Hot Ptah

Well, lemme ask ... what's the advantage to having an underage gymnast? Wouldn't a 16-year-old who has trained longer and is more developed muscularly have an advantage over a young child? ... I'm not quite making the connection here with younger (than 16) = an advantage. On the one hand, they've trained longer. On the other hand, most of the routines favour ultra-light frames. In fact, even in the US, it is rumored that the gymnasts routinely starve themselves -- and maybe take hormones -- to stave off puberty. Once puberty hits, the center of gravity drops, you have to relearn all your routines. Of course, some gymnasts keep going, but it is ultra rare for any females to be any good at the sport after 23 or so. Another issue, perhaps a little overblown, is that younger competitors are too young to know the difficulty of what they are attempting, so they actually have better nerves than older competitors. (I've seen this a little with helping out on a high school athletic team.) One SI columnist said that the Chinese gymnasts had Kool-aid in their veins. Probably 14 is an acceptable age limit, but it is quite clear that the Chinese did cheat this year, but they will get away with it. If they're cheating, somebody ought to call them on it. China has financed our national budget deficit for years. We can't call them on it. We can't complain too much about anything to them. Oh please. I take it that you think I made a frivolous comment. I disagree. I don't know if anyone on the U.S. Olympic team would actually think of the budget deficit when they see the Chinese gymnasts. However, China has gotten away with other things in these Olympics, such as the last minute denying of a visa for an American athlete, that the U.S. would not have been silent about if, say Greece or Spain had done it. There is something about China, that we are not going to confront them about much at these Olympics.

Of course, it may have been the only shirt he owned at that time, and the photos could have been taken on different days.

I do that, but not because of senility. There it is, a great CD at Half Price Books for $4.99. It will not be there the next time. Do I own it? I have too much to be able to remember. Best to buy it and check later. This is a symptom of some problem, just not senility.

Well, lemme ask ... what's the advantage to having an underage gymnast? Wouldn't a 16-year-old who has trained longer and is more developed muscularly have an advantage over a young child? ... I'm not quite making the connection here with younger (than 16) = an advantage. On the one hand, they've trained longer. On the other hand, most of the routines favour ultra-light frames. In fact, even in the US, it is rumored that the gymnasts routinely starve themselves -- and maybe take hormones -- to stave off puberty. Once puberty hits, the center of gravity drops, you have to relearn all your routines. Of course, some gymnasts keep going, but it is ultra rare for any females to be any good at the sport after 23 or so. Another issue, perhaps a little overblown, is that younger competitors are too young to know the difficulty of what they are attempting, so they actually have better nerves than older competitors. (I've seen this a little with helping out on a high school athletic team.) One SI columnist said that the Chinese gymnasts had Kool-aid in their veins. Probably 14 is an acceptable age limit, but it is quite clear that the Chinese did cheat this year, but they will get away with it. If they're cheating, somebody ought to call them on it. China has financed our national budget deficit for years. We can't call them on it. We can't complain too much about anything to them.

I have a lot of it. I have many CDs of albums which I also own in LP or cassette form. I found a retirement home that will take the cassettes as donations. The senior citizens listen to the rock music of my youth in their break room. I have found that used music stores will pay $1 or $2 in store credit for the LPs, and I am in the process of comprehensively pulling out all of the LPs of the music I also own on CD. I have some CD box sets which include the music which I also own on individual CDs. I am trying to identify those CDs and sell or trade them. I have never liked to own multiple CD copies of the same album, for example in the RVG issue after already owning the regular CD, so I don't have that problem. This has never bothered me all that much, but now we have moved and I have storage issues, and need to clean out the duplicates. I was going to have a Stupendous Sale of the CD duplicates, but as I was filling out the application to the U.S. Trademark Office, I discovered that someone else had already registered the name. Drat!

Wasn't Buddy Ebsen a song-and-dance man originally? He was to be The Tin Man in Wizard of Oz, but was allergic to the aluminum paint. Interesting. At the time of the recording of this album, he could barely croak out a tune. I saw him promote the album on a late night talk show and it was painful to hear him try to sing. He spoke the words more than sang them.

Bob Denver Rick Springfield Danny Richmond

James Booker Archibald Tuts Washington

ChaunceyMorehouse is clementine. His identity has been mentioned on this board within the past year. I can't remember his name. I remember that he lives in Brooklyn and is a published author.

I sold my entire collection of over 1,000 rock and blues LPs in 1976 to have money for my brand new obsession--buying my first jazz albums.

The Pawnbroker The Manchurian Candidate (the 1960s version, with Frank Sinatra) Psycho

One of the top Chinese woman gymnasts looks like she has just lost her baby teeth in the front, and her permanent teeth are just starting to grow in. They are little nubs of teeth. It would seem to be very unlikely that she is anywhere close to 15.

I never knew before these games how really great badminton players play the game. It turns out that my daughter and I, playing in the back yard, have not been too far off the mark in terms of our shots and strategies, except that our shots are exponentially slower, and we have a huge amount less mobility and range of motion for getting to and returning shots. It's humbling to watch those Indonesians. With regard to those Indonesians--a nation of over 200 million people, and badminton is the sport that they are most passionate about. That is the kind of thing that I like about the Olympics--when the quirky differences between peoples and nations leak out.

Long time ebay sellers, from whom I have regularly purchased jazz CDs for years, have told me that their business is slow this year. It could be that the economy is having an impact.

I thought you had to be a subscriber. MG No, anyone can vote. Down Beat has always placed its magazines on newsstands, and the ballots are just in the copies of the magazines. There has never been a limitation on who can vote.

I have thought that the Hall of Fame lacked rhythm section musicians. Many major, even innovative, bassists, drummers and guitarists are not in the Hall of Fame.