Who the hell vetoes a beard shot? Is the ghost of Spiro Agnew on your design team? Or is it just beard envy?

If you wear a beard, keep the beard. Unless you're being underwritten by Grecian Formula.

[I love that "Moses" is coming to my beard defense. There are two women on the team, both of whom thought I looked too Grumpy in the shot with the beard, where the site is (or tries to be) friendly and welcoming. Humbug, I say -- but the picture will be moved to my blog site, so all is not lost. -- David B.]

I can't wait! Hope all goes smoothly this weekend!

David,
I see you are making computer jokes. This signals two things to me:

1) Your redesign troubles must really be almost over.

2) You are one step closer to becoming a computer genius yourself. Maybe the next redesign you will be able to handle completely on your own.

I have my fingers crossed that everything goes well and that the rest of the site looks as good as the new logo at the top of the post.

Tausif

[Me, a computer genius? The rest of my design team is wiping tears of raucous laughter from its collective eyes. Rich is working with Diane in HTML. Eric won't even give me an explanation of MILF. -- David B.]

All good things for the launch. This site just keeps getting better.

And, by the way, does Santa Claus look grumpy with a beard? Didn't think so....

Good luck. I'll be checking in tomorrow.

[Thanks. See you then, bright-eyed and bushy-bearded. -- David B.]

David, I must live in an idealistic world. But given Tom Brinkmoeller's piece on how much you do, your current struggle with computers must not be a matter of ability but only a matter of time (your lack of it and/or inevitability).

"Eric won't even give me an explanation of MILF."

I hope you are joking about this. If not, he is playing a cruel joke on you. However, if you ever come across an acronym that you do not understand then (as the wonderful commenters at Whedonesque taught me) WIYF/GIYF (Wikipedia and Google are your friends). WIYF/GIYF this means that any acronym you are unsure of you can copy and paste into the wikipedia or google search boxes and usually the top results will reveal a definition for the acronym.

[Rest assured, Tausif, I know what MILF means. Just don't have a clue where to find them... Though I'm open to offers. -- David B.

Woohoo! I'm excited for all of you and all of us too!!!

I came to the best bets page today, and received an error, and thought, "Tee-hee, I caught Bianculli slacking on getting those Best Bets up early in the day. I'll give him a hard time..."

Looks like I have to save it for some other day, as you have a legitimate excuse, big time.

Wish there was some way I could be of help. If you want a "web-browser tester" on the outside to see how things are working, please don't hesitate to email me and ask. I used to do a lot of that sort of thing when I worked at an ISP.

Good luck, break a leg, and be careful IN there!

PS: They used the MILF expression on Rubicon and everyone laughed except for me because I don't know either.

Ok, I checked the Net, and it may mean: Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist rebel group in the Philippines. Big help I am, huh?

[Angela -- Thanks for the offer - and consider yourself deputized. When we go live Sunday or Monday, poke around, and let us know what we've done wrong, as wellas right.

As for MILF, I suspect you may be teasing me here. But I love women who tease, so okay. I'll give you 75 percent of the puzzle. M is for Mothers. I is for I'd. L is for Like (to)...

For the rest, you're on your own. And I'm comfortable with going that far, on this website, only because on an episode of "30 Rock," Liz Lemon's network proposed, and presented clips from, a reality dating show called "MILF Island." -- David B.]

Had forgotten about that "30 Rock" episode. It was one of the best. Wasn't that the one where all promos for the upcoming NBC shows had Seinfeld inserted into them -- including "MILF Island"?

I vaguely remember Jerry being horrified that his mother might see that promo...

I think MILF means "might invite lost friend",right? Or,"my igloo loses freon"."Mary ingested last Friday.""May I leave,Father?'I'll stop,now. The new site is arriving.No time for stupidity. Or are we just starting.

Oh I'm proud to be a deputy! (I'm singing this to myself and it doesn't sound nearly as good as it did in my head) I'm just so excited to see the new site!

Damn, I wish I could do my job starting right now, (well I am sort of aren't I?), but I should be sleeping like all of you hopefully are and deservedly should be.

The site looks absolutely fantastic. Part futuristic, with a newspaper feel too. And I love it, along with the colors, especially the olive green and orange combo. The feel of the site will come with some play time.

You've all done such a fine job of this. I really wasn't expecting *this* much of a overhaul!

I've clicked through a few things with no problems, and a desire to read everything right this instant. (using Safari version 5.0.1). But now there is a lot to look forward to tomorrow.

Now let's see if the evil robot eliminator will let me post this on the very first try! And sorry for all the exclamation points but if there were ever a time to use them, this is it!
Testing, 1, 2, 3

PS:
Oh, and the MILF thing? Like you say, NBC can do a whole episode around it (cable TV gets away with anything so they don't count), so you didn't cross the line here. And I do love clues. However Googles' first answer was not the one I posted. Tee-hee.

Ok, I'll stop acting silly. But as Mac also said, "or are we just starting?"
PSS: Drat! This is my second attempt to post. Got that error that text was entered incorrectly. I almost always get that.

[One more thing for us to work on. Thanks for the enthusiasm... it'll be great for the others to wake up to. The ones who SLEPT...!! -- David B.]

Much better looking, and easier to use. The expanded content should make the site worth a lot more reader time. Congrats on a job well done.

My only disappointment so far is that there's no way to comment on the Best Bets section, which to my mind is still the hottest and most discussion-worthy part of the site. But maybe one day?

[Yes, indeed. And that day is about two weeks away... with the next batch of stuff due to implement in another part of the switchover. It's coming, I promise. And thanks! -- David B.]