T.D.

Gotta have Richard Feynman in there. Strongly recommend his autobio, Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!...

Not jazz, and I'm not a huge Sting/Police fan, but I found "King of Pain" going through my head while riding up hills this evening, and it worked...[Disclaimer: I'm a recreational cyclist with no racing ambition]

They didn't... I'm going to have to think about the finals matchup a while before making a prediction.

Gee, for the record, I don't see anything wrong with inline skating for fitness. I've run quite a few miles on the lake fitness trails in Minneapolis, and they seem like great sites. In my hockey days, I considered getting inline skates, but figured I'd already spent enough $ on the hockey gear, and I didn't have any convenient locations. If it's anything like hockey skates, you'll almost surely have to spend over $100 for a pair. I wouldn't be surprised if the high-end stuff got up in the $300-400 range, but that could be overkill. I'd look at shops that have some kind of in-line specialty/expertise, rather than box stores: they'll have higher-quality gear, and the employees will be way more helpful and will make sure you buy the right size .

I'm not familiar with Dumitrescu, because most of his recordings seem to be on CD-Rs that I never had the courage to buy. Ustvolskaya's pretty out there, though, especially if you consider her age...not just on the basis of weirdness, but on the fury of her music (given the monicker "The Lady with the Hammer").

There's some Edgar Meyer stuff, but some "purists" might consider him a bit crossoverish. Wikipedia has a decent list of concertos If you want to try something "modern" and extremely wild , try Galina Ustvolskaya's Composition II for 8 double basses, drum and piano. She's really a piece of work...

The Fitzwilliams' string quartet cycle is cheap and deserves consideration. Tough to argue with Borodins, of course, but there might be a price gap... I personally don't care for the Emersons at all. For P&Fs, Scherbakov on Naxos is good (and I'm generally not a big Naxos fan, to say the least). I also own Nikolayeva, who often gets ranked on, but it's not a bad set IMO.

Mike, you're a Minnesotan, were (are) you a hockey player? IIRC, the skate companies make hockey-style inline models. I've also seen inline hockey leagues, which might be an acceptably non-doofus way to participate. [Disclaimer: I used to play hockey, but have never tried online skates.] Bike/fitness trails seem like reasonable sites. I've even seen X-C ski type roller setups with poles, which were interesting. One caution: I know of a dude, ex-hockey player and decent athlete, who fell down on his first day of online skating and broke his wrist in 8 places. So I'd suggest purchasing protective equipment, certainly knee and wrist guards...

Van Basten "I" Stan Kasten John Astin

Thomas Dewey Doc Cheatham Elias Howe

Don Regan DeWitt Clinton The Bush Tetras

Frank Beamer Bill Raftery Justin Timberlake

What he said! Most happy birthday to a true asset of the forums...

I voted "Huh". Happy to go with existing thread(s) in "Miscellaneous Music", or whatever consensus is reached. I might actually post more there than to jazz music threads (used to spend time on classical forums).

Jim Bowie Kris Kringle Dirk Diggler

I'd bargain with the shop, and see if they'd do 4 for $120 or $125. You'd think they wouldn't even want to sell shoes in 3s, as it'd leave 'em with a bunch of orphans...

Toots Thielemann Boots Mussulli Alex Haley

Philly Joe Jones Colt McCoy Major "Mule" Holley

Agreed. Testing regime seems kinda strange: players' union won't accept blood tests for HGH (wink, wink), and the steroid testing has holes you could drive a truck through. But they come down hard on weed, which doesn't seem like a performance-enhancing substance ... Like he said, let Ricky be. If I was a ballplayer, I'd want my opponents to be whacked out on performance-non-enhancing drugs!

In the West, I'll go with Anaheim in six or seven. They knocked on the door last year, and should go further this year. As a former crappy defenseman in weak adult rec. leagues, I'm a huge fan of Niedermayer and Pronger. And I just don't care for the Wings... In the East, I'll say Sens in seven because I'd like to see them do well after all the disappointments of the past decade. But logic (eg the above-cited "knocking on the door") does dictate Buffalo... At any rate, we should have three excellent series coming up. [Added 3 days later] Sens take first two games in Buffalo! Detroit won first game due to power play, despite mostly being outplayed.

So what are you waiting for? That kind of quote sets the bar too high ... after such a lead-in, the jokes have to be classic!

Lainie Kazan Elia Kazan Eliane Elias

Wallis Simpson James Sallis Chester Himes

George Gipp Jutta Hipp Wally Pipp

I figure there'll eventually be a settlement, anyway.