T.D.

RIP. I always had the highest respect for Miller, and the fact that I pay less attention to pro sports than I ever did has nothing to do with him (it's probably changing tastes accompanying aging...).

For my annual clueless guess...Toronto 65.

Have been spending a lot of time with this. I prefer the more recent discs (esp. 6, 7, 8), but they're all pretty good. The occasional use of synthesizer is not really to my taste, but it's not a deal-breaker.

I've been reading Philip Kerr's "Bernie Gunther" series. Very interesting concept: a noirish and hard-boiled detective's progress and survival through Germany in the 1930s and 40s (with everything that entails), and subsequent globe-trotting exile. I'm on the seventh of eight (so far). Unusually for such a series, the writing generally improves book to book. Kerr took a 15-year sabbatical from the series at one point. I recommend these unless you have an aversion to or are tired of Nazi-related books.

Nothing new under the sun...in the realm of Times Square tourist trap eateries, the truly infamous (and not mourned) Mamma Leone's was universally panned in even harsher terms for decades, including by the Times iirc (I'm too lazy to search for citations, though)... This new spot seems to add an extra level of pretentiousness, so kudos to the reviewer.

Jim Hall played on the Contemporary All Night Sessions (v. 1-3) and Kessel on Four!!! iirc. Happy Hampton Hawes Day! Blues for Bud is my favorite Hawes album. I'm a relative latecomer to jazz, but Hamp was instrumental in my "conversion" - his trio version of "My Romance" on the above album got me curious...

Have owned/heard lots of B&W models, incl. 602, always impressed, don't hesitate. My only caveat is, even if they're called "bookshelf speakers", be sure to set them up on stands and try to optimize stand placement (distance from walls, etc). I've set some B&Ws up haphazardly and wondered what all the hype was about, but the sound was tremendously improved (and hype-worthy) when they shifted to stands. Re. bass, OK, not the strongest out there, but if set up reasonably you should have no objections.

RIP. I don't follow boxing any more, but was a big fan back in the Hearns days (lived in MI when he was just starting out). Always had the highest respect for Steward.

Maudlin but interesting article from VeloNews ...We wanted to believe in unconscionable achievement, and the story was overwhelming. When it comes to heroes, human beings are inherently fallible, often as flawed as those held up to the sky and called great. Armstrong turned out to be a hologram hero, as most of them are. We don’t know the names of the real greats from those years, who felt the screws of human pain and un-medicated ability. We didn’t care about them, because they finished 65th or somewhere else in the basement...

Good writeup by former pro cyclist Robt. Millar

Good points. I guess the UCI was doing conscientious testing at some level, but one can't be surprised that athletes manipulated themselves up to the 50% threshold. As a former runner, I also used to follow track and field (or "athletics" if you prefer) to some degree. I recall the 3 000m, 5 000m, 10 000m, steeplechase,... records being repeatedly smashed in the mid-late '90s, and was pretty sure EPO was involved. Oddly, the men's marathon WR has fallen precipitously only in the past few years, after EPO testing was introduced (the women's marathon WR tumbled earlier, but was arguably "soft"). Maybe EPO doesn't help marathoners for some reason?! I gave up following running years ago, and began following pro cycling (gee, that was clever; in hindsight, why not pro wrestling?) when I switched to bicycling as my major form of exercise. I'm through as a fan of both: when it gets to the point where even a casual enthusiast needs a working knowledge of hematology, it's time to switch off!

Not that it's any excuse for athletes' cheating, but I think the UCI's former "50% hematocrit" criterion for cheating was a total invitation to dope. It appears that cyclists used the 50% limit as license to drug/transfuse themselves right up to the 50% threshold. Could (1) the UCI have been incredibly stupid? (2) there have been no effective EPO test at that time? (3) the UCI have been aware of their rule's "moral hazard"? I'd say some combination of (2) and (3)...

Jerry Springer Jack Bauer Imre König

Ironically, the most unmistakable real-time Team LANCE doping evidence I recall involved his most faithful lieutenant George Hincapie, who's universally liked and respected (by me as well). In LANCE's 2005 final TDF win, George won the Pla d'Adet "queen stage" (most high cols) of the TDF. This was a real mind-blower: HTF could big George, though undoubtedly a talented rider and deserving of props, beat all the flyweight stage-hunter climbers after countless hours of riding in the wind at the front of the peloton and setting fierce tempi on the intermediate slopes of all the previous cols? It was just too much, as if Team LANCE was thumbing its nose at all the other teams.* I guess it was a hubris thing: LANCE must have been deluded by his power/fame/money and assumed he could never be caught. Another incident that left a really sour taste in my mouth was LANCE's first sub-3 hour NYC Marathon in 2006. NIKE recruited all kinds of famous/iconic runners to pace LANCE and fetch him drinks and Gu packs. For instance, Joan Benoit Samuelson paced him early, and middle-distance great / WR holder Hicham El Guerrouj (WTF!) was pacing him and fetching refreshments late (in Central Park IIRC). I sure hope those "supporting cast" athletes got paid well! *Not unlike the Dr. Ferrari-trained EPO-fueled 1994 Gewiss Ballan team sweeping the podium at classics, and mega-doper teammates Riccò and Piepoli (who got busted mid-race) riding away from the field on 2008 TDF climbs.

Here's an interesting angle*: The Real Reason Nike Canned Lance Armstrong Has Nothing To Do With Doping *Disclosure: Item is from a source that I consider sensationalist and not fully reliable.

Best wishes!

I'd say they're about equivalent. Can't help making the smartass remark that if you have too much ethical/conduct baggage for NIKE to handle, you must have gone bad wrong somewhere...

Agreed (my emphasis added) re. literary artists. OT (sorry): If I hear another piece of avant-garde or twelve-tone classical music either dedicated to or featuring the poetry of Paul Celan, I swear I'm gonna puke...

Whoa Nellie! Report: Did Nike pay $500,000 to [uCI bigwig] Verbruggen to cover up Armstrong positive?

Thanks for the tips on using Amazon.fr! I've never used them before, though French is my best foreign language (OK, that's not saying much). I ordered the Hemphill, Muhal and Adams boxes for a total of E74.81, or USD100.53 according to Amazon.fr's currency converter, which is under $5.60 per disc shipped. I got tired of waiting for US release. Strongly agreed that this series is awesome!

Many thanks, GA, Tom! Damn, time flies...#50 was noted above in the thread, and now 55.

Funny quotes from Swiss time trial star Cancellara ...“Lance was apparently a systematic doper. He doped on a scale that cycling has never seen before. He has really destroyed a lot,” Cancellara is reported as saying. ... "Today riders are again paying the price for what went wrong six or seven years ago. That's not fair. Lance has ensured that the early years of my career were wasted years. I hope that this time is finally behind us. It will not happen immediately, it takes time but it should happen.” The Swiss rider continued by saying that he was hopeful the times were changing for the better. "Now I understand how US Postal was able to put eight or nine riders in the front on a mountain stage and drop all the others..." ...

This just in from the appropriately named Yahoo! Sports*: USADA report reveals Lance Armstrong as the greatest fraud in American sports *Probably the same guys who rhapsodized over the HR-hitting exploits of the obviously-juiced McGwire, Sosa, Bonds,...and now cry "OMG! We can't let those cheating dopers in the Hall of Fame!"

Wild Things definitely falls into the "guilty pleasure" category for me...