Big Wheel

Well, it means that there's a somewhat lower chance of getting third-degree burns. According to members of the jury, the punitive damages were awarded not because of the circumstances of the spill, but rather because of McDonald's actions afterward. The jury felt that McDonald's had treated her like crap and blown her off when she asked for recourse. A $20,000 medical bill is pennies to a company that sells $1.3 million in coffee every day, and they wouldn't even offer her that.

I'm pretty late to this whole Yourmusic party. Is the packaging identical to what you would get in a retail store? One thing that turned me off about BMG was that some of the discs were packaged differently.

This is something of a mischaracterization of the McDonald's coffee case. First of all, the McDonald's that the woman in question visited was brewing its coffee significantly hotter than most homemade coffee (and possibly hotter than that brewed at other McDonald's--I've heard that the machine was improperly calibrated, but haven't been able to confirm that with a quick google). Second, the main reason so much was awarded in damages was that McDonald's essentially told her to go screw herself when she requested that they pay for the skin grafts to her third degree burns.

Holy crap! $111 is still a lot, though...almost Mosaic-box expense. I wonder if other places will have the set for a bit less.

Saw it today. It is fucking filthy. Prepare thyself for the worst. Oh, it's also hilarious, although some of my personal favorites left me a bit disappointed.

I think a lot of McDonald's funnier material may have been rejected by Lorne Michaels as too edgy for TV. The one movie he had, Dirty Work, was a flop and not very funny, but Chevy Chase mentioned how it would have been much better had the studio allowed them to leave the raunchiest jokes in. I like the game shows Best Of. I think my favorite is the "Where You Headed" skit where they line up three New England drivers and have them all compete at giving the best directions from point A to point B.

A very good record with an all-star lineup, but I'm not sure I'd really call it a "jam session" per se in the fashion of the others--there are fairlyinvolved arrangements on this one, and I think a few of the participants don't even solo. When I think of a recorded jam session, usually I'm envisioning old warhorses with stripped-down arrangements or throwaway heads over blues or rhythm changes (IOW, an excuse to let everybody stretch out for 15-20 minutes of improvising). The emphasis on Outskirts of Town is as much on the tunes as it is on the blowing.

For $9.95 plus shipping I'll send you a nice hunk of New England granite. I find it makes for a much sturdier paperweight, and is much more effective at propping up asymmetrical furniture. Downside: the granite is no good for kindling--you may have to stock up on extra copies of Anthem around mid-November.

Summer reading: Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People, to be followed by Neal Pollack: Never Mind the Pollacks. (I'm kind of ashamed to admit that they've both jumped As I Lay Dying in the queue...Faulkner's just not conducive to reading on the train when my commute's only about 10-15 minutes long each way.)

Thanks Tony! I think that Limerick/Western Ireland may be the front-runner right now...it's supposed to be beautiful. (Though one thing Taiwan has going for it is that it's a hell of a lot warmer than Boston in November...Ireland, not so much)

Hm, rather surprised about the food. There is a Taiwanese restaurant up here that ranks as one of the best in Chinatown. Maybe the stuff I ordered there wasn't actually Taiwanese? Thanks for the tip on Kaohsiung. It sounds like Tainan is the place to go for cultural stuff, at least insofar as cities are concerned. The interior also looks pretty impressive.

For Taipei, 1) Great food, or so I hear 2) Interesting history and culture (mix of recently arrived Mandarin speakers, Taiwanese speakers, Japanese, Hakka, native aboriginal) 3) Good scenery--though I need to learn more about what's there If I went to Taiwan I would probably spend 3 or 4 days in Taipei and another 10 traveling around the country. Is there anything to see in Tainan or Kaohsiung?

I've got some vacation days that I need to blow and found some good fares. A couple in particular really interested me, but I'm concerned that travel in the off-season could pose some problems (weather-related and otherwise). Has anybody been to the following places between October and January? Ireland (Dublin area) Ireland (Limerick area) Taipei, Taiwan

Somewhat off topic, an idea I had at 4am this morning resulted in my company spending $3000 on a Google product today. Shoulda bought the stock...

Currently rediscovering a lot of a the great performances on the Mobley box. "Don't Walk" may be the best sunny summer day tune ever.

I'd be willing to play, provided the buy-in isn't crazy (say, $25 and under?)

It depends on what you mean by "city" and "suburbs." The suburbs of Miami and LA are very different from the suburbs of older cities like NYC and Boston. Having grown up in the South Florida sprawl, I find a Boston suburb like Wellesley or Natick almost rural. There's tons of space between houses in many of these places, and lots of empty space between each "suburb." Nothing like the cookie-cutter suburb I grew up in...in Miami there are houses on almost every block until you start approaching downtown.

Maybe, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Of the labels with big catalogs, only Blue Note seems to be making a concerted effort to reissue Mosaic material. What other Columbia Mosaics (not counting the Miles sets) have had material reissued post-Mosaic? Only the Woody Shaw comes to mind at the moment. Edit: Ok, the Mingus stuff has also come out, obviously, but the Mingus dates generally have a reputation as essentials that the JJs don't really have. That leaves the Buck Clayton and Eddie Condon sets, I guess.

Make that about 99 O'Day sets. (gulp)

Anyone heard these? Basically repackagings of Bethlehem titles. Not planning on buying them right away but the price is right and I was curious how they compared with the previous incarnations of this material.

I guess Scott and the gang have a "little deal" with Malaysian customs. Hey, if the Chinese and Indonesian CD pirates can do it, why not Mosaic?

I think the record starts off hot and tends to flag in the middle. The closer, "Mongo 'n' McCoy," is sick, though.

Looks like Sue Mingus is upping the ante against those on her shit list...you were lucky this time, Chuck. Next time they might not get the wrong house.

Great...there's nothing like a Mosaic Last Chance notice to throw a monkey wrench in the monthly budget...

What's the verdict on the early set with McDuff? I seem to remember hearing it on the radio and thinking that it was good but not spectacular.