Look Out Below

did you know?......


The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.


just a little nugget of useless information to brighten up your day

peace out yo

Somewhere Out There Ben Rothlesberger Just Breathed A Sigh of Releaf

Un-Friggen-Believable, you see..... I knew I should have waited a little longer to write my State of the NHL Post.

How ? I still can'’t believe it. In an hours time we went from the worst team in the league to Stanley Cup Favorites. It'’s like the last five years never happened. Like we never traded Lang, Herdina, Straka, Francis, Jager, Zubov, Naslund, and a cast of thousand for a pile of money we used to pay the light bill at the Igloo.

In the darkest hour when all we heard from the world of hockey was "“talks continue, no progress"”. There came from the north, a 17 year old Canadian that dramatically changed the sport in Pittsburgh BEFORE HE IS EVEN DRAFTED. Within minutes of the Draft Lottery the phones at the Mellon Arena were ringing of the hook, people from California are calling about tickets CALIFORNIA! I know people that won'’t even get on the Parkway to see a game. I heard a report this morning that said the Penguins have sold so many season tickets in the last two days that they'’re now projected to be in the top half of the league in revenue this year. How ridiculous is that! In forty-eight hours we'’ve gone from one of the prime candidates for the new revenue sharing system to one of its biggest contributors. But wait there'’s more; there are rumors that Craig Patrick'’s phone has been a little busy too, apparently a lot of soon to be released NHL players have been requesting that their agents contact the Pens. It's official Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is now the center of the hockey universe. There are NHL all-stars begging to join our team and a year and a half ago we were in the middle of a twenty game loosing streak. How the hell did we get here?!?! It'’ll be great to bring back a Kovalev or Naslund but I think its going to be even more fun to tell a LeClair or a Chelios to get lost.

Ahhhhhh Sweet Revenge

peace out yo

Hit the Lights and Lace the Skates !

So you guys have probably been waiting for this post for the last two weeks and although I've been scouring the far corners of the internet trying to keep abreast of the latest rumors I relay didn't want to write anything till the deal was certain.

At this point I'm sure you've all heard the details so I'm not going to go into my own version of "NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement for Dummies" I just want to make a point that most people haven't considered yet.

The events of the next few weeks will determine the teams that will control the NHL for the next five years.

When the NHL Board of Govoners meet tomorrow to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement they will set in motion a series of events between now and the beginning of the season (early October) that will turn the sport of hockey upside down. When the National Football League put their current economic system in place management of a sports team restricted by a salary cap was a new concept and the proper roster management has gradually developed over a period of 20 years. The NHL however will not have the luxury of two decade introduction to player/personnel skills.

The CBA will be ratified sometime tomorrow afternoon and this will usher in the single largest shift in talent any major sports league has ever experienced. In the last fifteen years a number of big market teams have used their excess revinue to buy up (and in many cases over pay) the leagues most gifted players while smaller market teams were forced to make hockey decisions based on economics rather than ability. This will no longer be the case after the CBA is signed, in fact large market clubs that have over spent to keep their star studded rosters intact now find themselves at a distinct disadvantage. Currently at least ten teams are over the 39 million dollar cap that comes with the new CBA. These teams will be given a one time opportunity to buy out player contracts and release those players into free agency in order to be in line with the new NHL system. So not only will these former big spenders be relegated to the basement of the NHL but their star players are now up for grabs.

So the general managers are faced with a tough decision. Who do you sign? What players are worth the money? And what balance of youth(and inexpensive contracts) do you bled with the big names (and big contracts) currently on the market?

It'll be east to tell who best answers these questions

They'll be the ones skating around the ice with the big shiny silver cup next June

OK get to work Mr. Patrick its about time we see a repeat performance of the Francis Deal

peace out yo

Let's Go Pucks!

Hey everybody no real post today but I have been named the Official Website of The Mighty Pucks of McKeesport ( ben and trev's hockey team). So you can now click on the banner at the top of the page to access a reviews of their games and league standings.

Oh a little update on Zack Mills The PSU Quaterback turned Vegas High Roller, he managed to make it deep into the second round before it became slighty too expensive to continue. It's estimated that Mills made it into the mid 800's out of over 5,000 competitors. Not bad for a guy who 's poker experience was limited to online casinos.

go pucks!

peace out yo

QB Sneek

So what happens when the game ends and the tailgaiters go home? What dose an NCAA quaterback do when eligibility runs out and the NFL doesn't come calling?

Easy! Just do what 5 year Penn State starter Zack Mills did...


Enter an online tournament sponsored by Pokerstars.com, win an all expense paid trip to vegas including entry into the No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em Championship at Harrah's Las Vegas Casino. Then pull you PSU hat down over your eyes and bluff like there's no tomorrow. Going into the second round Mills has accumulated a stash of $45,000 and is still very much alive in the tournament.

good luck zack

peace out yo

The Greatest Quote This Side of Traal

i heard this great quote a few days ago and found it amusing enough that i feel the need to force it on the rest of you...

"A DORK is someone who knows that a towel is the most insanely usefull thing in the universe.

A NERD is someone who actually brings the towel.

I'm proud to be simply the dork."


for those of you that are neither Dork nor Nerd here's a little bit of explaination written by douglas adams...

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.


that's all i've got for now

peace out yo,
from your favorite Dork who ocasionaly considers tossing a towel in his bag just incase

Shady happenings in Fayette County

So I took a little kayacking trip along the Yough yesterday and was shocked to discover a few dirty little secrets that the folks in Fayette County were keeping from the rest of us. I guess this shouldn't be too surprising, after all most of the county was originally purchased by a diabolical army officer who swindled his own soldiers out of land awarded them by the King of England. This villain took advantage of the economic woes of his now unemployed soldiers and was able to buy the property off them for pennies an acre. The Bloodthirsty Monster's name?...... George Washington.


Ok on to some new revelations

-I want to take this opportunity to officially make a Declaration of Shenanigans against Citgo Bassmaster Classic Fishing Tournament. Normally I wouldn't waist a second thinking about "The Bassmaster Classic" but since their holding it on the Pittsburgh rivers this year the TV is polluted with bass fishen advertisements. While we were on the river yesterday we noticed there were far too many fish and that they were all enormous. Those bastards are cheating! No wonder those overweight hillbillies on the TV fishing show always catch monsters that look like they've spent a some time floating around Three Mile Island. The Television Fishing Industry is stocking ringer fish !


- A little farther down the river we ran into a site more disturbing ( I know what could be more disturbing than deceitful television fisherman?). Try to wrap your head around this one boys and girls. As we entered the final stretch of our trip I noticed more and more people along the river banks in one particularly large group that had taken up residence on both sides of the river (and near my favorite rope swing into the river) we spotted a large middle-aged man with a giant swastika tattooed on his back. That's right you heard it here first folks, Peryolopous Pennsylvania is the favored vacation spot of the neo-nazi community of America.

So I guess I'll finish this with a little advice. Next time your in search of some aquatic enjoyment in the Youghiogheny valley. Just spend the extra 15 minutes in the car and go to Ohiopyle instead. I think you be a little less likely to find genetically altered fish floating around the rapids of Dimple Rock. Plus I've never seen a member of the Hitler Youth amongst the white water rafting crowed

peace out yo

This One's For The Huddled Masses, Keep Yearnin Yo!

"The pen is mightier than the sword, if it has been sharpened to a fine point, dipped in deadly poison and is thrown ten feet away. But relay, your better off with the sword"
Benjerman Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack (first draft)

There's something distinctly American about a holiday held to commemorate a group of people telling an authority figure to "shove it". And it's very fitting that this holiday is celebrated by eating massive quantities of barbecued meat and creating explosions in public places.



happy 4th everybody


now pass the potato salad


peace out yo

A Friendly Reminder from Your Favorite Happy Valley Inn Keeper

I just read this report on www.gopsusports.com... STATE COLLEGE, Pa., June 30, 2005 -

Penn State alumni purchased more than 10,000 single game football tickets the first three days of this week, resulting in the first home sellout of the 2005 season, the October 8 clash with border rival Ohio State.

A limited number of tickets remain for the October 29 Homecoming contest with Purdue, according to Bud Meredith, Director of Ticket Operations.

The alumni sale began June 27 and has resulted in a record-setting number of on-line sales over the first three days.

Single game tickets will go on sale to the public on Tuesday, July, 5. All orders are to be placed online at: www.GoPSUsports.com, the official website of Penn State Athletics.

Fans should click the "Buy Tickets" link in the upper part of the left navigational bar to purchase tickets.

Phone and counter orders are not available for the public sale or the alumni sale.

There is a limit of four tickets for the Homecoming game with Purdue (Time TBA).

Tickets also are available for five additional Nittany Lions home games: South Florida (Sept. 3, 3:30 p.m.); Cincinnati (Sept. 10, 12:00 p.m.); Central Michigan (Sept. 17, 1:30 p.m.); Minnesota (Oct. 1, TBA) and the Senior Day contest with Wisconsin on Nov. 5 (TBA).

If tickets remain after the public sale, group sales - as well as sales for the away games - will begin on Monday, July 18 at 8:00 a.m. Tickets for the Nittany Lions' games at Northwestern (Sept. 24, TBA), Illinois (Oct. 22, 7:00 p.m.) and the season ending battle at Michigan State (Nov. 19, TBA) will likely be available. Penn State's allotment for the Oct. 15 game at Michigan will be exhausted by orders from Nittany Lion Club members.

Phone orders, counter and group sales will take place only if tickets remain after the alumni and public sales. The numbers to call are: 814-865-5555 or 800-863-3336 weekdays from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p. m.

Tickets are going fast so if you planned to come up for a game and have a preference for a date or opponent you need to get tickets very soon.

Just a little friendly reminder from you favorite Happy Valley Inn Keeper/Football Weekend Coordinator


Peace out yo