It was suggested to me that I forward this response of mine to the list.
John & Jon (sounds like a tv detective show) were talking about John's
having referred to the TSN Top 20 as the season's first dalmatian.  It's
also possible that some new subscribers to hockey-l may not understand
the significance of the ceramic dalmatian and polls.  Maybe this belongs
in the FAQ, should one be written.
 
John H said:
>> Mike originally used the analogy of polls and ceramic dalmations.
>> They're both nice to have on the shelf (or lawn) but are functionally
>> useless.  Hence, polls have since been refered to as ceramic
>> dalmations.  There was even a dalmation on the 1992 Hockey-L pin!
>> Too funny.
 
And Jon G said:
>Heather should be concerned about Mike's decorating style....but at
>least now I understand the reference.  Thanks for the explanation.
 
One thing Heather will not have to be worried about is my decorating
style - I don't have one!  Besides, there are enough other things about me
for her to be worried about. :-)
 
John forgot to mention (or if he did, it was cut out of your response) that
the inspiration for this famous quote of mine (oh, boy) was the Wheel of
Fortune.  You know, the ceramic dalmatian was the prize nobody wanted and
that nobody ever bought by choice.  It was only when they had so many dollars
left and the dalmatian was the only thing left that they had enough money
to buy.  But they never wanted it - they would have preferred to put the
rest on account, but Pat Sajak or Rolf Benirschke or Chuck Woolery or
whoever was hosting the show reminded them that they had to take the
dalmatian first.
 
Think about it.  You never saw the following happen:
 
Host: "Well, Jim, you've got $2500 to spend..."
Jim: "OK, let's start with the ceramic dalmatian for $100."
 
Next question is, does anyone remember just what the dalmatian cost?  And
was it the same price always or did it go up due to inflation?
 
The company that made the dalmatians must have gone under when WoF decided
to scrap the prizes and just give away cash.  Somebody always ended up with
that thing each show.  You figure, 5 shows a week X 52 weeks a year X 15
years or whatever = something like 3900 dalmatians.  At $100 a pop (it
may have been $95), that's about $390,000 worth of dalmatians.  What a
country.
 
 
- mike