Hoffman

I know it was alluded to many times before, but the earliest I remember anyone stating it outright was 1996, when Jim Ross did his "I have no loyalty to the WWF" promo and brought out the new Razor Ramon and Diesel.

Shawn Michaels starts hanging out with a rabbit; he turns evil and tosses his good friend Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window. Adam Rose starts hanging out with a rabbit; he becomes increasingly paranoid to the point where his good friends, a hot dog and French fries among them, preferred to help out his Royal Rumble opponents and leave Rose out to dry. Obviously, bunnies in wrestling are not to be trusted. And it all started with this guy: Confusing poor Crusher the way he did, switching places with Ravishing Ronald, removing his mask, using an enormous safe as a foreign object, and giving him a stick of dynamite when all Crusher wanted to do was shake hands after the match. It's an evil hidden wrestling bunny agenda.

Harry Chapin wouldn't have died in that car crash if only he'd been driving a Nissan.

I had to look up who Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon were, so I guess I've fallen completely out of the pop culture loop, or at least the SNL loop.

I think you nailed the problem Reed and many others (including myself) will/do have with this film in two short sentences. True. It would receive much less flak if it wasn't the biography of a recently-deceased man whose actions, whatever your opinion of them, are fresh in our minds. Take Bradley Cooper, make him a random gruff-but-lovable roguish family man who shoots people for a living, and you have a film that would be either loved or ignored. I saw American Sniper last Friday night, and I went to see The Interview two nights before that. American Sniper received more audience laughs than The Interview did. That's probably not what was intended to happen, but there we are.

On its own, I think American Sniper is a good movie, but nothing out-and-out spectacular. It's really your standard action film featuring people shooting people and blowing up things, with a man who loves his wife and kids but can't figure out how to express his emotions, so he goes back out for more shooting and exploding. My audience absolutely fell in love with Bradley Cooper; laughing at any light-hearted situation, cheering on his victories, shouting encouragement during his setbacks, and plenty of applause at the end of the movie. It was like being in the studio audience for a '70s sitcom, and I think that overall experience lifted the film a few notches for me.

I'd love it if they brought back Vince and Linda as a Mr. and Mrs. Roper-type bickering couple. In their backstage office, Hunter and Stephanie spend their time making babyfaces' lives miserable; meanwhile, in the locker room downstairs, Linda questions Vince's manhood while Vince cracks wise about Linda's casserole the night before, then turns to the camera for a hearty chuckle.

Former Cardinals closer Jason Motte goes to the Cubs for one year at $4.5 million (plus $2.5 million in possible bonuses). Sad to see him go, I always liked the guy (and his beard).

I had/probably still have the Topps Don Mattingly rookie card. I looked it up sometime in the late 80s and saw it was worth $40 at the time. I treasured that card and kept it as safe as possible because 13-year-old me knew it would be my ticket to fame and fortune. Of course, by the late 90s it fell to under five bucks, so petulant twentysomething me relegated it to that big box of cards I revisit every so often. And so Don Mattingly was replaced on my "favorite card in my collection" list by a tattered Rolf Benirschke football card solely for his few months of Wheel of Fortune hosting duties after he left the NFL.

This should be fun. I'm all for whatever it takes to build the Cubs up and turn Cardinals-Cubs into something even remotely as hateable and obnoxious around the rest of MLB as Yankees-Red Sox.

This one is strange. Growing up in the '80s and '90s, I was more used to players winning the Stanley Cup once they left St. Louis, not before they got here.

I saw Sting in a WWE ring for the first time, Vince McMahon in person, Big Show's umpteenth turn, and two titles change hands. But all I'm going to tell everyone at work in the morning is that I saw a rabbit score a pinfall victory and get carried off in celebration by a hot dog and french fries.

Ogre made his babyface turn eventually. Booger was a nerd, but he was also unrepentant sleaze who just kept belching his way to glory. Booger was to "nerd" what the Cardinals are to "small market." But I'll still blindly root for and defend them to the end.

The Cardinals are basically Booger at this point. It may look like we're on the ropes, facing doom, but we always find that extra dose of snot to unleash on the NL Central.

Shelby Miller seemed destined to be shipped out of St. Louis since he was miffed at not pitching in the 2013 postseason. The Cardinals front office never forget even a perceived slight from one of the players. Still, after all the doomsaying from other Cardinals fans that they'd have to trade Miller, the backup outfielders, and half the farm to get a known starting outfielder, the trade for Heyward is a pleasant surprise.

At least Vince is staying relatively up-to-date on his Internet memes. I figured every time there was a computer upgrade at Titan Towers, he'd ask Triple H to make sure he'd still have access to that one email he got 16 years ago with the Dancing Baby attachment.

Absolutely awful news. My thoughts are with his loved ones right now. I barely post here, so take this for what it’s worth, but each and every one of you puts a smile on my face. I only know you through this board, but after years of lurking and a smattering of posts, I honestly appreciate all of you and what you say. In my “real life” I’ll make remarks like “You should talk to Burgundy, she knows what she’s talking about on this” or “I know this well-endowed Mickey Mouse who said something cogent.” With Newb82, it was his SNME reviews earlier this year that I enjoyed the most. I got deep into wrestling watching SNME, and it was so much fun to read someone’s modern thoughts on what lured me into wrestling fandom in the first place. We may have barely conversed, Justin, but it was enough to consider you a friend and I’m richer for the experience. Rest in peace and many thanks.

With that kind of skill on the ice, the Blues may actually hold off their annual choke job until the second round this time.

It is my hope and dream now that the Blues will become even half as hateable as the Cardinals. See that Vladimir Tarasenko? He plays hockey the right way.

So the Royals' current strategy is the opposite of 1985: complete blow-out in Game 6, and they'll save the evil umpiring for Game 7. I kind of like that. We'll see how it goes.

Shoot, if Maddon went to the Dodgers, I'd dump Matheny and bring Mattingly to St. Louis. Unlike Matheny, Mattingly has no idea how to stop the Cardinals.

You're not the only one. I didn't realize until I saw Gone Girl that my dream girl is a glasses-wearin', board game-playin' bartender. Gone Girl was sold out last Friday night, so I saw Annabelle instead. Having now seen Gone Girl, it was infinitely more terrifying (at least psychologically) and darkly humorous..

I still can't bring myself to root for the Royals. I'm both that old crackpot, sitting in the corner, going on about National League superiority, and that nine-year-old watching Game 6 of the 1985 World Series knowing that absolutely nothing will go wrong in the bottom of the ninth.

Even Matheny's losing manager interview was dull and lifeless and full of nothing. We were spoiled by La Russa's breakdown in 2004 and Herzog's slightly amused bluntness in '85 and '87.