Dan Gould

Was it the flash or is Michael cultivating the Dr. House/Yassir Arafat method of personal grooming? The contrast between him and his erstwhile boss was pretty big!

I've never known a dog that loved snow that much. The dogs we had absolutely hated it.

Here's a new one - big bucks, delivered right to your doorstep Its tempting but I think I'll pass.

I always thought it was a snooze of a disc, so you aren't missing much.

Pete Rose wasn't whitewashed out of baseball history. He is in fact all over the Hall of Fame museum, where his accomplishments are acknowledged in different exhibits. What he lacks is a plaque with the other members, which is precisely as it should be. It astounds me that someone can minimize the significance of a manager betting on games. And it is absolutely untrue that he only bet on his team, and only bet to win. That lie, propagated by Rose and his apologists, has been debunked so many times its amazing that it still lives.

Without sounding like a broken record, I hope the time-frame selected allows inclusion of something from the Baby Face 45s. Steve, Vee Jay has never reissued the two 45s that Baby Face Willette recorded before he headed to New York and Blue Note. So that's a good example of forgotten music recorded by non-forgotten musicians.

Actually, it just sounds like a very strong man. There are many more compelling reasons why he should finally be elected. Quincy, thanks for that Joe Pos link, that's the column I was thinking about that showed how close Steib and Morris really were.

I can't claim to be consistent because saying I don't think Morris belongs implies that I want a "small" Hall but then again I want Jim Rice in because I idolized him growing up.

Maybe because post-season isn't the be-all and end-all of a HoF career? Would Billy Williams have gotten in quicker if he had played in the post-season? How about Ron Santo? Morris may belong eventually but he is very marginal. Blyleven on the other hand is a no-brainer. He played for worse teams, got worse run support, still might have won 300, had the K's and shutouts and was so much better than the rest of the league, as measured by ERA+, while Morris' ERA+ makes him barely better than league average overall. Furthermore I wish I could find it - it might have been at Hardball Times or a Joe Posnanski blog post, but there was an article published in the last couple of months that showed how even Morris' "he won more than anyone else in the 80s" is an arbitrary and ultimately misleading happenstance of time. By a lot of other measures, Dave Steib was at least as good and maybe better. Then again, there's your answer, Conrad: People talk about his post-season numbers (or don't) because the reality is that in that limited sample size is Morris' best claim to immortality.

Mea maxima culpa. I was writing fast without thinking. And I had never seen it before.

Click here

Haven't you people figured out that Abe Vigoda will never die? He's been the poster boy for "celebrities you think have to be dead who aren't" so the safe bet is to always presume he's alive.

If there needed to be a warning on the Jennifer Aniston picture, then I'm going to add a warning on the Elizabeth Taylor pic. You've been warned.

I love to find the good breakfast joints when I move somewhere. I'm going to visit my best friend in Iowa City (miles251) over the holiday and our tradition is to go out for a good diner breakfast. I love the funky little places with mismatched tables and chairs. There were great places in Chicago & KC. Going out for late-night breakfast after gigs used to be a regular thing, you know, the 2AM breakfast hang (sometimes while quiet inebriated). I never do that anymore, partially because of avoidance of late-night eating, but also because there are no gigs in this town! I love that Diners, Drive-ins & Dives show on Food Network- I've actually been to several of those places. Whenever I travel somewhere I always try to seek out the mom-and-pop local places and avoid the chains. Although when there are no alternatives, places like IHOP or Denny's etc. do a decent breakfast (breakfast is the only meal I'd eat there, though). Paul, I recommend Jim & Milts Bar-B-Que on West Pensacola for breakfast. Honest - used to go there all the time. Speaking of chains, its hard to go wrong at Cracker Barrel. I'd probably go there first ahead of IHOP or Denny's.

May I have a download, please?

I still say that new birthdays require new threads, but if this is where we're sayin' it, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JIM! :party:

No one is obligated to "DO" her, ironically or otherwise, but to call her "below average" reminds me of a scene in When Harry Met Sally - Anyone who can't figure out that empirically, Ms. Aniston is attractive needs to have their eyesight checked.

Are we talking Thomas' of Thomas' English Muffins fame? In that case, all I can say is, My God man, you live in New York City! If you're going to eat those bagels, why not go an aisle over and get them frozen from Sarah Lee? They'll keep better.

My bagel place closed down but that led me to discover an even better one. That and coffee is my regular breakfast. Sundays I throw in a lo-fat no sugar added corn muffin. Anyone else eat hard-boiled egg sandwiches for Sunday brunch? Bagel, mayo, romaine lettuce, bacon, and hard-boiled egg cut into thirds, salt and pepper to taste. Yum.

I wouldn't put it past them to break the bank and go all-out for Teixeira. It would prove them to be hypocrites and liars but that's their M.O. anyway. But I suspect that Hank is referring to making choices between Pettitte/Sheets and possibly Lowe.

Its not early, unless Cashman is lying through his teeth, he is done. If they add Cameron, and considering the younger players to assign salaries to, they are at 190 million dollars. Will they go to 210+ to get Teixeira? I don't think so, and that will be the long-term failure remembered from this offseason. Burnett is brittle, known to be a head-case, and only excels during "walk years". Yeah, sure, he may put it together a couple of times over the course of this contract. And maybe - maybe - the offense comes through. But the reality is that last season the pitching improved, the offense was a big drag. Now they've got Posada and Matsui being counted on, at the age of 35+ and with major injuries? Jeter is declining, and the replacement for Abreu/Giambi is Swisher who only manages to replace on the basis of OBP and is only one guy. The smart play for the Yankees was to sign Sabathia and Teixeira. Get Sheets on a short-deal and keep Pettitte for another year. Now you've signed the best pitcher and the best hitter available, and you've bought time to determine what you truly have in the category of young pitching. You better pray that Sabathia does walk in three years, or soon you'll have the rare daily double of an aging rotation to go with an aging lineup (Jeter in his late 30s won't be pretty).

Chris, we are talking about reissues in the first place. Whether included or not, they wouldn't be put out as separate recordings. They are part of the original session, which if it did not exist, there would be no vehicle for putting out the "alternate" in the first place. And I fail to see the financial harm since the musicians were typically paid for two "stretched" sessions. Its a given that those sessions contained time spent on unreleasable breakdowns or poor performances all around. In short, they got paid for their time, which is how these things were done. Furthermore, I specifically stated If the companies are doing right by their artists, then the artists or their estates are seeing new royalties they wouldn't see otherwise.

Dave, Some takes are rejected because of ragged ensembles but I think what we're mostly talking about is differences in the solos. I seem to recall that Cuscuna has said on more than one occasion that an alternate was rejected because one player's solo wasn't up to snuff, but included now because another solo was equal or even better than the issued take.

More than a handful of unissued takes have been worth hearing, IMHO. And its foolish to say that artists or their estates are "double victims" if they weren't paid for the alternate recording. We're talking about reissues in the first place. If the companies are doing right by their artists, then the artists or their estates are seeing new royalties they wouldn't see otherwise. If padding the reissue with releasable alternate takes makes people like us buy them again, then surely there are royalties being paid that wouldn't be paid otherwise.

I've sent the link to friends without a "not safe for work" note, and no one has complained yet.