OT: Off Topic.

[Adz]

I saw something that mentioned Ryan Smyth awhile back and I thought...huh? Wait, hockey Ryan Smyth? So I looked up his wikipedia entry and sure enough it said he was living here. A lot of former players are still here so I guess word travels that it's a pretty good place to raise a family, particularly in Williamson Co. The schools are already set up with safety measures for children of celebrities, it's pretty, and you can golf nearly year round. It's still surprising since he never played for Nashville. But welcome!

 

[sparkle twin]

In a tweet last September, Edmonton Journal sports reporter Jim Matheson wrote: "Heard Ryan Smyth is moving with his family to Nashville. I don't think there's a hockey job there but he's bought a house there."
A blurb in the Nashville Post, also dated from September, said Ryan and Stacey Smyth had bought a new home outside Nashville, in the city of Franklin.

An emotional Ryan Smyth waves to the Edmonton crowd after playing his final NHL game in April 2014. (Jason Franson/Canadian Press)
"Ryan Smyth, the man they call 'Captain Canada,' never played a minute for the Nashville Predators in his 19 years in the NHL," the online news site said.
"But apparently all those trips to town with the Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders, Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings impressed him enough that he was willing to lay down $3.225 million for this eight-acre estate in Hidden River."

Wow, I had no idea! That's pretty awesome!

 

[BigFatCat999]

Dear winter, quit being for f'ing dry! I'm sick of bleeding out my nose!

 

[triggrman]

Dear winter, quit being for f'ing dry! I'm sick of bleeding out my nose!

We don't have that problem in the south, come on down.

 

[BigFatCat999]

We don't have that problem in the south, come on down.

I wish. Keeping an eye on my mom.

 

[GoldOnGold]

I saw something that mentioned Ryan Smyth awhile back and I thought...huh? Wait, hockey Ryan Smyth? So I looked up his wikipedia entry and sure enough it said he was living here. A lot of former players are still here so I guess word travels that it's a pretty good place to raise a family, particularly in Williamson Co. The schools are already set up with safety measures for children of celebrities, it's pretty, and you can golf nearly year round. It's still surprising since he never played for Nashville. But welcome!

I'm hoping with the increasing number former NHL players in the area we could get some local NHLers and increased support for local hockey facilities.

 

[FossilFndr]

Does the expression

"Hindsight is 2020"

Now mean that hindsight is madness?

 

[Adz]

Does the expression

"Hindsight is 2020"

Now mean that hindsight is madness?

I had occasion to use that phrase the other day and decided not to. Because the answer is yes.

You know, when you think about it we kind of got everything we asked for. More time with family, less time at our workplace or on the road, a quiet family holiday...
Next time we need to remember to specify that potential death and a complete destruction of our way of life is not the reason for getting what we ask for!

 

[Adz]

Okay, so I think I told you guys I had started watching Fringe. I'm not a binger, so I'm just now on season 4 (second to last season). Specifically I want to talk about Season 4, Episode 3. Aired October 2011. Here's the plot (from IMDB): Two bullying boys die and exhibit an alarming state of rapid decay. Their would-be victim, an extremely lonely boy, has a remarkably unusual connection to the killer.

What is the killer? This fungus like thing that travels through sewers. It looks like a network of nerves made of lichen. Our two bullies entered a cave chasing Lonely Boy and this...thing...attacked them. Tendrils covered them immediately, choked them and they died. Within an hour they looked like they'd been lying dead out in the elements for months. Lonely Boy is fine but mother is out of town so he goes to the lab with the team. When Walter (main guy in the lab) starts to check out the boys' bodies, they look really spongy and goopy then explode like a mushroom--spores everywhere. Meanwhile, LB opens up a little to Walter and we find he is fond of art. He has drawn an interesting picture -- that turns out to be identical to one on the wall of the cave where they first found the fungus/creature*. Turns out he intentionally went to the cave because his Fungus Friend would take care of him...and them. They have become...close. But Fringe team correctly sees Gus as a threat to society in general and heads off to kill it. When they arrive at the cave LB feels the impact of their bright lights in his eyes and intense heat from their flames from miles away and will die if they don't stop. He is still in the laboratory--where there is a deprivation tank. And in the very NEXT episode, a grown up who'd been a kid undergoing experiments was known then as 9.

So...did this particular episode spark the creation of Stranger Things years later? Anyone who watched it Fringe first then Stranger Things might not even remember the episode, but watching it AFTER ST there is definitely a connection. It's either a blatant ripoff or a brilliant continuation of a one off episode. If you have Prime Video it's streaming there if you want to watch.

Edit--just remembered this part. The reason I started to notice all this was because the theme music when they were doing (I think) the cave scene was... the theme music from Stranger Things. I thought, oh, it's a nod to them isn't that...wait. There would be no nod yet in 2011!

*demigorgon

 

[LCPreds]

Wow. I loved Fringe and don’t remember that episode at all. Almost done with our current binge show so perhaps it’s time to watch again! Also a fan is ST so looking forward to seeing this potential connection.

Also, just realized Fringe season one was 2009. Unbelievable!

 

[Adz]

Wow. I loved Fringe and don’t remember that episode at all. Almost done with our current binge show so perhaps it’s time to watch again! Also a fan is ST so looking forward to seeing this potential connection.

Also, just realized Fringe season one was 2009. Unbelievable!

Going back and reading the reviews it wasn't perceived as a particularly good episode at the time, was seen as more of a filler. I don't think it would be problematic to just watch that episode out of order, see the connection, then start over with Season 1 Episode 1. The series is also streaming free on IMDB, Prime is just feeding it through their platform, too.

It was just obvious. I have to wonder if Fringe went back and added in the ST theme after it became a hit show--surely the brothers didn't copy that, too. It was brief but enough that I made the connection.

Have you seen Person of Interest? I loved that show. Noticed it's streaming on IMDB, too.

 

[LCPreds]

We started Person of Interest but stopped for some reason. From what I recall it was really good. Will definitely give it another look.

 

[PredsV82]

Working my way through Burn Notice. I only watched the last season when it aired.

 

[triggrman]

I feel like a teenage girl saying this but I really like the Originals.

 

[Legionnaire11]

I'm still working through Star Trek. Started playing an RPG with a friend earlier in the year and felt like my Trek knowledge wasn't up to par as I've always been more of a Star Wars person. So even though i've seen a lot of Trek, I decided to start at the beginning and watch every episode of every series.

So far this year I've watched the entire Original Series and subsequent movies. And I'm at the end of Season 3 of The Next Generation. In between, since my wife doesn't care for Star Trek, we watch The Great British Baking Show, Skin Wars, Glow Up, Nailed It (all reality shows on Netflix). We watched all of The Good Place which was really fun and I think we're going to watch Community or Schitt's Creek next. Plus every week we watch 3-4 movies for the kids which is a combination of Disney, Godzilla and horror movies.

I assume that with hockey returning next month, all of these viewing habits will change. But it hasn't been a bad year as far as exploring some new things.

 

[LCPreds]

Good choices there...

- Schitt's Creek was awesome. David is possibly my favorite sitcom character of all time.
- After that we ended up with... Community. Great show that we actually started when it originally aired but eventually stopped for some reason. On the final season now and I'm glad we went back to it.

Some others in case you haven't seen them:
- Parks & Rec is another that we've binged since Covid started.
- Ted Lasso. Holy crap this was hilarious. We binged this in basically one day. (This one is only on Apple TV)

 

[Adz]

I love Schitt's Creek. Stumbled upon it on Pop years ago and tried to sell others on watching it. You really do have to get past the original few shows to get to the story. I probably liked Stevie best, but it was a great ensemble cast. The names were hilarious. Roland Schitt, Jocelyn Schitt, Mutt Schitt, Roland Moira Schitt... never saw the last season, though. Too many spoilers revealed so I never felt the need to actually watch.

I really like Doc Martin. He's just so...serious, no sense of humor whatsoever. It amuses me. I missed the first few seasons when it was on PBS but they showed it after Downton Abbey for awhile and I liked it. Since I'd never seen those first years so I went back and watched on Hulu first and then through a British site called Daily Motion. I'm currently on the 8th year and actually remember most of the shows I'm seeing, but I have the history behind them now. I know I didn't see any of the 9th season, though, so I have that to look forward to.

 

[BigFatCat999]

A perfect holiday way to celebrate Christmas in 2020

 

[triggrman]

I tried to get my wife to put a photo of all us around the carving brother in law did to the tree that fell on their house during the tornado on the back of our Christmas card. She said no.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Can we replace the ball dropping on NYE with a middle finger?

 

[Adz]

I tried to get my wife to put a photo of all us around the carving brother in law did to the tree that fell on their house during the tornado on the back of our Christmas card. She said no.

That's great. I would put it on MY Christmas card, if I sent them.
Which I don't because...well, I just don't, I don't know why. Probably because I don't have such a nifty stump carving in my yard.

 

[Legionnaire11]

A main boards thread got me to pull out my old card collection and look up some of the values for the first time ever... and I might have to put some of these on Ebay. Best thing is that I got most of my best cards for free, I was friends with a kid in the early 90's who wasn't into sports. His stepdad liked when I came over because he could talk sports with me, and one day while cleaning out his basement he gave me all his old cards, saying something like "Clint won't ever be into these, you should have them". Cards going back as early as '76 with the bulk from '78-81, it's absolutely crazy in hindsight.

 

[triggrman]

That's great. I would put it on MY Christmas card, if I sent them.
Which I don't because...well, I just don't, I don't know why. Probably because I don't have such a nifty stump carving in my yard.

He's an artsy dude. Musician, carver, painter, anything creative he's good at it. His latest music project (he was formally in the Mummies, Hot Action Cop, and a Shania tribute band) is Dave Fleppard, a Def Leppard tribute band. They're actually pretty good.

 

[bdub24]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays ya filthy animals!

 

[BigFatCat999]

"What are you getting for Christmas?"

Bitterness