Replies

Love those Banff photos on your profile, BTW. My college roommate's parents were schoolteachers, and every summer they'd take him and his brother on cross-country car trips, eventually seeing all of the U.S. and Canada.

I asked him what was the most beautiful place he saw on all their travels, and without hesitation he said, "Banff." I have always meant to get up there one day. The kind of place us skyscraper-bound NYers dream of.

TO FOOTBALL: The Giants should have no excuses this year. They have addressed the special teams problems, the offense is high-powered with a motivated and healthy Hilliard added to the Shockey/Toomer/Tiki nexus, and the defense should be dominant.

With Sehorn gone, the secondary is outstanding; the linebacking corps of Barrow/Short/Dhani were FLYING against the Jets; and I'm getting excited about the 2 new guys on the line, Yumeiora and Joseph, plus the return of Hamilton. And the Eagles are weakened...

One big problem for the Giants. PHILADELPHIA! The Giants are good and getting better but they ain't there yet.

I've said for several weeks now that the Giants can finish anywhere from 5-11 to 11-5 this season. They don't have any excuses, as you've said. But they do have a serious lack of depth at some key positions (especially on defense), and age will become a serious factor on the defensive line.

As long as the offensive line holds together and plays well, the offense should put a lot of points on the board. I am disturbed that they don't have a single short-yardage tight end on the roster.

P.S. You might be surprised to learn that folks who live in the area around Banff aren't too impressed with it. It's too much of a tourist hot-spot. Very picturesque, but if you want to see some really rugged back country you ought to visit places up and down the eastern foothills of the Canadian Rockies, from the Ghost River Wilderness in the south up to the White Goat and Willmore Wilderness areas further north. These aren't nearly as "pretty" as the four national parks in the Rockies, but you could go for days in some of those places without seeing anyone. Much of the foothills region in Alberta is accessible only via gravel and dirt roads, and you shouldn't drive there unless you don't mind sharing the road with a lot of logging trucks.