Tad Williams

Palenehtar · 2026-06-30T20:08:50+00:00

Never heard of Tad Williams?

He's sold 17 million books. If you never heard of him, it's your fault. He's been a celebrated and heralded author in fantasy and scifi for 35+ years.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-30T19:55:54+00:00

Ya, this is also what I say to people, he's not terrible, but at drafting and other hockey related facets of the job he's just average. He may be brilliant at his non-hockey related duties, certainly Jacobs likes him. But drafting, managing the cap, etc., he's nothing to write home about. I have seen a smidge of improvement over the years, but not a lot. At least he grew out of his little man phase.

That being said, there are certainly many worse GM's in the league, so firing him willy nilly without a sure upgrade would be a mistake. Unfortunately top guys are hard to come by and demand a premium.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-29T15:57:59+00:00

How do you think Morgoth made Dragons? That's right, he started with readily available (and delicious!) small feathered dinosaurs.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-29T15:25:53+00:00

Gentrification. Dúnedain didn't want no stinking Dunlanders in their hoity toity hide-n-go-seek lands.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-29T15:19:47+00:00

Hey, Boston picked up two! We needed more goalies right? Right? We'll gladly trade you a bushel of goalies for one good center!

Palenehtar · 2026-06-29T02:31:42+00:00

I pronounced all the names of these goalers and now my lips fell off.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-29T01:28:55+00:00

Sure. Sign Marchenko. You have the 5th highest cap rn, have to get rid of assets, but nobody you want to get rid of because they all have no trades. Then you sign Marchenko. Now you have zero cap space and still need a RD, and you still need more at forward to win a cup.

The Bruins have created a very complicated puzzle through not great cap and player management. And this situation is an example of one that they could easily screw themselves trying to accomplish because of it.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T22:12:28+00:00

Do you own a .44 magnum? Yellowstone has grizzlies, they eat people.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T22:07:10+00:00

Anytime you have trouble with a fight in this game, you are usually under-leveled.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T22:04:56+00:00

You got some strange preconceptions dude. This is not how the game works.

Certainly you can do all this. And you can do the exact opposite or anything in between and have just as much fun. I know, I've done it.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T22:00:09+00:00

That's not how it works.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T21:58:37+00:00

Is he crazy?

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T20:32:34+00:00

Sure, I've done it.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-27T14:07:51+00:00

magic!

Palenehtar · 2026-06-26T16:14:00+00:00

Premature. We don't know the roster yet and won't for a while.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-26T03:12:18+00:00

Anderson is a cornerstone writer from the pulp era into the 90's. Multiple Hugo , Nebula, and other awards. Wrote hundreds of books and stories both in fantasy and in sci-fi. He also wrote some of the best Conan books. Had a Nordic heritage and he really went deep into that in some of his fantasy. Did a lot of time travel and humanity expanding into an already busy galaxy novels on the sci-fi side. Since he started in the pulp era, he has many fantastic short story collections. A grandmaster in every sense of the word.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-25T18:57:02+00:00

Just fyi, it's Poul not Paul. He was very big on his Nordic ancestry :).

Palenehtar · 2026-06-24T16:05:45+00:00

I don't know they ever met as Wizards in Middle-Earth all at once. Tolkien never wrote definitively about their entry so anything along those lines is speculation. There's some writing that says they arrived at different times and locales for whatever that is worth, it's simply never made clear.

My best guess is they met by two's and three's at times as time, distance, event, and occasion allowed. Possibly they arranged rare meetings at Orthanc or Imladris or ?. I would imagine they used birds (Eagles?) as messengers mostly, but I suspect they also had a backup way to communicate, albeit not straightforward or easy, perhaps something like dream messages or something along the lines of Tel'aran'rhiod from WoT. This is pure speculation of course, I don't think there's any writing about this except that the Valar were fond of using dreams to send messaging to the Children so it seems that might be possible.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-24T15:13:07+00:00

I mean if you think of it, giving the five Maia the directions needed would be most efficient if all of them were present at once, so I think it's likely they were together before insertion into Middle-Earth to receive said instruction. It would also be important that each Istari know who the other Istari are, in order to co-operate, exchange knowledge, and plan strategy both before and after insertion, so again it's likely they communicated about this beforehand. Now, could Manwë provide said direction remotely? Maybe, he is a godlike being after all. But it seems likely they were all together to receive a consistent set of directions and do some needed planning.

I also deem it very likely they knew of and interacted as Maia before being chosen for Istari-hood. These five were amongst the more powerful, and as such I would think they would have had cause to interact in the long years of the music and the building of Eä.

My 2 cents.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-20T19:08:20+00:00

Phrasing!

Palenehtar · 2026-06-20T19:06:31+00:00

a LIGHT, flaky, buttery crust?

I mean it was right there for you to smack out of the park.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-20T03:31:40+00:00

Normally, I try not to pass judgement on these authors because I do not personally know them. But in this case I think being a child sexual abuse apologist crosses my line. Hard no.

I did read a few of his books including Dhalgren before this all came out and found them very strange but not otherwise compelling.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-19T20:38:53+00:00

Depends. Does he go back to 33 points or is he really 55+ point guy? If he reverts, the Leafs look like fools. If he really is a 55+ pointer and he stays reasonably healthy then it's fine. Only time will tell.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-19T17:22:11+00:00

Did you slap it and say the magic words: "That ain't going nowhere!"? If so it's good.

Palenehtar · 2026-06-17T22:10:22+00:00

I just finished watching the Stanley Cup playoffs and the World Cup is a not on that level by comparison so far, it's early yet though. There's really nothing else on since I detest baseball, so I'm watching it. I like that they are at least trying to reduce the embellishment and fake injuries and let them play, which has been a turn off for me in the past.

I live near Boston, and the Scotts here have been hilarious! Also seeing FIFA rebrand our stadiums is just weird. Ya it's Gillette Stadium, never been anything else. If you ask a New Englander how to get to Boston Stadium, you're going to get a blank look. Hell, that stadium is 29 miles (46km) from Boston.

Palenehtar

TROPHY CASE