samhexum

To be accurate: Bonilla's situation is not because of the contract he signed to play for the Mets, it's because of the buy-out arrangement they made to get out of that contract. In 2000, the Mets agreed to buy out Bonilla's remaining $5.9 million contract. Instead of paying that cash up-front, the team agreed to give Bonilla $1.19 million per year for 25 years. The payments were deferred, starting in 2011. His annual pay includes a guaranteed 8% interest rate. Bonilla's deal is extremely lucrative for two reasons. For one, the Mets are paying Bonilla nearly $29.8 million, which is the sum of all his annual payments. That's more than double the $12.7 million value Bonilla's contract would have had at the time he started getting paid in 2011. Further, an 8% guaranteed interest rate is especially generous. It's the equivalent of an 8% return on an investment every year, and without the volatility or risk present in the stock market. Since the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to near zero during the Great Recession, savers can't get a comparable return on traditionally safe investments like cash or bonds. But Bonilla's deal is better yet, since his heirs would also continue getting paid each year if he were to pass away. For context, if the Mets paid a lower interest rate — 3%, for example — the team would have paid Bonilla about $455,000 each year (instead of $1.2 million), for a total value of about $11.4 million (instead of $29.8 million). Of course, the Mets didn't necessarily completely lose out on the deal. For one, they were able to free up cash by deferring pay, according to some observers. But the team did fall victim to a somewhat risky form of investment arbitrage involving Bernie Madoff. Mets owners believed they would easily be able to finance an 8% interest rate, since they were supposedly getting a higher return on an investment they'd made with Madoff.

A true Mets fan would never have raised this dreaded subject or at least would have used the smallest possible font to admit it.

Who said anything my parents allegedly did in their bedroom was natural? SHUDDER!!! :oops::oops:

And was acquired from the White Sox for James Shields... and now, a moment of silence so all forum members from Chicago can weep.

Yeah, but I've read he wasn't all that great a QB, either.

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/more-of-tim-tebow.117389/ https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/tim-tebow-dedicated-to-geminibear.111419/ https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/tim-tebow-channels-rocky-balboa-in-sweaty-lip-sync-battle.111416/

And the horse you rode in on, @JoeMendoza, and the horse you rode in on... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/and_the_horse_you_rode_in_on

I guess now he'll be known for more than being the answer to the trivia question Whose father once hit 2 grand slams in one inning off the same pitcher (Chan Ho Park)?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WERE'?!?!?! ?

How do you know @marylander1940 's dad's name? ??

How shocking! Brad Pitt went to college?!?!?! ?

My dad will soon be coming up on his 114th birthday, though we haven't celebrated it since he died in 1992. He was 55 & my mom was 41 when I was born. Can anyone beat that?

The Padres have agreed to a historic 14-year deal with Fernando Tatis Jr., according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). It is worth a guaranteed $340MM, Robert Murray of Fansided adds on Twitter.

I always heard that EJ Korvette (the full name of the store) stood for Eight Jewish Korean Veterans, but apparently that was an urban myth.. E. J. Korvette, also known as Korvettes, was an American chain of discount department stores, founded in 1948 in New York City. It was one of the first department stores to challenge the suggested retail price provisions of anti-discounting statutes. Founded by World War II veteran Eugene Ferkauf and his friend, Joe Zwillenberg, E. J. Korvette did much to define the idea of a discount department store. It displaced earlier five and dime retailers and preceded later discount stores, like Walmart, and warehouse clubs such as Costco. According to Korvette's founder, Eugene Ferkauf, who died on June 5, 2012, the name "E. J. Korvette" was coined as a combination of the initials of its founders (Eugene and Joe) and a re-spelling of the naval term corvette, a nimble sailing warship and later World War II sub-destroyer. The company's founding in 1948 (two years before the Korean War) disproves the urban legend that the name was an acronym for "Eight (or Eleven) Jewish Korean War Veterans". Founders Ferkauf and Zwillenberg, however, were Jewish. The company failed to properly manage its business success, which led to decline and its 1980 bankruptcy and closure.

Enjoyed her even more last night. P.S. Was that episode a great ad for Tesla, or what?

Doi! I can't believe I wrote Paramus County. I must've still been waking up. :oops:? What the Heck Are Bergen County’s Blue Laws? Even Alex Trebek Couldn’t Answer This The Jeopardy host (and contestants) were totally confused about the laws on Tuesday’s show. 10/14/19-- It’s one of the last locations in the country to have such laws, but even Bergen County residents don’t totally understand them, let alone Jersey folk who live elsewhere. Heck, even Alex Trebek was confused when a Jeopardy answer on Bergen County’s blue laws came up on Tuesday. The host noted that the blue laws ban retailers from selling anything on Sundays which is, of course, not true. How exactly does the blue law work? If you’re a retailer, you can’t sell things like clothes or shoes or what may be deemed non-essential on a Sunday. You can buy food, medicine and even beer and wine, but not hard liquor (in most cases). Confused yet? As someone who grew up in Bergen County, here’s what I do know. When I was bartending in Fair Lawn at a bowling alley and a dad asked me for a Budweiser on a Sunday before noon, I had to turn him down. At the 24-hour Walmart in Teterboro, the clothing section of the store is roped off, leaving just the supermarket section open to customers. If you head to Rite Aid in Hasbrouck Heights to buy a corkscrew on a Sunday, you’ll be turned away. Need to shop for birthday gifts, a winter jacket or shoes? You’ll need to head to Garden State Plaza in Paramus on Saturday along with everyone and their mother to get your shopping list taken care of while you can. The gigantic pro of the blue laws, as far as I’m concerned, is being able to fly down Route 17 on a Sunday without a drop of congestion. Plus, if you work in retail, it’s a guaranteed day off. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the name “blue law” may have come from the list of strict Sabbath day rules printed on blue paper in Samuel A. Peter’s General History of Connecticut. Or it could be that in the 18th century, the word “blue” meant “rigidly moral.” If you couldn’t tell, Puritans had everything to do with the banning of secular pleasantries such as buying alcohol and shopping. That’s probably why so many non-religious and non-Christian people in NJ feel inconvenienced by the laws rather than grateful for them. It’s no surprise that there have been a number of attempts to lift them; it’s hard to fit all your mall-ratting into one Saturday, especially if you’re already exhausted from looking for a parking spot–which is no small feat at the Garden State Plaza. Granted the laws also have supporters who see the regulations as a protest of over-commercialization (which definitely has some merit if you live in Hackensack and it takes you forever to get to Paramus Park, another mall in Paramus, on any day but Sunday). No matter how you feel about the blue laws, the Garden State is known nationally for resilience, perhaps above all else (that’s what your Jersey Strong bumper sticker is all about!). So if you need to shop on a Sunday, you’ll make the trip to Willowbrook Mall in Wayne and do what you have to do. After all, if you can endure Bergen’s cost of living, you can surely wait another week to do your shopping.

It's a joke from the movie Airplane. Yeah, but @WilliamM, who is the one who didn't get, didn't not get it because he's too young to have seen it. He just doesn't enjoy highbrow humor, apparently.

Surely you knew people who had turntables that played 78 RPM! My dad had several of those records. (And I know... don't call you Shirley!) Women drivers?!?!?! EGAD!!! If I ain't mistaken, Paramus in Bergen County in northern NJ still has that, unless it changed in the past decade or so.

Two masks now required to enter Manhattan federal court bldgs Visitors to Manhattan federal court and other buildings in the Southern District of New York are now required to either wear two face masks or anFDA-approved N95 mask. The double-mask requirement was included in the federal court district’s COVID-19 “phased re-entry plan” released on Feb. 11. “You are required to wear either: (i) one disposable mask underneath a cloth mask with the edges of the inner mask pushed against your face; or (ii) a properly fitted, FDA-authorized KN95 (or N95) mask,” the text of the plan states. “Gaiters, bandannas, or masks with valves/vents are not acceptable face coverings. If you do not have the approved mask(s), a screener will provide one. No one will be admitted without the proper mask(s),” it adds. Security guards at the court buildings — which include the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse at 40 Foley Square and District Court in White Plains — will enforce the mask mandate. The plan extends only to the federal courthouses in the district, but other federal court districts across the country can impose similar mandates if they choose to. The CDC last week recommended double masking for more protection against COVID-19. “If you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective,” top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said in January.

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