T.D.

Yeah, I saw the "hands around" in the early AFP item, but nowhere since. Still, it's about the funniest story I can recall. I initially did a double-take, fearing some kind of belated April Fool hoax.

Ditto, a couple of weeks back.

Recently saw this for the first time (via Netflix) and thought it was excellent. It motivated me to read the book (hadn't read any McCarthy since All the Pretty Horses), which was even better (IMO). I'd put the film in the upper tier of Coen bros. work, and will read more McCarthy, who previously hadn't impressed me so much.

+1

Happy Birthday! Chess babe and Patriot cheerleaders for your enjoyment...

Excellent news (even though I'm one of those concerned with pianos and tuning). Will definitely buy it.

In other WR news, Michael Crabtree finally signed with the 49ers, ending his bizarre holdout saga.

After taking Bengwads to OT, I think the Browns are starting to improve somewhat and have a good chance of escaping the bottom 3. The Rams look unspeakably bad, and Bucs also seem horrible. After surprising me with a victory, the Rai-Duhs seem to be regressing to their standard abysmal form, and may make a run at the bottom 3.

I stopped watching TV a couple of years ago, and watched Letterman very rarely prior to that, but I'm shocked that this is surprising so many people. Gee, a show-biz celeb was having sex with a subordinate!...How unusual. I saw in today's newspaper that ex-intern Stephanie ("Monty") was named as one of the sex partners. Another stunner! Going back ten (?) or so years, I always assumed Letterman was boinking her. Her frequent air time was otherwise inexplicable. Either I'm highly cynical or a lot of Letterman viewers are bizarrely naive. I figure the latter.

Thanks. I read the chesscafe site every week ("regular" features updated every Tues. at 10PM ET), and had seen it. Re. current chess events: in his first tournament (Nanjing, CHN) since disclosing that he is trained by Garry Kimovich, Magnus Carlsen leads at the halfway point with 4.5/5. No other player has won even a single game. Re. recent chess events: the K-K nostalgia match was a dud, as Karpov was in atrocious form and got pummelled by the aforementioned Garry K.

Lions win!!! Browns (sorry, SS1), Bucs and Chiefs are pitiful.

The Pats are likely to sign a backup QB soon (don't think they'll go with just Brady and Hoyer), but I'm not sure Garcia's a fit there. Conn probably knows more... Congrats to the undrafted ex-MSU Spartan on making the club, though.

I loved Pulp Fiction, but am overall not a huge QT fan. Didn't even bother to see Kill Bill (seemed too violent, and an insider view of a genre I know or care nothing about). I did see IB today, and it was excellent, better than I expected. The Euro cast really killed it, especially Waltz/Landa, who oughta get nominated for an Oscar IMO. Quite a few female viewers, but it was a college student crowd, so can't draw any big demographic conclusions.

Plaxico Burress cops plea, to do two years (maybe 20 months with good behavior, but I wouldn't bet on that)...

This just in: New K-K match scheduled Garry Kimovich and Anatoly Evgenievich are going to tee it up again!

I just got e-mail from J&R claiming "All Jazz CDs on Sale." Haven't investigated, but may be worth a look. [Disclaimer: I have no relationship with J&R Music World, but occasionally buy from them. I live in NY State and get hit with sales tax on online orders, making them marginally less attractive.]

Just ordered Curtis Fuller and Hampton Hawes With French Horns from Newbury Comics. They've had some attractive items on sale of late.

Not to be legalistic, but you'd have to refer to the wording of the original suspension (which was agreed to by all parties). I assume it specifies only that he's suspended for 50 major league games without pay (I've read they're docking his salary by a pro-rated amount).The "without pay" part discourages Manny from playing in any more rehab games than absolutely necessary to get back in baseball shape, due to the risk of injury in playing meaningless games gratis.

"Pitching, defense and three-run homers"! thats what I was getting at. Some of those Oriole teams were badass. One of my earliest baseball memories is the 1966 World Series mega-upset sweep of the Dodgers. Frank and Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, Dave McNally,... (Just in case anyone didn't recognize it, my above quote is a famous one from Earl Weaver re. the secret of winning.) The Os of the Weaver era had a lot of excellent defensive players: Paul Blair, B. Robinson, Mark Belanger, Bobby Grich,...

"Pitching, defense and three-run homers"! Actually, though I preferred the brand of baseball played in the '60s and '70s, one could argue that, in terms of attendance and revenue, the game was suffering then. When I was growing up in Chicago area (late '60s-early '70s), teams did well to sell one million tickets a year, and late-season crowds of 1,000 or less were not unusual. Very few games were broadcast nationally ("game of the week" on Saturday was it). Further, the whole memorabilia/souvenir silliness (IMO) hadn't exploded. Seems like MLB embraced "modern marketing techniques" starting in the early '80s, and attendance subsequently exploded. The aging of the baby boomers may have had something to do with it, as well... Re. Sosa, I can only laugh. Anyone who's surprised by Sammy testing positive must have spent a couple of decades on Venus or somewhere.

Hockey's always been my favorite sport, but I gradually followed it less after I stopped playing (age 40). During the long NHL strike (about 1-1/2 years?) I realized that I could get by without the NHL, and I've rarely watched post-strike. FWIW, my impression is that the Wings have gotten a bit long in the tooth, and losing the Finals wasn't a big surprise. Pitt finished the season strong (after horrid start), and was still improving when it mattered. I really wanted Det to win, though, among other reasons because I think Bettman and the League want to over-hype Crosby, who I don't like that much.

Recently finished Anthony Burgess's The Devil's Mode (old book picked up used), which has some very interesting short stories/novellas (e.g. one based on Shakespeare/Cervantes, one on Der Rosenkavalier, one on Faust, a couple on colonial Malaya and one on Debussy). Finishing one of Jeffrey Tayler's travel books, Glory in a Camel's Eye, which is OK but not his best. About to start Larry Devlin's Chief of Station, Congo, which has been on the to-read list for a while.

My family lived in BKK for a long time, and I visited frequently, but way back (before 1980). There's a lot going on , and lots of freedom, as Conn said. People who are prone to excess (alcohol, sex, drugs, hanging out with bad people, etc) can wind up with big problems over there.

Actually aside from the "embarrassment" I'd think the family might ultimately feel better that it was an accidental self-hanging rather than suicide. Suicide presupposes depression, and the family of someone with such a great future might spend a lot more time obsessing over whether or not there were "signs" and if they missed them. At least they knew the truth and didn't go to their own graves wondering "what if". Dan, I always assumed that the family was fully apprised of the details, and that the issue was public dissemination/reporting. It's certainly possible to argue for disclosure (in the straight suicide case, the University could conceivably have been faulted for not making counseling sufficiently available), but the way the incident was reported left a bad impression on many (recall this was '76 or '77, when such things were hardly spoken of).

It's not just celebrities. I first became aware of the a.asph. thing when I was in college, either 1976 or 77 (forget the exact year). There was a puzzling suicide reported: a really high-ranking math student hung himself in the shower. A week or two after the official (no details) announcement, the daily student newspaper (Michigan St. State News) broke a big story detailing the a.asph. explanation. It was very controversial, and met with big criticism, but the paper stuck to its guns. I'm sure the family was crushed.