T.D.

Clever, thanks. I'm not a Greenspan fan, but I don't think Getz was the immediate cause of Greenspan giving up music. I first saw the Getz anecdote in a review of Greenspan's autobiography. But upon reading the book, I found that the encounters in question took place when Greenspan was in high school (they practiced together when AG was around the age of 15 iirc), and he realized that he simply didn't have Getz's talent. But he still played, even professionally, for several years afterward.

Ouch! But you could almost expect the Browns win after the Cowboy and Redskin upsets on Sunday.

Actually, From London to Elista is published by NiC. I really should buy it, as I've also long been a Bareev fan, because of his ironic wit and because he plays the Caro-Kann... One of the main reasons I haven't is that I watched so many of the games on the Internet, and saw so many "annoFritzations," that I might not like the pure chess part so much.

Pats defense is showing some serious age IMO. They'll have to win some shootouts, which may not be within Cassel's capabilities. Gee, BB likes Vinny T...think he'll come back again at age (one month shy of) 45?

This may seem lame, but I completely agree. It's a tough call. Anand's talent is second to none, but I'm not so sure of his stability in a match (I recall him blowing a lot of Rook endings). Anand's last tournament result was horrible, but Kramnik's results haven't been overly impressive, either. Conn, have you read the book "From London to Elista" (Bareev/Levitov), about Kramnik's title matches? It got good reviews and seems interesting, but I didn't feel like spending the money.

Many thanks! My posting frequency has gone down, and I mostly post in OT forum, but I do lurk lots of "music threads".

Is Penn State that good, or is Wisconsin (who lost by 2 to Michigan and by 41 to Penn St.) horrible?

Some time ago, I read Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (one of my favorite authors). He traveled (essentially) by bus, car and train from one end of Africa to the other (Egypt-S. Africa, with an understandable gap in the middle). In the mood for more exotic travel, I recently heard about Jeffrey Tayler, and read his Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Boat, Bus and Camel. Not bad, and I'm going to read more of his books, probably some Siberian ones next.

They sure do. I couldn't believe you laid the 17. Granted, the 2-point win over Wisconsin showed promise, but they followed it up with a 25-pt loss to Illinois.

Speaking of teams that look awful, gee whiz, the Seahags... But as a Jints fan, I enjoyed today's drubbing.

AND Three Rivers Stadium held, what, 72K? Not quite. Capacity 38,496 (2001) Although, ballparks.com has it at 47,971 (baseball). Those numbers seem low to me. Wiki says The stadium originally seated 58,729 for baseball.[15] In the early 1990s, the Pirates placed tarps on most of the upper deck to create a better baseball atmosphere, reducing capacity to 47,687. Three Rivers closed in 2000, so the 2001 figure is for the new park.

I'm an old fart, but back in the ancient days before MLB discovered marketing and became mega-popular, even World Series games didn't always sell out. I recall seeing empty seats for Fall Classic games in Baltimore and Oakland, just off the top of my head.

Had a 10% off key code at Daedalus Books and Music, and went for this OJC limited edition, which has been high on the want list for a while: Threw in a Coleman Hawkins disc to justify the fixed shipping cost: Looking forward to both!

WGM Regina Pokorna (SVK, 2357) Just won a tournament in Croatia.

I use Firefox plus "Spybot Search and Destroy" (freeware) for popup blocking (my Norton Antivirus claims to have spyware/popup protection, but I don't really trust it), and have never had any problems with the AMG site, aside from slow page loads and the occasional timeout.

'Bout time of course, but I don't see how firing the GM 3 games in can make a lot of difference this season. OTOH, it appears that in this Photoshop age, goat-sex pics don't have the leverage that they used to...

Matt Millen must have a whole bunch of pictures of William Clay Ford f*****g a goat...

I've had good experiences, but haven't gone in many years. A key factor is finding a chiropractor who is a straight shooter (will treat you in a small number of appointments rather than hyping endless treatments) and who does good massage (or has a good masseuse on staff). Granted, I figure treatment by a capable masseuse/masseur would be just as effective.

Horrible news. I've also been a long-time fan of the theatrical pieces, as well as radio plays. And Kagel had a sense of humor, which doesn't exactly seem to be common in the world of classical music... I'm now going to play an appropriate (and a favorite) Kagel CD: Mauricio Kagel 3, Finale coupled with >>..., den 24.xii.1931<< (Montaigne).

Doubt it's just CDO investments. I've been hearing that AIG trading desks have some seriously underwater/mishedged CDS (credit default swap) positions. This may betray my ignorance, but prior to your post I would have considered a CDS to be a type of CDO. Isn't a CDS essentially a firm-specific CDO? I could be wrong (worked on Wall St. for many years, but only hear things second-hand these days), but I think a CDS is a type of derivative swap instrument roughly descended from an interest rate swap agreement, and with similar documentation and counterparty structure. I think a CDO (collateralized debt obligation) is a kitchen-sink style bond-like investment, which can be backed/collateralized by all manner of things: mortgages, corporate bonds, various senior/subordinate/equity tranches of other collateralized deals, even swap agreements like CDS. Some of the most notorious CDOs, whose prices most spectacularly vaporized, were partly "collateralized" by CDS (that in itself is a true absurdity, and could very well be why the Street got stuck with all the "super-seniors" that later melted down). [Added] As someone mentioned above, the ratings agencies will deservedly undergo big changes. The rating of CDOs was particularly egregious, and riddled with conflicts of interest.

Doubt it's just CDO investments. I've been hearing that AIG trading desks have some seriously underwater/mishedged CDS (credit default swap) positions.

Speaking of teams that suck year after year, the Cardinals are 2-0...

Yes, there have been a lot of exciting games in this event. Topalov and Magnus always play for wins in every game, and the 3-1-0 scoring system seems to be encouraging aggressive play. Interesting that Magnus tried to revive his Dragon system with 12...a6, which looks kind of slow and had previously led to a defeat for him. [Added] In the women's KO World Championship, chess fox Alexandra Kosteniuk (hey, she encourages the image by publishing pinup shots) made the Finals. Less pulchritudinous young stars Hou Yifan (14 years old?) and Humpy Koneru will play rapid tie-breaks for the other slot. I must be out of touch, or just plain wrong, but had the impression that FIDE KOs had 4-game semifinals and 6-game finals. For sure some old men's KO events did.

Interesting, but I don't pay much attention to the short-term ratings fluctuations. Here the top six players are in a band seven Elo points wide. I can't imagine the differences are "statistically significant," as they say. I hope tournament organizers don't make too many invitation decisions based on differences of 1-5 ratings points...

Seems serious. But I can't imagine the TdF (or any other races run by the "ASO" group) letting him in. And Astana is already pissed about being excluded from the Tour in '08. Tony's Rock Racing suggestion is a very good one, but I can't imagine the mega-egos of LANCE and RR impresario Michael Ball (absolutely no kidding, that's his real name ) coexisting. Ball already hired the flamboyant Mario Cipollini early this year, but Cipo quit after a clash of titanic egos. P.S...Holy crap, now Cyclingnews says it's confirmed! Here's another take.