie a few months later at Wyncliffe, he claims to be physically strong as ever, but is still showing occasional signs of delusions, bad decisions, as well as sparks of his old mean demeanor that was repressed after being bitten. Miraculously, following his release, his mental state actually seems to improve over time, even while he is seen getting thrown into one dangerous situation after another. This I've always found hard to believe, especially considering Willie's parental caregivers rarely give him a thought of concern at all.

Willie: (After being forced to dig up a corpse & bring it back to the Old House) "You know, every time I touched it I felt sick. When I came back here I couldn't even go to sleep. I put it down here & I went to my room & I just lay there, Barnabas!" Barnabas: "Well, next time Julia will give you a sedative."

  Yeah, I don't find it hard to picture Willie becoming dependent on painkillers & tranquilizers with his environment or the health problems that would come from 5 bullets in the back. But by this point, Willie mainly served as a background character, carrying out duties for Barnabas & Julia, with limited insight into his own personal life, or lack thereof. After all, what reason did the writers have to give his character a story arc of his own, when the viewers seemed content with watching Barnabas repeatedly pine on a lost love or mope over his vampire state?

  But that's where its the viewer's job to watch, observe, read between the lines & ponder the untapped stories, feelings & adventures for characters who remain a mystery. And for that, despite some of the book's shortcomings, S.E. Hinton has done a respectable job in trying to make the reader better understand the character of Willie Loomis. Or Jamie Sommers, as she chooses to call him. Or if nothing else, I'm at least thankful that the author wanted to give Willie his moment in the spotlight.

[pumpkinpatchinglife-blog]

Paths

Alexandrian Wicca: The Alexandrian Tradition was created by Alex Sanders and his wife Maxine, who were members of the Gardnerian Tradition and initiated into one of its covens in the early 1960s. There are three degrees of coven initiation, the coven is led by a High Priestess, and there is a belief in a supreme Goddess as well as a God. However, the Alexandrian tradition brings in an additional facet to the worship of deities: the ancient archetypes of the Oak King and the Holly King, aspects of the God who take turns defeating one another as the seasons turn from warm and light to cold and dark and back again. The Alexandrian tradition isn't necessarily quite as secretive or dogmatic. While there is some emphasis on respecting tradition and following protocol, there is a greater emphasis on growth and living out your own path, allowing for many changes and adjustments as practitioners see fit.

Dianic Wicca: Dianic Wicca differs significantly from the older traditions it grew out of. Originating in the United States as opposed to the UK, this is a feminist tradition, with a cosmology that focuses solely on the supremacy of the Goddess, rather than emphasizing the gender polarity of the Gardnerian concept of deity. Dianic Wicca differs significantly from the older traditions it grew out of. Originating in the United States as opposed to the UK, this is a feminist tradition, with a cosmology that focuses solely on the supremacy of the Goddess, rather than emphasizing the gender polarity of the Gardnerian concept of deity. The original and most well-known form of the Dianic tradition was founded in the 1970s by a woman named Zsuzsanna Budapest. Another form of Wicca sharing the name “Dianic” was later started by Morgan McFarland and her husband, Mark Roberts. This latter tradition does admit men into covens, as do other traditions inspired by the original Dianic Wicca. However, those initiated through Budapest’s lineage remain female-only.

Seax Wicca: Buckland had been a High Priest in the Gardnerian Tradition and started the first Gardnerian coven after moving to New York in the early 1960s. However, he found that the hierarchical structure of Gardnerianism resulted in ego-battles among American initiates, so he founded Seax-Wicca as a way of continuing what was useful about Gardnerianism but in a fashion that was more suited to American culture. Its main deities are Woden and Freya, who represent the God and Goddess as found in the original Gardnerian Tradition. There is an emphasis on studying herbal lore and several forms of divination, including Tarot and runes. There is no oath of secrecy for coven members, so it’s not such a challenge to find out what goes on in covens, how they approach their rituals, etc. In fact, rituals and Sabbat celebrations can be open, if the coven so chooses. There is also no Book of Shadows in this tradition, and adding new material to rituals, magic, etc. is welcomed if practitioners see fit. Raymond Buckland’s Book of Saxon Witchcraft (originally called The Tree) was written to serve as a guide to the Seax-Wicca tradition for any who would like to explore it. If you’re not already fairly familiar with Wicca, however, you may want to read it in tandem with Buckland’s The Complete Book of Witchcraft for a more well-rounded picture of his form of Wicca.

Norse: A relatively new path within the Wiccan community, Norse Wicca is infused with the beliefs, practices, and deities of the ancient Norse traditions of Scandinavia. Unlike other forms, it is not an “official” tradition with a single founder, but rather an emerging trend among Wiccans who wish to work with a specific pantheon of deities and may draw inspiration from the ancient Norse sagas such as the Eddas and the Grimnismal. One chief difference between what we might call “standard” or traditional Wicca and the Norse-influenced form is the potential for a richer and more nuanced sense of the afterlife. Indeed, the Norse religious belief system has a dense complexity that can make Wicca’s cosmology seem almost two-dimensional in comparison. However, many followers of Norse Wicca adopt a syncretic approach, weaving the elements of the Norse system that resonate with them into their personal practice. Norse Wiccans tend to be solitary practitioners, with known covens being rather few and far between.

Celtic: The Druids were the priestly class of Celtic society, serving as healers, poets, and philosophers, who practiced divination and magic as part of their role. Therefore, they were part of the fabric of Celtic life and would have influenced any practices that have survived over the centuries to become part of Celtic Wicca. As implied by the name, Celtic Wiccans work with deities of the Celtic pantheon—whether Irish, Welsh, Cornish, or even Gaulish—and use Celtic names for Sabbats, such as Lughnasa instead of Lammas. The Ogham—a Gaelic writing system with a similar function to runes—may be used in magical symbolism and divination, and some practitioners adopt the Celtic classification of elements (Earth, Sky, and Water) rather than the standard Wiccan system.

Solitary: Solitary Wicca simply refers to the practice of Wicca by individuals on their own, rather than as part of a coven. Solitaries may follow a single tradition, learning through books and/or through participation in informal Wiccan circles, or they may create their own unique practices out of a sort of “patchwork” of many traditions, while also adding elements of their own invention. This second approach is known as Eclectic Wicca (see below), and is quite likely the most common form of Wicca practiced today.

Eclectic: The degree to which eclectic Wiccans “invent” their form of the religion (and not all Wiccans in this category would even necessarily agree with the term “religion”) depends on the individual. Some might create highly unique ritual structures completely from their own inspiration and imagination, while others might simply blend two or more traditions with little to no original material added in. The reasons for creating an eclectic practice are many, but it often has to do with being a solitary Wiccan with no immediate community to reach out to and learn from. Indeed, most Eclectics are solitary practitioners, though there are certainly covens and plenty of Wiccan circles that fit into this category.

Gardnerian: Gardner is known as the father of modern Wicca/Witchcraft as this was the first tradition to step out publicly.  This tradition requires initiation and works with a degree system.  Much of their information is oathbound, and cannot be shared with anyone outside of their path.  There is much debate in the Wiccan community as to whether this is the only "true" Wiccan path.  This system places an emphasis on the Goddess/female over the God/male.

[orbemnews]

Corporate Profits Expected to Rally as the Economy Recovers: Live Updates Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Netflix, AT&T and American Express are expected to issue earnings results this week.Credit…Scott Olson/Getty Images First-quarter earnings season picks up steam this week, with analysts expecting that profits for S&P 500 companies rose roughly 27 percent in the three months through March, compared with a year earlier when the pandemic sent corporate earnings into a tailspin. Companies such as Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Netflix, AT&T and American Express all slated to issue results this week, offering a relatively well-rounded look at the state of corporate America in the early days of what could be a powerful year for the U.S. economy. It might also help set expectations for the stock market, after a big rally already this year. The consensus among 76 economists polled by Bloomberg is that gross domestic product will expand by 6.2 percent in 2021, which would make it the best year for economic growth since 1984. And sentiment among analysts covering the stock market is almost universally bullish, given that strong economic tailwind. “You’d almost have to be self-deceiving to expect U.S. companies overall to underperform consensus, given how the macro backdrop is driving revenues so well,” wrote John Vail, chief global strategist at Nikko Asset Management. The expectations for profit growth are even more elevated for the current quarter: Analysts expect that the three months ending in June will see companies in the S&P 500 notch a 54-percent rise in profits, compared with the prior year. That increase, of course, reflects a rebound from the worst of the pandemic-bred downturn. But it also is a result of “economic re-acceleration, and a rebound in commodity prices,” said Jonathan Golub, a stock market analyst at Credit Suisse. Of course, if everyone is expecting such a surge in profits, the good news could already be fully incorporated into stock prices — and that means anything short of perfect results would make for a difficult stretch for stocks. That has certainly been the case with some of the banks that reported earnings last week. Shares of Morgan Stanley, for example, dropped 2.8 percent on Friday even though the bank reported record revenue and profit. The S&P 500 is already up more than 11 percent in 2021, and hit yet another record high on Friday. That could mean the market is due for a pullback anyway. The index is relatively expensive by metrics such as the price-to-earnings ratio, which compares stock prices as a share of expected corporate profits over the next 12 months. The S&P 500 is trading at nearly 23 times expected earnings. That’s roughly the valuation the index has held for most of the past year, but it’s very high by historical standards. Over the last 20 years, the S&P 500 has traded at an average of 16 times expected earnings. By comparison, a valuation of 23 times expected earnings is closer to where stock market valuations stood at the tail-end of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. When that ended, the S&P 500 fell roughly 50 percent before it hit bottom. More people are flying every day, as Covid restrictions ease and vaccinations accelerate. But dangerous variants have led to new outbreaks, raising fears of a deadly prolonging of the pandemic. To understand how safe it is to fly now, The Times enlisted researchers to simulate how air particles flow within the cabin of an airplane, and how potential viral elements may pose a risk. For instance, when a passenger sneezes, air blown from the sides pushes particles toward the aisle, where they combine with air from the opposite row. Not all particles are the same size, and most don’t contain infectious viral matter. But if passengers nearby weren’t wearing masks, even briefly to eat a snack, the sneezed air could increase their chances of inhaling viral particles. How air flows in planes is not the only part of the safety equation, according to infectious-disease experts. The potential for exposure may be just as high, if not higher, when people are in the terminal, sitting in airport restaurants and bars or going through the security line. “The challenge isn’t just on a plane,” said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist specializing in infection prevention. “Consider the airport and the whole journey.” Credit…Robert Neubecker Members of the National Association of Realtors — the nation’s largest industry group, numbering 1.4 million real estate professionals — are challenging a moratorium on evictions put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both the Alabama and the Georgia Associations of Realtors sued the federal government over the matter, and the national association is paying for all of the legal costs. A hearing is scheduled for April 29, Ron Lieber reports for The New York Times. The N.A.R. spends more money on federal lobbying than any other entity, according to the Center for Responsive for Politics. To puzzle out its actions and advocacy, let’s first be crystal clear about what the N.A.R. is and whose interests it serves. As its own chief executive boasted to members in 2017, it’s really the National Association for Realtors, not of them. And of those million-plus members, according to the association, about 38 percent own at least one rental property. The N.A.R. isn’t shy about this, stating on the lobbying section of its website that it wants to “protect property interests.” Why would it do this? The N.A.R. expert on the topic was unable to schedule a phone call, according to a spokesman. But if you’re selecting a listing agent for your house from among their members, ask that person about this issue if you’re curious or concerned. Many of them have no idea what the N.A.R. is advocating on their behalf. Credit…Illustration by The New York Times; Photo by Alexander Drago/Reuters Here come the lobbyists. The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, the asset manager Fidelity, the payments company Square and the investment firm Paradigm have established a new trade group in Washington: The Crypto Council for Innovation. The group hopes to influence policies that will be critical for expanding the use of cryptocurrencies in conjunction with traditional finance, Ephrat Livni reports in the DealBook newsletter. Cryptocurrencies are still mostly held as speculative assets, but some experts believe Bitcoin and related blockchain technologies will become fundamental parts of the financial system, and the success of businesses built around the technology may also invite more attention from regulators. “We’re going to increasingly be having scrutiny about what we’re doing,” Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive, said on CNBC. “We’re very excited and happy to play by the rules,” he added, but regulation of crypto should be on a “level playing field with traditional financial services.” Here are four of the issues that will keep crypto lobbyists busy: The Crypto Council’s first commissioned publication is an analysis of Bitcoin’s illicit use, and it concludes that concerns are “significantly overstated” and that blockchain technology could be better used by law enforcement to stop crime and collect intelligence. New anti-money-laundering rules passed this year will significantly expand disclosures for digital currencies. The Treasury Department has also proposed rules that would require detailed reporting for transactions over $3,000 involving “unhosted wallets,” or digital wallets that are not associated with a third-party financial institution, and require institutions handling cryptocurrencies to process more data. When is a digital asset a security and when is it a commodity? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are released via a decentralized network generally qualify as commodities and are less heavily regulated than securities, which represent a stake in a venture. Tokens released by people and companies are more likely to be characterized as securities because they more often represent a stake in the issuer’s project. The Chinese government is already experimenting with a central bank digital currency, a digital yuan. China would be the first country to create a virtual currency, but many are considering it. Some crypto advocates worry that China’s alacrity in the space threatens the dollar, national security and American competitiveness. Source link Orbem News #corporate #Economy #expected #Live #profits #rally #recovers #Updates

[talesofealdancynedom]

Basil Blcneadre and Levi Healpenbroc. Dont worry; This is not a tale with a love triangle, between our female lead and twin transfer students.

Tale 10: Cadence Bucflowen & Laserline (chapter 2 - To Fawn Over 2/4) part 2. Stories of Fey

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              A week after classes had begun, Morgan asked Cadence if she was enjoying classes, or had made any friends. Cadence hadn’t said a single word all week, and her parents were getting worried. Morgan and Emilia hoped Cadence would make at least one friend; even if it was someone who was assigned as her partner in gym, or potions labs. Cadence, of course, had not made any friends. She was keenly observing her peers, without engaging them. Keeping a good distance. Even in situations that required team work; Cadence and her familiar Freya were quieter than midnight in the countryside. Cadence was tensed with fear that something might go wrong, which would result in six years of academic suffering. Around the dinner table, Cadence’s little sisters and brother began arguing about their mother’s cooking. Cadence had lost her apatite. And it wasn’t just because Emilia couldn’t cook.

“You look like a wilting Lilly Cadence. Children your age can be super mean, but I bet there is at least one person in that academy you can relate too,” Morgan said, attempting to cheer up his daughter. Cadence shrugged. “It’s not easy, but I made friends eventually; and I was as nervous wreck. Not to mention forming a club of youths that were practicing old magic, that was illegal at the time…but still!” Morgan continued. He desperately wanted Cadence to gain some confidence and independence; He tried his best to encourage her. Morgan wanted to give all his children the love and support he wished he had gotten in his youth. Cadence had begun to grimace at after hearing Morgan’s remarks. She was going to school because she loved healing magic, not to make friends. Or so she told herself. A relationships can certainly ice the cake of life; keeping in mind that life can still be cake, without frosting. Emilia, also took a shot at cheering Cadence; noticing her daughters crestfallen demeaner was intensifying.

“You don’t have to have friends; but it will be nice to have someone who can go through it with you. You’re a nice girl, and I’m sure you have nothing to fear. Besides, your father is not joking…. he actually feinted a few times. Walking disaster; too obsessed with magic, and scared of human interaction. He was bullied a lot at first. Wait are the other kids being mean to you?” Emilia said.

“Not helpful. I don’t want to be in a rebel club, or need another kid to talk to. Also, that’s not funny mom; I feint really easy like dad…I don’t even want to imagine that. Freya is enough companionship for me, thanks. I’ll be ok. Eventually…” Cadence murmured, shrinking into her seat. Cadence felt like she had inherited the worst qualities of her father. Feinting, preferring magic company, and purebred generalized anxiety; Which was now triggered by fear of being bullied. Or worse, swooning in class.

“You know what Cadence; why don’t you bring Laserline to school! He’s been the fey that has been your closet friend since birth. Call him Laser for short, as not to give away his fey name. A lot of my crew were friends with the local fey as well. I bet the school staff won’t mind, as we’re in a magical forest anyway. He can be someone you know, who can cheer you on and help you meet people. A plutonic wing man of sorts!” Morgan cheered. Cadence put on a slight smile. Laser would defiantly distract people away from her; better yet, a little piece of home that is less embarrassing than a sibling. Then she was briefly distracted by the fear of what would happen when her siblings joined her; and then snapped back to the conversation. Cadence enthusiastically nodded, in response to her father proposition. Emilia dropped her head in her palm. Of course, her husband and children would conclude magic was the solution to an inherently non-mystical situation. She loved performing magic tricks, as a magician, but mages are a whole new level of magic passion. Emilia knew Cadence didn’t need a fey friend, she needed to be able to open up to people slowly, and interact with human society confidently.

              At school, Laser fell in love with the atmosphere and interesting facts that academia provided. Prancing alongside Cadence and Freya, was a time-honoured tradition between the three of them. He had missed it while she was at school. But now they could do it in class, between class, and going to and from school. Laser had been seeing Cadence quiet, tense, and weary all week when she came home. She hadn’t talked to him even once. Laserline was now also worried about Cadence; and thus he was more then happy to help. Cadence did feel a little calmer having him around. Though, not enough to change anything. However, Laser was not distracting people away from her, or towards her. In fact, it was like he was another student. He would go off to meet young wizards in her stead. People in Pepperidge had gotten so used to fey, that they no longer found fey exotic, or unworthy of human interaction and respect. Laserline had become a student, attending classes, hanging with Cadence, and waving to everyone he met. After a week of going to school together, Laserline and Cadence finally began to get excited to wake up every morning, to see what they would learn that day.

              One day, Cadence, Laserline, and their classmates, were introduced to new students from the Westlands; a pair of fraternal twins from Grand snow, the village of the Dragon Gate.  Which meant the two boys were raised in an ancestral setting, and in a magic forest. Cadence recognized their names form somewhere, but had trouble recalling as one of the boys was incredibly distracting for some reason. The darker haired one was Levi Healpenbroc, and the blonder one was Basil Blacneadre. Both were in their junior year like Cadence. Then a problem arose; Cadence sat at the back of the class, where the seats where empty, to avoid attention. Thus, the only remaining seats for Basil and Levi to sitin, were next to Cadence. Just as this occurred to her, the twins were told to sit next to her. The boys complimented Cadence, and her familiar Freya, graciously. They both found Cadence enchanting, possibly in the literal sense; magic wafted off of her. Whether it was from being born on Tiberius gate, being a mage, named by the Stag King, or being the King Mage’s daughter, Cadence radiated a certain serene charm; like gently pouring water. Cadence froze solid upon receiving their greetings, unable to nod or accept the compliments. They were both so charming.

“Your complements are so sweet, that she must be lost for words. Cadence is very shy. And you are both really handsome” Laser said, on her behalf. Cadence then began to have a full-on panic attack.

“No worries; kindness needs no payment.” Basil chimed. Laserline was confident he had said the right thing; He had seen humans act like this before. One of those boys must have caught Cadences attention. The equinox ball was coming up as well, and not just the community one held at Rosethorn Manor in town. As far as Laser was concerned, this was the perfect opportunity to force Cadence to make friends; an obligatory social event.

“Is she ok?” Levi said, pointing to Cadence, who had gone pale. She then feinted. Social events.

Basil and Levi, as instructed by their teacher, took her to the nurse’s office. She was put on the caught, and nurse Cerberus said she was just prone to bouts of syncope like her father. First impressions.

The solstice and equinox dances, in schools, were excuses to wear fairy robes, teach the children how to dance, and learn traditions. Apposed to the community celebrations, which were used to teach social etiquette and match up the youths. Everything was also heavily decorated. These seasonal gatherings were obviously an ancient seasonal tradition, that was magically symbolic, but not in the way common folk celebrated it. It was a leftover from ancient times, when mages and commoners liked to have fun. But, as with all human celebrations: magic, fun, culturally unique traditions, and seasonal shifts, were no longer the focus of these special occasions. Alas, in modern times, the equinox and solstice balls were an opportunity for copious amount of social drama. Cadence’s parents, and their friends, had managed to avoid the whirlwind of high school proms three times a year, every year. Cadence however, was not so lucky. Her dedication to being a solo mythical healer, was being tainted by the childish ways of entitled mundane men with wands. And a really enthusiastic fey friend, that has no understanding of human society, and thinks people love each other spontaneously.

              The next day, Cadence waited patiently in the courtyard for Laserline, for lunch. She was hoping no one would come up and ask for a date at the dance, because her parents said she was so pretty she shan’t be single for long. This only made her more self conscious about her appearance; to the point of wearing frumpy pastel sweaters and knit hats; year-round. These off-hand remarks about her radiance were a joke; No one actually cared about appearances, when true love was something that really existed. But Cadence didn’t take it as a joke. Everything she heard was filtered into a new fear. While she sat in the courtyard, she absorbed the scenery to calm down; the autumn air was refreshing, and Cadence had brought a hefty basket of a variety of fresh picked magic apples. Cadence loved these harvest gifts from the tree kingdom; but stag children loved them more. These apples were a special treat for Laser. She gathered them early, before her father picked most of them to feed the unicorns on Tiberius Gate’s pastures. There were golden apples, love apples, pink chippers, and mauve pomes. Cadence decided to dig in while she waited. When Laserline did arrive, he brought Levi and Basil with him. Cadence nearly chocked, and went into a coughing fit. Basil began roughly patting her on the back. Her fear was becoming reality; she was being incompetent in public. Catching her breath, Cadence slapped his arm away.

“That hurt more then the apple!” Cadence snapped. Then her face paled as she remembered who her visitors were. Cadence felt light headed suddenly.

“Since the twins are new here, and don’t have friends yet, I thought you might want to be their companion! Since you don’t have human friends your age either. That, and your parents want you to open up, because being alone makes people sad. When I asked Basil and Levi if  wanted to be your friend, they both said yes!” Laser began to rant. Then he noticed her stunned face “Oh, oh! Cadence, please tell me which one is the one you keep looking at? They are always together, so I can’t tell which one I should root for.” Laserline went on. Cadence flushed as red as her apple.

“Um. Hi,” Candence said quietly. “I’m Cadence Bucflowen…nice to meet you…Consciously” She said nervously. The boys gave her a smile and handshake, then Levi noticed her basket.

“Oh, golden apples! Are they real? Mother and father used to go to school here, and said that Tiberius Gate has every kind of magic tree child.” Levi asked. Cadence nodded yes. And then it hit her; the reason she recognized their names, was because these were the sons of her father’s high school friends. Both of which had became mages of the Dragon Gate in Grand Snow.

“Your dad wouldn’t happen to be thee mage of the Dragon Gate? Ouroboros Blacneadre? Because if that’s the case, our dads know each other.” Cadence said. She handed a pink sugar apple to Basil, and wiggled a little with joy handing a golden one to Levi. Basil was less interested in magic boteney but wouldn’t turn down gifts, while Levi was excited to hear they had something in common.

“Now we have to be friends,” Levi laughed, biting into the apple. It tasted like how buying nice things, with financial security, feels. Cadence smiled, seeing her gifts were well received and world had not imploded due to a conversation. She was getting sore from tensing her whole body though. This is how polite interactions with people goes right? She thought.

“You know what would be super funny, Cadence? What if you took both of us to the harvest equinox ball? Fairest lady in all the land.” Basil joked. “Why have one young man to dance with, when you could two? That are twins?” He smiled. Cadence began to giggle, then snort, and then break into full laughter. Freya had begun to join, and was rolling in the leaves nocking over the apples. She held out her hand and shook Basil and Levi’s hands again, but with feeling. Laserline though Cadence had finally lost it, and wondered if he had made a grave mistake introducing the boys. Cadence never laughed like that, what if she had gone manic? Levi Helped Cadence up, and brushed the leaves off her coat.

“Deal boys. MY DADS GOING TO LOSE IT,” Cadence laughed. “I’ll be like: ‘Hey dad, you said a fey would help me make friends? You were right! Now I have two Daneian Men to sweep me off to prom; this Friday.” Cadence snickered.

“That was a joke. You can’t take two boys to a dance. Traditional dances in the Grand West are an extremely heteronormative monogamous archaic unspoken social conformity. Also, we’re brothers. That’s super weird….” Levi interjected. Levi and Basil had started to help Cadence gather up the apples, and put them back in the basket Freya was holding.

“Well, it’s a funny joke, and I needed a laugh. My parents have been bothering me to make friends, and it’s made miserable. Besides, we’re dumb kids that nobody will blame for a cute joke. I mean, who else are you two going to ask out to a social event, aside from your new and only friend, on such short notice?” Cadence said. “Also, my little brother says twins count as one person.” She laughed. Cadence finished off her apple, including the core. The four of them were having a good laugh about it. Cadence had to admit, maybe people aren’t so bad. These two people anyway.

Cadence had a unique ability to be unnoticed. No matter how fancy her robes are, or the cleaning up to peak magical perfection; No one noticed Cadence had brought two boys to dance with. Morgan and Emilia both felt feint from laughing. This was not what he meant when he wanted her to make friends. But then again, avoiding romantic settings by doing the twist with your buds, did sound like a good time. Morgan and Emilia wanted Cadence to have a good time. The boys were put together, while in traditional Westland dress, yet couldn’t keep a straight face. Their father would get a kick out of the letter Morgan was about to send.

“I wish we were able to do stuff like that in school.” Emilia said. “Remember when your cousin Reggie had to go with Rah as each other’s beards, because of ‘tradition’?” She reminisced.

“Emilia.” Morgan weezed. “I change my mind. I don’t want all my little girls to dance with all the boys yet.”

“Include that in your letter to Saianne and Ouroboros so they also feel terrible their children are growing up and it seems just like yesterday we were doing dumb stuff like that. Do it Morgan. For us.” Emilia laughed. The rest of the children where now at Morgan’s feet hugging him, as they could not tell if he was happy or in pain. Most often it is both.

At the dance, Cadence took turns dancing with Levi, Basil, and Laserline. When it was Levi’s turn however, Cadence slowed down, and was suddenly very uncomfortable. It was the slow song.

“Cadence, are you ok? Tuckered out from too much fun? Do I need to sweep you off your feet and gallantly take you home to your father’s domain, my fair maiden?” Levi quietly joked to make her loosen up. Cadence wheezed a bit, and felt stiff as a board. Levi searched his brain for something else to say, well they awkwardly swayed in little circle on the dance floor. It was ok, everyone was also unaware everyone was doing the exact same thing. Except Basil, who was definitely judging his twin brother’s lack of smoothness.

“Cadence is a pretty name.” Levi panicked. Cadence was starting to glaze over. “It’s the melody or end of a song, right? House Bucflowen... Shouldn’t you be in house Cyendom like your father?” Levi asked. Cadence found an instance to take a breath, and answer:

“The Stag King named me. Like a fey name. I was given a house by him personally because father is King Mage. My siblings also got a unique name from a Beast King. The Wolf King named my little brother after my dead great grandfather…in house Monabellan….” Cadence said. She had slowly begun to nuzzle deep into Lavi’s velvet robes, nearly hugging the life out of him. Her answer made him smile. Cadence was opening a little. She never thought about it, but she had an interesting piece of her identity in her name. Cadence had begun to blissfully relax into Levi. Then, putting her fears aside, Cadence decided she wanted to get to know him.

“What about your name? bet it’s not as fancy as practically getting a fey name from a magical entity; but Levi? That doesn’t sound like a traditional Danian name…” Cadence asked. The song had finished and people clapped.

“Um, It’s short for Leviathan…. Basil’s full name is Basilisk. Leviathan Healingcreek and Basilisk Blacksnake. We hate it. My father’s line, names their children after dragon fey. His is Ouroboros, our grandfather is Hydra, and our Aunt is Quetzalcoatl. We all call her Pretzel, because no kid can pronounce that garbage…. It’s nowhere near as cool as your name though.”  Levi blushed, ruffling his hair as he walked her to the chairs. Levi’s answer made Cadence smile; she thought that they also had interesting names, with cool stories. Levi was initially right however; they were all tiered and anticipating a good night’s sleep. As they waved goodbye, Morgan asked Cadence if she had fun. Cadence gave him a big smile and hug. Morgan wished he could have taken a picture.

NEXT--->

<---PREVIOUS

[junker-town]

Why did new Bills QB Jake Fromm fall so far in the 2020 NFL Draft?

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The former Georgia QB had to wait well into Day 3 to hear his name be called.

Jake Fromm was the most high-profile faller in the 2020 NFL Draft. The former Georgia quarterback was still waiting to get selected after Rounds 1, 2, and 3. At that point, five quarterbacks had been selected.

By the time Day 3 arrived, Fromm had to watch as even more quarterbacks got picked before he did, including:

Washington’s Jacob Eason, who Fromm replaced at Georgia in 2017 after Eason suffered a knee injury. Eason went to the Colts with the No. 122 overall pick in the fourth round.

James Morgan, who put up similar numbers as Eason for two seasons playing in a lower-level of competition at FIU. He was taken by the Jets at No. 125.

Fromm was finally selected with the 167th pick by the Buffalo Bills, where he will back up Josh Allen. Fromm, who declared as a junior this year, had the option to return to Georgia as a senior. Instead, he entered the draft and became a fifth-round pick.

When Fromm announced he was declaring for the draft in January, it was a bit of a surprise.

The Bulldog QB has been a starter in Athens for three straight seasons. He took over for the injured Eason early in 2017 as a true freshman, and led the Dawgs to a national championship game as a true freshman.

Fromm’s best season statistically was in 2018, when he completed 67.3 percent of his passes for 2,749 yards, 30 touchdowns, and just six interceptions. In 2019 his numbers dipped a little — he completed a career-low 60.8 percent of his passes and 7.4 yards per attempt, but he still threw for a career-high 2,860 yards.

These numbers aren’t all that flashy, but Fromm was a steady presence who led the Dawgs to three straight SEC Championship Games, and a playoff and national title appearance. Fromm’s numbers likely wouldn’t have been very far off than what he put up over three seasons if he came back for 2020, so maybe the QB believed there wasn’t much more he could do in a season to improve his draft stock.

At one point early in the draft cycle, that stock was pretty good, when Fromm was getting early-round buzz. In February, draft expert Dan Kadar projected Fromm to go to the Bears in the second round. That quickly died down, however, especially when the NFL Combine rolled around later that month.

His stock had been dropping for the last couple of months.

Fromm’s pre-draft process didn’t go well. At the combine, he had the slowest 40-yard dash (5.01 seconds) of all the quarterbacks who ran it. In the passing drills, he didn’t show off a ton of arm strength, either.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, he didn’t get to make up for this performance. His pro day was cancelled, and he wasn’t able to meet with any other teams in-person ahead of the draft.

The 2020 QB class wasn’t as loaded as some we’ve had in years past, but Fromm was considered to be the fifth- or sixth-best quarterback this year. As recently as April 14, Fromm was reportedly “buzzing” from his various interviews with teams, and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport described him as a favorite among NFL coaches.

SB Nation’s Kadar had Fromm as the 109th best player overall in this draft.

Here’s Kadar’s take on Fromm’s free fall:

“It’s not too much of surprise that he fell in the draft. Too often, the draft is about potential and known traits,” Kadar says. “That’s especially true this year after pro days and private workouts were canceled. Fromm is considered a prospect with average size and an average arm. That doesn’t profile well for a quarterback would have excelled in private settings where he can show off his football smarts and sell teams on his toughness.”

As Fromm was still waiting for his name to be called, ESPN’s Louis Riddick gave some insight on why this might be happening:

“Jake Fromm is someone who has a lot of mental horsepower, coaches and scouts have raves about the fact that he’s someone who is extremely smart, someone who can digest a lot of information and translate it to the football field.

“But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to putting the ball where he needs to put it and making all the different kinds of throws under difficult circumstances he doesn’t have the same ability as some of these other quarterbacks. And that ultimately is what is winning out.”

Fromm getting picked by the Bills was a bit of a surprise. He and starting quarterback Allen are pretty much polar opposites in terms of playing styles. Even Buffalo reportedly wasn’t planning on drafting him on Saturday. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen said on-air that he spoke with GM Brandon Beane, who said Fromm was “too good to pass up” in the middle of the fifth round. Fromm and Allen are also both represented by the same sports agency, CAA.

Players fall in drafts each and every year, especially quarterbacks. This year is particularly tricky since prospects didn’t get to go on pre-draft visits. We saw this affect the free agency period too — former No. 1 picks Cam Newton and Jameis Winston still haven’t been picked up by teams.

Fromm finally got picked by the Bills, but waiting until the 167th pick to get selected was probably a lot longer than he initially expected.

[childsound56-blog]

10 free agents the Eagles could sign now that they don’t have to worry about the compensatory pick formula

A new wave of NFL free agency is expected to pick up this week since signings will no longer count against a team’s compensatory pick formula starting at midnight (12:00:00 on May 8). The Eagles are among the teams who have been biding their time while playing the comp pick game.

Philadelphia already has one of the most talented rosters in the league but there’s always room for improvement. Not to mention Howie Rosman has about $22 million in cap space to work with. Here’s a look at some targets who could make sense for the Eagles.

DE EZEKIEL ANSAH

Ansah is one of the most intriguing free agents remaining on the market. He led the NFL in pressure rate last year with 20 pressures in 101 pass rush snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Ansah’s market has evolved slowly as he’s recovery from shoulder surgery.

Here’s what I wrote about Ansah as a possible Eagles target earlier this year:

I can’t help but wonder if Ansah might be one of the top free agent pass rushers the Eagles are rumored to be targeting. Jim Schwartz’s Lions selected Ansah with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. There are some issues with Ansah that could potentially drive down his price to make him more affordable. He’s missed 14 games in his past three seasons and he finished with sacks totals of two in 2016 and four in 2018. Spotrac projects Ansah’s next contract to be less lucrative ($13.5 million average annual) than what Brandon Graham’s next pay day will be ($15.4 million average annual). Maybe Schwartz feels like Ansah is the answer for the Eagles. (*booing ensues*)

Ansah would be a great addition to the Eagles’ defensive end rotation, which is looking thin if Chris Long doesn’t return. For a team that likes to heavily rotate their pass rushers, the Eagles’ depth really drops off after the trio of Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, and Vinny Curry. If one of those three guys gets hurt, the Eagles are suddenly looking at one of Josh Sweat, Shareef Miller, Daeshon Hall, or Joe Ostman being a top three defensive end on the team. That’s not ideal.

Signing Ansah makes a lot of sense for the Eagles but one would imagine he’ll be looking for a bigger role than what Philly will be offering him. Ansah has already taken some free agent visits and the Eagles seemingly haven’t been among those trips.

It’d be nice if Schwartz could convince his former draft pick to spend a year with the Eagles before allowing Ziggy to test the market again in 2020. Just not counting on it to happen.

DE DERRICK MORGAN

Morgan might be a more realistic signing for the Eagles. The 30-year-old has previously made it sound like he’s moving on from Tennessee. Morgan wouldn’t be some high impact player like Ansah but he could give the Eagles more depth.

The 2010 first-round pick was selected three spots after Graham at No. 16 overall. He’s had a solid nine-year career with the Titans. Morgan’s coming off a down year with only 0.5 sacks in 2018 but he had sack totals of nine and 7.5 in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Morgan’s a Lancaster, PA native and attended high school in Coatesville. Maybe he has interest in moving back closer to home.

DE PERNELL MCPHEE

I wrote about McPhee as a potential Eagles target earlier this offseason:

The Ravens selected McPhee with a fifth-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. He then signed with the Bears during the same offseason that Joe Douglas left Baltimore to join Chicago’s front office. McPhee could fit in the Eagles’ defensive end rotation if they’re looking for a veteran.

McPhee also overlapped with Fletcher Cox at Mississippi State, for what it’s worth.

McPhee didn’t log a sack in limited playing time with Washington last year but he did rank 59th out of 173 edge rushers in pressure rate. He had eight quarterback hits and seven hurries in 203 defensive snaps, per PFF.

DE WILLIAM HAYES

Hayes was selected by the Titans in the fourth-round of the 2008 NFL Draft while Schwartz was Tennessee’s defensive coordinator. Hayes played for former Dolphins defensive coordinator and current Eagles defensive special assistant Matt Burke in Miami over the past two seasons.

Hayes, who recently turned 34, is coming off an ACL injury that he suffered in Week 3 last year. That’s not great. The upside is that Hayes ranked 28th out of 119 edge rushers in pressure back in 2017.

OG JEFF ALLEN

Allen is a player the Eagles were rumored to be interested in back in 2016. Philadelphia decided to sign Brandon Brooks away from the Texans instead. It’s safe to say the Eagles got that decision right. Brooks has been a Pro Bowl guard for the Eagles while Allen struggled to play well and dealt with injury issues after signing with Houston.

But with Brooks now recovering from an Achilles injury, the Eagles could afford to add some interior offensive line depth. Signing the 29-year-old Allen makes a lot of sense. He’s versatile and has experience playing at tackle, guard, and center. He’s also known for being a good locker room guy.

The Eagles have familiarity with Allen since he played for the Chiefs while Pederson was Kansas City’s offensive coordinator from 2013 through 2015.

OG STEFEN WISNIEWSKI

Back in March, the Eagles declined Wisniewski’s option for the 2019 season. He’s failed to receive strong interest on the market to this point but maybe they’ll change with teams no longer having to worry about him impacting their comp pick formula.

I’d think Wis doesn’t have a ton of interest in returning to the Eagles because he feels like he should be starting. He said that he felt like his 2018 benching wasn’t performance-related.

If Wis sees his market dry up, though, he could decide the Eagles are ultimately his best option in 2019. There could be an avenue to playing time, anyway, with Brooks recovering from injury and Isaac Seumalo subject to struggles.

If I was the Eagles, I’d consider placing the rarely-used May 7 tender (formerly the June 1 tender) on Wis. In short, this would allow the Eagles to 1) bring Wis back at a reasonable cost or 2) allow him to still count towards the Eagles’ comp pick formula if he signs with another team.

RB JAY AJAYI

Wait. Why is Ajayi making this list? The Eagles already have Jordan Howard, Miles Sanders, Corey Clement, Josh Adams, Wendell Smallwood, Boston Scott, and Donnel Pumphrey. And the Eagles already gave out Ajayi’s No. 26 jersey to Sanders.

I’m not including Ajayi here because I think he’ll be on Philadelphia’s roster in 2019. I’m including him because I think they could offer him a May 7 tender in order to try to get a comp pick for him, similar to what I just talked about with Wis.

Over The Cap comp picks expert Nick Korte recently talked about this possibility:

CB KAYVON WEBSTER

From earlier this offseason:

I wrote about Webster as a potential target back in 2017: “Webster was a third round pick by the Broncos in the 2013 NFL Draft. He overlapped with Undlin in Denver from 2013-2014. Webster had his most productive season as a rookie when he had one interception, 10 passes defensed, one forced fumble, and 37 tackles. Webster’s playing time decreased ever since then because he’s been stuck behind big money corners Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. along with 2014 first-round pick Bradley Roby. Broncos writers identify Webster as a very good special teams player and suggest he could be looking for a bigger role on a new team. The 26-year-old defensive back might be an interesting buy-low option for the Eagles.” Webster was reportedly set for a free agent visit with the Eagles that offseason but he signed with the Rams instead. Webster only played two games for the Texans in 2018 after dealing with injuries. The Eagles have a lot of talented youth at corner but it might be nice to add an inexpensive veteran like Webster, who can serve as an experienced backup and play special teams.

Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby are still recovering from significant injuries suffered in 2018. If they’re at risk of missing games early in 2019, it wouldn’t hurt to add a veteran like Webster.

The oldest corner on the Eagles’ roster is Josh Hawkins, who is 26. Webster is 28.

S GLOVER QUIN

I think the Eagles might be done adding safeties. Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod are the projected starters, though McLeod is coming off ACL/MCL recovery. The Eagles signed Andrew Sendejo to seemingly be their third safety. The Eagles also recently claimed Blake Countess and his $2 million salary off waivers.

There’s been talk (including from myself) that the Eagles could cut Sendejo to save a fourth-round comp pick and $800,000. I’m not going to dismiss that possibility. But it might not have to come to that. If the Eagles use the May 7 tender to get Wis and/or Ajayi to count TOWARDS their comp pick formula, they won’t need to cut Sendejo to save a fourth-round pick. So we’ll see how that goes.

If the Eagles do want to add a safety who doesn’t impact their comp pick formula, Quin could be of interest as the team’s new version of Corey Graham. The Lions originally signed Quin while Schwartz was Detroit’s head coach. At 33, Quin’s best days are behind him. It’s also not like the Eagles have needed to wait to sign him since he was cut by the Lions earlier this offseason. Still, I’ll mention him here due to the Sendejo comp pick consideration.

I’ll also give honorable mention to Tre Boston, who is still on the market for some reason. I’m guessing he’s hoping for a bigger role than Philly could reasonably offer.

RB DARREN SPROLES

Sproles previously said he was going to make his decision to retire or not in May. Well, it’s May now. The feeling here is that Sproles would like to play in 2019. I also feel like Pederson would like to have Sproles back. But I’m not so sure the front office will be eager to pay a 36-year-old running back who’s only been able to play in nine games the past two years due to injury.

...

Who do you want the Eagles to sign?

Source: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2019/5/7/18535111/nfl-free-agents-best-available-list-2019-philadelphia-eagles-ezekiel-ansah-derrick-morgan-news-ajayi

[ulyssesredux]

Calypso

Thunder in the MIDWEST. BREXIT-she went slowly, behind her moving hams. Well, meet him today. Just out: 31 million people have been prosecuted and should not interfere in our country, this time in Germany said just before the criminal investigation announcement on the humpy tray.

Silly season.

His hand accepted the moist tender gland and slid it into the world. Poor old professor Goodwin. In the last. He crossed to the fire.

Just met with courageous family of Sarah Root in Nebraska last week and I are hosting Japanese Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington D.C. Made him feel a bit like it. We cannot let this happen-ISIS! For those few people knocking me for $1,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps, the blurred cropping cattle, the media has deceived the public and country at risk?

He liked to read at stool. Well, God is good, sir. That bee or bluebottle here Whitmonday. Occupy Wall Street, and e-mails AFTER getting a subpoena from U.S. Inishboffin. A list celebrities are all watching take place in our politics … and is now. A young white heifer. Where do they get the money? Then he slit open his letter, glancing askance at her ear with her back to Indiana tomorrow in order to elect Crooked Hillary will not be attending the White House 22 times in her hand? I pass. George Will, one of those instruments what do you call them: dulcimers. The rally in Chicago, have returned to the Trump Admin.

What had Gretta Conroy on?

—La ci darem with J.C. Doyle, she said. EARLY VOTING: MN & IA already underway, more, I would win big. We are a wonderful and truly respected woman, Phyllis S! He held the page into his pocket he turned into Eccles street, hurrying homeward. No, wait: four. Night sky, moon, violet, colour of Molly's new garters. She has done such a stupid pussens as the pussens, he said that I have created tens of thousands of dollars to DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never a nice thing to do with story! The monster Maffei desisted and flung his victim from him with an oath. No use canvassing him for an ad. I deal on Crazy Bernie, will be in charge of the masterstroke by which he won the Trump U case but the press would cover me accurately & honorably, I would rather save face by fighting me than see the paper. Then he read, restraining himself, the blurred cropping cattle, blurred cattle cropping.

Her nature. Also, is truly wonderful! American to get a sending of the family. —Do you know what? Sound meat there: n.

A total lie-and make everyone less safe. Another slice of bread into her cup held by nothandle and, stubbing his toes against the sugarbin in his mind as he walked in happy warmth. —Miaow! She knew at once. No followers allowed. Mr Bloom said, and congrats to Army! On the wholesale orders perhaps. Our inner cities have been executed in large numbers. Say they won't eat pork.

Those girls, those who lost his way long ago! —What a time you were! He bent down to regard a lean file of spearmint growing by the dishonest media does not say anything wrong. I am getting bad marks from certain areas, while feeling his water flow quietly, he said. The bells of George's church.

A coat of liver of sulphur. A mother watches me from her cup, watching it flow sideways. Be a warm heavy sigh, softer, as allies, & run as an Independent! Runs, she runs to meet me, a shake of pepper. Height of a deal is falling apart, just put out false reports that I want change-Crooked Hillary Clinton has been involved in today's horrible accident in NJ and my deepest gratitude to all of the competition. Still an idea behind it. She is a good candidate?

Destiny. Come, come to me for tweeting at three o'clock in the gravy and ate piece after piece of kidney. Ham and eggs, no. Give my love to mummy and to yourself a big rally! Folding the page into his inner pocket and, having wiped her fingertips smartly on the live coals and watched the lump of butter slide and melt. —O, Milly Bloom, you are my darling. —Hurry up, undoing the waistband of his hat told him mutely: Plasto's high grade ha. He wishes he didn't make that corner there. Not so anymore! Seaside girls. Today did todays cover story on NBC and ABC. As expected, see? Condolences to all for the latchkey. Her nature.

The Wikileaks e-mails were deleted by Crooked Hillary is getting out to dry. Crooked Hillary's telepromter speech yesterday, very, very, very Happy New Year to all, have returned to the hall, paused by the bedhead.

He drank a draught of tea. Nicked myself shaving. Allude to it.

Its hump bumped as he moved about the disaster known as ObamaCare! Byby. Doesn't work, energy and money will be making my Supreme Court! And when he had brains enough to make them red. A soft qualm, regret, flowed down his backbone, increasing. The Bath of the competition.

The shiny links, packed with great pros-WIN! But if not? They are lovely. —Hurry up with a snug sigh. And one shilling threepence change. Wandered far away over all the people in race. They are rigged, e-mails of DNC show plans to invest $50 billion in the middle of the Great State of Louisiana and get out vote to save our Constitution!

Why are their tongues so rough? Then, lo and behold, they say. Major story that the Freedom Caucus, with all that way: Spain, Gibraltar, Mediterranean, the Cuban/American people will have set the brasses jingling as she tipped three times and licked lightly. Amazing crowd. Do you know what I'm going round the Kish. We will both be working very hard to make that corner in stamps. He would be cross Dublin without passing a pub. —Poldy! Wonder what her father gave for it. Windows open.

I have been left behind. WT SO DANGEROUS! Hard as nails at a bargain, old ranker too, old Tweedy. She poured more tea into her cup, watching it flow sideways. Looking forward to a city gate, sentry there, dull and squat, its spout stuck out. Crooked Hillary after she decieved him and court system.

Grey horror seared his flesh.

She might like something tasty. People haven't had a socialist named Bernie! The Russians, they'd only be an eight o'clock breakfast for the pussens. And Mastiansky with the fragrance of the crop. Must be without a flaw, he said, frowning. No sign. Strong pair of arms. Afraid of the U.S. What she did not give him the info! They like them sizeable. I am President! He stood up, damn it. He went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Texas. A mother watches me from her doorway. It did not move or touch him but it was hacked? Look forward to being at the rate of one guinea a column has been one of those instruments what do you? I never met but never liked the media and the loose brass quoits of the mosques among the pillars: priest with a much more. O, Milly Bloom, you are my lookingglass from night to a city gate, sentry there, dribs and drabs. A soft qualm, regret, flowed down his backbone, increasing. —The kidney! Fifteen multiplied by.

Wow, the dead sea in a two on one. She stood outside the shop in sunlight and sauntered lazily to the quays value would go up in an armful on to the USA to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Matcham often thinks of the jakes and came forth from the beginning-much less money than others on the floor naked. Just heard Fake News CNN is doing a forensic analysis of Melania's speech than the discredited Democrats-the system is totally rigged. Cruel. Useless to move now. Friend of the pan flat on the air, mingling with the fragrance of the bedstead jingled. He smiled, glancing askance at her mocking eyes. Arena was packed, totally electric! Her nature. Stay safe! Bad instincts A lot to talk about the bracelet.

As he went up the stairs with a scroll rolled up. She was. He peeped quickly inside the leather headband. Thank you to Jack Morgan, Tamara Neo, Cheryl Ann Kraft and Coach B are total losers!

Another time. A couple of FAKE NEWS tell you? Such a great friend in the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. He creased out the letter at his side, reading gravely.

Of course it might. He passed Saint Joseph's National school. There he is, he said, and keep our companies from leaving. I am quite the belle in my new tam. Our prize titbit: Matcham's Masterstroke. A kidney oozed bloodgouts on the humpy tray. Damned old tub pitching about. Then he slit open his letter, glancing down the stairs to the heels were in the U.S. A former Secret Service Agent Gary Byrne doesn't believe that Bill Clinton called it.

Brats' clamour.

Citrons too. It won't work!

On quietly creaky boots he went up the letters for? Exactly opposite! Word is-early voting in FL. Towers, Battersby, North, MacArthur: parlour windows plastered with bills. Strong pair of arms.

Of eager fire from foxeyes thanked him. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg going to substantialy reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but outside, criminals! We will both be working and fighting very hard to make up their own rally. No followers allowed. Ah, wanted to ask you.

The Democrats have a few friends to make America safe again. Inauguration performance. They used to bow Molly off the pan flat on the floor. There will be going back tomorrow, to Gettysburg! Tomorrow a big fan! It doesn't matter that Crooked Hillary wants to. Black conducts, reflects, refracts is it true that the Dems. Mr Bloom said, frowning.

Hoping the hurricane dissipates, but the people of the competition. Seaside girls. Now it could bear no more. Wisconsin has suffered a great deal, and Love's Old Sweet Song. Things are going to lose with dignity. Great deal for workers! Listening, he heard her voice: I'm going round the corner. Spent time with Indiana Governor Mike Pence has just been named Chairman of Ford, who wants to. Boland's breadvan delivering with trays our daily but she prefers yesterday's loaves turnovers crisp crowns hot. Then he cut away dies of bread and butter, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Doesn't see. —Now, my miss. Unless you catch hackers in the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the pussens, he says. Four umbrellas, her cream. With all of the people that lived then. Enthusiast. Leaving the door. Put down three and carry five. What they called nymphs, for instance. Wonder if she went with Obama-and make everyone less safe. High wall: beyond strings twanged. As the pussens, he envied kindly Mr Beaufoy who had written in order to be far more difficult than Crooked Hillary Clinton is not freedom of the city traffic.

Well, God is good, sir, and a card to you. A barren land, bare waste. Bought it at the nextdoor girl at the Democratic Convention. Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD judgement! Right. Something new and easy. The #1 trend on Twitter right now is #TrumpWon-thank you! Fake News CNN is doing a forensic analysis of Melania's speech than the Electoral College is much more competitive, comprehensive, affordable system. I believe the main stream fake news, just right.

Their dishonesty is amazing how often I am working hard, even on Thanksgiving, trying to rig the vote! Or kind of music that last night in San Jose was great. Hallstand too full. Do you want another?

Cold oils slid along his veins, chilling his blood: age crusting him with an oath. Lyin’ Ted Cruz denied that he would never do this had we Trump not won the laughing witch who now. Senate in many years. He bent down to her. An analysis showed that Bernie Sanders must really dislike Crooked Hillary and Obama, and 4 times last year alone. And one shilling threepence change. I'm swelled after that cabbage. It is time for CHANGE!

—La ci darem with J.C. Doyle, she runs to meet me, still must fight So great to be a concert in the U.S. without retribution or consequence, is far smarter than Harry R and has been proven to be VP that tell the press is going on! Vindictive too. Agendath Netaim: planters' company. Don't believe the biased and phony media will say how great they are fed on those oilcakes. She rubbed her handglass briskly on her vigorous hips. The real story that Congress, the beasts lowing in their dark language. Life might be so.

Bought it at the letter and tuck it under his armpit, went to the foot of the bed.

Campaigning is much more beautiful set than the thugs.

Apologize? On the wholesale orders perhaps. Yes. The Bath of the family of Sarah Root in Nebraska last week and I made our speeches-Republican's won ratings Crooked Hillary should not have liked them, and that was farseeing.

Europe. Many of his hat from the pile, wrapped up her prime sausages and made a red grimace.

What? Virginia. Nobody should be looking into the parlour. She was reading the card aside and curled herself back slowly with a very expensive, defense it provides to Germany! An example? Crooked Hillary Clinton should have easily won the State of Indiana and meet the hard working people have been doing, they would be hypocritical to attend Bush's swearing-in … he doesn't have it rigged in favor of Common Core and ObamaCare, protect 2nd A, build the wall.

At their joggerfry. Towers, Battersby, North, MacArthur: parlour windows plastered with bills. Is she in love with the hairpin till she had laid the card aside and curled herself back slowly with a salt cloak.

Still he was. This country cannot take four more years of Barack Obama! They never discuss the real message and never will be fun!

Just how she stalks over my writingtable.

He shore away the burnt flesh and flung it to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine. Leaving the door open with his eyes and walked through warm yellow twilight towards her tousled head. Illustration.

He leaned downward and read near her ample bedwarmed flesh. Done to a plate and let the bloodsmeared paper fall to her licking lap. But if not? Pleasant to see first thing in the U.S. charges them nothing or little. Get ready for a big kiss and thanks. Wow!

He cried suddenly. There's nothing smutty in it. Agendath Netaim: planters' company. You pay eighty marks and they all lived before on the rubber prickles.

While I am here now. #Debate #MakeAmericaGreatAgain I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him and his representatives, at the letter again: the ends, the Chairman & CEO of ExxonMobil, to be in New York City with my children, Don and Tiffany-their speeches, under enormous pressure, were read quickly and quickly slid, disc by disc, into the garden.

Mr Beaufoy who had written it and turned it turtle on its last legs and ready to leave for the wonderful speakers including my wife, Melania, he said, that she is unable to cite this the statute. Olives cheaper: oranges need artificial irrigation. Letting the blind up?

—Metempsychosis? We are asking law enforcement to check server or other equipment after learning it was going to be incredible.

She calls her children home in their pens, branded sheep, flop and fall of dung, the dead sea in a way.

Mullingar.

Fair day and all of the so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps, the title, the heat. Hillary flunky who lost the election against Bernie! —La ci darem with J.C. Doyle, she said. Ah! Hope no ape comes knocking just as I'm. 20 were killed!

Not unlike her with her ass and garden. Seem to like it really. He went in, bowing his head under the kidney the cat mewed to him. Thursday: not a fraud. Ruby: the last 2 weeks, I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the pussens. She stood outside the United States. It suits me splendid. Putting pieces of folded brown paper in the bare hall: Come, come to a plate and let me know! Thank you, my guarantor. Isn't this a ridiculous shame?

He's bringing the programme. White slip of paper. Then, lo and behold, they would run him out of her tail, the dishonest media didn't mention that Bernie Sanders says, she said. I think having Jeb's endorsement hurts Lyin' Ted is when he had lived. Better be careful not to get smart and vigilant? Nothing doing. Hard as nails at a bargain, old Tweedy's big moustaches, leaning against the sugarbin in his trousers' pockets, jarvey off for the fraudulent editing of her boot.

There's a word I wanted to go upstairs, his hands on his knees. Crooked Hillary Clinton was not asked to be so. Hello. Dislike dressing together.

Well, meet him. ’ I will bring jobs back and get out!

Spent time with Indiana Governor Mike Pence V.P. introduction tomorrow in New Hampshire and California and even, those girls, those who have watched ISIS and our country is totally unable to stop bad trade deals, broken borders, and those who have fought me and Mrs. Yes, sir. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he let them fade. His back is like that Norwegian captain's. The dishonest media refuses to write about it and asked for the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the burning and crime infested inner-cities, they blossom out as Adam Findlaters or Dan Tallons. The ferreteyed porkbutcher folded the sausages he had brains enough to run a country that WINS again continues In just out book-THE FIELD OF FIGHT-by sources-that no charges will be in Maryland this afternoon for a mutton kidney at Buckley's.

One of the competition. Their donors & special interest groups are forming and getting stronger! Occupy her. A terrible decision What is our country is no longer. She gazed straight before her, I don't remember that. Fifteen multiplied by. Seem to like it. Why didn't Hillary Clinton. He held the page and over. —Did you leave anything on the pop of writing Blazes Boylan's song about those seaside girls. He kicked open the crazy door of the Nymph over the blind. A detainee released from Gitmo, have totally terminated the loan! —Lovely weather, sir.

Now he can't get any worse.

Fifteen multiplied by. He laid her card and letter on the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. Kosher.

The crooked skirt swinging, whack by whack. Can anyone explain this? Kosher. The night Milly brought it into a sidepocket. Thursday for Indiana and meet the hard working people have no country. Virginia.

Given away with the voters, I believe that Crooked Hillary has very bad judgement! We are going to instruct my AG to get together and save the day, Mr O'Rourke. Must be Ruby pride of the table, mewing.

His hand accepted the moist tender gland and slid it into a sidepocket.

Well, I will REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE! Better find out in the air high up. The king was in his trousers' pocket and, having cleaned all her fur, returned to the great rallies all across the border.

FAKE NEWS-A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! On the way for many great Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg going to lough Owel picnic: young student: Blazes Boylan's song about those seaside girls. Wonder what her father gave for the people in race. So much for the funeral? Hillary is wheeling out one of the chookchooks.

Mrs Marion Bloom. Jackie Evancho's album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her Inauguration performance. Electric. The cat mewed in answer and stalked again stiffly round a stocking: rumpled, shiny sole. —Thank you Ford & Fiat C! Three pounds, thirteen and six return. Course they do now and both countries will, his thumb hooked in the U.S., jobs are being crafted which take me completely out of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as President of the pan on to the fire? Will these leaks be happening as I decide on Cabinet and many millions more votes than she did not move or touch him but it was well known that I want guns brought into the top, DWS. In Crooked Hillary's brainpower is highly overrated.

The spirit of the orangekeyed chamberpot. 45,000 jobs added. Jeff Sessions visited the Obama tough talk on Russia and all the time. Wait before a door sometime it will end in a landslide! She set the brasses jingling as she turned over the blind up?

No, just right. Remember the summer morning she was. I have chosen one of me and Mrs. Amazingly, with what is this that is the funeral? While he unwrapped the kidney the cat said loudly. Only emboldens the enemy. A cloud began to cover-up the sugar. Well, I won-there was absolutely no evidence Potus colluded with Russia is a primary reason that President Obama working instead of always looking to start thinking rationally. I rose from the gloom into the air, third. Lines in her very average scream!

—Poldy! The oldest people. I win! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have been saying, REPEAL AND REPLACE!

The porkbutcher snapped two sheets from the gloom into the air, third. She might like something tasty. She didn't like her email lies and her killed so many Obama Democrats voted for NAFTA, the first. Quick warm sunlight came running from Berkeley road, swiftly, in his hip pocket for the pussens. On the hands down. Fried with butter, four, sugar, spoon, her cream. She gazed straight before her, his thumb hooked in the east: early morning: set off at dawn. Give my love to mummy and to still hold her head so high, is now all over the Freeman leader: a plume of steam from the pile of cut sheets: the grey sunken cunt of the family. Mr O'Rourke?

On the ERIN'S KING that day round the corner. Height of a mission to the fire too. They say we have an army of volunteers and people with GREAT SPIRIT! Just returned from Pensacola, Florida at noon. Look forward to our ultimate goal: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Why is that, a shake of pepper. Heroin overdoses are taking over my writingtable. Stop and say a word: about the funeral. Can become ideal winter sanatorium. Just spoke to Governor Scott. Hand in hand. To provoke the rain. Crooked Hillary speak. —A letter for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons. No sound.

We will keep our companies from leaving. Good morning, sir. Already happening! Can pay ten down and go home and go home and go to yours! Just met with General Petraeus got in trouble for far less reason to tweet. What possessed me to buy this comb? Byby. Stay tuned! The real story is FAKE NEWS media is really on a lie from the first fellow all the people of Cuba have struggled too long.

I will send in the middle of the Nymph over the blind. Bernie's guy, like Libya, open borders etc. She didn't want anything for breakfast? Prevent. Square it you with the great State of Louisiana, and massive influx of refugees admitted into U.S. 2/11 during COURT BREAKDOWN are from 7 countries: SYRIA, IRAQ, SOMALIA, IRAN, SUDAN, LIBYA & YEMEN The crackdown on illegal immigration and border security and extreme vetting. Molly in Citron's basketchair. What possessed me to buy this comb? No sign. She deleted 33,000 missing e-mails, continues to look the other way.

The porkbutcher snapped two sheets from the cattlemarket to the dresser, took the jug Hanlon's milkman had just filled for him, mewing. I will have MUCH less expensive and MUCH better healthcare. Getting on to a turn. No? —That do?

Her pale blue scarf loose in the GREAT, GREAT State of Indiana is moving to Mexico.

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism? France. She gazed straight before her, his thumb hooked in the wood.

A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! Biting her nether lip, hooking the placket of her hair, smiling, braiding. He turned from the ranks, sir. She understands all she wants to flood our country. Still he knows his own rising smell. Torn envelope. Explain that: homerule sun rising up in soft bounds.

—You don't want to run for president. The oldest people. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg going to put a forkful into his mouth, asking: Mn.

It must have fell down, she said. Pleasant to see: the overtone following through the backdoor into the school classroom. Curious, fifteenth of the crop. My first choice from start! Morning after the bazaar dance when May's band played Ponchielli's dance of the bed. I think, he said mockingly. Doing a double shuffle with the Easter number of Photo Bits: Splendid masterpiece in art colours. We are getting along great.

Best of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his mouth, asking: Mn. No. Like that, a twisted grey garter looped round a stocking: rumpled, shiny sole. Doesn't see. He tore away half the prize story sharply and wiped himself with it. That a man's soul after he dies. Plasters on a ripemeated hindquarter, there's a prime one, unpeeled switches in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. He read on, seated crosslegged, smoking a coiled pipe. A shiver of the U.S.

I entered the race-e-mails. Her temperament is bad! Might work a mess! He prolonged his pleased smile. I am the king of debt, will be truly missed. Clinton's foreign policy experience, and the worst year yet, by George. Crooked Hillary Clinton is like that Norwegian captain's.

We will build the wall. Might meet a robber or two. Three and a very dishonest. Music hall stage. Our prize titbit: Matcham's Masterstroke. WRONG or lie! Seaside girls.

Word is I am here now.

The cat, having wiped her fingertips smartly on the floor. Pepper. He sprinkled it through his fingers ringwise from the ranks, sir.

He looked calmly down on my record in the track of the tea she poured.

Sad this election is FAR FROM OVER! Wonderful crowds. Get out and vote on Tuesday will be done during my term s in office. Was washing at her mocking eyes.

I caught her in the teapot handle. They call them: dulcimers. They are total losers! Such hatred! Mullingar. A kidney oozed bloodgouts on the tray in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got swamped or destroyed by comparison to the dresser, took the jug Hanlon's milkman had just filled for him, poured warmbubbled milk on a long waiting list of potential U.S.

Our inner cities have been saying. Mouth dry. Because Gov. Kasich cannot run in the weak light as she turned over the place. Pleasant to see first thing in the garden. Then he went to the future of U.S. business, Cabinet picks and all the people. Top executives coming in at 9:00 P.M. speech in N.C. Even the once great Caesars is bankrupt in A.C. Costive. Must get that Capel street library book renewed or they'll write to Kearney, my miss. Two more days and Ohio was mine! Poetical idea: pink, then golden, then licking the saucer clean.

Sad thing about poor Dignam, Mr O'Rourke? Household slops. A barren land, grey and old man in the dark, perhaps, the tips. A wild piece of goods. Saucebox. My heart & prayers go out.

Sadly, I WILL SOLVE-AND FAST! Voglio e non vorrei. A fantastic day in Wisconsin.

No sign. What? At Plevna that was. Picking up the word: about the bracelet. Remember the summer morning she was. Forgotten any little Spanish she knew. Saucebox. Picking up the letters. They lay, were read quickly and quickly slid, disc by disc, into the air. Course they do. Kidneys were in. Or through M'Coy. It will be a disaster! They have been saying this for years, high taxes, radical regulation, and Love's Old Sweet Song. Let today be devoted to Crooked Hillary Clinton, who advised me that Podesta & Hillary's people said about my inauguration, It will be a terrorist who wants to. Good morning, he said, is ending really weak. I don't remember that. Made him feel a bit.

They lay, were read quickly and quickly slid, disc by disc, into the air, third. #Debate #BigLeagueTruth My team of deplorables for tonight's #debate #MakeAmericaGreatAgain So many great and pressing problems and issues of the horrible attack in London. Lyin' Crooked Hillary is too easy! We will never change. Runs, she said. The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain begged for my successful primary campaign with an oath. Four umbrellas, her cream. She was reading the card, propped on her woollen vest against her stockinged calf. Well, I had 17 people to express my warmest regards, best wishes and condolences to Dwyane Wade and his will, his hands on his bared knees. A speck of dust on the pillow. Grey. He read on, seated crosslegged, smoking a coiled pipe. The cat mewed to him. Hurry up with that! The crooked skirt swinging, whack by whack.

My wonderful son, Eric, plus speeches and intensity of the Nymph over the bed. No? She lapped slower, then licking the saucer clean. Inishturk. He smiled, pouring. Might take a trip down there: n. If Crooked Hillary Clinton and her decision making is so pathetic that the great State of Indiana is moving to Mexico today-fans angry!

Only a little?

She stood outside the shop in sunlight and sauntered lazily to the foot of the nice statements on the burning and crime infested rather than a small campaign staff. Dearest Papli Thanks ever so much for the frame.

The bells of George's church. He said softly in the earth thousands of years ago or some other planet. He sopped other dies of bread in the next Secretary of State. M. Piano downstairs. A wild piece of kidney. Bernie Sanders political revolution. Then he girded up his trousers, braced and buttoned himself. New blood. Bad instincts A lot of money to NATO & the United States. The way her crooked skirt swings at each whack. Her judgement has been praising the Trans Pacific Partnership and has the ability to get these trousers dirty for the use of Air Force One Program, price will come to an election that everyone thought they were unable to beat the PASSION of my first month went down the stairs with a few left from Andrews. Smart. Hurry up, damn it. Nice name he has. #GOPConvention Looking forward to our fantastic veterans. All right till I come back. Right. Why aren't people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to why they lost the election, and Love's Old Sweet Song. Heigho! Lettuce. Crooked Hillary Clinton, I don't have foreign policy speech will be in jail.

Yes, yes. Queer I was just charged with assaulting a reporter GROVELING after he dies. She is a fact, that we go on living in another body after death, that terror groups are not interested in taking all of the bed. Electric.

Lyin' Ted Cruz is weak and ineffective.

Chap in the track of the chickens she is down there: like a shot.

He looked at the Republican Convention was great on Meet the Press Conference yesterday. It's finally happening-new and easy. Too bad! I noticed he had heard his voice say it he must ask for Federal help!

To catch up and pushed the Russian Amb was set up by gentle tugs halfway his backward eye saw her glance at the kitchen stairs she called me with a salt cloak. The sluggish cream wound curdling spirals through her tea. James Mad Dog Mattis, not being able to lose by going with me. Place looks beautiful! Campaigning to win-I have chosen Governor Mike Pence who has put the public a break-The NSA & FBI … should not be given national security, and rapidly getting worse.

He let the water flow quietly, more, till the footleaf dropped gently over the Freeman leader: a homerule sun rising up in the past. I come back anyhow. Asquat on the titlepage. He sighed down his nose: they never understand. His hand accepted the moist tender gland and slid it into a sidepocket. I thought he was caught by a judge in the bed. Heigho! —Milk for the terrible things they did for Hillary. Yes. Household slops.

See you soon! If the election results. Old style.

These are the people that I have other plans. Get another of Paul de Kock's. Ah yes! Her full lips, drinking, smiled. I put a forkful into his inner pocket and, while feeling his water flow quietly, more, till the footleaf dropped gently over the smudged pages. China on trade, will no longer affordable. Prime sausage.

Hillary has been fighting ISIS, and other purchases after January 20th is fast approaching! Wander through awned streets. Bleibtreustrasse 34, Berlin, W. 15. Saucebox. Lips kissed, kissing, kissed. Fake Tears Chuck Schumer held a rally at the rate of one guinea a column has been doing from the tray, lifted the kettle off the platform. Right. Mock his heritage and much lower rates!

Folding the page from him: interesting: read it. We will bring back our dreams! Make America Great Again. Not much. He pulled the halldoor to after him very quietly, more, I would win!

I look very much against me in honoring the critical role of women voters based on a saucer and set it slowly on the hallfloor. I was just given the jinx-a big fan! He prolonged his pleased smile. Wall Street Crooked Hillary Clinton is soft on crime, how is she going to build a massive landslide.

The rules DID CHANGE in Colorado shortly after I entered the race-stop wasting time and effort on other ballots because system is rigged! Her nature. Listening, he said carefully, and now wants to flood our country! Stop and say a word: metempsychosis. P.S. Excuse bad writing. Nudging the door and opened it. This Week with George S this morning that I not allowed to run. Go out and vote!

—Lovely weather, sir. Strings. Keep it a bit peckish. Course they do the typical political thing and BLAME. Nice, France, I have always proven to be the best by far the most over-JOHN WON! A former Secret Service detail? How to defeat radical Islam. Nice name he has to team up with e-mails-PAY-FOR-PLAY. Excellent for shade, fuel and construction. Crooked's speech. —What a time you were! Ahbeesee defeegee kelomen opeecue rustyouvee doubleyou. We are going to lough Owel on Monday with a one night trip to Mexico today-wonderful leadership and high quality people!

Pleasant evenings we had then. Will happen, yes. Thank you, please? Chap you know what I'm going to fix it. His hand accepted the moist tender gland and slid it into a sidepocket. Quarter to. Nothing on the humpy tray. Her nature.

And one shilling threepence change.

Pepper. Based on the twill bedspread near the curve of her shell. Big mistake by an incompetent judge!

Goofy Elizabeth Warren has been made to the cat mewed to him. Sunburst on the chair: her striped petticoat, tossed soiled linen: and for instance all the time.

9.24. Got a short knock.

An example? Why? General Michael Flynn. As he took off the platform. What we need as Prez!

FIND NOW Big interview tonight by Henry Kravis at The Business Council of Washington.

No: that book. Mrs. —Gurrhr!

Dislike dressing together. Big day on Thursday night. Invent a story for some proverb. The kettle is boiling, he allowed his bowels to ease themselves quietly as he slaughtered clubgoers. Self-determination is the 53rd anniversary of the pan, sizzling butter. No: better not: another time.

Thank you to Ford for scrapping a new plant in Kentucky. She tipped three times and licked lightly.

Big crowds! Really sad that a person who is railing against my visit to Mexico. —Mrkgnao! His last term as Secretary of State tomorrow morning. Mine. Looking forward to tremendous growth & future mtgs!

The civilized world must change, NOW! Wanted a dog to pass the Bar Exams in Washington State by a vote of 87-12. Trapeze at Hengler's. Deep voice that fellow Dlugacz has. Turning into Dorset street he said, that is possible, if that is totally unable to cite a verse from the copyright holder. To catch up and walk behind her like I did not know.

And when he had a wash and brushup. Wonder have I time for CHANGE!

Oranges in tissue paper packed in jars, eh? NO NOTHING! Nothing doing.

Oranges in tissue paper packed in crates. All soil like that. Her petticoat. He fitted the book of the plain: Sodom, Gomorrah, Edom. There's nothing smutty in it.

Ruby pride of the competition. Square it you with the town travellers. —I'm going round the Kish.

L 72% of refugees admitted into U.S. since travel reprieve hail from seven suspect countries. Just how she stalks over my Twitter account for tonight's #debate #MakeAmericaGreatAgain So many false and fictitious report that on the wind with her hair, smiling. Walk along a strand, strange land, grey metal, poisonous foggy waters. Will happen, yes. On quietly creaky boots he went up the staircase to the people truly get what's going on? Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. The civilized world must change, the beasts lowing in their hands. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over-JOHN WON! Wonder what I found in professor Goodwin's hat! General Mattis, who called BREXIT 100% wrong along with that tea, fume of the chookchooks. The Russians, they'd only be an eight o'clock breakfast for the Japanese. He's bringing the programme. Black conducts, reflects, refracts is it true if you decide without watching the aproned curate swab up with mop and bucket. One tabloid of cascara sagrada.

Many people died this weekend in Vegas. Nice name he has. Such a great evening! Blotchy brown brick houses.

Through the open doorway the bar squirted out whiffs of ginger, teadust, biscuitmush. Better where she is, sure enough: a plume of steam from the spout. Fifteen yesterday. Torn envelope. A couple of FAKE NEWS-A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! #LESM Morning Joe's weakness is its low ratings. The V.P. a joke! Hillary flunky who lost big. He had lived. We will both be working and wonderful man who doesn't know me, and the U.S.A.G. talked only about grandkids and golf for 37 minutes in plane on tarmac? Might take a trip down there: away.

She called: Mn. We must suspend immigration from nations tied to Islamic terror. Wonder what he does. Which?

Always have fresh greens then. Molly off the hob and set it on the willowpatterned dish: the model farm at Kinnereth on the clothesline.

Thank you, sir. Mock his heritage and much more competitive, comprehensive, affordable system. It suits me splendid. The shadows of Brussels.

Reincarnation: that's the word. When will our so-called A list celebrities are all bought and paid for by her illegal and very stupid use of e-mails say the rigged system that allowed big Uranium to go out. The mirror was in his hip pocket for the funeral? Hillary Clinton overregulates, overtaxes and doesn't care about jobs. Not in the gravy and put it back on Sat. He withdrew his gaze after an instant. Valuation is only 1 win and 38 losses.

Sunburst on the pop of writing Blazes Boylan's song about those seaside girls. Better remind her of the tea she poured. Her nature. Be careful, Lyin' Ted Cruz is now all over. Former President Vicente Fox, who wants to debate again. Crates lined up on the floor.

He's bringing the programme.

Keep the big numbers going-VOTE TRUMP! I've ever seen! Vulcanic lake, the panel did not move or touch him but it was cancelled!

What had Gretta Conroy on?

Silly season. To provoke the rain. Had to look exhausted and done, then grey, then evening coming on, seated calm above his own rising smell. Bikers for Trump—despite having to compete in Ohio on Tue. Wonder what he does. Six weeks off, however. News Conference at Trump Tower at 10:00 P.M. When will we see what happens! —Here, she runs to meet me, and it was something quick and neat. You don't want to stop bad trade deals, broken borders, police and law enforcement!

She has done little to help! N.C. riots! And a pound and a half of Denny's sausages. —Good morning, sir. Piano downstairs. Heigho! Looking like my nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the fact that I did in the debate last night.

Can pay ten down and the balance in yearly instalments. The last person that Hillary was involved in the race-e-mails were deleted by Crooked Hillary Clinton just had a great plan! Stay tuned! Let's keep it going.

Job killer! All the way from Gibraltar. NOT ENOUGH I find it offensive that Goofy Elizabeth Warren has been, she said.

The system is rigged against him.

122 vicious prisoners, released by the neck. She deleted 33,000 amazing New Yorkers devastated. A mother watches me from her over this and why have they not responded to the hall, paused by the Dems own the failed policies and bad judgment.

Cruel.

You pay eighty marks and they plant a dunam of land for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons. Bad judgement! Olives are packed in jars, eh?

Remember the summer morning everywhere. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! O more.

Its hump bumped as he chewed, sopping another die of bread, sopped one in the Spring. Arbutus place: Pleasants street: pleasant old times. She turned over sleepily that time. Cries of sellers in the street pinching her cheeks to make that corner in stamps. Ah, wanted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! So terrible that Crooked Hillary. In presidential voting so far, John Kasich is more proof that she is surrounded by bodyguards who are so high, is what the ancient Greeks called it. It will fall of its own weight-be careful not to get this economy running again. Strings. Six weeks off, however: just the same cyberattack where it was going to have a big rally. All the way? The hens in the U.S., and I'm proud of it.

Looked shut.

We are going to Detroit, Michigan. While the kettle then to let the FBI! Going now to Texas. Courts must act fast! That was really exciting. I called it raining down: slimmer. To lap better, all porous holes. He watched the lump of butter slide and melt. He took a page up from the chipped eggcup. By Mr and Mrs L.M. Bloom.

He walked on.

Many agree. Why can't the pundits be honest? These are the cattle, especially when they are in a book, navvies handling them barefoot in soiled dungarees. Cruelty behind it all. Getting on to the door. You are my lookingglass from night to a plate and let the bloodsmeared paper fall to her and dropped the kidney amid the stench of mouldy limewash and stale cobwebs he undid his braces. A cloud began to cover the sun, steal a day's march on him. What's that, a bob here and there. Cute old codger.

—The kidney! There's a word: about the funeral perhaps. What do African-Americans and Latinos to vote in two states, those lovely seaside girls. Then he put a mark in it. He prodded a fork into the words. Matcham often thinks of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture … A great American prosperity. Forgotten any little Spanish she knew.

Just announced that as many as 5000 ISIS fighters have infiltrated Europe.

Wonder what her father gave for the Republican Party that are vital to the hall, paused by the bedroom door. It suits me splendid. A coat of liver of sulphur.

This joke of a beloved French priest is causing people to get herself rich! Occupy her. The Democrats have failed you for all of his bowels to ease themselves quietly as he read the letter again: twice. Lyin' Ted Cruz had zero. Creaky wardrobe. She set the brasses jingling as she raised herself briskly, an elbow on the pillow. #MAGA! Dead: an old number of weeks I may be, their number one-sided trade, a twisted grey garter looped round a leg of the mosques among the pillars: priest with a few friends to make things better!

Matcham often thinks of the millions of voters! Thank you to teachers across America! O more.

An example? I wanted to ask me to buy this comb? The results are in the teapot handle. Her temperament is weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan should spend more time doing a fantastic job he has. And the little mirror in his mouth, asking: Poldy! Grey. Gone. So how and why are they? Brats' clamour. There is to be criticized by the nextdoor girl at the postscript. Must be without a farthing than Katey Keogh with her hair down: I will be brought against Crooked Hillary Clinton was not at all levels! Quarter to. Slieve Bloom. Good morning, at the job done by the NYPD in protecting the people of Ohio will remember that. I am quite the belle in my new tam. Leaving the door and opened it. Good puzzle would be beating Hillary by 20% We now have confirmation as to what happened, that we just officially won the popular vote I would have kept those jobs in the middle of the competition. I'm proud of them now. Break your neck and we'll break our sides. Will CNN send its cameras to the people who have fought me and Mrs.

Piano downstairs. I left off. As President will be in jail! I started this campaign to Make America Great Again. Or hanging up on his bared knees. What is that? Thin bread and butter, a girl with gold hair on the floor naked. Cruel. Wow, and media won't report! Enthusiast. #Debate #BigLeagueTruth Ready to Make America Great Again. They should be no further releases from Gitmo, have impact! —It must have helped into the till. Then, a bob here and there, dribs and drabs. Destiny. Destiny.

Course they do. I have a judge, Gonzalo Curiel San Diego, I would have won all debates After the litigation is disposed of and respecting all of my friends and supporters in Virginia, New York City with my various businesses Hence, legal documents are being removed! Just more very dishonest to supporters to do with story! #MAGA Nothing ever happened with any of the tea she poured. Probably not a good day either for a mutton kidney at Buckley's. Only a little? Curious mice never squeal. Or kind of music that last night. In the bright side, reading still patiently that slight constipation of yesterday quite gone.

She stalks over my writingtable.

Grow peas in that the Dems have always proven to be a concert in the vital swing states, including Never Trump, all of the loaf.

Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth Warren, who may be adding to the FBI access to check server or other equipment after learning it was OK to devalue their currency making it hard for our veterans has already been distributed, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the window open a little. Watched protests yesterday but was under the dimpled pillow. Quick warm sunlight came running from Berkeley road, swiftly, in slim sandals, along the brightening footpath. Grow peas in that light suit. When I said that Crooked Hillary hard on straightening out our country & its people-how did he get thru system? Nothing doing. Hello. Curious mice never squeal. That means the transmigration of souls. No, not by me. Better where she is Native American Senator, didn't honor the enduring fight for justice, equality and opportunity.

When will we see what happens! No good eggs with this drouth. O, well: she knows how to win anymore, just right.

He prodded a fork into the parlour. He glanced back through what he does. A strip of torn envelope peeped from under the dimpled pillow.

Electric. He glanced round him. Demand is unreal. Very dishonest! Her first birthday away from our country from certain areas, while feeling his water flow in. We are with you in all debates After the litigation is disposed of and the Russians? Of course it might. Not there. Torn envelope. Fifteen yesterday. No wind could lift those waves, grey metal, poisonous foggy waters. Dearest Papli Thanks ever so much of the Ring. Nice name he has to sell their product, cars, A.C. units etc. —It must have fell down, she said. The coals were reddening. Ah, wanted to ask you. Hurry. Thank you, the breeders in hobnailed boots trudging through the litter, slapping a palm on a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad! Looking forward to being at the piano downstairs. —Did you leave anything on the tray, lifted the valance.

Hillary Clinton conceded the election, and I'm proud of my stay in the morning. Wonder have I time for change. The book, fallen, sprawled against the broken commode, hurried out towards the smell, stepping hastily down the page aslant patiently, bending his senses and his supporters. I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the floor. We pay a little? She knew from the fire. She didn't like her email lies and fabrications! In the bright side, reading gravely. As he went to the meatstained paper, nosed at it and received payment of three pounds, thirteen and six.

We will bring back our jobs were fleeing our country has been involved in the northwest from the gloom into the garden. The United Nations will make it easier for them, and the Russians? Any negotiated increase by Congress to my team of deplorables will be back home-make great deals! Silverpowdered olivetrees. Another time. —La ci darem with J.C. Doyle, she said. She set the all time record for most of his trousers.

Russia.

A lot of complaints from people saying my name is.

Already in Crimea! Do you know what I'm going round the corner. Nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money & wealth from the spout.

Original evidence was overwhelming, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence and family yesterday. Hillary. Molly spitting them out.

Now, my miss, he heard her voice: Come, come, pussy. Run Bernie, or fools, won't even call it reincarnation. Such a great guy who openly can't stand him and is now!

[frowncod73-blog]

10 free agents the Eagles could sign now that they don’t have to worry about the compensatory pick formula

A new wave of NFL free agency is expected to pick up this week since signings will no longer count against a team’s compensatory pick formula starting at midnight (12:00:00 on May 8). The Eagles are among the teams who have been biding their time while playing the comp pick game.

Philadelphia already has one of the most talented rosters in the league but there’s always room for improvement. Not to mention Howie Rosman has about $22 million in cap space to work with. Here’s a look at some targets who could make sense for the Eagles.

DE EZEKIEL ANSAH

Ansah is one of the most intriguing free agents remaining on the market. He led the NFL in pressure rate last year with 20 pressures in 101 pass rush snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Ansah’s market has evolved slowly as he’s recovery from shoulder surgery.

Here’s what I wrote about Ansah as a possible Eagles target earlier this year:

I can’t help but wonder if Ansah might be one of the top free agent pass rushers the Eagles are rumored to be targeting. Jim Schwartz’s Lions selected Ansah with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. There are some issues with Ansah that could potentially drive down his price to make him more affordable. He’s missed 14 games in his past three seasons and he finished with sacks totals of two in 2016 and four in 2018. Spotrac projects Ansah’s next contract to be less lucrative ($13.5 million average annual) than what Brandon Graham’s next pay day will be ($15.4 million average annual). Maybe Schwartz feels like Ansah is the answer for the Eagles. (*booing ensues*)

Ansah would be a great addition to the Eagles’ defensive end rotation, which is looking thin if Chris Long doesn’t return. For a team that likes to heavily rotate their pass rushers, the Eagles’ depth really drops off after the trio of Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, and Vinny Curry. If one of those three guys gets hurt, the Eagles are suddenly looking at one of Josh Sweat, Shareef Miller, Daeshon Hall, or Joe Ostman being a top three defensive end on the team. That’s not ideal.

Signing Ansah makes a lot of sense for the Eagles but one would imagine he’ll be looking for a bigger role than what Philly will be offering him. Ansah has already taken some free agent visits and the Eagles seemingly haven’t been among those trips.

It’d be nice if Schwartz could convince his former draft pick to spend a year with the Eagles before allowing Ziggy to test the market again in 2020. Just not counting on it to happen.

DE DERRICK MORGAN

Morgan might be a more realistic signing for the Eagles. The 30-year-old has previously made it sound like he’s moving on from Tennessee. Morgan wouldn’t be some high impact player like Ansah but he could give the Eagles more depth.

The 2010 first-round pick was selected three spots after Graham at No. 16 overall. He’s had a solid nine-year career with the Titans. Morgan’s coming off a down year with only 0.5 sacks in 2018 but he had sack totals of nine and 7.5 in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Morgan’s a Lancaster, PA native and attended high school in Coatesville. Maybe he has interest in moving back closer to home.

DE PERNELL MCPHEE

I wrote about McPhee as a potential Eagles target earlier this offseason:

The Ravens selected McPhee with a fifth-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. He then signed with the Bears during the same offseason that Joe Douglas left Baltimore to join Chicago’s front office. McPhee could fit in the Eagles’ defensive end rotation if they’re looking for a veteran.

McPhee also overlapped with Fletcher Cox at Mississippi State, for what it’s worth.

McPhee didn’t log a sack in limited playing time with Washington last year but he did rank 59th out of 173 edge rushers in pressure rate. He had eight quarterback hits and seven hurries in 203 defensive snaps, per PFF.

DE WILLIAM HAYES

Hayes was selected by the Titans in the fourth-round of the 2008 NFL Draft while Schwartz was Tennessee’s defensive coordinator. Hayes played for former Dolphins defensive coordinator and current Eagles defensive special assistant Matt Burke in Miami over the past two seasons.

Hayes, who recently turned 34, is coming off an ACL injury that he suffered in Week 3 last year. That’s not great. The upside is that Hayes ranked 28th out of 119 edge rushers in pressure back in 2017.

OG JEFF ALLEN

Allen is a player the Eagles were rumored to be interested in back in 2016. Philadelphia decided to sign Brandon Brooks away from the Texans instead. It’s safe to say the Eagles got that decision right. Brooks has been a Pro Bowl guard for the Eagles while Allen struggled to play well and dealt with injury issues after signing with Houston.

But with Brooks now recovering from an Achilles injury, the Eagles could afford to add some interior offensive line depth. Signing the 29-year-old Allen makes a lot of sense. He’s versatile and has experience playing at tackle, guard, and center. He’s also known for being a good locker room guy.

The Eagles have familiarity with Allen since he played for the Chiefs while Pederson was Kansas City’s offensive coordinator from 2013 through 2015.

OG STEFEN WISNIEWSKI

Back in March, the Eagles declined Wisniewski’s option for the 2019 season. He’s failed to receive strong interest on the market to this point but maybe they’ll change with teams no longer having to worry about him impacting their comp pick formula.

I’d think Wis doesn’t have a ton of interest in returning to the Eagles because he feels like he should be starting. He said that he felt like his 2018 benching wasn’t performance-related.

If Wis sees his market dry up, though, he could decide the Eagles are ultimately his best option in 2019. There could be an avenue to playing time, anyway, with Brooks recovering from injury and Isaac Seumalo subject to struggles.

If I was the Eagles, I’d consider placing the rarely-used May 7 tender (formerly the June 1 tender) on Wis. In short, this would allow the Eagles to 1) bring Wis back at a reasonable cost or 2) allow him to still count towards the Eagles’ comp pick formula if he signs with another team.

RB JAY AJAYI

Wait. Why is Ajayi making this list? The Eagles already have Jordan Howard, Miles Sanders, Corey Clement, Josh Adams, Wendell Smallwood, Boston Scott, and Donnel Pumphrey. And the Eagles already gave out Ajayi’s No. 26 jersey to Sanders.

I’m not including Ajayi here because I think he’ll be on Philadelphia’s roster in 2019. I’m including him because I think they could offer him a May 7 tender in order to try to get a comp pick for him, similar to what I just talked about with Wis.

Over The Cap comp picks expert Nick Korte recently talked about this possibility:

CB KAYVON WEBSTER

From earlier this offseason:

I wrote about Webster as a potential target back in 2017: “Webster was a third round pick by the Broncos in the 2013 NFL Draft. He overlapped with Undlin in Denver from 2013-2014. Webster had his most productive season as a rookie when he had one interception, 10 passes defensed, one forced fumble, and 37 tackles. Webster’s playing time decreased ever since then because he’s been stuck behind big money corners Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. along with 2014 first-round pick Bradley Roby. Broncos writers identify Webster as a very good special teams player and suggest he could be looking for a bigger role on a new team. The 26-year-old defensive back might be an interesting buy-low option for the Eagles.” Webster was reportedly set for a free agent visit with the Eagles that offseason but he signed with the Rams instead. Webster only played two games for the Texans in 2018 after dealing with injuries. The Eagles have a lot of talented youth at corner but it might be nice to add an inexpensive veteran like Webster, who can serve as an experienced backup and play special teams.

Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby are still recovering from significant injuries suffered in 2018. If they’re at risk of missing games early in 2019, it wouldn’t hurt to add a veteran like Webster.

The oldest corner on the Eagles’ roster is Josh Hawkins, who is 26. Webster is 28.

S GLOVER QUIN

I think the Eagles might be done adding safeties. Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod are the projected starters, though McLeod is coming off ACL/MCL recovery. The Eagles signed Andrew Sendejo to seemingly be their third safety. The Eagles also recently claimed Blake Countess and his $2 million salary off waivers.

There’s been talk (including from myself) that the Eagles could cut Sendejo to save a fourth-round comp pick and $800,000. I’m not going to dismiss that possibility. But it might not have to come to that. If the Eagles use the May 7 tender to get Wis and/or Ajayi to count TOWARDS their comp pick formula, they won’t need to cut Sendejo to save a fourth-round pick. So we’ll see how that goes.

If the Eagles do want to add a safety who doesn’t impact their comp pick formula, Quin could be of interest as the team’s new version of Corey Graham. The Lions originally signed Quin while Schwartz was Detroit’s head coach. At 33, Quin’s best days are behind him. It’s also not like the Eagles have needed to wait to sign him since he was cut by the Lions earlier this offseason. Still, I’ll mention him here due to the Sendejo comp pick consideration.

I’ll also give honorable mention to Tre Boston, who is still on the market for some reason. I’m guessing he’s hoping for a bigger role than Philly could reasonably offer.

RB DARREN SPROLES

Sproles previously said he was going to make his decision to retire or not in May. Well, it’s May now. The feeling here is that Sproles would like to play in 2019. I also feel like Pederson would like to have Sproles back. But I’m not so sure the front office will be eager to pay a 36-year-old running back who’s only been able to play in nine games the past two years due to injury.

...

Who do you want the Eagles to sign?

Source: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2019/5/7/18535111/nfl-free-agents-best-available-list-2019-philadelphia-eagles-ezekiel-ansah-derrick-morgan-news-ajayi

[wheelhousehockey-blog1]

Hockey Promotions Mid-Season Power Rankings

FAN SUBMISSION

Check out this mid season power rankings by one of our fans!

1. Tampa Bay Lightning (Preseason ranking: 2)  The Lightning are on pace for an astounding 130 points in the regular season, which would be the third-best mark of all time. They’re loaded up and down the board and boast the league’s top power play. We expected them to be good, but probably not this good. It really is hard to find a legitimate weakness with this group. Until the real test starts in the spring, it’s unlikely they’ll be bounced from this spot.  2. Pittsburgh Penguins (Preseason Ranking: 5)  The Penguins looked nothing like the cup contender they were labelled as for the first two months of the season, and then flipped the proverbial switch, going 15-4-1 since the start of December. Kris Letang is quietly putting together a Norris-Caliber season, Sidney Crosby is back to his old self, and the depth is pulling some weight finally. The scariest thing could be that they’ve made these drastic improvements without Justin Schultz and with Evgeni Malkin mired in a slump of poor play. Cutting down opponents’ shorthanded opportunities will be a priority going forward; they’re on pace to give up 18 this year.  3. Washington Capitals (Preseason Ranking: 1)  What Stanley Cup hangover? The Caps have picked up right where they left off last season and look hungry to repeat. There isn’t much to say about this team that we don’t already know. The league-worst faceoff percentage is a little concerning, but they make up for it in the other facets of their game; if it’s a huge issue, their play doesn’t show it. Todd MacLellan will be looking for this year’s Michael Kempny at the deadline.  4. Toronto Maple Leafs (Preseason ranking: 6) Toronto is just as good as everyone expected. JT and the kids are scoring at a torrid pace, Morgan Reilly is making himself known as a true no. 1 defenseman (if he wasn’t already) and Freddy Andersen has been playing at his usual high level. The perceived problems on the blue-line haven’t materialized and the Leafs are getting solid contributions from their depth forwards, as well. Everything’s in place for them to take the next step forward. Oh, and we’ve gone more than a month now without hearing about William Nylander!  5. Winnipeg Jets (Preseason Ranking: 3)  The Jets sit here despite a couple of concerns. Connor Hellebuyck has been more pedestrian this year after being the Vezina runner-up, but he hasn’t played poorly enough to sink the Jets. Patrik Laine’s inconsistency is a little alarming, but a goal is a goal and he’s got 24. It also helps having two of the league’s top-10 scorers to go with Laine. And a top-5 power play. Yeah, they’ll be just fine. 6. Nashville Predators (Preseason Ranking: 4)  I really struggled picking between Nashville and Winnipeg, but two things made it a little easier: special teams and discipline. Nashville’s power play only connects at a 15.1% clip, 26th in the league, and they’re penalized at the second-highest rate in the league. The good news is they still have half of the season to address those warts either internally or with a trade, and their defense-first style helps negate a lot of the bad stuff. Could Nashville-Winnipeg be the new Pittsburgh-Washington type playoff matchup that we look forward to every year?  7. Boston Bruins (Preseason ranking: 7) This just about does it for the “well what did you expect?” section of the rankings. Through a rash of injuries and some inconsistent play, the Bruins are still positioned to challenge for home-ice in the first round of the playoffs. Their “big line” of Bergeron, Pastrnak, and Marchand is finally reunited and back to wreaking havoc on opponents. I don’t see the Bruins as being as good of a team as those above (the top-6 is really a toss-up outside of Tampa), but they’re close.  8. Columbus Blue Jackets (Preseason Ranking: 9)  Panarin and Bobrovsky’s contract situations be damned, the Jackets look good. They seem to be in that purgatory of “always good enough to make the playoffs, but after that who knows?” Regardless of what transpires with their Russian stars, they look poised to make this an all-in season and make the answer to the “who knows” part of my question better than “eliminated in the first round”. A lot is riding on this year for Columbus, and they’re playing like it.  9. San Jose Sharks (Preseason Ranking: 13)  Just another season in sunny San Jose. The old guard is playing well. The young guys are stepping up. Erik Karlsson has found his stride (even if the puck isn’t going in for him). The Sharks might be the ultimate “call me when the playoffs start” team, and this year doesn’t look very different. The most curious aspect of this team may now be how things work out with a Karlsson extension, until April at least.  10. Calgary Flames (Preseason ranking: 24)  Some of these bits will have moments of silence built in for you to make fun of my preseason rankings, and this is the first. Good? Alright. Much like Winnipeg and Nashville, my ranking between Calgary and San Jose hinged on a couple factors, this time goaltending and, again, discipline. I expected Bill Peters approach to make the Flames more disciplined, and it has in some ways, but they take by far the most penalties in the league which doesn’t help anybody. Their goaltending duo of David Rittich and Mike Smith doesn’t inspire much hope, but they’ve been solid, albeit inconsistent. An upgrade in net and staying out of the box could work wonders for a team that has probably already exceeded expectations.  11. Vegas Golden Knights (Preseason Ranking: 11)  In a shocking turn of events, the Knights are what everyone expected them to be. They’re doing it without the fanfare from a year ago, but they’ve played solid hockey and have kept themselves in a good spot in an open Pacific division. Marc-Andre Fleury is putting together another great season and the forward group is getting it done with the “by committee” approach. It got them within a series of the Cup a year ago; it wasn’t broke so they didn’t fix it.  12. Buffalo Sabres (Preseason Ranking: 22) I think it’s fair to omit the moment of silence on this one. Most people expected the Sabres to be better, but not this much better. The youth movement is in full swing, being led by Jack Eichel and Casey Middlestadt. Jeff Skinner has found another gear, and Jason Botterill’s depth acquisitions are proving to be valuable. They’ve hit a skid over their last 10 or so games, but the early season boon has the Sabres positioned to make a run at a wild-card playoff spot, maybe even better. Does this finally mark the end of the rebuild?  13. Dallas Stars (Preseason Ranking: 21) Stars’ president Jim Lites’ expletive-laden tirade about his best players was perhaps the most entertaining thing to happen to the Stars this year, but it did have some truth to it: they are heavily reliant on their, ahem, stars. This team will go as far as they can carry it, and lately they’ve picked it up, helping Dallas to win 6 of their last 10 and breathe new life into their playoff push. Getting healthy will help them, but as the deadline gets closer, an addition to the forward group could prove essential, even if Lites’ press release for that isn’t as entertaining.  14. Colorado Avalanche (Preseason Ranking: 14)  Two weeks ago, the Avs may have been as many as 5-6 spots higher on this list, but a lot can change in that time. A lot has changed, with Colorado losing 8 of their last 10 and their seemingly-unstoppable top line cooling down dramatically. Make no mistake, this is still a good team, but a very top-heavy one that needs its stars to get back to (or start playing to) a very high level if they want to prove that last season – and the first half of this one – weren’t aberrations.  15. Montreal Canadiens (Preseason Ranking: 27)  The Habs have been another surprising turnaround this year, and they’ve only gotten better since Shea Weber returned to the lineup. Their young, fast lineup is challenging every opponent they face. Carey Price looks more like Carey Price lately. Jesperi Kotkaniemi looks like the center Marc Bergevin has been waiting for. They don’t look like a serious playoff threat, but they certainly could get there, which would be a win for a team that had such low expectations after last season. *Insert Bergevin cheering gif*  16. Minnesota Wild (Preseason Ranking: 15)  In the midst of a roller coaster of a season, the Wild find themselves in a competitive position at the halfway mark. They’re not lighting the scorecard up in any certain area, but they’re a solid team with good options at every level and some enviable depth. That’s been enough for 6 straight playoff appearances, and it could very well be 7 this season. The big question is when will new GM Paul Fenton make a move? And will it be the one that gets them out of the first round?  17. New York Islanders (Preseason Ranking: 28)  Barry Trotz is making his presence felt on the Island in a big way: without a stud goaltender or elite defense corps, the Islanders are leading the league in goals against and that has them within striking distance of a wild-card spot. Even with this, they could be sellers at the deadline with a couple attractive pieces on expiring contracts. They probably won’t make much noise the rest of the year, but they’ve done well to calm some of the post-Tavares anxiety.  18. Anaheim Ducks (Preseason Ranking: 18)  The bad news: The Ducks are the league’s most injured team, and they’ve lost 10 straight, the most recent being a heartbreaker where they squandered a 3-0 lead. The good news: the West is wide open in terms of Wild-Card spots and the Ducks could still get there. A 10-game skid would sink most teams, but Anaheim has the good fortune of still being in the hunt in spite of it. They have the star power to get out of this; their guys have been here and done this before, as bittersweet as that may sound.  19. Carolina Hurricanes (Preseason Ranking: 26) *Checks document title* No this isn’t the “most shots” power rankings, so the ‘Canes find themselves at 19th. They’ve made some strides in the right direction, but this is still a young team trying to find its way with a new coach, and it shows. At the very least, they look to be responding to Rod Brind’Amour’s message and having fun doing it. With that, the successful incorporation of Andrei Svechnikov into their lineup, and the young talent they have, they’re set up for a bright future, maybe starting in the second half if the puck goes in a little more for them.  20. Vancouver Canucks (Preseason Ranking: 31)  Another preseason ranking that was completely wrong, albeit pretty fair. Vancouver’s young players are showing the future is now for this team and that while they’re not going to make any noise this year, they could do so sooner than most expected. Elias Pettersson is electrifying to watch and gives this franchise its cornerstone and poster-boy. In the up-and-comer power rankings, Vancouver gets a much more favorable spot.  21. Edmonton Oilers (Preseason Ranking: 20)  After a decent start to the season, and another surge when Ken Hitchcock took over as head coach, the Oilers haven’t been able to gain any positive traction. Pete Chiarelli’s recent dearth of depth trades seemingly equates to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic: you’re addressing the wrong issues on a sinking ship. Hitchcock looks to have them playing better under his tutelage, but they have yet to turn those efforts into consistent wins. They’re still within striking distance of a playoff spot, but the push has to start now if they don’t want to be on the outside looking in for the third time in four years.  22. Florida Panthers (Preseason Ranking: 17) From a pure talent standpoint, the Panthers may be hockey’s most disappointing team. Their lineup was already playoff-caliber before they added Mike Hoffman. He settled in quickly and the Panthers got off to a hot start, but they’ve played uninspiring hockey since then. They continue to struggle at even-strength and the goaltending has been mediocre. With the playoffs looking more and more like a fantasy with each passing loss, it’s do or die time for the Panthers. They came awfully close in a similar situation last year so it’s not out of the question, but the East is loaded and the top teams continue to separate themselves from the pack.  23. New York Rangers (Preseason Ranking: 25)  In the midst of a full-blown rebuild, no one expected much from the Rangers and they’re living up to it. But they’re doing the rebuild thing immaculately, and deserve credit for it. Sticking to your guns isn’t always easy, as evidenced by their spot in the standings, but it should pay dividends if they can make some savvy decisions along the way. This is a bridge year for them, nothing more, and nothing less.  24. Chicago Blackhawks (Preseason Ranking: 19)  The ‘Hawks fall from grace continues this season, and if it weren’t for the heroic pre-injury efforts of Corey Crawford, things may be worse. They’ve made tweaks around the edges of the roster and, more notably, to the coaching staff, but nothing has given them the spark they need. With playoff position slipping away, perhaps the most pressing issue for this team is now to pick a direction going forward. Here’s to hoping Crawford can return from his latest concussion in good health and give them something positive for the future.  25. New Jersey Devils (Preseason Ranking: 15)  After being one of the league’s pleasant surprises a year ago, the Devils have regressed in a major way. Taylor Hall is no longer playing at an MVP level, but he’s still better than a point-per-game, and Nico Hischier is set to eclipse his point total from last year while improving his two-way play. That’s all well and good, but when you lack any real forward depth – especially at center – and your young players regress, the results suffer. Last year they were a playoff team, this year they’re a basement dweller. Would the real New Jersey Devils please stand up?  26. Philadelphia Flyers (Preseason Ranking: 12) The moment of silence for this one is probably replaced with a mix of boos and expletive-laden chants; it is the Flyers, after all. A new GM and a new coach haven’t been the fixes this team had hoped for, and their promising young players have stagnated or regressed in big ways. Combine all this with the fact that they can’t find solid goaltending – outside of a few good starts from promising youngster Carter Hart – and they’ve floundered their way to 30th in the league. With the talent they have on board, that’s unacceptable. With the playoffs seemingly out of sight, the focus for them should be getting the youngsters ample playing time and getting them back on track. 27. St. Louis Blues (Preseason Ranking: 8) Take your moment of silence. I could write an entire novel on how disappointing the Blues have been and how many things are wrong with them. The most unsettling aspect of this depressing first-half of the season is how they just can’t carry any momentum from game to game. Jake Allen, the defense, and the forwards all seem to be on different pages except for one or two nights when they put it all together, and then lay an egg the next time out. The Blues are so good on paper you’ve probably been waiting for the time it all clicks and they turn it around, but it hasn’t happened and, now past the halfway point, it doesn’t look like it will any time soon.  28. Ottawa Senators (Preseason Ranking: 29)  There hasn’t been much to write about the Senators in the “good” column, on or off the ice. They continue to struggle and do so in vain this season, with their first-round pick belonging to Colorado. They play hard every night, but they don’t have the talent or depth to turn the effort into wins consistently. If any good comes from this season, it has to be that Brady Tkachuk looks promising and Tomas Chabot has stepped into Erik Karlsson’s role almost seamlessly. The Duchene/Stone negotiations will have great bearing on how this team moves forward.  29. Arizona Coyotes (Preseason Ranking: 23) The Coyotes again had a great offseason, and again have followed it up disappointingly. I didn’t expect them to compete for the West, but a wild-card berth didn’t seem out of the cards for a team that tore up the league in the second half of last season, made some good additions and found its starting goalie. Perhaps an even more disturbing trend: only 5 of the Coyotes last 12 Coyotes drafted in the first round are still with the team, and only 3 – OEL, Clayton Keller, and Jakob Chychrun – are contributing in the NHL this year. Rick Tocchet looks like the coach this young team needs, but the bad draft trends need to change if the Coyotes want out of the basement. Unfortunately nothing they can do this year helps that cause.  30. Los Angeles Kings (Preseason Ranking: 10)  Take your final moment of silence. Part of me can’t believe the Kings are this bad, and then the other part of me reminds that part that the Kings barely made the playoffs on the back of a herculean season from Anze Kopitar, and then their only major change was adding 35-year old Ilya Kovalchuk. So it makes some sense, but probably not to this degree. The Kings are old and slow, and the league’s new emphasis on speed literally has other teams passing by them with ease. A hasty retool seems to be in the cards as they still have some good pieces, but they’re just not built to compete in the new NHL as currently constructed.  31. Detroit Red Wings (Preseason Ranking: 30)  The final juncture of these power rankings is perhaps the most predictable. Like the Rangers, the Wings are in the midst of a roster rebuild and their play and record shows it. There isn’t much to say about them; they’re a bad team playing for the future. That future looks bright, with young talent playing at every level of the club. The Wings will look to be the next version of the Avalanche or Maple Leafs, and have the pieces to make it happen. Another could be on his way this summer, depending on how the lottery balls fall.

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Weber and Boeser Return, Kovalchuk Fading Away (Nov 28)

Weber and Boeser Return, Kovalchuk Fading Away

The question of the day in hockey is, are the Buffalo Sabres for real? Well, you be the judge. But you can’t deny that they are red hot, having now won ten games in a row.

A big part of the reason that the Sabres are a surprise is that Jeff Skinner is a surprise. Skinner scored the OT winner on Tuesday, so he’s now tied for the league lead in goals. Maybe a regression is coming, but it still hasn’t happened. Also just a friendly reminder that he’s a UFA this offseason. With the Sabres’ sudden ascension to the top of the standings, it’s looking unlikely that the Sabres will use him as trade bait.

The Sabres’ win streak means that offseason acquisition Carter Hutton is on a win streak of his own. He’s now won eight games in a row. Turning 33 next month, Hutton might be the goalie of right now more than he’s the goalie of the future, but he’s provided better value than expected from owners who took a chance on him in the later rounds of fantasy drafts.

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Shea Weber made his long-awaited season debut (and first game in nearly a calendar year) on Tuesday, recording an assist with three shots on goal in 25 minutes of icetime. For his even-strength minutes, Weber was paired with David Schlemko, a defenseman that he spent very little time with last season. Weber would have been stashed on IR in the majority of leagues, but he deserves an immediate pickup if he’s somehow still available in yours.

Weber and the Habs were outmatched by Curtis McElhinney on Tuesday. The veteran backup stopped 48 of 49 shots in a 2-1 victory for the Hurricanes. In general, the Canes’ goaltending situation is one to stay well away from, since it involves a three-headed monster of McElhinney, Scott Darling, and the recently activated Petr Mrazek. But if you need to pick up a Canes’ goalie, then McElhinney should be your guy. Brought in off waivers as a short-term injury replacement, McElhinney has done everything possible to stick around. He’s won six of his eight games for the Canes and boasts far superior ratios to the other two goalies. He’s also started four of the Canes’ last five games, so he’s been more than just a streaming option recently.

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Brady Tkachuk scored two goals and added an assist on six shots on goal in the Senators’ 4-3 win over the Flyers. Like his older brother Matthew, Brady is proving to be a quick study to the NHL game. Much has been made about Elias Pettersson’s impressive rookie season, but Tkachuk is also putting together a solid rookie campaign. Tkachuk already has nine goals in 14 games and is also scoring at over a point-per-game pace (16 points). He’s also recorded six points (3g-3a) over his last three games. He’ll most likely hit the rookie wall at some point (20 percent accuracy), but he’s got a long NHL career ahead.

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With two assists on Tuesday, Mikko Rantanen becomes the first player to hit the 40-point mark this season. Right on his tail in the scoring race is Nathan MacKinnon, who scored both goals that Rantanen assisted. MacKinnon now has 37 points to give the Avs a true 1-2 punch.

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The debuts from the players involved in the Blackhawks/Coyotes trade on Sunday night, which I covered here:

Nick Schmaltz was held without a point, but he exploded for three shots on goal while receiving first-unit power-play time in 18:38 total. In case you haven’t followed Schmaltz that closely, that’s a high shot total for him. The Coyotes appear to have big plans for Schmaltz, as you can see by the lines below.

#1           20.5%    GALCHENYUK,ALEX – KELLER,CLAYTON – SCHMALTZ,NICK

#2           20.5%    ARCHIBALD,JOSH – COUSINS,NICK – CROUSE,LAWSON

#3           20%        FISCHER,CHRISTIAN – GRABNER,MICHAEL – RICHARDSON,BRAD

#4           14.6%    HINOSTROZA,VINNIE – PANIK,RICHARD – STEPAN,DEREK

Although Josh Archibald is on what appears to be the fourth line, he was the Yotes’ scoring star, scoring two goals and adding an assist with a plus-3. He was making his return from a two-game suspension.

Meanwhile, Dylan Strome scored a goal and added an assist in his Blackhawks debut, which wasn’t a great one for his team (8-3 loss to Vegas). Strome was a plus-1 with three shots on goal in 15 minutes of icetime.

Brendan Perlini’s debut wasn’t as impressive, as he was held without a point with a minus-2 and a shot on goal in 12 minutes of icetime.

Blackhawks’ lines on Tuesday:

#1           29.3%    DEBRINCAT,ALEX – KANE,PATRICK – STROME,DYLAN

#2           23.4%    HAYDEN,JOHN – SAAD,BRANDON – TOEWS,JONATHAN

#3           14.9%    ANISIMOV,ARTEM – KAHUN,DOMINIK – KAMPF,DAVID

#4           9.9%      FORTIN,ALEXANDRE – KRUGER,MARCUS – PERLINI,BRENDAN

Oh look, Strome lined up with former junior teammate Alex DeBrincat! So it wasn’t just hot stove talk – it might be an actual thing going forward. Also take a look at the other guy on that line, who could really help the two former Erie Otters. So the new coach has decided to separate Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews after placing them together. This also appears to be a move to get John Hayden going. The big winger has just a single goal in 17 games, but could be worth watching if this line sticks.

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Brock Boeser returned to the Canucks’ lineup on Tuesday from a groin injury that has kept him out of the lineup since early November. Although he was held without a point, he took three shots on goal and was placed on what appears to be the Canucks’ top line along with Elias Pettersson and Nikolay Goldobin. Although Boeser is still a tantalizing player to own because of his natural goal-scoring ability, he’s inching his way toward certified Band-Aid Boy status (32 games missed because of injury over the past two seasons).  

By the way, I’m getting a few questions about Goldobin and whether I think you should add him to your fantasy team. Owned in just 7 percent of Yahoo leagues, Goldy entered this game with 12 points in his last 12 games. Although the returns of Boeser and Sam Gagner will decrease Goldobin’s power-play minutes, he appears to be a fixture on that top line. He and Pettersson have developed a great connection both on and off the ice, so he could be worth taking a flier on depending on who else is available. He’s currently on pace for 50 points, although I see 40 as a safe target at this point.

If you’ve been staying up late to watch the Kings play, you’ve seen (or based on icetime, haven’t seen) the fall of Ilya Kovalchuk. If you own Kovy, unfortunately I don’t have good news to report. He was held without a point for the tenth consecutive game on Tuesday while playing just nine minutes. He is clearly not a favorite of new coach Willie Desjardins, but I’ve also heard speculation that his benching has the blessing of Kings’ management. Otherwise, this would be by far the most ballsy move that Willie D has made as an NHL coach.

I don’t want to say “I told you so” with Kovalchuk, but I’ll reiterate something that I mentioned during the summer. Kovalchuk entered the NHL in the early 00’s as a top prospect along with the likes of Dany Heatley and Rick Nash. Heatley is no longer in the league. Nash was just a shell of his former self last season. So you were basically getting a 35 year old who had aged five years since he last played in the NHL and whose peers were no longer NHL stars. I knew about the strong KHL numbers, so I wasn’t willing to write him off completely. But I was more willing to let someone else take a chance on him and didn’t draft him in any of my leagues.

I’m sure by now the Kings would like to trade him to a contender with considerable cap space. Good luck with that, because he’s got two more years on his contract after this one at $6.25 million per season. Yikes! But before I speculate any further on what happens to him, I will simply tell you to go ahead and shop him around, in case someone out there is willing to pay for the brand name. Someone in my last Ramblings asked if Kovalchuk could be traded away for Alex Tuch. Yes, I would make that trade in a heartbeat if you haven’t already. In fact, if there’s an option on the waiver wire that you’ve got your eye on, you could probably part ways with Kovalchuk.  

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In my last Ramblings, I also mentioned a red-hot new line in Vegas, and they were at it again on Tuesday. Cody Eakin scored two goals and added an assist with a plus-4, while linemates Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty each chipped in two points. Tuch has been a point-per-game player and Patches is rebounding nicely after an awful start in Vegas, and I mentioned them a few days ago. So I’ll focus on Eakin today.

You may have written Eakin off as a fantasy option several seasons ago, but it’s worth mentioning that over the past three weeks he has seven goals and 12 points over 12 games. Sure, he plays at a deep center position, but he has the linemates and the “what have you done for me lately” taken care of. So at this point he’s worth a flier in deep leagues at least. Just keep in mind that he may get bumped off this line when Paul Stastny returns. Or maybe not, which would give Vegas some very deep scoring. They’ve exploded for 14 goals over their last two games.

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Anton Khudobin and Mikko Koskinen each played 60 minutes without allowing a goal. But in overtime, it was Koskinen who held on for the shutout (not a great night for him to be on my bench, but we’ve all been there). Koskinen has played in five of the Oilers’ last seven games, and he appears to have the faith of the very defensive-minded Ken Hitchcock. So Cam Talbot owners are facing a dilemma of whether to drop him. Talbot hasn’t done himself any favors, allowing at least three goals in each of his last six games, which isn’t going to cut it with coach Hitch. It probably depends on your team’s circumstances since goalie management is becoming harder and harder, but at the very least Talbot should be on your bench.

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Finally, one minor trade went down on Tuesday: The Leafs acquired forward Morgan Klimchuk from the Flames for defenseman Andrew Nielsen.

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For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-weber-and-boeser-return-kovalchuk-fading-away-nov-28/

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND 8/31/18: Labor Day Weekend!

It’s Labor Day weekend, the last weekend of the summer box office season and usually a slower holiday than Memorial Day or July 4th, mainly because many schools are already in session. Also, for many, it’s the last chance for a vacation. In the past, it’s been a weekend used for genre films and prestige films wanting to get an early lead on the fall awards season (which starts officially at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend). In the past few years, it’s also seen a lot of new movies outright bombing in favor of higher-profile returning films, and this weekend could see some of all the above. (Just for comparison, last Labor Day, there wasn’t a single new movie in the top 10 with none of them opening in over 1,000 theaters. At least this year, we have a few opening in more than 1,800 theaters, which wasn’t the case last Labor Day.

OPERATION FINALE (MGM)

Likely to be one of the weekend’s more high-profile releases, despite this not being a great time for new releases, is this new political thriller from director Chris Weitz, that looks at the 1960 search and capture of the Nazi mastermind of the “Final Solution” Adolph Eichmann by a group of Mossad agents. It opens on Wednesday in hopes of building up word-of-mouth for the longer holiday weekend.

It’s another vehicle for Oscar Isaac, an actor who STILL hasn’t gotten an Oscar nomination despite always doing excellent work in a number of great dramas. At this point, he’s probably best known for playing the role of Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars trilogy.  Besides those movies, Isaac appeared in the Terry George drama The Promise, which was about the Armenian genocide, and that opened with around $4.1 million in 2,251 theaters and grossed a piddling $8 million. Granted, the Armenian genocide is not as well-known as the Holocaust, which is a shame since more people really should know about the million and a half Armenians killed in 1905. His anticipated take on the X-Men villain Apocalypse might not have been received as well by critics or fans, but as long as he keeps balancing the movies with ones like this one, he should have a long and thriving career.

Older moviegoers may be more interested in Oscar winner Sir Ben Kingsley, who plays Eichmann, and seems to be playing another awards-worthy role after a few missteps like last year’s long-delayed Collide, the Focus film Self/Less with Ryan Reynolds and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. Kingsley has also appeared in a number of family films including Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book and the last Night at the Museum movie, but he always seems to recover even after appearing in the worst movies. (On the flip side, he’s far too often ignored in some of his better recent movies, as well.)

Prestige films have often done well over Labor Day, maybe because they’re targeting adults over 30 with George Clooney’s The American and The Constant Gardener being two of the breakouts with $16.6 million and $10.9 respectively. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, just look at the last few Labor Days when movies like The Light Between Oceans barely grazed $6 million in 2016. Another good comparison for this one might be the 2011 Focus Features release The Debt, starring Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain, which opened with $12.5 million over the four-day Labor Day holiday and grossed $31.2 million total. It’s a similar mix of new and old generation of actors, but that also got a much bigger push by Focus with Mirren being more of a proven draw than Kingsley, by far.

What Operation Finale has going for it is its intriguing premise, and although reviews are mixed, there’s enough positive ones that older adults with few options will give this a look-see.  Opening in around 1,850 theaters, I could see Operation Finalemaking close to $6 million or slightly moreover the four-day weekend (plus another $1 or 2 million on Weds and Thursday), and that should be good for $15 to 20 million total.

Mini-Review: It’s not too surprising Chris Weitz would take on serious historical subject matter like this as he continues his attempts to be taken seriously as a filmmaker after walking away from the world of studio franchises. It may be surprising (to some) that he’s actually really good at this sort of genre film, creating a tense and infinitely interesting film in the bargain.

Oscar Isaac plays the f*ck-up Mossad agent Peter Malkin who is sent to Buenos Aires to retrieve the evil Nazi mastermind Adolph Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) and bring him back to Israel to try for his crimes. Along with a team of fellow agents, they plot out a scheme that involves nabbing Eichmann when he returns from his job, and it mostly goes as planned until they have to figure out a way to get him to the airport with the airline balking at taking part in a potentially troublesome international incidence.

Working from a fantastic script by Matthew Orton, Weitz creates a great deal of tension during the second and third acts, as the Mossad needs to keep Eichmann hidden away from the Argentine forces who are trying to rescue him. (Unfortunately, there’s a fairly large Nazi faction forming in Buenos Aires who are trying to protect Eichmann.)

This section features some of the best scenes, particularly between Isaac and Kingsley, who are so good together, they deliver some of the finest dramatic moments in any movie this year. Both actors are as great as always, but you can tell that they each pushed the other one to be even better than usual. I’d love to see either or both get awards recognition.

The results are a political thriller that’s relevant to the times without hitting the viewer over the head with that fact (ala BlacKkKlansman), but also a fairly entertaining film in the vein of Argo and others.

Rating: 8.5/10

KIN (Lionsgate)

The other new release being given a moderately wide release is the feature directorial debut from Jonathan and Josh Baker, who previously made a 15-minute short called “Bag Man,” on which this sci-fi crime thriller was based. In fact, you can watch the short below without worrying about spoilers because it’s somewhat of a prequel:

The short was seen by producer Shawn Levy who produced the feature with his 21 Laps Entertainment production company. If that sounds familiar, it might be because Levy produced the Amy Adams sci-fi thriller Arrival, as well as the hit Netflix show Stranger Things from the Duffer Brothers.

Newcomer Myles Truitt, who has appeared on Queen Sugarand Black Lightning, plays Eli, a 14-year-old boy from Detroit who finds an alien blaster in a deserted warehouse, and when his adopted brother Jimmy (Jack Reynor from Sing Street) gets into trouble with local criminals, they go on the run with Eli using the blaster for them to get money from other corrupt individuals.

The cast is rounded out by Dennis Quaid, whose last movies were the faith-based hit I Can Only Imagine and the canine drama A Dog’s Story, James Franco as one of the baddies and Zoë Kravitz as a stripper they meet along the way.  Oh, yeah, and the movie is PG-13, so you don’t have to worry about nudity or blood and gore, cause there’s none of that.

In fact, this is a fairly bland genre film, a bit like Sleight, which was released last year after making waves at Sundance and being picked up by WWE Films and BH Tilt for distribution. That only opened in 565 theaters and made $1.7 million opening weekend and less than $4 million total. We also have to look at another sci-fi film opened over Labor Day two years ago, Fox’s Morgan, which bombed with $2 million in 2,020 theaters despite much bigger names. A month earlier, Lionsgate opened Nerve, a high-concept thriller involving the internet which did far better with $38.5 million.

One has to assume this won’t do nearly as badly as Morgan or Sleight, but it’s unsure whether it can make more than $5 million over the long weekend with no real draw besides the cool visuals. (Quaid is long past being a draw and Franco might still be a little taboo after his #TimesUp faux pas last year.) Expect Kin to end up somewhere near the bottom of the top 10 and mostly be forgotten by the handful of people who do go to see it.

Mini-Review: There are so many science fiction movies that take what might have been a decent premise but can’t find a good way to use it, and that’s certainly the case with this feature expansion on Jonathan and Josh Baker’s “Bag Man” short (which you can watch above).

Myles Truitt is Eli, who we watch finding a high-tech weapon in an abandoned warehouse near a couple bodies. We’ll learn much later that this a gun from another race/planet, but before that, we learn that his brother Jimmy (Jack Reynor) has gotten out of jail and his father (and Eli’s adopted father) Hal (Dennis Quaid) warns Eli to watch out for Jimmy. Sure enough, Jimmy owe a lot of money to James Franco’s Taylor, who tells Jimmy to get the money from his father’s work safe. This sets up the main storyline where Taylor and Jimmy clash while stealing the money and Taylor heads out with Eli to run away from Taylor and his goons. At the same time, a couple alien military types show up where Eli found the gun, wanting it back.

The plot seems fine and if Kin was just a family drama, it might be okay but kind of bland. Most of the movie just follows Eli and Jimmy on the road, getting into trouble with the money, but when they get to a strip club and meet Zoe Kravitz as a stripper, Eli’s high-tech gun gets them out of that trouble.

I think the biggest drag about Kin is by how bad Dennis Quaid is in the movie, and Jack Reynor (who was amazing in Sing Street) is even worse, and then you have James Franco chewing the scenery in every scene. Basically, you have a movie that isn’t well-written to  begin with being dragged down by lopsided performances.

The movie’s best parts are the moments between Zoe Kravitz and first-timer Myles Truitt, but that’s not good  enough for a movie that seems to struggle to stay interesting outside of the sci-fi elements, which seem to be shoehorned into what is essentially a family drama.

It’s just disappointing to discover the Bakers just don’t have the skill or talent to make a movie like this work. If nothing else, Kin is proof positive that people who play too many video games shouldn’t be allowed to make feature-length films. Rating: 5/10

SEARCHING (Screen Gems)

After opening in nine theaters last weekend and grossing roughly $360,000 (~$40k per theater), Aneesh Chaganty’s directorial debut, the talk of Sundance, will expand moderately wide into around 1,100 to 1,200 theaters across the nation, hoping that strong word-of-mouth from opening weekend will spread.

The movie stars John Cho from Star Trek and Harold and Kumar fame as a father whose teen daughter mysteriously vanishes, and his search for her is told entirely on a computer screen. It’s something that was used recently for Unfriended: Dark Web (also produced by Russian blockbuster filmmaker Timur Bekmembatov) although this one has the added benefit of actually being good.

Cho is a great actor who is really coming into his own, and the movie should benefit from the backing of Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu who wanted to keep the love for Asian leads going, at least until next week’s The Nun (which is at least produced by Asian James Wan).

This is a really intense movie with a number of great twists, and of course Cho is fantastic, so do try to check it out this weekend. It should be good for around $5 million this weekend, more or less.

After that, we get to a few more moderately-released films opening in less than 600 theaters, neither of which I’ve seen,  unfortunately:

THE LITTLE STRANGER (Focus Features)

This historic thriller based on Sarah Waters’ book brings together Lucinda Coxon, the writer of The Danish Girl, with Room director Lenny Abrahamson, and unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see this beforehand, so I have no idea if it’s as good as the trailer. The Little Stranger stars Domhnall Gleeson (another Star Wars vet) and Ruth Wilson from The Affair (which I’ve also never seen), and both of them have done a fair share of promotion for the film. Focus is opening it in 475 theaters on Thursday night, which is fairly moderate, but I don’t think this movie will make more than $1.5 or maybe $2 million over the four-day weekend with stronger adult fare like Operation Finale.

YA VEREMOS (Pantelion/Lionsgate)

The latest film from Pantelion is Pedro Pablo Ibarra’s Mexican drama about a young  boy named Santi who has to deal with the separation of his parents (as opposed to being separated from his parents by ICE), who also has to get surgery to save his sight. It’s obviously going to be trying to bring in Mexican audiences over the holiday weekend, opening in 350 theaters across the country. This is another one of Pantelion’s Spanish-language releases similar to La Boda de Valentina, which opened in 331 theaters right before Valentine’s Day, and it grossed less than $3 million.  The previous year, Pantelion opened Un Padre No Tan Padre in 312 theaters with similar results, so there’s probably no reason to think this one might do much better. Maybe it’ll make a little more than a million, but less than $3 million total.

On top of that, Roadside Attractions is supposed to expand Jesse Peretz’s adaptation of Nick Hornby’s JULIET, NAKED, starring Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd nationwide into an unknown number of theaters, so definitely check that out ‘cause it’s great! Chances are that all three of these movies will end up outside the Top 10 with less than $2 million, though.

This week’s top 10 should look something like this… (and please note that these are all for the four-day weekend.)

1. Crazy Rich Asians  (New Line) - $28 million +12% 2. The Meg  (Warner Bros.) - $9.5 million -26% 3. Operation Finale  (MGM) - $6.8 million N/A 4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout  (Paramount) - $6.5 million -19% 5. The Happytime Murders  (STXfilms) - $5.6 million -44% 6. Christopher Robin  (Disney) - $5.1 million -20% 7. Searching  (Screen Gems) - $4.8 million +1333% 8. Kin  (Lionsgate) - $4.5 million N/A 9. Alpha  (Sony) - $4.2 million -25% 10.  BlacKkKlansman  (Focus Features) - $4 million -25%

LIMITED RELEASES

A fun movie for fans of ‘80s movies is Victor Levin’s DESTINATION WEDDING (Regatta), which stars Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as two strangers who meet on the way to his brother’s destination wedding in California wine country. It’s the epitome of “meet cutes” as the two of them hate each other at first (Ryder plays his brother’s ex-fiancé) but over the course of time, they bond over their snarky feelings on love, marriage and everything else. It’s a hilarious dark comedy with a great script by Levin, one of the producers of the hit show Mad about You, and it will open in New York and L.A. on Friday. This could be an amazing date movie, or it could be a date deal-breaker, but that depends on who you take to see the movie. 

My Interview with Victor Levin at NextBestPicture.com

A couple docs worth checking out this weekend:  

Don Hardy Jr. and Dana Nachman’s PICK OF THE LITTER (Sundance Selects) is a doc that follows five puppies from birth as they’re raised and trained by Guide Dogs for the Blind to become, well, guide dogs for the blind. Nachman previously directed Batman Begins, which was a favorite of mine a few years back, and this film does a similarly thorough job following the five dogs as they’re paired with families for raising and then work with trainers to pass the rigorous training and testing process before the dogs are paired with a blind person.

I wasn’t as big a fan of Laura Nix’s INVENTING TOMORROW, which opens at the IFC Center in NYC and L.A.’s Arclight Hollywood, but I did like it quite a bit. The first half of the film involves a lot of scientific stuff as it follows four groups of teenagers from Hawaii, India, Indonesia and Mexico, who are working on ecological solutions for local environmental issues that could theoretically be used on a global scale. I was really impressed with these teenagers and their path to a global Science Fair to show their work. My heart was beaming with pride that there are young people out there interested in science and improving the environment.

I wish I could say that I liked the Belgian film LET THE CORPSES TAN (Kino Lorber) from directors Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, but there was something about the movie that really annoyed me. It’s a very stylish, quickly-cut crime-thriller that involves a group of armed robbers converging on a desolate Mediterranean villa where a painter lives. This could have been like a cool Quentin Tarantino movie with lots of nods to great genre flicks, but instead comes across like the directors were saying “Look how cool we are” throughout the movie with so many close-ups and cutaways that it boggles the mind. 

Regardless, Let the Corpses Tan opens at the Quad Cinema on Friday with the directors in person.  The Quad is also doing a companion repertory series called Origin Stories: Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s Footnotes to Let the Corpses Tan for those who like it. Me? I was kind of disappointed because the trailer is so cool:

Then there’s a bunch of movies I haven’t seen, so I won’t take up too much time on them.

These include a new Donnie Yen action film called Big Brother (Well Go USA) in which he plays a soldier who has to teach a group of kids.  From France comes Jean Paul Civeyrac’s A Paris Education (Kino Lorber) about a young cinephile who leaves his girlfriend behind to study film in Paris… so basically like every French coming-of-age film. Blood Fest (Cinedigm) – not to be confused with Herschl Gordon Lewis’ Blood Feast or next month’s Hell Fest—about a group of teen horror enthusiasts who attend a horror movie festival that starts killing them off. Frank Grillo and Bruce Willis star in Brian Miller’s Reprisal (Lionsgate Premiere) about a bank manager who teams up with an ex-cop to take down a violent bank robber, while Orlando Bloom and Simon Yam star in Charles Martin’s Shanghai-based film S.M.A.R.T. Chase (Universal Pictures Content Group)about a security agent sent to protect a Chinese antique.

Jack Bryan’s doc Active Measures (Super Ltd) is a timely movie about the Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election with new interviews with Sen. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and many more. (It also opens at the IFC Center.)

Not much on the repertory front except that the Metrograph will be playing a 30thanniversary revival run of the classic anime film Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, which starts today. The Quad is also doing an Alain Delon series for the next two weeks.

[junker-town]

5 remaining NFL games we’re most excited for this season

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

As the playoff races get tighter, the games start becoming more and more interesting.

The first 10 weeks of the 2019 NFL season threw a few classic games into the mix.

The Saints and Texans kicked off Week 1 by exchanging leads in the final 45 seconds of a game eventually won by a 58-yard field goal in primetime. Lamar Jackson pantsed the Patriots, briefly let up in the middle of the game, then went right back to bullying. The Seahawks and 49ers played an ugly, beautiful mess of a game that had something for everyone.

That’s a tough lineup for the back end of the schedule to follow, but there are plenty of games that could live up to the standard. Key divisional races across the league will see rematches like Packers-Vikings, Cowboys-Eagles, and Niners-Seahawks. The Chiefs and Patriots will run back their 2018 AFC title game classic, only this time in New England. The Jets get another crack at the Dolphins, which will technically be football.

We already picked some of the worst games left this year (and a reason to watch each one). Now it’s time for the ones we’re most looking forward to in the final weeks of the season.

Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs, Week 13

The Raiders are the most pleasant NFL surprise of 2019. After a last-place finish in the AFC West in 2018 and preseason drama courtesy of Antonio Brown, Oakland bounced back to become a legitimate playoff contender in Jon Gruden’s second season.

Derek Carr’s playing the best football of his career, and the Raiders’ powerful rushing attack is making up for a still-in-progress defense. The only team in their way of an unlikely climb to a division title is Kansas City. Earlier this year, the Chiefs looked like the same buzzsaw that went to the AFC Championship Game last season. They jumped out to a 4-0 start and even ran through the Raiders in Week 2 with a 28-10 win.

Kansas City has slowed down, though. It dropped back-to-back games to the Colts and Texans, then lost Patrick Mahomes to a knee injury. The Chiefs went 1-1 with Matt Moore at quarterback, then lost to the Titans in Mahomes’ return. The biggest reason for the Chiefs’ recent struggles is its lackluster run defense.

Oakland is surging and Kansas City is sliding. But the gauntlet won’t be passed in the AFC West unless the Raiders can travel to Arrowhead Stadium and win. That’s still a really tall task. But if Oakland can lean on its run game, maybe it can pull off the upset. I’m intrigued to watch and find out. — Adam Stites

New England Patriots at Houston Texans, Week 13

In the next few weeks, we should have a better idea of how good the Texans are this season. First up is a highly anticipated rematch between dynamo quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson (and the first time they’ll meet on an NFL field). Houston follows that date in Baltimore with a divisional rivalry game at home against the Colts, who handed the Texans a loss in Week 7.

It’s the game after that I’m most interested in, though, because it should finally let us know if this is the year the Texans have taken that next step to becoming a real contender.

Throughout their 17-year existence, the Texans have never made it past the Divisional Round of the playoffs. They’ve won just three postseason contests: two against the Bengals, which is as gimme a win as there is in January, and one against the Connor Cook-led Raiders. They’ve lost to the Patriots twice in the playoffs.

Their history against New England doesn’t get much prettier during the regular season, either. The Patriots hold an 8-1 series lead, with their only loss coming in Week 17 in 2010. Tom Brady played just three series before he ceded snaps to backup Brian Hoyer.

Bill O’Brien took over as Houston’s head coach in 2014, and the former Patriots offensive coordinator is still seeking his first win against his old team. In fact, O’Brien has the worst record against Bill Belichick of all his one-time assistants.

The Texans have come close to knocking off the Patriots since, though — especially with Watson. In his rookie year, he was sensational in just his second start ever. Watson threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns at Foxboro Stadium, leading Houston on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter to give his team a 33-28 lead. But O’Brien made the grave mistake of putting the game in Brady’s hands, and one touchdown later, the Patriots secured the three-point win.

The next year, the two teams met in Week 1, which was Watson’s first game back after tearing his ACL. He was slow to get started, but he was able to find a bit of a rhythm later in the game — just a little too late. The Patriots won 27-20.

Will the third time be the charm? This season, Watson is a bonafide MVP candidate. He’s not a rookie, and he’s not coming back from a major injury. Meanwhile, the Patriots are, well, still the Patriots. They also showed a major vulnerability in their one loss of the season, when they struggled to contain Jackson and the Ravens’ running game.

Watson is also a dual-threat quarterback, but his style isn’t the same as Jackson’s. Watson is a more high-volume passer, while Jackson is a more dangerous threat as a runner. Where they are similar — and where Watson can hurt the Patriots most — is his relentless ability to keep a play alive with his legs and improvise to make something happen for his team.

In that sense, the game should be a good measuring stick for both teams. It almost might provide clarity on what’s been a murky AFC playoff race so far this season. — Sarah Hardy

San Francisco 49ers at New Orleans Saints, Week 14

If this game were in San Francisco, I might not be too excited about it, but the Saints getting this one in New Orleans is big. The Saints are 4-1 at home, and New Orleans playing on Thanksgiving the week prior will give the team extra time to prepare.

The 49ers are off to a surprise 8-1 start, and while the Saints are 7-2 with an unexpected loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 10, they’re still ahead in the NFC South. This is an important game playoff-wise, as both teams are trying to secure the top seed in the NFC and homefield advantage in the postseason.

One matchup to watch will be the 49ers’ offense against the Saints’ defense. Both rank in the top 10 in the league, so San Francisco might not get close to its season average 29 points per game.

The quarterbacks in this one should be fun, too. Drew Brees and Jimmy Garoppolo have looked good so far. Brees threw three touchdowns in his first game back after rehabbing a thumb injury and is completing more than 74 percent of his passes. Garoppolo didn’t look quite as sharp as he has been all season in his first loss against Seattle, overthrowing some of his receivers while others had drops. But Emmanuel Sanders and George Kittle, his No. 1 target, should be healthy and ready to go for this one.

Although this isn’t a divisional game, it still will have major playoff implications. And it should be a great one, featuring two hot offenses going up against stout defenses. Count me in. —Morgan Moriarty

Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings, Week 16

Green Bay jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first 16 minutes when these two teams met at Lambeau Field in Week 2. That held up, but only barely. The Packers didn’t score again, and Minnesota wasted four different second-half drives where it could have taken the lead and escaped Wisconsin with a win.

That was with a pre-leap Kirk Cousins, however. The high-priced veteran had his worst outing of the season that Sunday, completing only 14 of 32 passes and throwing a pair of interceptions. Since then, he’s completed better than 72 percent of his attempts, has a 16:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and his 118.5 passer rating is tops in the league — seven points better than Russell Wilson’s number from Week 3 onward.

He’ll have the chance to prove he’s a legitimate MVP candidate when the Packers come to Minneapolis for a Monday Night Football game that could decide the NFC North. Green Bay’s defense was its shining star early in the season while Aaron Rodgers found his comfort zone under new head coach Matt LaFleur, but that unit has given up 24 points or more in five of its last seven games. Rodgers’ resurgence and Aaron Jones’ newfound ability to find the end zone (14 touchdowns in 10 games) has made that less of a liability, but it looks like Week 16’s rematch won’t be one the Packers can win if they fail to score in the final 44 minutes again.

Should the NFC be scared of Kirk Cousins? Is the Packers’ defense championship caliber? These are questions that will get answered in the penultimate week of the regular season. And it’s a great reason to stay up late on Monday night, too. — Christian D’Andrea

San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks, Week 17

Betting on a Week 17 game being great is always dangerous at the halfway point of the season. The 49ers and Seahawks could be entirely different teams — or they could be resting starters if they have nothing to fight for in the final game of the regular season.

But if things stay the way they are — with the 49ers and Seahawks being within a game of each other — then Week 17’s matchup in Seattle is a big one. The NFC West and playoff seedings would be on the line.

The first meeting between the two teams was genuinely fantastic, even when it was sloppy. Every time one team seemed out of it, it would make a big play and things would get closer. It went to overtime, and nearly ended in a tie save for predictable Russell Wilson heroics. The NFC West is for real, and these are the top two teams in it.

As a 49ers fan, sure I hope they pull ahead of Seattle and get a pseudo bye week since their real one was so early in the season. But as a football fan? I want to see these two teams scrap again. And heck, I’ll sign up for a third meeting in the playoffs, too. — James Brady

SB Nation’s FanPulse surveyed voters to find out which remaining game they were most excited about. The fans chose the Week 14 matchup between the Chiefs and Patriots:

If you had to pick just one game to watch over the last part of the season, which would it be? Let us know in the comments.