Quincy

The female friends who take on their husband's last name can be tricky to find in the white pages and the like. It's much easier in FB. A phonebook/database with photos (all depending on one's settings regarding searches of course), along with the way it shows friends of friends etc. is a pretty powerful search tool, even if you loathe everything about it.

My favorite is Burnt Weeny Sandwich which for some reason isn't listed in the first dozen. So for the new reissues I agree that Hot Rats is your best bet, and The Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka would be other good bets in terms of music without much in the way satire which may or may not be your thing. (I'm also basing this on knowing that like me you're a fan of The Great Deceiver. It's different music of course but these albums tend to match up well with the certain somethings that cause ardent fanship.) I read a blurb on one of the other forums from a former Zappa insider (forgot the specifics) where supposedly Waka/Jawaka now sounds better than any other CD version. Uncle Meat rates highly too but I'm waiting to see if the movie soundtrack dialogue "penalty tracks" have been removed. Albums with a more lyrical emphasis provide enjoyment too (both early, later and even much later), but it becomes very hard to recommend them as they're dependent upon one's sense of humor and whether the targets of the time translate well today. Even the ones I like I tend to only like for about a dozen nonconsecutive days a year.

Not counting old big guys as they're different, Riley has picked up old guards like Bibby, Hardaway, and Gary Payton in recent years. It's just one place on the roster (the aging 3 point specialist) for a team that isn't that old. But Allen may not be like Karl Malone when he joined the Lakers and be willing to sacrifice money for what's perceived to be an easier route to a title. Miami like many teams might be afraid of the bone spurs combined with age, but someone won't be able to resist the all-time 3 point shooter. Quite a few rumors flying around before the draft. One is that Houston is trying to make a play for Dwight Howard. Gee, that's not very glamorous.

Have a stupendous birthday!

I don't see Nash going there, nor the Heat going for him. LeBron-Chalmers make for a fine PG (especially LeBron, point swingman whatever the hell superior position his is inventing). But I could see Allen if he's reached the point where he'll accept less for another ring, like what guys used to do for the Lakers. I wonder if the old "Laker discount" might have been transferred to Miami. 1) Both cities have warm weather and a party scene, though the Lakers do have Hollywood. But FL has the tax advantage. Not sure who wins, but maybe FL because of the taxes. 2) Pat Riley vs. Jimmy Buss. Advantage Miami! 3) LeBron racks up a huge number of assists. One of the biggest complaints was he'd defer the shot at the end of the game. The Lakers have an aging ball hog. (Not hating Laker fans, but you have to admit, LeBron shares, Kobe not so much.) You might get to shoot some if you go to Miami. Near the end Shaq was smart to realize making a few million rather than 10+ is nothing to sneeze at, if anything it'll help pay taxes on the pile you already have that's making money. Ray might be like that. I really don't know. Basketball-ref claims he's already made pre-taxes / pre-agent $178, 000,000, and he did so in Seattle, Milwaukee, and Boston. If I were him I could see taking less than the highest offer and retiring in Miami shooting 3s. Or maybe he'd rather keep working at it for more somewhere with crappy winter weather.

There were a bunch I had on my hunting list that were higher than this but one September they put 5 or 6 sets on a special discount. The high disc count had kept me away so along with the sale price I believe my excuses for buying it were "Well, you have 14 Mobley albums (and a few other tenor leader album counts were rattled off) and just one Stitt? That's not right" and I also noticed the remastered by Malcolm Addey part. I'm so glad I did. Just grab a disc, any disc, and put it in. If I remember right it's not one of those sets with loads of alternates (they have their place). Some of it has that "they're playing in the room" feel, if you ever imagine yourself so lucky to have a band scuff up your listening room furniture. There were other sets I bought that I was more enthused about that haven't been as played as much as this one.

Although we have an iPad I just maintain it (iPads are tough to share), so I don't have a e-reader of my own yet. But having tried it out I've decided to limit my current reading of old fashioned books to those that are roughly 300 pages or less. Anything that's fatter, very heavy or binded in an annoying way will be put off until I get an iPad or Kindle. If I relied on public trans or flew more I'd already have a device by now.

There's this from Gail. I'll leave it up to you to figure it out. "Q: Should I sell or junk my `95 Ryko CDs, or keep `em as collector’s items? A: I would keep them for the moment – but you decide. None of the new releases are “sourced” from the Ryko releases and although many represent the digital masters mostly as you have come to understand them, many do not! Each package will identify the actual source so you will be able to plan your collection accordingly. We think everything sounds better but I am sure you will let us know." Regarding Hot Rats: "Q: The Hot Rats CD has always been a 1987 re-mix, not the original 1969 mix. Is this new CD the `69 mix, or the `87 re-mix? I prefer either. A: Technically none of the above – this is the 2008 Bernie Grundman re-master – which mostly resembles the original 1969 mix. You will love it."

Rizzo is coming up so they'll win at least 2. Boy, the poor kid is probably going to face a lot of junk with the lack of firepower in the lineup. Regarding Hamilton hasn't there been talk that he might go for big money elsewhere so more could be given to church? It does seem that Texas, especially with Washington is a great support system for him.

I think everyone is disturbed by it and no one condones it, it's just when the story broke many tried to make it out as this generation of kids are evil devils because of lax parenting, Facebook and the demise of big bands. So that's the "kids being kids" part of it, that in certain situations (especially in groups) they've always had the ability to uh, not be very nice. See it as a rare case of old farts defending the newest gen. Though read another way, maybe it's the older generation bragging that they were worse. Ah, that's probably it.

I'm not brave enough to preorder as the info from Gail & Co. has been puzzling as usual, but I'm crossing my fingers and tuning in for reviews.

And that's what was missed earlier. Cuban said "by the time you get to this point (the finals)..." early on in the exchange with Bayless. He had to cut Lamar Odom this year, so he's very much aware that the emotional and mental makeup of a player is important too.

And so the sole remaining member of the 2004 Red Sox squad is David Ortiz.

No I haven't. I think this album ties if not outright wins for the most times I've bought a CD version (3) and I'm just not ready to do it again, as much as I love the album.

"Wanting to win" is not the only human quality. When Cuban says "execution" that doesn't imply that players are robots. Executing a play require intelligence, both in the ability to read a playbook along with ability to quickly see what's happening on the court and adjust accordingly. Execution also almost always comes through hard work in practice. The willingness to work hard to reach a state of muscle memorization is also a very human and special quality. What Cuban is railing against is the "wanting it more" phrase which this bozos say over and over. As far as players in the series, Derek Fisher may have wanted it more than LeBron just to stick it to Jimmy Buss or maybe because realizes he may not be back. Juwan Howard may have wanted it more because it's probably his last year and he's never won. But both men old and less mobile with less talent than LeBron. The "wanting it" doesn't have as much to do with the other things that lead to winning. In the US Open did winner Webb Simpson want to win more than Tiger? It didn't look like it. Tiger pumps his fist when he makes a good shot and swears at himself in the 3rd person (not so much this time) when he fails. Webb is Christian so he's not going to swear at himself (not sure if he goes 3rd person). Tiger wanting it more (if he did) doesn't do much good when your swing is screwed up or you can't make putts. Regarding another Big Red Machine, if the wind had been blowing right to left at Fenway Park in Game 6 1975 and blown Fisk's winning home run foul, would it have been for lack of desire? Of course not, sometimes weather & luck play a roll too. In basketball the ball bounces the wrong way many times. As far as LeBron, think of the following cases. 1) The destruction of the Pistons in Eastern Conference Finals. 2) Getting swept by the Spurs afterwards. 3) Last year vs. Dallas. 4) This year vs. Miami. I really doubt there much change at all in "wanting it." The Spurs were just a far better team with a great coach in the 2nd case. What angered Cuban about the 3rd case is that it gives no credit to the many human abilities that helped stop LeBron and make him look like he wanted it less - the hard work in practice, drawing up the plays by thinking creative humans, and yes, humans play defense. It usually takes a greater desire to play defense than offense since it's not as much fun (at least for most players), as it does to practice hard. And I imagine it took a lot of hard practice over the years for LeBron to develop those dandy one handed bank shots from all sorts of angles that he finished like every freaking time in this series. Practicing hard is very human quality, and I didn't hear Cuban deny that element at all in the segment. X's & O's are (created by, and carried out by) people too!

I bought all of the 2 disc deluxe editions except the debut album. I may still pick that one up, though I just never really thought much of it and I'm trying not to be a kompletist (sorry). I already had the tremendous 3 disc Village Green. I passed on the mono box since the deluxe editions have the mono albums as disc 1. There is a newer better mono remaster of Village Green in the box compared to the version in the 3 disc deluxe, but I'll just have to live with that. Next up is both a 5 CD/1 DVD and a 2 disc BBC set. Details can be seen here (scroll down a little). I haven't pre-ordered yet but it seems that for those of us in the US the 2 online vendors in the running are deepdiscount vs. amazon.co.uk. Although many turn their nose up on '70s Kinks the Christmas footage on the DVD is fun, so I'm happy they're including it and I can toss my bootleg. I think the 2 disc (and 3 disc VG) deluxe editions are some of the best sounding and best compiled rock reissues ever done. Andrew Sandoval (Big Star box) is behind the remastering, so while I know there are certain ears that may detect a tad more compression than they'd like I think most will love the sound, especially given the alternatives on CD. I believe a Lola deluxe is held up for lack of material though it's supposed to be in the works. Also Muswell. Believe it not Kelvin was worked on although it's impossible to lessen the crowd noise because of the way it was recorded. I think I'll pass on Kelvin even if they do release something.

Yup. And what a relief that we don't have to hear about his lack of ring. Although I'm sure the media can get hot & bothered about what it means if they don't repeat.

In recent years comics have been at the top of best seller lists, so it's nice that you consider comics culture. I do. I think think the leading cause of there being more of interest in local book stores is the pricing laws. Had Amazon been forced to sell books 30% higher I'm sure most of our independent shops would have survived too.

Nothing new there whatsoever. It's that wonderful happy age range as portrayed in Lord Of The Flies. At least they aren't soaking tennis balls in lighter fluid and rolling them down the aisle as in my day.

I think he's still resting from the shock of being thrust into a starting role for the Blazers in 2009-10. He signed on for a "paltry" million and probably figured he'd be playing 7-10 minutes tops, which is what his role had been the previous 3 seasons. Instead Greg Oden goes down, Pryz, as did all (but 1) other C & PF options. Lo & behold Juwan starts from about Christmas through mid-February, and even after that is putting in 20-25 minutes. It was pretty remarkable actually. He worked hard for that million!

So do the Mrs. Was the last celebrity case won by the govt. vs. Martha Stewart? Against the jocks it seems like the Mariners have a better winning % than the fed prosecutors.

Best season at age 37. Those wacky knuckleballers. 10 years ago he had been sent down by the Rangers for a year. They actually showed more than a fair amount of patience with him as his ugly pre-Met career record shows. The man is on a roll!

Not quite as questionable as the National's manger Davy Johnson choosing to pitch to Eric Chavez with two outs in the 6th inning and Andy Pettitte in the on-deck circle. Needless to say, Chavez lashed a run scoring double to make Johnson pay for his naivete. I don't think you can call Davey Johnson "naive." The way Chavez has been for the past 8 years the odds were great that he'd blow a knee or a shoulder mid-swing. I'm also guessing he figured even if the pinch hitter was gotten out that that hitter was more dangerous than Chavez, plus it would then allow the Yankees to start at the top of the lineup next inning. I guess what I'm saying is "questionable" I don't have issue with, just "naivete" which I think is off base. edited hours later - I tend to think of naive being just concerned with "experience," but after checking a dictionary it also applies to lack of wisdom or lack of judgement. So...never mind.

Bump. Contribution sent via PayPal.

Hey, I left those 2 off! Just saying they seem less special after nearly 1/2 a dozen in 3 years. We go from cheap 'roid HRs to overly common pitching feats. How about a happy medium?