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• January 2008 (5)

  Culture | When In...Toronto or NYC

  Posted by Daniel Turman | January 30, 5:08 am

  #1 in a continuing series:
  This is a great place I visited while in Toronto.
  http://www.czehoski.com/
  They always have fun artwork on display. This time they had slot hockeytables painted with caricatures of famous Canadians.
  Also, this is a favorite after work hangout for the NYC office.http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/restaurant-forte-baden/
  It’s a Korean fried chicken joint in K-town. It has a German name, [...]

  More

  Culture | Por Favor: Get Those January Expenses In

  Posted by Daniel Turman | January 25, 6:35 pm

  Pay it forward to the Finance Department…Don’t let ‘em stack up like this poor schlub…so much bad expenses karma.

  More

  Culture | 'Cha-boy! Jay-Z Faces off with 'Quence in '80s 3D Strategy Game

  Posted by Daniel Turman | January 24, 5:27 pm

  Ever wonder  what kind of craziness goes on backstage? Well…what it lacks in excitement, it makes up for in seeing Connect Four again, complete with some R-rated junk talk.
  <
  Courtesy of the Kanye West blog…

  More

  Culture | Enjoy a Thoughtful MLK Day

  Posted by Daniel Turman | January 21, 6:20 pm

  While hardly an expert on Martin Luther King, Jr. (read his Nobel Prize biography here) or a leading commentator on civil rights, I thought I’d take this moment to point out how exceptional it is that Organic closes its offices on this holiday.
  At other places I’ve worked, MLK Day was treated as an optional holiday [...]

  More

  Culture | Dangerous Rabbits on the Loose in Denver.

  Posted by vsadler | January 16, 12:15 am

  He had red eyes. And he was crouched in the grass next to an unnamed Denver-area hotel. And there were others.
  Turman

  More

• February 2008 (5)

  Culture | Starbucks Closes...French Presses Spotted

  Posted by Daniel Turman | February 27, 4:17 am

  LOS ANGELES — Attention coffee fans…the somewhat/maybe/possibly brilliant double-stroke marketing/training move by Starbucks to close from 5:30p for three hours nationwide might reap some benefits for the java set.
  The staff of this shop was spotted fooling around with a bunch of French presses, making cups of coffee in small batches. Impressive.
  Are exclusive beans coming [...]

  More

  Culture | Oscars 2008: We Have a Winner...Kind Of

  Posted by Daniel Turman | February 25, 6:59 am

  HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — After you take a peek at Gary Busey harassing celebs on the Red Carpet courtesy of the E! Network, take a look at our list of winners…
  In a dramatic, epic, stirring and emotionally draining competition, two Organics rose to the occasion and took home the big prize (yes, I forgot to add [...]

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  Culture | Oscar Contest in Full Swing...Sign Up Now!

  Posted by Daniel Turman | February 19, 9:32 pm

  TINSELTOWN, USA — As the City of Los Angeles snarls traffic around Hollywood with its annual lock down of the area around the Kodak Theater and the army of helpers gets ready for Oscar…it’s your chance as an Organic to win some sweet prize action by simply filling out a ballot.
  All you gots to do [...]

  More

  Culture | Valentine's Greetings from Heavy D!

  Posted by Daniel Turman | February 14, 5:18 pm

  Nuttin’ But Love 4 U

  More

  Culture | Coffee Talk: NY Office Welcomes Francis Francis

  Posted by Daniel Turman | February 13, 8:12 pm

  NEW YORK – By now, many of you have noticed a new fixture in our New York office.

  Several weeks ago, Dean and I purchased a bright orange espresso machine. It’s named Francis Francis, pictured in black above. It’s waiting to meet you.
  We welcome you to stop by for a short. Here are some [...]

  More

• March 2008 (5)

  Culture | DET Office Throws Down the Talent Gauntlet

  Posted by Daniel Turman | March 28, 9:37 pm

  DETROIT ­ — As your inbox fills with launch announcements each day, it becomes
  obvious that our Detroit office is full of exceptionally talented folks.
  But, what you don¹t get to see is some of our more, um, unique talents. To
  showcase our skills outside of the digital realm, we sent Cory Pampalone
  from the SOMO group around with [...]

  More

  Culture | Meet Yvette: An Art Walk in NYC

  Posted by Daniel Turman | March 27, 8:55 pm

  I started collecting
  art 7 years ago. The first piece I purchased was a very small, sweet
  oil still life for $500.00; I was a nervous wreck when I went back to
  The Black Fine Art show to purchase the painting.

  My interest in art
  started with a postcard of the Number 5 by Charles Demuth. I love
  that painting. I [...]

  More

  Culture | Spotty Church: A View from NY Office

  Posted by Daniel Turman | March 21, 8:16 pm

  A Good (and sunny) Friday in the Sun: Just out the “Think” conference room.
  NEW YORK – All Hands is happy to announce the coming content stylings of Yvette Durant, who will let us into the world of art and art collecting in the weeks and months to come. So look forward to that.
  In other news, [...]

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  Culture | All Hands "March Madness" Tourney @ Facebook

  Posted by Daniel Turman | March 18, 8:15 am

   

  It’s NCAA Tourney Time and here’s your chance to match wits against your co-workers once again — the AllHands.Organic.Com March Madness Group at Facebook. Simply go here http://apps.facebook.com/cbssports/groups/group/102337 and join up to make your picks and be entered. (You need a Facebook profile to play…and you need to enter before the games start!)
  The group has [...]

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  Culture | Toledo Career Fair via Comedy

  Posted by Daniel Turman | March 10, 9:50 pm

  Alan Robertson and I traveled to the University of Toledo to attend the engineering career fair. We had high hopes of finding some
  bright young minds to fill a few spots within the summer internship program, known this year as The Farm. The event went well, but as the
  day progressed Alan and I noticed how many [...]

  More

• April 2008 (5)

  Culture | Confession: I Grew Up With Music Videos

  Posted by Daniel Turman | April 25, 7:40 am

  I’m from that weird age-group just after Gen X that still remembers getting excited by the “Summertime” video (DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince), waiting up to watch Nirvana on Headbangers Ball and seeing the “Paranoid Android” video debut on 120 Minutes in the middle of the night. Alas, those days are gone, in [...]

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  Culture | NY: Camp iPhone Report

  Posted by Daniel Turman | April 24, 4:39 pm

  This
  past weekend several Organics attended the NYC iPhone Dev Camp at Brooklyn Polytechnic University
  to share their views, questions, and experiences with development on this
  exciting new platform.

  I was able
  to attend two sessions, one on user experience/interaction design and the other
  on business models. Most agree that the UI conventions employed on the device
  are well thought out and [...]

  More

  Culture | DET Office Sets Agenda for "Bring Kids to Work" Day

  Posted by Daniel Turman | April 21, 5:25 pm

  If you haven’t signed up, go to the Wiki and do so to help us estimate the count…(last year we welcomed more than 70 kids!)
  Here’s the partial agenda:

  9am

  Arrival, Name Tags, Pictures Kids
  & Parents
  Light Breakfast
   

  9:30 Introduction

  Break into 3 age
  Groups
   

  9:45 -12:00 Kids visit Departments (age appropriate presentations and
  activities)

   
  Green Committee – The Lorax
  HR – Oh, the Places
  you’ll [...]

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  Culture | Art Happenings w/o April 21st

  Posted by Sam Cannon | April 21, 3:49 pm

  Happenings
  Last Call
  Liu Xiaodong(Curated by Karen Smith)Mary Boone724 Fifth AvenueClosing April 26th
  Ai Wei Wei541 West 24th StreetClosing April 26th
  Mary Boone is an amazing woman with an amazing business, she’s also quite stunning.
  http://www.maryboonegallery.com/exhibitions/2007-2008/index.html
  Current ChelseaTaxter & Spengemann504 West 22nd StreetScott OlsenXavier ChaBoth thru May 10th
  This is a young gallery owned by Kelly Taxter and Pascal Spengemann, they met in [...]

  More

  Culture | Comp Fight

  Posted by Hilton Barbour | April 16, 11:22 am

  Flickr has been a godsend for a designer putting together comps for clients.  Fast, no watermarks and a HUGE variety of images for inspiration.
  Comp Fight builds on all those good things by tapping into the Flickr API and giving the intrepid visual designer the ability to search tags or text, sort by CC or commercially [...]

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• May 2008 (5)

  Culture | Camp O: Even More Saturation!

  Posted by Daniel Turman | May 29, 7:24 pm

  Part 1 of the photographic coverage…these from Lisa Y.

  More

  Culture | More Saturation Coverage: Camp O Tick-Tock by Marta

  Posted by Daniel Turman | May 27, 8:37 am

  In the news biz, those stories that take a chronological look at a story are called “tick-tocks”.  Thanks to Marta Strickland, now the whole world can get a peek inside the magic of Camp Organic straight from someone who went through it…and came out a winner!  Read up…
  My Not-So Typical 72 Hours in Vegas
  (Not the [...]

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  Culture | Collecting 101

  Posted by Sam Cannon | May 22, 9:46 pm

  Robert Rauschenberg: 1925-2008
   
  A co-worker and I were talking about a recent exhibition at MOMA, Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today  on the morning after the artist’s death (at the time neither of us knew he had died). There’s an interesting story about the piece in the show: he didn’t have much money for paint [...]

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  Culture | Camp O: Saturation Coverage Pt. 1

  Posted by Daniel Turman | May 21, 5:40 pm

  LAS VEGAS – Last week I was fortunate enough to have participated in
  Camp Organic 12.  When previous campers would talk as well as when I was watching
  the documentary, I couldn’t help but wonder – how crazy can it really be? 
   I’m happy to say I now have firsthand knowledge.
  In the past when I heard from previous [...]

  More

  Culture | LeBron Xs 10 and Playoffs Junk Talk

  Posted by Daniel Turman | May 16, 8:35 pm

  Overhype central? Mark the date…the NBA thinks LeBron can fill an entire Top 10 with one play…wait until they realize Chris Paul is better.

  More

• June 2008 (5)

  Culture | (un) Common Threads

  Posted by Sam Cannon | June 27, 2:15 pm

  Common Threads
  Until July 31st
   
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
  24 West 57th Street, 7th Fl.
  212-247-0082
  www.michaelrosenfeldart.com
   
  This is a show with works by female artists. All of the works speak through fabric worked and molded in various constructions. The show features artists such as: Faith Ringgold, Lee Bontecou, Bety Saar. I loved them all, the sculpture by Yayoi Kusama(image above)  is [...]

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  Culture | The Great Office Nerf War!

  Posted by Hilton Barbour | June 27, 3:56 am

  This is not an exceptional experience in the usual sense of the word… However it is very funny
  and clever… Not sure if this is a viral campaign – I think it has to be..
  However this is how I want to spend my Friday afternoons Also for
  those of us who have ever [...]

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  Culture | Cannes Report: A Dispatch From Camp O - Int'l Edition

  Posted by Daniel Turman | June 19, 4:13 pm

  Hi All,
   
  As I’m sure you’ve seen,
  the world of advertising is in session this week in Cannes, France, judging,
  recognizing and celebrating great work, all aspects of the business, from around
  the world. Organic is represented by several members of our Leadership
  Team, including Chairman, Jonathan Nelson, Marita Scarfi, Amanda Van Nuys, Conor
  Brady and Sam Cannon. We submitted several examples of [...]

  More

  Culture | Report from Cannes Lions 2008: Day 2

  Posted by Hilton Barbour | June 18, 9:04 am

  Day: Tuesday, June 17
  Weather: Crispy, with bursts of rain
  Energy Levels: High (though Conor has a head cold from riding too much)
  Mental State: Curious

  Yesterday was the big registration day, with most of
  the attendants rolling into town. So today is the first day proper with
  all of the media, talks, seminars, kicking in. The awards part is in
  full [...]

  More

  Culture | Neo Rauch, Kerry James Marshall

  Posted by Sam Cannon | June 16, 7:31 pm

  Neo Rauch
  Currently showing at David Zwirner
  525 West 19th Street
  www.davidzwirner.com
  Until June 21st
  (Image above is not part of the current show)
   
  Think brooding big- shouldered handsome men in top coats, women of healthy stock, turmoil, legs that morph into waves, 18th century mixed with the 20th. His canvases are large, you’re looking at dreams, they’re surreal. There [...]

  More

• July 2008 (5)

  Culture | The Freshmaker! A Refreshment Tip from Cali

  Posted by Daniel Turman | July 30, 10:53 pm

  From NY to SF…it’s hot Organic Nation. If you can find this stuff, holy cats. Who knew ginger could snap, crackle and pop?

  (Camp 13 Insider Comment of the Day: If we had GloCator, you could all find this huss in a jiffy.)

  More

  Culture | One Of Mine For One Of Yours

  Posted by mstrickl | July 28, 10:44 am

  When I moved recently I was confronted with the fact that I have apparently been hoarding books, CDs, and DVDs my entire life. While this has afforded me a nice collection of these items, it has made my small NY apartment quite cluttered and made moving about 450 lbs more expensive than it needed [...]

  More

  Culture | Chipping Away At The Garden Wall

  Posted by Dave Lewis | July 24, 12:55 pm

  Facebook just had their annual developers’ conference and announced a few interesting changes to their empire.  The New York Times reported on a few of these that are especially interesting – Facebook Connect and the Great Apps program.
  Facebook Connect makes Facebook users’ credentials and their friends portable.  This is pretty powerful in that it allows [...]

  More

  Culture | Wine Tastings Are Now Just A Tweet Away

  Posted by mstrickl | July 22, 12:21 pm

  I’m a big fan of wine and would love to say that I spend my free time jetting off to the various regions of Italy, Spain and France to taste the latest offerings from the wine producers there. In fact, I would love to say that I spend my free time just making it [...]

  More

  Culture | DET Office Meets "The Farm" Interns/EMs on Monday

  Posted by Daniel Turman | July 19, 1:28 am

  Ever wonder: “What exactly do they do?
  This summer 7 students were chosen to participate in Organic’s
  internship program, the Farm.  As the best, brightest and freshest
  talent they are learning to cultivate exceptional experiences for
  clients while serving all departments across the network.  In addition
  to rolling up their sleeves our Farmers are getting a taste of what’s
  growing in [...]

  More

• August 2008 (5)

  Culture | Rock City Report: Labor Day = the Detroit Grand Prix

  Posted by Daniel Turman | August 29, 8:52 pm

  Hey, I wanted to get everybody pumped up for the Detroit Grand Prix this
  weekend by sharing my photos and videos from last year. I had a blast
  last year and fully expect to do the same this year. Enjoy and feel free
  to pass along to anyone who also may enjoy!
  -Jeff Young
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/browndawgdude/sets/72157601842876892/
  http://www.youtube.com/browndawgdude

  More

  Culture | Commuting with Corianda (in SF): Vol. 1

  Posted by Daniel Turman | August 27, 6:19 pm

  –Corianda Rocklein

  More

  Culture | NY Field Trip: Not a Bad Day From the Looks of Things

  Posted by Daniel Turman | August 26, 6:30 pm

  More pics here and here

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  Culture | Shameless Self-Promotion Alert: An Exhibition Makes the NYT

  Posted by Daniel Turman | August 19, 9:01 pm

  (My apologies for the shameless self-promotion. I’d also like to use this opportunity to give a shout-out to Rey. See below.)
   

  As you know this year’s Republican National
  Convention will take place in Twin Cities from September 1st. The local
  art community decided to organize a political art event (ironically
  named The UnConvention) using the convention as a backdrop. [...]

  More

  Culture | In Support of "Unitasking": Freedom for Mac.

  Posted by vsadler | August 15, 10:15 pm

  Lately, I have become convinced that multitasking is the enemy of qualitative productivity. Sometimes quality results from working on a bazillion things at once but generally a lot of potential for greatness gets lost in the maelstrom. Most of the time, you produce a variety of material that is middling in quality with maybe [...]

  More

• September 2008 (5)

  Culture | September Madness

  Posted by Daniel Turman | September 30, 8:13 pm

  A lot of conversations around the network about the financial goings on around DC and Wall Street…thanks to TechCrunch for posting this handy tournament schedule so we can follow along at home. (No wagering, please)
  How did Freddie get that first round BYE?

  More

  Culture | Millen Leaves DET: A.C. Offers Open Letter of Love, Humility and Hope to Ownership

  Posted by Daniel Turman | September 25, 9:54 pm

  Dear Mr. Ford.
  Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
  As I look back on the last seven years of Lions football, I think to
  myself, why did I bother? Why would I go to games? Why would I watch
  every week? Why would I pour my heart and soul in to this team of
  futility? Why would I [...]

  More

  Culture | NY Breaking News: Coffee Supply Limited, Officials Call for Calm

  Posted by Daniel Turman | September 25, 3:29 pm

  From the NY-ALL wire this AM:

  Nothing can send me into a meltdown faster than lack of
  coffee on demand at the office, so if you’re anything like me, let me
  reassure you right now:  we still have coffee. 
  Even though the Flavia machine in the kitchen needs
  service, the Flavia machine on the East side
  of the building (in [...]

  More

  Culture | The Search For The Exceptional In Our World Of The "Next"

  Posted by mstrickl | September 24, 6:56 am

  image credit: maureenld [Flickr]
  The exceptional for others has to start with the exceptional for ourselves. We have to feel exceptional and be exceptional in order to provide the same. But how do we find the exceptional in ourselves, when mostly we are just trying to survive – the next deadline, the next meeting, the [...]

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  Culture | New Machines Make Vending a Downright Pleasure in the D

  Posted by Daniel Turman | September 18, 4:18 pm

  Kitchen Upgrades! 

  A slow transformation has been
  taking place in the Detroit office’s Main Kitchen due to the Beautification
  Project. The first major change might have a few people confused as
  they walk the halls of the building smelling fresh popped popcorn.  

  That’s right – Detroit
  has their very own Movie Theater Style Popcorn Machine (Thanks to Sam
  Cannon’s persistent begging [...]

  More

• October 2008 (5)

  Culture | Fall Pics: Cider 'n' Donuts Incite Happiness, Teamworkiness

  Posted by Daniel Turman | October 30, 6:38 am

  More

  Culture | Facebook's Effect on My 20th High School Reunion

  Posted by Jonathan Cohen | October 28, 5:20 am

  But I realized that there might have been another, more probable reason for the high attendance: Facebook.

  Jonathan D. Cohen

  More

  Culture | UPDATE: Paul Baker and his Interactive Art Gets Some Air Time

  Posted by Daniel Turman | October 24, 9:27 pm

  How ’bout it? Nice work, Paul. (For more details on the show, see post just below this one.)
  Source: KGO

  More

  Culture | Customer Service Goes Beyond The "Customer"

  Posted by mstrickl | October 22, 5:44 am

  Service Magic is a website that connects homeowners to relevant and rated home improvement, repair and remodeling contractors. The site prides itself in knowing what its customers need.
  “What really sold me on their service was that they called me today saying that my request hasn’t yielded any results and asked if they could help in [...]

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  Culture | Follow Your Nose: Art Comes Together at Funky SF Studio

  Posted by Daniel Turman | October 21, 9:23 pm

  On Friday, October 24, eight months of planning culminates in a great
  Preview Party and weekend-long Open Studios. In March, I was invited to
  join four other artists in the colorful studio of sculptor Liz
  Mamorsky. Called “Lizland”, the former industrial building is crammed
  to its sky-lighted ceiling with weird found objects and other
  sculptural supplies. I’ll be unveiling [...]

  More

• November 2008 (5)

  Culture | EMs After Hours: Matt Williams Does the Worm

  Posted by Daniel Turman | November 25, 6:00 pm

  Wait for it…and then watch him get loose on it.
  –Adam Comstock

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  Culture | Prototypes that Revolutionize the Process of Web Design?

  Posted by kojanen | November 24, 8:14 am

  Prototypes are a great way to explore design solutions with the developer team and the client, and to even test them with the end user at an early point of the work process. Unlike static wireframes, they let people try out the navigation and test interactions, fill in forms and follow external links.
  Some UXDs and [...]

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  Culture | Rule #1 About Photo Club...Get a Pro to Show

  Posted by Daniel Turman | November 21, 6:34 am

  NEW YORK — So. You want a new camera. There’s hundreds of cameras out there, and almost as many places to buy them. Where do you start?
  Or, you have a camera, and you’ve snapped a few thousand pictures of kids, bugs, animals, weddings, sunsets, vacations. Everything. What can you do to shake things up? [...]

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  Culture | What next for information architects?

  Posted by kojanen | November 20, 6:05 am

  What new tools and methods do IAs need to learn and develop to communicate the information structure and the interactive script while taking into account the social data and dynamics? How should the growing mobile web be organized differently, and what sort of new opportunities can IAs map for themselves, their field of work, their clients and users?

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  Culture | XIV

  Posted by Daniel Turman | November 19, 7:45 pm

  Here’s the whole gang. Nice to see so many faces of people I now consider friends…and only a few sworn enemies. Click for full pic…
  –Mike Hudson (thanks to Dave S. in TOR for the photo)

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• December 2008 (5)

  Culture | Holiday Sampler: Bunch-o-Stuff to 'Tis the Season

  Posted by Daniel Turman | December 23, 3:16 pm

  Rug Cutting Ceremony: Some SF Office Favs Hypnotize Us With Moves (From the Shadows)

  $800 Raised for Bay Area Food Bank from Candygram Sales

  SAN FRANCISCO — Sort of like elementary school all over again, butwith a twist: Last week, the SF office had people send candy canes toone another as “candy grams” (anonymously or otherwise), for [...]

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  Culture | Holiday Vino...c/o Marta

  Posted by Daniel Turman | December 16, 5:16 pm

  tasting notes
  I thought I’d do a two-for-one deal blog post this evening. First, it’s Wine Blog Wednesday. Second, we had our annual food and wine pairing party over the weekend.It’s the #52 WBW hosted by Tim over at Cheap Wine Ratings. The challenge for this month was for a wine from Chile under $20, which [...]

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  Culture | Christmas @ the Slange Household

  Posted by Daniel Turman | December 8, 2:49 pm

  –Scott Lange

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  Culture | Why I Play Ball...

  Posted by mstrickl | December 4, 5:18 am

  Editor’s Note: This is a piece on Camp Organic from a recent counselor. In fairness to future teams, we try to avoid specific references the exercises at Camp. But the post below attempts to convey the experience of one Organic nonetheless.
  As I’ve heard the story, picture Tommy Lasorda, pacing the room. A legend of the [...]

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  Culture | DET: Fantasy Football League Reaches Playoffs

  Posted by Daniel Turman | December 3, 9:33 pm

  Please…no wagering…but this is Commissioner Russ’ (rather dry) recap of the coming playoffs in the Organic Detroit Fantasy Football League:
  Playoffs consist of:
  Jennifer Oskar – Temper Tantrums – have been number one almost all
  season long the heavy favorite
  Dan Mordan – Cobra Kai – tied for best record at 10-3
  Dave Kuhn – Raccoons
  Marsha Haslinger – Hassy Hawks
  Steven [...]

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