Law Goalie

Etymology is the study of the structure and meaning of words - not what they've come to mean through misprision and misuse (connotation), but where they came from, how they're put together, and what they literally mean (denotation). In practise, it's about 10% English grammar, 10% common sense, and 80% foreign vocabulary (it is, after all, our fault for having such a spatchcocked language). For example, "etymology" is composed of the Greek etymos (truth) and logos (word) - so 'the study of the truth of words.' It has, over time, come to connote 'the study of the history of words', since "truth" is a word that is as close to banned as a word can get in academia - it died around the same time PhD's in philology went the way of the dinosaurs and Lily's Latin Grammar. In practise, etymology is about the diligent use of good resources and a strong memory. Very good dictionaries (OED) always contain more or less complete etymologies; poor ones will just list what language the word came from, or nothing at all. Truly complete etymologies can be enormous, essay-length studies; it's a wonderful but truly pedantic field. There are some words in our language that seem to have sprung from everywhere and nowhere. Your course sounds unusually well structured. I can only hope that, apart from F451, it's been a good experience. I have a whole potted state-of-the-language rant which will one day appear in The Venting Spot, but for here and now, I'll confine myself to saying good work and good luck in that course.

If I had my way, the first half of every freshman undergraduate course would be nothing but grammar, etymology, and rhetoric. I'm a prick, I know. I will not, however, defend Fahrenheit 451, which is an execrable piece of fabulation; like Rusty noted, it's not even the best of its sub-sub-species of that particular genre. It tends to get chosen because it's short and critical summaries are readily available, along with a film. It's the kind of book you don't have to read. Congrats, Chadd - I know it'll feel like relief, but that's something in which to feel genuine pride. Getting a celebratory room at a first-class Marriott for 75% off doesn't hurt either. :D

Call Scott Battram. :D

Enthusiasm got the better of me. :(

Oh, those were awesome. Can't find a pic at the moment myself. When the original owner tried to sell them on eBay (he was about to set sail around the world with his wife, and was selling all his earthly possessions), Warner Bros. had the auction pulled for copyright infringement!

Hahahaha Brian's does it again! Here are a couple of their other all-times greats: And a few more from Scott Battram: And the original version of the trapper, which I will admit to liking better:

Ask them to use USPS.

Hah, too much credit -- I was referring to this: Now, he *may* have hit 'C' instead of 'V', but his reply would suggest otherwise. I inferred that Blackstone had not simply widened the flat for the wider goalie blades, but actually had some new shape that involved a flat bottom with rounded sides, as opposed to the straight 'fangs' of FBV edges.

Ah, so he did give Thomas the new 'FBC'.

I don't think it has been, and I'm damned interested in that. The only thing Steve mentioned in the blog is that Tim Thomas is now on FBV - though he didn't say what cut, just that "it is a wicked edge we put him on." (Feb.18) I had understood that they were just intending to widen the FBV cut in proportion to the wider goalie steel (eg. 115/50) - I didn't realise they were actually looking at a different geometry. Who's using the 'FBC' at the Olympics? Personally, I don't think FBV needs to be modified for goalies. I've been using 100/50 and I love it. Oykib's on 100/75 and he's loving that too. The adaptation period was more or less in line with what others have posted: couple hours' hard skating.

Great shots - gotta love #83 cheering you on as you were finishing the guy off. I'm sure it's come up before, but are you a native or an import? edit: nm, looked it up for myself. One other question, though - where does the ENL fit in relative to the EPIHL?

The only other thing I wish they'd included is the full Revoke Pro Zone customisation guide. The only place that has them posted as pictures is Greatskate; otherwise, you need to go through the online customisers (Flash, ugh) and keep clicking on the Help tags to see how each feature works. Not many people have ever actually opened up a Premier Series pad to see what the guts look like, and it's good stuff to know.

We have a lot of problems with reality. I like to think it's charming - which is, in fact, a wish symptomatic of that very problem.

What can you do but admire Lefebvre's work? I'm really impressed with the level of detail in this catalogue. The insight into how the gloves in particular are evolving, the shape of the internals. the offsets and angles at which they're attached - great stuff. It's an incredibly helpful resource not only to sell Reebok gear, but to explain goalie equipment generally to people. I do find it interesting that for the first time in a long time, Reebok has two distinct goal lines: the Revokes with a two-piece cuff on the glove, a refined blocker, and a pad with deeper leg/boot channels, a calf-lock (the 'wing-wrap) and knee/thigh breaks in the vertical roll; and the Premiers with a one-piece glove-cuff, a more traditional Lefebvre blocker, and a stiffer pad (vertically speaking) with shallow leg/boot. This was present to an extent last year, but it wasn't quite so clearly differentiated nor so well explained. I'm almost 100% that my next pair of pads will be Reeboks, and I'm beginning to come around the gloves despite my TPS addiction. What I really need to do is borrow a set from somebody for a while to get a better feel for it; they really are unique in the market.

Remember the 10,000 hour rule: takes that long to become expert in anything. They all passed that years ago, and you're still working toward it.

If the Habs re-sign them at a total (for both) of $8M or less per season for a reasonable term (3-5 years), they could have the best goaltending situation in the NHL. It's hard to pay much less than that for one top-flight goalie and a capable backup, let alone two potential #1 goalies. Halak's stock has risen, Price's has dropped, but they could still both be afforded. Best case: someone throws a huge offer-sheet at one (or both), and the Habs walk away with a boatload of picks.

I'm loving the Bauer heritage gloves.

Wife got a great offer from UofT to stay for her PhD -- great for her, since it was her first acceptance, though I wasn't the least bit surprised, and great for her family, who are pleased as punch, but also great for us because it means there's at least a chance we won't be moving. Still, we'll see what happens as the other letters roll in.

That's very cool of Easton, and also of Reebok. I had got the impression that Reebok was a little... reserved, to put it diplomatically, about stuff like this.

Bonne réponse. :D

It will happen. Mark my words. It would be exactly like pulling your team off the ice if the fans were throwing things at them during play. The problem is that because ONE asshole can ruin a game this way, it's hard to use forfeiture as a penalty. Let's say they put the onus on the home team to keep lasers out of the building: seemingly good idea, until a visiting fan brings out a laser pointer and shines it on his own goalie's chest for a few seconds to get a forfeit win. I suspect what you'll see are games being suspended temporarily for a quick search, and home teams fined severely - worse if they can't find the laser and the game has to be stopped and finished later. That will force teams to step up security, and make the simple point that for the majority of the fans in attendance, they're hurting their own team financially to do it. I would also suspect that some kind of league-wide ban will be put in place for fans who do this, ie. they'll never be let into a game again. Well, one streak or another has to end there. :)

Blow the damn whistle - that's the right call. Giguere's grace period starts tonight; 15 games max, unless the Leafs' D undergoes a massive renaissance.

That little fact was certainly part of the impetus behind the Phaneuf deal.

I eat my words about Sjostrom and Kulemin - nice bit of work. And yet Wallin magically managed not to be involved...

Late bloomer. He's had more than a few 'awkward moments' in junior - but then again, if your goddamned body wouldn't stop growing, you'd have a few of those too. :) Huge potential as a shutdown guy, with definite Chara possibilities if he fills out and improves his coordination. Very, very impressive at the WJC. I like pairing Phaneuf with Beauchemin; puts him in a similar role to what he was in back in Anaheim, as a support guy for a genuine #1 guy. Classy move by Exelby, especially as he's on his way out of town anyway. The advantage to keeping Finger up (at least for now), is that a team with major injuries on the back-end (eg. Vancouver) may get desperate if their guys don't hurry back. Nolan Baumgartner & co. were holding the fort fairly well out West, but they're beginning to get exposed. While Finger won't net a high pick or a prospect, a straight waiver move is certainly possible which would take his $3.5M through 2012 (IIRC) off the books, and a late- to mid-round pick isn't entirely out of the question either. Burke can always play the financial card, and say that they're happy to pay him to watch games from the press box, forcing any team that wants him to give them something. On the other hand, I'm sure he'd be thrilled just to see the back of him. But why, why, WHY do they stick Kulemin with Wallin and Sjostrom? The guy could be a legitimate first-liner, and they stick him with the new guy and Captain Invisible. I mean, it's bad enough on Sjostrom, coming into Toronto and getting assigned to a line that has to play 'Where's Wallin?' instead of hockey.