Patrick

Tom (...or "Rooster" ), Couple of suggestions, mostly echoing others. 1. I'm not sure it suffices to have your name on your father's financial accounts. In order to avoid probate, you probably need a designation like "Joint and Survivor account" or "Transfer on Death" or "Payable on Death". With something like this in place, the financial institution should only need an official copy of death certificate to transfer the remaining assets to you. I'm not a lawyer, and this very well may vary by state. But this is planning that is worthwhile addressing now. And unless there is some tax burden that gets reduced w trust, I'd avoid them if there is another more direct solution. When that time comes, you will want things to be as simple as possible (and avoid/reduce court/lawyer/trustee costs). If there is an IRA involved, I believe one has to designate an inheritor. Check w bank if this is already set up. 2. Less urgent, but to simplify life would it make sense to consolidate various financial accounts? Again, you will want a simplified situation. 3. No one else has mentioned it, but have you looked at all into services offered by an Employee Assistance Program? They can be useful for getting some local (to your father) leads on elder law attorneys etc. When it came time to fine such an attorney for my (Ohio) parents' situation, the EAP offered by my wife's employer provided some useful leads. [Like your wife, I am a federal employee, but have not sampled the fed EAP.] 4. Plan on several visits out there. While the opportunity cost of your time and travel expenses should not be ignored, don't plan to get a ton done each time. It is stressful, and it is about stuff most of us encounter only when we are actually facing it for the first time. With my folks (both w dementia), it was a real grind meeting with lawyers, financial advisers, banks, assisted living residences etc. I felt exhausted every evening, despite having a fair amount of dead time most days. 5. Recognize that you have some freedom in how various meetings get scheduled. If St Louis is close by, arrange to be in town when you can take in a performance or something. Obviously, this is much lower priority than your main mission, but you (and your saintly spouse) will benefit from chill mode for a couple of hours. Seriously. Along these lines, if you have friends that still live in the area (or are willing to drive over from KC?), see if a shared meal somewhere can happen without too much logistic/transportation hassle. Again this is mainly for your mental health, and defer that planning to one of those friends. Just put it out there and see. 6. Based on your brief descriptions, your father is a creative force, and pretty damn robust. That is awesome! He is now a bit less robust, and would benefit from your help. Dealing with this from distance is definitely stressful, especially if you don't (yet?) have some local feet on the ground that can check in/help along various dimensions. But you are well organized and have an awesome wife, so this will get solved. Much grinding ahead.

Jason Moran has an extended project on James Reese Europe. Enjoyed the trio playing many of these tunes at Vanguard during Thanksgiving, before seeing the more theatrical show at the Kennedy Center.

I was at that show. My first time experiencing Shepp. He leaned against or half sat in a chair for the 60-70 minutes that he was on stage. Took the time to introduce every tune and connections to Coltrane (like explaining who Cousin Mary was) which I think is how most such theater shows should go. I greatly enjoyed the performance, though primarily due to the material and the supporting band. I’m a big fan of Moran and Waits, trumpeter Amir ElSaffar was the revelation to me, and bassist Daryl Hall was solid. Shepp played just a few choruses on each tune, and at times it seemed the ensemble wasn’t sure what should happen next (and not necessarily in a good way).

I think it was in parts of flyover country.

Thursday -- Nicole Saphos Friday -- Miguel Zenon and Spektral string Quartet performing his recent Yo Soy La Tradicion (available on Miel Music) Saturday -- Cecile McLorin Salvant performing Ogresse

Congrats to Mookie. So does the proper pronunciation rhyme with "bookie" (like the Mets outfielder) or more of the boo/Lou sound in first syllable? Or totally optional, as long as you smile while saying it?

Agree with the semantics/expectations point(s). To be clear, Maria Schneider conducts a jazz orchestra, not a big band.

Thanks. Saw Ty Lue’s last game as Cavs coach in person, and Hue Jackson’s last as Browns coach on tv. Enjoyed a great dinner at Michael Symon’s Lola Bistro pre-game. Will need to enjoy Francisco Lindor and Corey Kluber or otherwise ignore CLE sports during these dark times.

Congrats to Red Sox nation! No whining about David Price or Alex Cora for at least 11 months. Seriously.

So it reads to me as if Jim's main comment is that there has not been a great tenor (or sax more generally) innovator to emerge in recent decades. With that in mind, was the end of Ken Burns' Jazz opus inadequate--from a saxophone perspective--only in that it should have devoted more time to Rollins and perhaps some to AACM? [For those that didn't last that long, one contents guide describes episode 10 as covering 1961 to present and includes material on Coltrane, Miles' 60's quintet, and Mingus. Ornette covered fairly extensively in previous episode.] Or said differently, who qualifies as a tenor (or sax) innovator since then?Just curious, not looking to start a food fight.

But not in the promo GA posted immediately above.

Shouldn’t Tribute to Lester be listed as an AEC recording, not Bowie?

Cool Jazz?

Come on fellas, DG is finally turning modestly positive to a slight degree about bosox pitching. Let’s enjoy the moment while it lasts. 😎

Another illustration that for ultimate success team needs to be talented, and lucky. To me, it's a HR. If Houston can overcome this misfortune, that much sweeter. If not, hopefully sufficient levels of humility/gratitude to Nature from Bosox fans if they prevail.

Exactly!

An expanding strike zone and HOF Braves pitchers like Maddox and Smoltz—yes, that sounds familiar...

Joe West, really?

I have a vague recollection that Larry King used a bit of this as a bumper during his overnight (at least where I grew up) AM talk show.

Congrats to the Stros who totally took care of business. Tribe had to rise up to the challenge, but basically only Lindor, Clevinger, and perhaps Carrasco showed up. Totally missing in action were Kluber, Ramirez, Donaldson, Miller, C Allen, to name just a few. Frustrating that Tribe lack of ultimate success has been attached to important starter injuries (Bauer, Carrasco, Cliff Lee...), but that’s how it rolls. Go Stros, go Brew Crew!

Had a sinking feeling when Andrew Miller relieved Carrasco, whose pitch count was still low and had not yet given up any runs. Andrew will be elsewhere next season. Thanks for the thrills in 2016. Too bad that magic could not be replicated/extended. Time on the Lindor free agent clock ticks down a bit more...

Tribe definitely were/are underdogs against Houston from the start. Like their recent World Series run, little margin for underperformance and Kluber has to be dominant. That obviously didn't happen in game 1. Clayton Kershaw, wow. I get that CLE/HOU is not going to be as popular as larger market series, and am fine if the scheduling reflects that a bit. But the extreme approach is kind of pathetic, and feeds the view that there is much less interest/concern in the League than in a few large markets. But maybe this for the schoolchildren of northeast Ohio, who will get proper sleep on school nights. (And this very well may be over before holiday weekend anyway).

Dear MLB, Do you and your scheduling geniuses give a crap about anything other than the epic Boston/NYY series? Why is it that NOT ONE single game of (World Series champion) Houston Astros vs Cleveland Indians is scheduled in prime time? Not a one. Game 1 is 2pm today (Friday!), and the other scheduled start times (including a Saturday and a federal holiday) are 4:30, 1:30, 4:30 (Tuesday!), 4:00 (Thursday!). I understand ratings matter, but you couldn't possibly let one game (say pitched by a Cy Young award winner or two) involving teams in flyover country start after the workday is over? And I understand there are a lot of games to play in the first round. But sharing of the early time slot, especially on weekdays? Apparently not. We will get the (statutorily required) fawning about the historic ballpark on Yawkey Way. It is a cool part of the League's history. How about going old school and actually playing a day game there? Rant over. Back to bullpens. With Cody Allen still lost at sea, and Andrew Miller far from 100%, the question in Cleveland is how effective Trevor Bauer (still coming back from leg injury) can be in a new role. I don't have much confidence in the Tribe pen, even with the (overpaid) acquisitions of Hand and Cimber. Mike Clevinger was a pleasant surprise in the rotation, and he now gets the #3 slot. If TB hadn't been injured, Clevinger would have been the long guy added to the pen. It will be interesting to see how well Clev performs (...and how much help he gets from Bauer).

...and face the Tribe in the Series.

Kind of cool (...totally data mined...) stat: Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez are the first pair of teammates to have consecutive seasons in which they each had at least 80 extra base hits since DiMaggio and Gehrig in 1936-37.