T.D.

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...

As had long been rumored, Six former Armstrong USPS teammates receive bans from USADA ...Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie were part of a 26-strong group that gave written testimonies. According to USADA the evidence gathered includes: "direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding."... [Added] Follow-ups: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/george-hincapie-confesses-to-doping http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/michael-barry-confesses-to-doping

Just about all of JCVD's oeuvre contends in this category...I suppose Steven Seagal deserves mention as well, but it's too painful for me to recall the films I've seen.

How'd that one work out for you?

Copy just came in through interlibrary loan. Will start reading this weekend. [Added] I read it. The book is well-written, with many interesting ideas, but I just couldn't get into it. There were several intermingled plot lines, most of which proceeded frenetically, but I didn't resonate enough with any of the characters to get caught up in any. As always, YMMV. FWIW, Chabon does seem to know his jazz, though the music discussions aren't super-deep and could technically qualify as name-dropping on some level. Also lots of film references, particularly in the "blaxploitation" genre. [Disclosure: I've read just about all of Chabon's novels, and always seek out new ones. Favorites are "...Kavalier and Clay" and "Wonder Boys", least favorite "Mysteries of Pittsburgh". I'd rank "Telegraph Avenue" a little below "Yiddish Policeman's Union", which I also really wanted to like but couldn't fully get into.]

Addie Joss Creed Taylor Burl Ives

And from USA Today (aka "McPaper") you were expecting what kind of brilliance?... Actually, I'm kinda surprised by the uncharacteristically high percentage of multisyllabic words (not to mention the very long sentences) in the passage you quoted!

Looking forward to this! I was too late to get a copy of the MacDonald book, which became almost impossible to find.

Over the past few days. Most excellent set IMO...

Naw, Roger (Kurt?) just does what the owners tell him to...no "undecidability" about it. Settlement must have been approved by a poll of owners.

Dan Cleary thinks lockout could go year ‘or longer’; Martin Havlat says players are ‘meat’

Nothing at all new for the J-E-T-S...I remember Richard Todd going after Steve Serby in 1981! A lotta stuff got covered up in the old days. Sportswriters played more "buddy-buddy" with athletes, and coverage was more adulatory.