Minnesota Vikings News And Links, 8/8

We're just one day away from the Minnesota Vikings' first pre-season game of 2013, folks! And, in case you missed the message from Arif on the Twitter yesterday, thanks to the Jon Ekstrom and the rest of the Vikings' PR department, Arif is going to be at tomorrow's game between the Vikings and the Houston Texans as well. So, you'll be able to follow his live tweets during tomorrow's Game Thread. . .yes, tomorrow's Game Thread (damn, if feels good to say that again). . .while we're watching a lot of guys that, three weeks from now, will be selling insurance somewhere. Or something.

Since the last time we brought you an Open Thread, all we've really had (other than the Open Threads for the best Training Camp coverage anywhere) were Jim Marshall advancing in our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournamentand the match-up between Alan Page and Randall McDaniel.

From other stops around the internet. . .

-Greg Jennings something something brainwashed something something. There might be more on this later.

-Coach Leslie Frazier says that, thanks to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, pre-season has added significance.

-In case you missed our article at the start of camp about it, the Pioneer Press has some suggestions for where to eat in Mankato if you're attending Vikings' training camp.

-Former Vikings quarterback Sage Rosenfels looks back at the 2009 NFC Championship Game.

The rules of the Open Thread are the same as always, folks. . .no religion, no politics, no feeding of the trolls, and keep the bad language to a minimum/use the spoiler tags if you feel the need to curse.

Today's ambient music comes from the MST3K episode featuring the movie Alien from L.A., which starred Kathy Ireland. (CONTEXT~!)

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open for Thursday, folks! The Training Camp thread will be up at the usual time. Until then, hang out and talk about whatever strikes you with your fellow Vikings fans!