T.D.

Dave Cowens Steve Reich Alice Cooper

Ray Charles Frank Foster Patrick Kane

Mason Reese Willie Dixon Bruce Catton

Some strange happenings on the NFL coaching merry-go-round: Eric Mangini, fired by the Jets, immediately gets hired by the Browns, despite the team not yet having a GM in place (presumably Mangini was apprised of an impending GM deal). This has negative implications for Favre's Jet future and "legacy" (such as they may be...). Meanwhile, Boston College warned head coach Jagodzinski that he'd be fired if he interviewed for the Jets job. He went ahead and interviewed anyway, and was promptly fired!

RIP. Sad loss. I remember the old Newport Classics series of contemporary CDs (Cage, Rzewski and others), whose distinctive covers were sections of a Roy Lichtenstein painting (Frolick iirc). I think Betty Freeman sponsored those recordings, among many other things.

Dick Modzelewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski James Osterberg

Thanks, Conn, but my post wasn't a vote for changing the system (there was a certain amount of tongue in cheek, as indicated by my third point above). We announced a set of rules, and made the first week's picks. I wouldn't be comfortable changing rules once the pool is started. I do recommend SS1's setup for future NFL playoff pools.

I agree that's a better pool format, for at least a couple of reasons: a) Far less chance of ties; b) Higher weighting of later, more important and (sometimes) harder-to-pick games; c) My wild card week picks shit the bed, which would have counted less under your format. But it'd be more work to administer...Seems like we barely scraped together a playoff pool as it is.

Tennessee Pittsburgh NYG Carolina

Hyman Roth Johnny Ola Francis Ford Coppola

John "Count" Montefusco Monte Irvin Hristo Stoichkov

Sol Hurok Heliogabalus Soleil Moon Frye

I'm already toast in the playoff pool after a booming 0-2 on Day 1...

The Parker books are quite different from the rest of his ouvre. (You could believe that Richard Stark and Donald Westlake were different people.) I don't know what the accepted canon is but my favorite Westlake books are Dancing Aztecs and Help I am Being Held Prisoner. Of his Dortmunder books I especially like Good Behavior. BTW Those who appreciate Richard Stark would probably like Thomas Perry's The Butcher's Boy. I'd say try a couple of Stark novels and a couple of Westlakes featuring Dortmunder. No arguments with titles already mentioned. BTW, Perry's The Butcher's Boy is absolutely killer (lame pun intended), and a real classic in its genre IMO. The sequel, Sleeping Dogs, is also very good.

Julian Schwinger Richard Feynman Tina Fey

R.I.P. I've read a lot of Westlake, but tapered off a bit in recent years. Ironic that, in view of the obit's weird geographical assertion, my most memorable Westlake read was Kahawa, which took place in Uganda and Kenya! (I spent a couple of years in Kenya, so consider myself qualified to judge books about the region.) Inclined to agree with Larry about the hard-boiled material vs. the crime capers; I was once an avid fan of the Dortmunder books, but drifted away. I think the last Westlake book I read was The Ax, a few years ago, though I reread Kahawa very recently.

Kid Gleason Shoeless Joe Jackson Arnold Rothstein

Stilton Cheesewright Oofy Prosser Pongo Twistleton

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but isn't offense the Bears' big problem? Gee whiz, the QB situation is awful. When I see the Bears on TV, the offense doesn't even look up to NFL standards. Funny thing, but I grew up in the Chicago area, and the Bears have almost always had rotten QBs. I recall non-entities like Jack Concannon, Bobby Douglass (would've been a better RB), Virgil Carter,... Jim McMahon's about the only significant QB they've had for decades. It's really strange. Agreed, Chicago fans are enablers. When I moved to the East Coast, the NY fans' emphasis on winning, though kind of obnoxious, was a real sea change. Chicago is a great sports town, though.

I think the key for the Lions is new management and coaching. Gotta change everything, top to bottom, to break the culture of losing. I don't think bringing in a young offense-minded coach like Garrett, while leaving the personnel/management side intact, would be successful. With the right hires, the thing could turn around, but it'd likely take a couple of years. Miami turned 1-15 around in a single season, but that was a flukily bad year, not extension of a longstanding tradition. On the coaching side, Giant defensive coordinator Spagnuolo (sp?) is going to be a hot candidate. I'm more concerned with the GM/personnel side, though.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Chinook Marion Tinsley

Indianapolis Baltimore Philly Atlanta This is a very tough wild card week. All four road teams are favored, and the point spreads I saw are slender (two ones and two threes). I'll hold my nose and stick with the favorites, though picking four road teams looks rather dubious. Plenty of potential traps, too: going with Dungy after a bye week, going with two rookie QBs (Ryan, Flacco) on the road, and SD looks kinda dangerous (for one week only; if they win, they'll get killed in the divisional round)... Compensating factors are that the Eagles look solid, P. Manning is en fuego, Baltimore should beat up on Pennington, and Arizona stinks.

Desmond Tutu Tete Montoliu Bodacious Tatas (there was a racehorse by that name back in the '80s)

Joe Pesci Rybka (it's the world's strongest computer chess program) Abe Vigoda

The Cowboy collapse surprised me. I figured they'd lose in Philly, but not in such an ugly way. I'm more or less a Cowboy hater (kudos to Jerry Jones here), but the meltdown was even painful for me to watch. Coach firings: Marinelli had to go (you have to get rid of all traces of an 0-16 season). Also Crennel, just based on his record (and I'm a longtime fan of all the Giant Parcells alumni). Mangini was less clear, but it's New York and there were some warning signs. Trouble is, the Jets bet the ranch on a bunch of veteran free-agent signings, and that rarely seems to work in the NFL. Great job by the Dolphins, but I felt Parcells maneuvered himself into a great job. Last year's 1-15 was a freakish meltdown, and I thought the Fish could go 7-9 to 9-7 this year with minimal changes. Still, Parcells, Sparano et al. got it done...I'm very happy for Pennington (a very classy guy), although I felt his arm just wasn't strong enough for the Jets.