T.D.

Yes, I (only) skimmed the Naxos link and misattributed...thanks for not giving me a hard time re. the blunder.

Well, yeah. It's fairly easy to find info on composers and major works at sites like Naxos. I don't know enough about Offenbach to proffer recommendations, but presume Chuck was referring to The Tales of Hoffmann (opera), which seems by far his best-known work, though it was completed posthumously (see the link). I don't buy many opera recordings any more (prefer to see live), and don't have one of this work. He's famous for operettas, which aren't my cup of tea, and I wouldn't purchase recordings. I saw Orpheus in the Underworld (at Glimmerglass Opera a couple of years ago), but it was an awful campy modern director-theater spoof. Might be more palatable in another format.

Yep, my experience with J&R is that anything that isn't "In Stock" at the time of your order has no chance of ever shipping, and will merely serve to hold the (in stock portion of the) order up for three weeks.

No opinion about Pats, Bruins, Celts fans, but I've always found Red Sox fans obnoxious. It has nothing to do with appearing entitled, but with the exaggerated fatalism/overintellectualized analysis/whining practiced by longtime fans. The year I moved from the Midwest (Chi area) to the East Coast was 1978, the comeback/Bucky Dent year. I used to purchase the Boston Globe. The day after the playoff/Dent HR, the Globe ran a monstrous story in which they analyzed every single 1978 Sox loss, the message being "If we had won just one of these games, we'd be in the postseason". [The story was so detailed that it had to have been written before the 1-game "play-in" took place.] I found this incredibly whiny and bush, but typical of Soxdom, and it totally turned me off to the Sox, in perpetuity.

I was just gonna write that the Jints can't win a shootout, so we're going back to Bill Parcells's edict to offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt before SB 25 (Buffalo): Shorten the game. But I noticed that Peter King already penned such a story (admittedly, in 2002)

I was getting ready to place an order, but it looks like the sale is over.

I'm hoping for a good game (disclosure: I'm a Jints fan), but one has to expect that, with two weeks to prepare, BB and the NE brain trust will find a way to get into Eli's head. Despite Eli's big postseason breakout...

Below zero tonight, with wind. Going to be a cold week.

Before Conn mentions it, I'll say that it's fitting for the two clubs who elected not to dog it in Week 17 (and played a memorable game!) to meet in a SB rematch. Dungy and Peyton will be well-rested on their respective couches.

Dan, I have no love lost for "Team Clemens", but your repeated use of "scumbag" is not giving an impression of objectivity, and will probably get jumped on. I can perhaps see it applied to Clemens's agents (though I wouldn't do so, absent overwhelming evidence to the contrary; in fact, they seem to have done a good job of maximizing Roger's earnings), but the attorney? I mean, the whole business of defense lawyer potentially has a patina of sleaze (e.g., what do you do if asked to defend a dude you think is guilty? Turn down the money? Right)...

Pretty sure they're on The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro and Tadd Dameron. Don't have the set on hand, but recall a photo including Henry in the booklet.

Al Haig, Sambalhasa And I'll give honorable mention to all of those K2-remastered CDs...

I had assumed it's a retro-style shot of Scarlett Johansson, but right-clicking the image and looking at "Properties" suggests that it's Marilyn Monroe...

Walker was the centerpiece of a huge Vikings-Cowboys trade. Looks like the Cowboys traded him and four draft picks for five players and (something like; not sure how many were conditional) eight draft picks. That in itself might encourage a multiple personalities disorder.

"Mr. Fischer, with his demands about money, his finickiness about cameras and chairs and schedule, could seem an extreme example of the American individualist, while Mr. Spassky, with his back to the audience, his stone-faced demeanor and the state support for this national game behind him, seemed an incarnation of Soviet ideology." The passage about Spassky is dubious. Actually, Boris was quite simpatico and un-Soviet-like from the American perspective. For instance, he agreed to play Game 3, 1972 in a table tennis room (after Fischer's forfeit of Game 2), in order to keep the match going. Strategically, that was a huge mistake, and it seems unlike the "Soviet" negotiating methodology. Spassky later relocated to France and became a French citizen. However, in recent years the genial Boris has to some extent tarnished his image by making possibly anti-Semitic comments.

Bobby Chacon Warren Zevon Duk Koo Kim

Also worth reading is the 1962 Harper's Magazine interview of a much younger Fischer, by Ralph Ginzburg. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find an online text.)

I thought of this sweet lil comment last night when a friend said her little sister asked her if she was a fan of "The Lonliest Monk's" music. I think that's been said, in all seriousness, by an adult on national TV...IIRC, Bill Clinton was being interviewed by MTV's Tabitha Soren, and when asked what music he liked, said "jazz" and mentioned Thelonious Monk among others. Ms. Soren (who I believe is now married to author Michael Lewis of Liar's Poker and Moneyball fame), got confused and asked "Who's The Loneliest Monk"?

Damn. A veritable torrent of verbiage is going to be written about Fischer and his passing, so I'll mostly refrain. R.I.P.

Ralph Malph Elizabeth Hurley Pratap Chandra Chunder

Gummo Marx Boots Randolph Wellington Mara

Her excuse for testing positive for steroids was a claimed false positive caused by birth control pills. As you can imagine, that provoked a certain amount of head-scratching and laughter.

Yesterday, Judit won an exciting game vs. Gelfand in the fourth round of the Wijk aan Zee supertournament. Sac'd a bunch of material (first a pawn and then a knight), and Gelfand, in time pressure, couldn't keep track of the complications. Interestingly, Polgar has a very fierce attacking style of play, which you might not expect from the only woman playing at the highest level...

I wonder if Tammy Thomas, the track cyclist who was banned from the sport for life (steroids) plays chess? [it's a real photo, no joke...]

If EMI/Blue Notes disappear, the yourmusic inventory will become awfully meager.