From: popovich@cs.columbia.edu (Steve Popovich)
Subject: Re: Pens-0 Red Wings-8/Random thoughts
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:03:50 GMT

Here's a reply to Brian Down's posting, liberally sprinkled with the
smilies that somehow got dropped out of his original.

> Ahhh...there you are Lori. I was beginning to wonder if some
> great natural disaster had befallen the city of PittsburgH. :-)
> (Or CMU's internet connection!)
> 
> After all, you can imagine my shock when I logged in on Monday
> morning and found virtually no postings from Penguin fans.

How can you expect us to be talkative when we're in mourning? :-)
Seriously, the wheels have fallen off the Pens' wagon lately.  That
isn't generally the sort of thing we like to talk about, so we're
staying quiet.  Take the respite as a (temporary) blessing. :-)
Personally, I'm glad that the Penguin woofers have stopped posting; I
only wish that the anti-Penguin woofers could do the same.

> You are sure it was the Quinn incident?? Not the referee? Injuries?
> Bad ice?? Not bad food?? But bad sex.... :-)

Hello?  Is anybody home in there? :-) Not bad sex, bad newspaper
reporting. :-) I think what Lori was trying to say was not that it was
the incident per se that had the Pens playing so badly, but the
police/court actions afterward and the news coverage that had them too
upset to play, with their minds off their game.  To clarify in
advance, lest someone think of my comments as sexist and condoning
rape, I'm not saying that the newspaper reporting is "bad", as in
"shouldn't be printed", I'm saying that the newspaper is "bad", as in
"unfavorable", which is no surprise. :-)

> Yup. Sounds like the Quinn incident all right!

Well, at least you're right there.  Or would you NOT expect such an
incident to have a demoralizing effect on a team?  I guess YOU could
play good hockey with the threat of a felony prosecution hanging over
your head, or your friends' heads?  Or with newspapers around the
country printing articles about the off-ice behavior of some of your
teammates!

> Ohhh....so the game was on local TV. Meaning that if any Penguin fan
> in PittsburgH wanted to watch it, all they had to do was turn on the
> local cable channel??

No, KDKA-TV is broadcast channel 2 in Pittsburgh.  Meaning that if any
Penguin fan in Pittsburgh wanted to watch it, all they had to do was
hook up their rabbit ears and turn on their TV...or, of course, they
could watch it on cable as well.

> Geez....I guess a plethora of the usual posters ("real" fans?) didn't
> bother to watch.  One frequent poster was driven to posting about football
> here in r.s.h (and how obnoxious Buffalo Bills fans are [ right! :-)]).
> Not a word about the game. Guess he missed it.

Well, although I'm still a Penguin fan, I'm not IN Pittsburgh any
more, so it would be rather hard for me to get KDKA-TV. :-) But given
the way the game turned out, I'm kind of glad I didn't see it; I'm not
a masochist, after all. :-)

> Another was reduced to posting CMU scores! Oh well...

One has nothing to do with the other.  Anna posted some CMU scores
last year, too.  And some of us CMU alumni appreciate it.

> PS: Thanks for the summary/thoughts, Lori. At least you showed up!

And you criticize Ulfie for his cheap shots? :-) Great.  Now that the
Pens are finally having the losing streak we all should have known
would be coming eventually, we get low blows from other teams' fans.
	-Steve