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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

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  • #1

    Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

    Report on my Visit to Indy

    First, I’ll discuss basketball and then give a little report on my experience with Indianapolis--my first time in the city.

    I still can’t figure out why we won. Nobody stood out particularly (Granger perhaps, but his minutes were limited) and nobody was particularly bad. If fact, everybody was a level or so better than usual and every Piston seemed about one level worse (four games in five days?). I did make the comment that it seemed like, for this one big game, the Pacers decided to be mature for a night. And I mean that. Jax didn’t hog the ball too much (a little), Harrison didn’t blow up and get a technical, careless turnovers were avoided, and I didn’t see anybody miss a defensive assignment while complaining to the refs.

    Foster looks bigger in person than on TV (the baby face, maybe?). The court looks immensely larger on TV but in person the players hardly all seem to fit on one side of the court. Rasheed Wallace is mega-impressive in person. Its amazing to see a guy of that size with such soft touch on the ball.

    My girlfriend and I sat in Row 11, Section 16 and I can’t imagine there are better seats in the house. Any of you sitting in that section may have noticed the good-looking middle-aged blonde standing up and screaming for the Pistons. She was the only Pistons fan in the section and it was quite embarrassing. The guy next to me questioned me: “And you let her sit here?” (He was joking) and I provided an answer he could understand: “She bought the tickets.”

    By the way, that guy next to me was pretty knowledgeable about Pacers and about basketball. Don’t know if that’s typical of all fans in the house or just what I ended up with that night. He was a lawyer whose had season tickets since 1982.

    I booed a bunch. I live a couple hours from Atlanta and have seen the Ps against the Hawks three or four times. Your voice doesn’t carry in Philips Arena nearly as well as it does at Conseco. I just had the feeling that my boos might actually be effective--like when Rip was crying to the ref. I yelled once or twice at Jax when he jacked it up while double or triple-teamed (hoping to see Jax pass or Rick to make an adjustment). My loudest moment was with a little under two minutes and Billups drove to the bucket on a fast break. Saras was staying in front of him, playing good defense, and Chauncey lost control of the ball and it hit his chest and went out of bounds. I was sure Billups was gonna get a celebrity call and the foul would go against Sarunas. But they called it straight up. Out of bounds on Billups, Pacers ball. It was a key play to the game. I was up screaming in delight and a woman in front of me turned around and kind of looked at me sideways. I suddenly realized I was nearly out of control, but it sure was fun.

    On to the city of Indianapolis. First of all, the people were incredibly friendly. We both were surprised by this, but one local explained to us that Indiana considers itself the northernmost Southern state. That makes sense. Never once did people ask where we were from (in a degrading Northern way), but were just genuinely nice and friendly. We have noticed a large difference in all other Northern cities we have visited. Indy may even have something on the Southern niceness, as it seemed to come off a bit less fake than good ole Southern hospitality. I’ll use the word genuine again.

    While visiting the Omni hotel, we learned to our surprise that the Pistons were staying there. Bill Laimbeer walked by us at one point, followed a little later by Joe Dumars. My girlfriend got to see Ben Wallace and I went up and introduced her and she just got all freaked out with joy. Whatever. (She started watching Pacers games with me and fell in love with Ben during the playoffs two years ago. Now she’s a die hard Pistons fan. Just call me Dr. Frankenstein. I created a monster.)

    Upon our arrival Friday, we ate brunch at the Cafe Patachou. I read where it was named one of the Top Ten places in the country to eat breakfast. It was very good--I had some kind of exotic omelet with horseradish. But I’m not sure if it was all that. I’d have to eat there a few more times before I’d place it in the breakfast pantheon.

    That evening we went to St. Elmo’s for a drink and appetizer (Shrimp Cocktail of course.) The Indianapolis horseradish cartel was at work again with this dish, and the hot and spicy affect was darn powerful. It was a great experience and everything it was cracked up to be.

    We didn’t stay there for dinner because all my internet research said the shrimp cocktail was great but the steaks weren’t as good as Ruth’s Chris, where we made reservations for the following evening.

    That night after St. Elmo’s we ate at Mama Corrola’s Italian. What a great restaurant. Great food, fantastic sauce, good wine, superb atmosphere.

    The next night we ate at Ruth’s Chris at 5:00 pm before the big game. Great atmosphere, great service, great opportunity to smoke a cigar, and a great check ($130!). The steak, however, was not that great. I’m guessing we may have bricked by passsing up St. Elmo’s.

    Speaking of cigars, we did a quick walk around the monument circle downtown and popped into the tobacco/pipe/cigar shop. I tried one of the homey cigars and we chatted with the owner for a long time. He was another example of that incredible Indiana friendliness and told us all about the town, the love of basketball, getting engaged during halftime of a game, the various theories on the meaning of Hoosier, etc, etc.. He definitely represented for you guys. We talked about how my choice in pipe tobacco (Maclellan Special Black) is too strong for my girlfriend while driving in the car and he said his brand (Virginia something) is much lighter. I wanted to try it but didn’t want to pay $12 bucks for a tin of it, so the dude just gave me an ouce of it from his own stash, no charge. That was cool.

    We were a little surprised that downtown was not very hoppin on Friday night (around 7 pm or so before we headed to Mama Corrola’s) but the various folks said Saturday is a bigger night for Indy and that February is also kind of slow. I hope that ‘s the case as I know that economic development and growth is always a difficult issue for a city.

    I know a little about this because I have just finished a 500 page book on my city, Chattanooga, Tennessee, which comes out next month. We are still “almost there” but not just yet when it comes to an economic boom. We still haven’t quite recovered from our manufacturing downslide of the 70s. We now have a beautiful renovated downtown and riverfront, however, which has become a big draw for families and companies to move to Chattanooga. Ironically, it was a trip to Indianapolis by 50 of our city leaders in 1984 that led to the plans for renovation of our city in the 1990s. They got some pep talks from Mayor Bill Hudnut and learned about the renovation of the river canal walk and other projects that help boost Indianapolis’s momentum. Chattanooga’s city leaders now say the key meetings that led to our renaissance were a series of planning sessions after that trip called “Lessons Learned in Indianaopolis.” I write about all this in my book (see oldmoneynewsouth.com).

    Well, anyway, we had a great time and were impressed with the city. It worked out quite well. She got to meet her hero Ben Wallace and I got to see the Pacers kick the Pistons’ butt. What a great country.

    McKeyFan
    "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

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  • #2
    Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

    A good woman you got there.

    It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

    Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
    Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
    NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

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    • #3
      Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

      Nice post. Glad you enjoyed the stay. You certainly helped the economy
      The best exercise of the human heart is reaching down and picking someone else up.

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      • #4
        Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

        Great read McKey! Great Read! Thank You!

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        • #5
          Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

          Originally posted by McKeyFan
          Any of you sitting in that section may have noticed the good-looking [/b]middle-aged blonde[/b] standing up and screaming for the Pistons.
          She doesn't read the forums? ....Otherwise you might want to change the words 'middle-aged' to young or 20ish looking or hot or something like that

          -Bball
          Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

          ------

          "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

          -John Wooden

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          • #6
            Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

            Nice post. (But you're right, you bricked it on St. Elmo's!)

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

              I moved from IN to AZ when I was 11 years old or so, and after my first trip back there, I vowed to never go back again, I don't know why. But your post makes me want to go back again.

              Great post.

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              • #8
                Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                Originally posted by Bat Boy
                Nice post. (But you're right, you bricked it on St. Elmo's!)
                Agree.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                  Originally posted by Kstat
                  A good woman you got there.
                  'cept for her taste in bball players.....

                  Originally posted by Bat Boy
                  Nice post. (But you're right, you bricked it on St. Elmo's!)
                  yup

                  Nice recap to your trip! Glad you both enjoyed yourself...it sounds like you did alot of research and planning, which is a good thing. I never fail to do the same and it has always left me better off for having done it....Next time you are in town, I suggest going to Bucca Di Bepo for some Italian...the atmosphere is great, and the food has always been fantastic for me....There is one downtown right across from Embassy Suites on Illinois Ave.

                  Also, if you are in the mood for some lighthearted fun, roll over to Jillian's about a block west of Conseco...The first floor is a sports bar and hibachi grille, the second is about 5000 square feet of video gaming, and the third floor has a small dance floor and about a dozen bowling lanes with huge TV's at the end of the lanes! Great fun!!

                  I'm glad that Indy treated you well!! Come back anytime!!



                  RESIDENT COUNTING THREAD PHILOSOPHIZER

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                  • #10
                    Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                    Very entertaining post. Indy people are very courteous and hospitable indeed. Your experience reminded me of my first few months here in Indy. The only real drawback is that it's really a laid-back city. So if you're more of the outgoing type, visiting is better than actually living in this city. What that person meant by Saturday being busier is that there would be 3 more people in every bar compared to Friday.

                    And about the people's knowledge about basketball- yes, Hoosiers are unbelievably knowledgable about basketball and sports in general. I chatted with an average 40 year old woman a month ago at Circle Center mall out of nowhere and she gave me all the info about Bender is going to retire and that the Pacers may very well end up with Stojakovic etc. etc. It's really impressive to a point of shocking sometimes. Indy is a great city if you're going to start a family and raise kids with good old-fashioned values.
                    http://Twitter.com/dRealSource

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                    • #11
                      Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                      Indy really is a great city. I live about two hours north of Indy, and every time I'm down there I find something new and cool about our state capitol. While I have not been to St. Elmo's, I've only heard great reports on it, and it is Peyton Manning's and/or Marvin Harrison's favorite place. Hoosiers are great people, I've only met a few I don't like. Just, beware of temperature changes....
                      It's a new day for Pacers Basketball.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                        Originally posted by denyfizle
                        Very entertaining post. Indy people are very courteous and hospitable indeed. Your experience reminded me of my first few months here in Indy. The only real drawback is that it's really a laid-back city. So if you're more of the outgoing type, visiting is better than actually living in this city. What that person meant by Saturday being busier is that there would be 3 more people in every bar compared to Friday.

                        And about the people's knowledge about basketball- yes, Hoosiers are unbelievably knowledgable about basketball and sports in general. I chatted with an average 40 year old woman a month ago at Circle Center mall out of nowhere and she gave me all the info about Bender is going to retire and that the Pacers may very well end up with Stojakovic etc. etc. It's really impressive to a point of shocking sometimes. Indy is a great city if you're going to start a family and raise kids with good old-fashioned values.
                        I just had a 10-15 minute talk with my English teacher a couple days ago, as I was making up a quiz I had missed, about JO's leadership abilities, and what a terrible waste of talent Ron Artest is. She's about 50-60 and is the LAST person I would ever imagine being a Pacers' fan, but heh, Hoosiers will never cease to amaze in this category.
                        It's a new day for Pacers Basketball.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                          Originally posted by heywoode
                          'cept for her taste in bball players.....
                          hahahaha... at least it's not sam cassell
                          http://Twitter.com/dRealSource

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                          • #14
                            Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                            Hopefully, you come back and visit us again. Mama Corolla's is a fine eatery. Maybe next time you come , you'll venture away from the chain restuarants. Instead of St. Elmo's or Ruth's Chris , I would suggest Murphy's Steakhouse( where I was incidentally while you were at the fieldhouse) or Marco's. They're both located on the northside and are inside 465 , makes for a small cabfare. I always enjoy the independently owned restuarants of a city I'm visting over the chains.
                            I'm in these bands
                            The Humans
                            Dr. Goldfoot
                            The Bar Brawlers
                            ME

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                            • #15
                              Re: Report on Pistons Game and on City of Indianapolis

                              Originally posted by McKeyFan
                              My girlfriend and I sat in Row 11, Section 16 and I can’t imagine there are better seats in the house. Any of you sitting in that section may have noticed the good-looking middle-aged blonde standing up and screaming for the Pistons. She was the only Pistons fan in the section and it was quite embarrassing. The guy next to me questioned me: “And you let her sit here?” (He was joking) and I provided an answer he could understand: “She bought the tickets.”
                              Please post a picture to boost your credibility.

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