Scott Dolan

Yeah, I certainly don't deny that there are issues. It's a system run by humans. There will always be issues. I stated earlier that all shipping companies have various issues. It doesn't mean they suck, though. As I said, Fed Ex was my most recent issue. But, you don't see me starting a Fed Ex Sucks thread because of it. Anecdotal evidence from you, and others, in this thread show a lack of consistency AND infallibility from both the USPS and vendors (Dusty Groove, in this particular case). Am I wrong?

More horrifying news…

I'll say.

How could this be?! The USPS is horrendous…and with malicious intent! Good god, jlhoots. Please stick with the theme of the thread!

Yeah, I almost bought the Lusitania book (Dead Wake) instead. It's definitely not far down my list. And the book you allude to, In The Garden Of Beasts, gets rave reviews. As for the writing in The Devil, I'm probably far too biased because I'm a sucker for anything relating to old World's Fairs. Especially the ones from the late 1800's and early 1900's. So I was probably too wrapped up in that aspect of it to notice the overall quality of the writing. Either way, it certainly had me hooked.

Yeah, but the "because Dusty Groove told me so" rebuttal was pretty humorous, though.

Thanks! I will definitely put Midnight on my list. I didn't care much for the movie, but have always heard that the book is outstanding. The other rec will indeed go into the queue as well.

I figure now that iTunes is starting to offer digitized booklets with several releases, other digital vendors will have to eventually follow suit. Plus, as physical media continues down the road to virtual extinction, I think there will be more of a demand for it. Maybe... Most folks don't seem ovely concerned with liner notes these days...

That's cool, CJ. I won't pay the extra bucks for HDTracks because I hear no difference between them and the same tracks on iTunes. Even if the HDTracks have been remastered I'm just not interested in buying the same music over again, as you said.

While preparing for our trip to the dessert next week, I was looking for a good book to read. In doing so I came across The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson which I read a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed. Remembering that, and discovering that type of non-fiction has its own sub genre, I'm interested in finding more great books. So does anyone else here have any books they'd recommend? Oh, and I've decided my book for the trip will be another from Larson called Isaac's Storm, about the Galveston Hurricane.

Yeah, I think many of the opinions concerning the supposedly bad sound from digital files is still based on what folks heard from old, crappy codecs from a decade ago or longer. Not to mention we're now 36 posts into this thread and have yet to see a single Foobar2000 ABX result posted.

Existential nihilism at its best, bogdan.

They are just bots that are used to catalog the site for their search engines.

Actually, when my son was an infant the only way I could get him to sleep when he was all fired up was to put on Live At Birdland from Coltrane. True story. I remember my wife being there one day when I did it. She was staring at him and said, "how can he sleep through this??!"

That's fair, Clifford. No need to go down that "swinging" worm hole, I suppose. We could all dance to Ascension if we were really feeling it!

For the most part, I'd say that describes pretty much every Free Jazz artist that came up in that era. No? It wasn't until the mid-to-late 60's where things went completely out of the stratosphere (in a good way, mind you). But you sure as hell couldn't dance to Machine Gun.

I'll have to watch that one again. I didn't think it was above the other middling fare (i.e. Pet Sematary, Carrie, Cujo, etc…). In fairness, you're not the first person I've heard who liked it a lot more than I did.

Nor does "scanned on arrival".

Agreed 100%. Every time we order our coffees (which ship out of out of the southeast, can't recall the state), they go on a grand circle tour of the southern United States and get here in more time than it would have taken me to drive there and get it myself. Happens every time we order, so we're used to it and make sure we order a little ahead of our coffee running out. It's more comical than anything, as my wife and I try not to let such first world problems send us into a tizzy. Another hilarious one was a pocket knife I ordered a few years ago. It made it's way to Kansas City one day, and the next day I checked and it was in Earth City, MO, which is right next to St. Louis. So, it went from the western side of the state (two hours away), to the eastern (two hours away), all while passing within twenty minutes of my house, which is smack dab between Kansas City and St. Louis.

And they were scanned on arrival. That's how you knew the package had been delivered to the post office. Thank you. That's been my main point from the beginning.

Oh yeah! Excellent call, noj. I had forgotten about that one.

Once more for clarity:

Jim, you expend far too much energy saying things that aren't even worth mentioning. I have done nothing inconsiderate. I simply mentioned that Dan needed to read your words carefully because they take a sober and realistic look at the situation. Nothing more, nothing less. If you don't want him to consider them, then why post them? I've never asked anyone to fight my battles for me. Ever. Please stop imagining something that doesn't exist. No one asked you to stop being anyone's friend.

Understood. Just thinking he may listen to you. You and I are on the same side, and seemingly see this in the same way. Just based upon the information given I'm not willing to lay this entirely at the doorstep of the USPS. The evidence just doesn't add up. It could be all on them, but I highly doubt it. I'm smelling a little CYA. And we know that don't smell all that good...

BECAUSE I ASKED DUSTY GROOVE AND THEY TOLD ME THAT IT WAS HANDED TO THE USPS ON THE 11TH. Since you are predisposed to be hostile towards me after I spanked your ass in a NFL thread years back (you know, when you pm'd me to congratulate me for making your ignore list?), I'll encourage you to read Jim's posts again. Carefully this time. I'll no longer address this petulant tantrum of yours.