Taboo is a great game. But it almost always leads to arguments between the competing teams. To combat such things, we've come up with the following rules and guidelines to maximize taboo playing and minimize yelling at each other. These rules may be in the actual instructions, but nobody reads those anyway.

1) Say any significant part or tense of a word that is taboo, or the actual word, and you can be buzzed.

This is the usual part of contention that begins debates. If a taboo word is "drank" and you use the word "drunk," then clearly you are in violation. Yet there is always at least one person who is willing to fight to the death that this is not a problem. It is. You can't use a tense of any word on the card.

A harder question comes up regarding "significant part." There are some clear instances where you should get buzzed - if a taboo word is "identification" and you stupidly say "identify," then BUZZ. But what happens when the taboo word is "Family Ties" (for Michael J. Fox), and someone says "family?" The clue is clearly referring to the TV show, while the word family may not necessarily refer to that. The correct way to go about this is to set up the ground rules before you start the game. I prefer bright line rules because any type of judgment or reasonableness rule leads to more arguing, so I'd say this should be a buzz. But everyone needs to agree on the rules beforehand, whatever they may be.

2) You can't say "rhymes with" or any derivation of that, and you cannot tell anyone about the amount of letters or numbers in the word. However, you can tell them it is two words or a hyphenated word.

No real explanation needed here.

3) If the buzzer incorrectly buzzes the clue giver, the buzzer's team loses a point.

I love this rule, and am almost certain that it is not in the normal rules. Nothing is more annoying or distracting as when the buzzer buzzes you for no real reason. Or for something that is clearly not buzzable. This rule forces the buzzer to pay attention and actually risk points every time he or she hits the button. It adds a great new dimension to the game.

4) Only one person may buzz each round.

There are definitely times where you have someone buzzing who is not really paying attention. Or they just suck at the game. So another team member will hang out and watch the clue giver as well. This is not permitted. Only one person from the opposing team may watch and buzz the clue giver. And everyone must take a turn. Just as a team may have weak clue givers, it can have weak buzzers too. Combined with rule 3 above, this spices things up greatly.

That's all that I can remember off the top of my head. BUZZ!!!!

I've been limping around the office for the entire day.

Our firm's team had a semifinal playoff soccer game last night against the undefeated and #1 ranked team in our league. Actually, its not really soccer, but its futsal. Here is an excerpt from the wikipedia entry for it:

Futsal is played between two teams of five players, one of whom is the goalkeeper, and up to seven substitutes per team. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by lines; walls or boards are not used. Futsal is also played with a smaller ball with less bounce than a regulation football. The rules create an emphasis on improvisation, creativity and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces.

I was pretty pumped up for it, until the reality of law firm life reared its ugly head. One of our best players had to go to Chicago to work on something or other, and another one of our best players had to go to Moscow. And if you know me and my "style" of playing soccer, you know that given the above description of the game (creativity, techique, ball control), I don't add a whole lot to a team.

There were five of us, just enough to field a team. They had 8... significantly more than necessary to field a team. During warm-ups they looked like they were ready to run. And they sure ran us around good.

Still, at halftime we were only down 3-2 thanks to an absolute rocket from slightly past midcourt by one of our guys, and a nice pass leaving a not terribly difficult goal for me. And right off the bat after the half, we tied it at 3-3 off of a long pass from our keeper.

It was right about at that point our legs gave out. Or at least mine did. I just could not run with any type of urgency. Having no subs and getting up there in your years will do that to you. They other team scored a couple quick goals, and we never really got close after that. The only notable thing was the heel on my left foot being injured somehow. I can't remember the particular play, but I do remember quickly limping to the bus after the game (if you get back on a bus within 2 hours of a previous bus trip, it just counts as a transfer and you don't have to pay again).

I hoped that a night of rest would help, but it didn't. And I've been limping ever since. I don't know if thats looked down upon in a law firm.

After a very sleepless Tuesday night (thought bar results were coming out on Wednesday), a very drunk and sleepless night last night, and a harrowing hung-over Friday morning filled with me hitting the refresh button, I have now received notice that I have passed the New York State bar examination.

I made the analogy earlier in the week that the bar exam is like wrestling a girl. If you win, big deal. That's what you're supposed to do. But if you lose, man thats awful.

I feel pretty good right now though.

As seen in the previous post, the trip to the Tropicana was ominous, to say the least. It didn't get better when we arrived in AC, as the bus greeter at Bally's (where the bus dropped us off) refused to give us our $20 credit. He claimed that because we didn't have a Bally's card we had to take an IOU that would give us double the next time we came down. Also, it was drizzling, so the walk to the Trop from Bally's was not especially pleasant. And lastly, our dinner was a small bag of potato chips that Ben had brought for the ride.

It felt like the time that fat guy who fell on me at the airport on my way to Vegas.

We elected to forgo dinner and just start gambling. We warmed up with some slot play - I found a Hot Hot Penny machine, and Ben found his old reliable Denver Duck. I won a few dollars, Ben lost a few, and then it was time to get on the craps tables.

The tables were crowded but not full. Ben and I got in on one table and basically just treaded water for an hour or so. I was on the verge of destruction a few times, but my timely don'ting of two putzos who had five points got me up to almost even. I took myself back down with my own rolling (one of the themes of the trip), and then Ben took the dice for the 2nd time. He said he had a big roll was coming up. It was.

At about the time Ben started rolling, this guy came up next to me with about two grand in chips. He had the biggest stack at the table and the dealers treated him appropriately. He put $80 on the pass line for Ben's first roll and then immediately put around $600 behind it in odds. This clearly violated the "5x odds" rule that the Tropicana enforces, but I guess they put that rule aside for him. And when Ben nailed his first point they paid him appropriately.

Ben followed up his first point with nailing a 4 and a 5. Not easy points. The table was warming up and our chip stacks were increasing. Ben had a ton of money out on the table, basically having every number covered with come bets. There was so much action on the hard way bets and the table in general that things got a little confusing for the dealers.

At first, the boxman and dealers were fairly friendly. The clearest indication of this was when Ben at some point rolled a 9. He had a come bet on the 9 but no odds were placed on it. I'm almost certain that Ben just forgot to put down odds on the bet, so he would normally just win whatever was out there. Instead, the chipman told the boxman that there were no odds on the bet. Incredibly, the boxman asked him what Ben was usually playing as odds, and paid him for the nonexistent odds!!!! I had never seen anything like it before.

There were two particular sets of rolls that changed the boxman's attitude towards the table. First were back to back 12s that Ben hit. Normally they are not a big deal. But the first time, the guy next to me had $25 on 12, and that pays 30-1. He then upped it to $50 on 12, and when Ben hit it again he now had made over $2000 on those two rolls. And he was complaining about it! He was cursing saying that he vowed he would put $500 on 12 if it hit the first time, so he really should have $15,000 right now. Given the chips he had in front of him, I believed him and felt that the casino lucked out a little bit there.

The second set of rolls that made the dealers angry were two six points in a row that Ben hit. He hit them both with a 3/3, so they were the hard way. Hitting the points was nice enough. But the hard ways had a TON of action on them, including my wealthy friend next to me. There were so many people who needed to get paid that the dealers started to accidentally give Ben money on the hard sixes even though he didn't make a bet on them. This was later resolved when the guy who actually made the bet woke up and started demanding to be paid. Ben didn't put up much of a fight.

I've seen dealers get somewhat angry before. When the guy hit the fire bet in Vegas the boxman stood up and covered the fire bet sign with his hands, and started asking anyone if they wanted the bet next time. But this boxman, Frank, took it to a whole new level. Around 6 or 7 points in on Ben's crushing roll he just started yelling at everyone. His chipmen, the players, everyone. If you were at the table, you got grief. His anger only made us laugh even more as we kept saying he was so rattled. Ben continued to hit numbers, and the money kept pouring out. Two pit bosses wandered up behind the boxman and one was on some sort of super phone. I think they had to update the casino as to the absolute beating that Ben and the guy next to me were combining to put on the Trop.

Eventually Frank was replaced, and he disingenuously told everyone "good luck" as he left. Ben and I immediately and simultaneously chimed in with an obnoxious, "Thanks Frank!!!" A new chipman came to our side of the table too, and man was he angry. He constantly yelled at our fellow players. It got so bad that at one point the new boxman had to reprimand him. The boxman somewhat whispered to him, "You can't talk to customers like that..." It was awesome.

Eventually, Ben's run ended. I'll put it at 8 points made. It was a top 3 craps run, right up there with Kim's Treasure Island run and Lacker's Vegas Tropicana rolls.

There are many other interesting stories that I won't get into in too much detail. The two Hasidic Jews playing blackjack at our table who demanded to hit a hard 18 v. a dealer 9 (and ended up pulling a 2!). The blackjack dealer who wouldn't let me split my nines a third time on a single hand, and the predictable ensuing disaster. The extra-surly waitress at Hooters. And my last spin on a nickel Monopoly slot machine as we were waiting for the bus back to NYC. It was quite a trip.

I'm on my way to Atlantic City right now, and the trip is already off to an ominous start. Similar to when that drunk fat guy fell on me in the airport on the way to Vegas.

First, the ticket counter guy for the AC bus just left at 5:45 to get dinner. So Ben couldn't buy a ticket and we missed the Tropicana bus.

Second, the bus we eventually got on broke down in Hoboken and we had to wait for a replacement bus to be sent out.

I basically have no chance of winning tonight. But hopefully I will at least lose in entertaing ways.

As Kim watched Gossip Girl and I watched NBA box scores update on my computer, I finally realized why I hate Gossip Girl so much. And it makes complete sense.

It is the exact opposite of The Wire and Deadwood.

What do I mean? Okay, lets get past Gossip Girl's storylines (awful) and the acting (equally awful). Each and every character in Gossip Girl is awful. I mean that it is impossible to like any character in the show.

In The Wire, every major character (with the exception of Marlo and Snoop) is at least somewhat likable. Avon is a drug kingpin but he's nice enough to donate 15k to help Cutty start a boxing gym. Frank Sobotka is a corrupt union boss, but he's doing what he does to get money to help out his union members and hopefully save the port. Even former Mayor Royce, an extremely unethical politician, has his moment when he contemplates letting Hamsterdam exist because of its positive effects on crime and social health measures. The list goes on and on, and its much the same as in Deadwood. Every character is developed fully and has both good and bad in them. This is refreshing and awesome because most shows just have heroes and villains.

Gossip Girl goes the opposite route. Every character is a scumbag.

First, there is the guy (I think his name is Chuck). He just looks like a scumbag, and he is so over the top scumbaggy that it is unbelievable. In virtually any other show, he would be the Lex Luthor figure. Yet in this awful hour of failure, he is only slightly more scumbaggy than the others.

One of the girls, Blair, plots the demise of anyone who dares not bend to her will. Not surprisingly, she is the best friend of the protagonist (seen above) and ex of Chuck.

So you have those two unlikable people. What about the others?

There is this girl who wants to be a fashion designer. In the episodes I've been forced to watch, she has stolen a very expensive dress from a friend's mother, sold the dress to a thrift store and then stole it from that thrift store, and also plotted against Blair in an attempt to get some friends. Last night she crashed a benefit for some rich people to stage her own fashion show.

Her father is equally awful. He keeps telling her and his son that they need to take it slow and not take risks, because apparently he never took any risks and never made it as a musician. Makes sense! He also tried to have his own daughter arrested by ratting her out to the cops after crashing that benefit.

And then there is the father's son. I think he's a writer or wants to be a writer, but he's not good enough as a writer to make it. So he tries to befriend Chuck in order to secretly write about him, but Chuck finds out and vows revenge. And now he's too scared to write about Chuck because he's a pussy. Great.

I don't know much about Blake Lively's character, other than she sleeps around a lot and shows her breasts off as much as possible.



I need to start working later on Mondays.

Jimbo's Account of Watching the Game at the Ballpark

I arrived at the game at about 7 and had to park very far from the stadium. Rachelle was taking the subway so I had to wait for her to show up before I could go in the stadium, so I did not get to my seat until about 8:35. I was amazed at how many people returned because to be honest it was a pain in the butt to rearrange my schedule to go again, and I'm sure everyone in there must of had the same problem. The weather was not as cold as I thought it would be, but that may have just been in comparison to Monday night.

Well, we all know what happened. Jenkins lead off with a double and the fans chant "Balfour...." I think we definitely got in his head because I remember Balfour being kind of wild for a few pitches. Worth's loop single gets Jenkins home and everyone was thinking "this is just what we want, get on the board first and use our bullpen." Then the Baldelli homer happened and everyone was thinking "they are going to blow this, this is Philadelphia and they are definitely going to blow it".

Now this is for real...I told my friend Jon, who I had the season tickets with, at the beginning of the season that the Phillies were going to win the World Series in five games and Pat Burrell was going to win it for us. I was kinda wrong, and only by a few feet. Good for old Pat the Bat, what a great way to leave the city that gave itself laryngitis by booing him for all these years.

Anyway, when Lidge came in I was thinking that he was going to blow his first save. From my seat behind home plate in the upper tier I thought that ball Werth caught had gone over his head. I sat and was about to cry until I realized he had caught it. The last out and the place erupts. I hugged everyone around me and still teared up. We eventually made our way outside and hung out on Broad Street for about a half hour. It was amazing. The parade was awesome, and I was so lucky to pick this year to buy season tickets.

GO PHILS!!!!