2BS Blog - This is it.

M&M’s to lose color during contest Candy maker plans to eliminate colors temporarily during marketing contest. M&M’s will run a contest in 2004 which will offer six grand prizes and for a brief period strip the world famous candy of its color.

M&M’s plans to phase out color in 2004 – the “official” announcement will be made on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC - in what the company is calling the biggest transformation in its 60 year history.

The company will re-introduce color four to six months into the new year by running a contest in which six bags – out of the more than 100 million in retail stores – will contain colored M&M’s. Each of the six will contain M&M’s of the same color – one each for red, yellow, green, blue, brown and orange.

The purchasers of those bags will receive grand prizes – yet to be determined – and that “event” will trigger the re-introduction of color, but not necessarily the same color. The company spokesman would not elaborate.

Peerless Price catches one deep on Atlanta’s only flea flicker of the year.


Mike Vick scrambles to find the open man.


Arizona wins in the final second to knock the Vikings out of the playoffs and the Packers in.


LaDainian Tomlinson goes nutty on the Raiders for 243 yards rushing.


Ahman Green breaks a 98 yard touchdown run.


Mike Vanderjagt goes 41-41 on the year with this game winning field goal against Houston.


Priest Holmes tip toes in for his record breaking 27th touchdown


Bethel Johnson fakes out 3 Bills defenders to knife into the end zone.


Ricky Williams pounds through a Jet en route to leading his team to victory.


Jamal Lewis became the fifth player in NFL history to record 2,000 yards rushing in a season.

A visitor takes a photo of the sculpture ‘Christmas Angel’ at the ’ Ice World ’ in the northern German town of Luebeck Friday, Dec.19, 2003. The Ice World, Germany’s first ice-sculpture-festival will run until Jan. 25, 2004. (AP Photo/Fabian Bimmer)

(from yourDictionary.com)

1. Embedded —News correspondents embedded in military units suggested to many that news correspondents were in bed with the military.

2. Blog —Web logs have come of age and, regrettably, this lexical mutation with them.

3. SARS —Farm animals strike back at the humans who eat them again with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The Flu (with a capital “F”) is pushing right behind.

4. Spam —This old word now refers to a plague contending with SARS for destructive potential. Could the Flu (with a capital “F”) be any worse?

5. Taikonaut —The Chinese astronaut distracted our attention from textiles and copyrights to remind us that China is a rising industrial power.

6. Bushism —This word now has a real possibility for remaining in the language. (Dan Quayle has lost his chance of making solecisms his contribution to political history.)

7. Allision —The National Transportation and Safety Board in investigating the Staten Island ferry tragedy concluded it wasn’t a collision (between two moving objects) but an allision (a crash with an immoveable object).

8. Recall —As in California Recall that resulted in the election of Ahh-nold as the Governator.

9. Middangeard —Middle English for Middle Earth in the movies of Tolkien’s trilogy, still fascinating millions around the world with its characters and insights into the origins of the English language.

10. Celibacy —The word which holds the key to ending the seemingly eternal scandal of the US Catholic Church.

Good day to you.

And to you.

Wow, It seems like Christmas Eve creeped right up on us this year. And Wala! Here it is. So, hope your ready and all set for tomorrow cause that will be here before you know it.

Today is a big day at Eden. The IT PowerPAC is being released. The IT PowerPAC manages the total internal support activities of a company’s IT department. IT PowerPAC is the enabling tool for IT departments looking to implement an IT-CRM environment in the workplace. The IT PowerPAC is complete integration of our Project Manager, Help Desk, Issue Tracker, and Asset Management components. It also includes an Executive Dashboard which allows you to report on any of the functional domains.

I’ll be driving to Western NY this afternoon, wish me safe travels.



A Chinese worker installs metal frames of a giant Christmas tree being erected outside a shopping mall in Shanghai, December 8, 2003. Though Christmas is not officially celebrated in China, the holiday is increasingly becoming popular as Chinese adopt more Western ideas and festivals in the communist country. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV

Favre played wonderful last night. He had one of his best games ever and an almost perfect quarterback rating. In the first half alone he was 15-17 for 311 yards and 4 touchdowns. That was amazing by itself. He finished the game 22-30 with 399 yards and a quarterback rating of 153.9. (158.3 is perfect) Some of the passes he threw were just incredible. They were the type of passes that seemed nearly unhuman. His receivers also made some incredible catches. Favre moved into second place in NFL history for touchdown passes passing Fran Tarkenton with 346 total. Oh by the way, the Packers creamed the Raiders 41-7.

The game was over by halftime but I couldn’t stop watching. The game marked Favre’s 188 consecutive game in a row as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. That’s every game since one in 1992 in which he offered a relief effort to lead the Packers to victory over the Bengals. This is a truly remarkable streak. Favre has played through pain in his career but never pain like this. It was an honor to watch this man battle adversity and kick its ass in the process. I respect you like none other.

Favre’s father died unexpectantly yesterday while driving and tonight Brett is playing on Monday Night Football in Oakland against the Raiders. That really really sucks and I send him my sympathies and regards.

He is one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game and I have seen him do some completely crazy stuff on the field.

Be extremely happy with what you have.

Atlanta Falcons cornerback Juran Bolden( 21) holds out the ball as he crosses the goal line, as Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Michael Pittman (32) gives chase in the second quarter in Tampa, December 20, 2003. The touchdown came after an interception of Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson. REUTERS/Pierre DuCharme

Well, maybe they didn’t exactly cream the Bucs… but they were creaming them. It got a little hairy at the end, but.. They did beat them!

A tough task and a goal of this team this year was to overcome the Bucs stronghold on them and they have risen to that challenge. They beat the Bucs, officially knocking them out of the playoffs and increasing the hope for next year!

Good job boys!

Listen to ESPN Radio

According to legend, the world’s first bagel was produced in 1783 as a
tribute to Jan Sobieski, King of Poland. The king, a renowned horseman,
had just saved the people of Austria from an onslaught by Turkish
invaders. In gratitude, a local baker shaped yeast dough into the shape
of stirrup to honor him and called it the Austrian word for stirrup,
beugel. The roll soon became a hit throughout Eastern Europe. Over time,
its shape evolved into a circle with a hole in the center and its named
was converted to its modern form, bagel.

1880s—Hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews emigrated to
America, bringing with them a love for bagels. New York City vendors
used the bagel’s hole-in-the-middle shape to their merchandising
advantage by threading them onto dowels and selling them on street
corners throughout the city.

1907—The International Bagel Bakers Union was founded in New York
City. Only sons of union members could be apprenticed to learn the
secrets of bagel baking in order to safeguard the culinary art.

1927—Polish baker Harry Lender opened the first bagel plant outside
New York City in New Haven, Conn. The bagel’s popularity began to spread
in the United States.

1960s—Bagel production skyrocketed as machines capable of producing
200 to 400 bagels per hour were popularized and the tradition of
hand-forming bagels virtually vanished.

1987—Bagels made their way into mainstream America, sold around the
country in grocery stores and listed as standard items on fast food
menus.

1988—Americans were eating an average of one bagel per month.

1993—American bagel consumption doubled to an average of one bagel
every two weeks.

1997—Schnucks’ Nancy Anne Bakery introduced 17 bagels reformulated to
match the special tastes and texture desires of Midwesterners, along
with six cream cheese spreads, four types of bagel melts and eight bagel
sandwiches.

22Dec2003—Clement Hill, of the Eden Corporation, brings in bagels for
all employees to share.

Good show, more later.

Dave Matthews & Friends
December 20, 2003
Blue Cross Arena. Rochester, NY

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
01 intro 2:14.74
02 #41 6:40.02
03 Where Are You Going 5:12.74
04 Typical Situation 7:39.15
05 Cry Freedom 6:18.20
06 Dancing Nancies 8:32.08

Dave Matthews and Friends
07 Intro -> 3:17.59
08 Trouble 8:23.05
09 Dodo 9:43.41
10 intro to… 1:38.45
11 Stay or Leave 5:25.71
12 Up And Away -> 7:17.17
13 Tell Me Something Good && 6:32.61
01 intro 0:26.37
02 So Damn Lucky 5:33.57
03 Gravedigger -> 5:20.09
04 Grey Blue Eyes 4:45.12
05 Up On Cripple Creek @% 7:03.43
06 American Tune + 4:54.50
07 Oh 4:16.13
08 Oh Sister <sup>5:46.29
09 Too High -> 7:44.50
10 Fire %= 5:29.48
11 Some Devil ** 5:02.30
12 (Butterfly) 2:42.71
01 Spanish Moon &% 7:46.41
02 Solsbury Hill # 5:45.59
03 Sweet Up and Down 6:04.56
04 Thank You ~ 8:34.71
05 encore break 2:23.07
06 intro 1:13.48
07 Everyday -> *** 5:31.24
08 Bathtub Gin -> ***#% 3:41.20
09 Everyday *** 3:44.00
10 Fool In The Rain $$ 9:27.53


# Peter Gabriel cover
% Trey on lead vocals
~ Sly and The Family Stone cover
+ Paul Simon cover</sup>
with Emmylou Harris; Bob Dylan cover
$$ Led Zeppelin cover
** Dave solo
*** Dave and Trey
# Phish cover
@ The Band cover
& Little Feat cover
= Jimi Hendrix cover
&& Stevie Wonder cover

Trey Anastasio has started to incorporate several Phish staples into Dave Matthews and Friends’ setlist. Along with Brady Blade, Tony Hall, Ray Paczkowski and Tim Reynolds, Trey has been touring behind Dave’s recent solo release, Some Devil, since December 12th.

During the first two nights of their tour, Dave and Trey traded off vocals on Billy Preston’s “Will it Go Round in Circles.” The often-covered song was a staple on Trey’s 1999 spring tour and was covered by Phish the following Fall. Last Tuesday, Trey also offered an acoustic rendition of “Waste” from Phish’s 1996 album Billy Breaths. Dave is familiar with that particular Phish song, having covered it on the Mockingbird Foundation’s Sharing in the Groove: A Tribute to Phish and regularly during Dave Matthews Band performances.

Finally, last Wednesday, Trey and Dave played a stripped down version of “Bathtub Gin” at Madison Square Garden, similar to the arrangement of the Lawn Boy cut offered on Trey’s solo tours. While Trey tackled most of the song’s lyrics, Dave did join in for a few verses, culminating with the arena audience humming the song’s melody sans the band. Trey continued to tease “Bathtub Gin” during a show-closing version of Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain.”

Along with material written by Dave and Trey, “The Friends” offer a wide array of covers. Some choice tributes include the Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog,” Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon,” and Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill.” Before collaborating on Some Devil, Dave and Trey last performed together on May 19th, 2001 at Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco, California, when Trey sat in on “Lie in Our Graves.”

Kobe Bryant© of the Los Angeles Lakers flips a behind-the-back pass against Denver Nuggets’ defenders Jon Barry (L) and Marcus Camby during the second quarter of their NBA game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, December 19, 2003. Bryant arrived at the game in the second quarter after returning from Eagle, Colorado, where he spent the earlier part of the day in court on sexual assault charges. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

LOS ANGELES (AP)—With the game tied and the ball in Kobe Bryant’s hands, the Denver Nuggets knew they were in trouble.

The Nuggets erased all of a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter, but Bryant beat them with a 21-foot jumper at the buzzer, giving the Los Angeles Lakers a 101-99 victory Friday night after Bryant arrived late from a court hearing in Colorado.

“It’s just greatness,” Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik said. “We knew he would ball fake, he always does. But he made the shot. That’s why he’s great.”

Bryant took the inbounds pass from Devean George, drove left, pump-faked defender Jon Barry off his feet and sank the winning jumper from the top of the key before falling on his rear end. He was mobbed by teammates, and the crowd that had welcomed him with a loud ovation at the start of the second quarter went wild.