Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

BMG Sweet Sixteen

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Evidently, there’s a hidden part of the BMG website where Bob, David, and Charley share various documents, strategies for world domination, gossip, and recipes….

Guess what I found there?  Voila, their “BMG Sweet 16 brackets.” 

Apologies in advance for misclassifications, errors, and omissions. 

Quality 70%, Quantity 30% (else we wouldn’t have much to read). 

LEFTISH DEM REGIONAL I

Edprisby (1 seed b/c of this single post)

vs.

KBusch

NoPolitician

vs.

Afertig

LEFTISH DEM REGIONAL II

Laurel

vs.

StomV

JoelPatterson or was it JayBooth?

vs

Sco or was it Cos?  (Dyslexia bonus pick)

CENTRIST DEM REGIONAL

JimCaralis

vs.

Central Mass Dad or was it Central MA Guy?

Sabutai

vs.

Ernie Boch III?  (Hard to classify politically; barely defeated “NotErnie” in the BMG Tourney play-in game)

RED REGIONAL

Peter Porcupine

vs.

JK

Gary

vs.

JoeTS (how else would be know what happens at CPAC?)

BONUS SCORCESE BRACKET: The Departed

LightIris

vs.

Steverino

MaverickDem

vs.

Hoss

I know, I know, just as there are no standout teachers (“all teachers are good!”) in some parts of BMG World, there are no standout BMG posters. 

But if there WERE such a thing as merit, who would you pick to advance to the BMG Final Four? 

Please share widely!
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Comments

  1. Kickass, GGW.

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    I’m not conceited enough to vote for myself, and even if I was, I had a bad two hours in here today:

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    The next round would look like this:

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    Leftish:  – KBusch v. NoPol  – Laurel v. Sco – (dammitt, sorry guys, that was a tough one…)

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    Centrist:  – CMD v. EBIII (I’d buy tickets for that)

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    Red:

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    The Departed:

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    Good times.

    • I can counter Laurel‘s health care mojo with environmental postings, chock full of technical info, maps, links, and insights.  In fact, I’m due for another one.

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      That said, if I did fall in triple overtime, I wouldn’t hang my head.

      • I do admire your powers of illustration, Stomv.  But I gotta say, it doesn’t take much to counter my HC mojo since I don’t post on that. LOL!  Civil equality is my main deal, I s’poze.

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        Hey, I didn’t get the instructions from GGW – how are we supposed to thumb wrestle via the internets? 

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        PAPER!

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        Ha!  Gotcha!!

  2. In memory of the departed, I nonimate Steverino for the Bobby Knight Award and hope he shows up to throw out the first chair.

  3. Vodka martini secrets:

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    Chill the glass in the freezer.

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    Use an oil sprayer for the vermouth.

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    High-end vodka is good; Skyy is really not terrible. (I’ve not tried putting Popov through a Brita filter 10x.)

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    And here’s the coup de grace: twist of grapefruit peel — instead of lemon — is fabulous.

      • gak!  actually i cringe at earl grey, but i just had to say that.

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        tea.  english breakfast, double-strength. cut with milk.

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        a better brew exists nowhere.

        • Yuck.  English breakfast tea tastes like wood smoke smells.

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          I don’t do warm tea, and never tea with milk (too heavy).  I drink about a gallon of iced tea every day or so, 2 parts orange pekoe, one part earl grey (used to be china black, but twinings stopped selling it), little sugar and lemon.  Very refreshing.

          • depends on where you get it.  Peet’s Coffee & Tea has very strong, richly flavored loose english breakfast tea.  not the usual dainty water yellowing crud sold in grocery stores.

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            i cant get through warm weather w/o iced tea either, so my frequent travel in Ontario is sometimes harrowing.  there, ordering ‘iced tea’ gets you a can of sweetened lipton rotgut.  and the request of pouring hot tea over ice is generally met with a blank stare or something less than the usual friendly canadian disposition.  it. just. isn’t. done.

              • the iced tea wincing response i get from canadians.  it is the same response i have to suggestions of that dreadful fluid called coffee.  but nice to see you doing your bit to keep dunkin on the map!

                • Iced tea and lemonade are better in the south, where for whatever reason they are not made by stirring a sugary powder into water.

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                  I imagine that iced tea in these parts must be like Sanka for coffee drinkers.

              • There’s a REASON Dunkin gave it away – it makes them look generous, and nobody want’s it!

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                Coffee.  Strong as love, and black as death.  Kaffetaren Den Basta Jar Af Alla Jordische Dryker (Coffee is the Best of All Earthly Drinks).  I began with a shot of Chock Full O’ Nuts to get me going for kindergarten, from the pot that perked constantly on a low gas burner with more water, grounds and salt added at appropriate intervals.  When I got older, I graduated to effervescent saccharine as a condiment.

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                Coffee is about aroma.  Heat.  That slight sheen at the top. 

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                I have never had less than three cups in a day for my adult life.  It is to us Vikings what marinara is to Italians.

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                Coffee.  Black.  No Sugar.

                • at 87 years old, always turns a couple heads when she responds to the waitress asking how she wants her coffee:

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                  I like my coffee like I like my men – strong and black.

          • I got alcohol poisoning last year from drinking gin straight out of the bottle.  The whole bottle. 

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            …………on that happy note, it is also good with a touch of lemon.

            • i could feel the lining of my stomach start to peel just reading that.  try it with a splash of cabbage juice, and your rate of consumption will likely slow.  đŸ˜‰

          • but I’ll readily admit I have no taste in it.  I prefer Irish to Scotch to Canadian to American, but within each grouping I don’t tend to prefer the expensive versions.

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            My preference: Powers… so cheap, they don’t even have a web site (that I could find easily with Google).

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            As for the Vodka is for sissies comment — that was based solely on the ratio of the number of folks (usually girls) who drink vodka-based martinis and insist that it doesn’t taste like alcohol, not the alcohol content itself.  Not many gin-based martini drinkers I’ve seen are adverse to the taste of the alcohol.  Truth be told, I stay away from gin, preferring whiskey (or even whisky) or tequila, rarely mixed with much of anything.

            • Same here.  I can’t claim to be a scotch-whiskey snob.  I like a Dewars on the rocks.  But I’ve really taken to Maker’s Mark whiskey.  Maybe it’s the feaux melted-wax bottle top, I dont know…

              • Makers Mark is bourbon, and is very tasty, without being too expensive.  I also like the fake wax.

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                Powers is Irish whiskey, and I believe (along with Jamesons) one that once pushed the myth that Irish whiskey is so harsh because the &^%&^ English smashed all the stills, and they haven’t had any time to mellow.  I prefer Bushmills, but Powers is sufficient to warm you up on a cold day.

                • Shows what I know!  I do know it’s tasty, that’s for sure!

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                  For my 30th, my friends all bought me bottles of whiskey, which was nice, but I found myself with aa good problem to have – too much whiskey.  So, I’m just starting to develope a palate for it.

                • Is that it is like wine in its varieties, and you can get just as into it as a wine nut.  But the difference is that you can savor an expensive bottle of whiskey forever without spoilage; that bottle of Bordeaux must be drained immediately.

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                  That is essentially how I started; but it was leftovers from the open bar at my wedding.

                • Jameson is my Irish whiskey of choice, but on this crazy island with their crazy foreign culture its almost impossible to find.  None of the packies have it, and I’ve only seen it in one bar – an Irish pub owned by New Englanders.

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                  I’m told that in Ireland Jameson is the Catholic whiskey and Bushmills is drunk by the Protestants.

                • Instead of Vicks or Robitussin on those nights where I couldn’t sleep because of a tickle-in-the-back-of our throught cough.  My dad still keeps it for this purpose.  So it available, at least in NYC.  Put me right to sleep.

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                  Crazy island?  Where do you live, Kai?

                • You’re a guest in another country and you refer to their culture as “crazy foreign”?  LOL!  By definition, you are the crazy foreigner in their country.  FYI:  One should actually expect to find foreign cultures when one goes abroad.  The US doesn’t have total dominion quite yet.

        • …we made that mistake once.  They taste horrible.

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          And Russian vodka, even in the normal range, is absolutely debilitating, as we discovered in Munich.

          • Russian chick I went to the Uni in Kassel with took me to a Russian bar and they all did shots of ridiculously strong vodka chased with pickles.  ‘Twas among the more unpleasant things to go in my mouth.

          • I tried a shot of Bacardi 150, neat.  Bounced off the bottom of my stomache as if there were a trampoline down there, and brought everything else along with it.

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            Oops.

            • I tried a shot of Bacardi 150

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              Oh maaaaaan, same here.  How is that stuff legal?

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              I was at this keg party, and the keg ran out, so a friend of mine and I found some 151 in someone’s room.  Good lord, it tasted like turpentine.  No sooner did my throat recover from the Agent Orange-like scourching it had just endured from the shot, then someone in the other room yelled, “Hey!  They brought in another keg!”

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              Uggghh…

              • Getting old.

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                The amount of time the stuff actually remained in my stomache was probably less than 1 minute.  Kaboom!  It was like Ipecac.

              • Has there ever been a good thing that happens in a story that begins or otherwise contains the phrase “…the keg ran out…”?

          • One night, before I had to write a paper for a stupid philosophy course (basic education requirements, you know) I sat down next to the typewriter (this was 1970 or so, so it was a real mechanical typewriter–of course I had erasable bond paper) and a rum&coke.  Unfortunately I did not know the correct proportion of rum and coke for a rum&coke, so, instead of having 1/4 rum and 3/4 coke, I had the proportions completely reversed.  Not only that, but it was in a 12 ounce glass.

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            Fortunately, the paper was not due the next day đŸ˜‰

    • We put Rubinoff through a Brita pitcher a dozen times and it still tasted like medical alcohol.  Myth = Busted.

  4. so I’ll take a shot at this one.  In the first round:

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    -Edprisby for being more active in the posts I read, even if I don’t always agree with him
    -Afertig because I like his name better
    -Laurel because even thought I agree with stomv more often, I’ve butted heads with Laurel enough times to know better than to bet against her
    -Osc because I can’t type
    -JimCaralis because he always recommends my posts
    -Ernie Boch III because I always recommend his posts
    -Peter for sheer testicular fortitude, and for consistently giving my comments high ratings
    -JoeTS just ‘cuz I don’t like the name Gary

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    In the second round:

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    -Ed over Afertig
    -Laurel over Osc (because she actually exists)
    -Ernie over Jim
    _Peter over Joe

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    In the Final Four:

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    -Ed over Laurel (because I do disagree often)
    -Ernie over Peter (because he makes me laugh more often)

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    In the final game, Ed shows up pumped and with the crowd behind him.  Ernie walks out, takes a look around, decides everyone in the arena is a bunch of idiots, flips everyone the bird and walks out.

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    Ed is about to be declared the winner by default when steverino shows up out of nowhere, verbally assaults the refs, gives Ed a verbal bashing and claims victory for himself.

  8. Anyone who uses the word “Gigantor” not once but twice in a single post has got to be a force to be reckoned with.

    • double or nothing on the 5th congressional if you’re up for it.  Who’s Andrea’s candidate? đŸ™‚

  10. Glad to almost make the field.

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    Great post.

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    I go with…

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    KBusch over Afertig in Leftish I
    Laurel over Sco/OCS in Lefish II (Tough seeding, Laurel and Stomv should not have have faced off in the first round)

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    JimCaralis over Sabutai in the Centrist
    Porcupine over Gary in the Red

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    And Steverino over Maverick Dem in the Departed.

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    FINAL FOUR
    Laurel over KBusch in a squeaker
    Porcupine over JimCaralis in a 2OT thriller

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    Final game cancelled when site administration decides the site isn’t about competition, it’s about cooperating to improve the policy and debate in the Commonwealth. Both Laurel and Porcupine are given trophies.

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    Turns out there’s a very Grail ending to the whole thing.

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    • …as they whirl to face each other, circling warily, as David, Bob and Charley make their way to the dais above the ring, David casually adjusting his toga while Bob keeps trying to keep his laurel wreath from sliding down over one eye…

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      (Cue ‘Sharks and Jets’ music)…..

      • Charley strides confidently to the fore and snatches the trophy from Peter’s clammy grasp.  The mic drops from the ceiling cord, clicking into life.

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        “We have a disqualification here” says Charlie.  The crowd shushes itself.

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        “The BMG Sweet 16 is an amatuer competition.  Peter Porcupine, on my left in the baggy trunks, being a paid plant of the Reeepublicun Partie, is hereby disqualified!”

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        In unison the trio of refs salute the crowd with a loud and hearty “Drink Liberally!!”

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        The crowd is on their feet, cheering wildly.  Catholics & Queers, Dads & Diests, Loopholers & The Loopy exit the arena, arms linked, and together head for the Future.

        • ..as he scrambled throguh the dust towards the celebrating Emperors.  “Nobody ever gave me a cent!”

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          David looked down at the dust-covered ball of prickles.  “What do you mean?  How can we help it if you’re a badly-paid apparatchik?”

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          “No”, snarled Procupine.  “You keep saying that, but nobody has ever paid me AT ALL for political work or writing”.

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          He reared up and snatched the trophy away from Charley.  “Gimme that!”, he cried, turing towards Laurel once again.  “You and me, baby…Yer ON!…”

          • during those endless strategy sessions?  sheesh, that’s rough!  dems provide pizza & donuts!  well, so much for having “a high enough opinion to respect the idea that even their time is worth money!” as someone wrote somewhere, although who and where i couldn’t say…  ;D

  11. Was it where I advocated against withdrawal from Iraq that put me over the edge, or where I extolled free trade and questioned unions’ motives?

    • Apologies in advance for misclassifications, errors, and omissions.

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      Consider yourself the UNLV of BMG — put in the wrong bracket! 

  12. Because deval and the teachers’ unions will send out memos to BMG moonbats saying competiton is bad and it only leads to hurt feelings.
    C’mon comrades. Competition is bad.

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