Dan Gould

It doesn't seem possible but Jennifer is getting better with age. And she was pretty easy on the eyes when she was younger.

So how do Mets fans feel about adding K-Rod and J.J. Putz? Makes a huge difference in the bullpen - but they still have holes in the rotation, IMO. On the other hand, should they somehow overcome the last two years and make the playoffs, they might have Billy Wagner back for October, given the timing of his surgery and the 12 month rehab. Potentially, Minaya has done more to improve his roster than Cashman has done for his, at least right now.

All I can tell is that both "artists" suck donkey dicks, if you'll pardon the expression. :bad:

Interesting claim by Ken Davidoff in his Newsday blog - he says the three year opt out clause isn't about getting more money at the age of 31, its about a marriage of convenience between the Yanks and Sabathia. In three years, the Giants disastrous contract with Zito will have only two more years to run. At that point, they could surely pay market rate to bring the hometown boy back home, where he wanted to play all along. Meanwhile, knowing the likelihood of that happening, the Yankees are really hoping just to get the next three seasons out of Sabathia while he is healthy and presumably effective. So the risk the Yankees have boils down to Sabathia getting hurt in the next three years, because then he'd probably not opt out and the Yanks would be on the hook for a Hamton-like contract. But if all goes according to plan, the Yankees just bought themselves time to bring up those young pitchers Dave mentioned a little slower, but theoretically have them ready when Sabathia bolts. This deal didn't bother me that much before I learned about the opt-out clause, now it does bother me a little. And if the Yankees count on Sabathia bolting, I can see them going all-in on Teixeira to get him, too. And that would royally suck.

If they sign Teixeira, they'll be very dangerous. If they stay healthy and the 35 year old contingent has bounce-back years, they'll be dangerous. Otherwise, I can see what you see.

If they add Burnett or Lowe, the pitching is improved. The pitching is improved if Wang is healthy. The pitching is improved if Joba stays healthy and starts. In the short term, this is a smart move that should please Yankee fans. But the history of 100 million dollar contracts for pitchers, plus Sabathia's girth and workload, suggests that this will be a bad contract, perhaps a very bad one. But as far as their pitching next year goes, it will be better. The real issue is what their offense will look like. Abreu and Giambi gone takes out a big chunk of the team OBP (and a smaller chunk of the SLG). Swisher isn't the answer, even if he has a bounce back year. A-Rod seems likely to have a better year, if only because of his pattern of MVP season, good but not nearly as great season, MVP season ... But Jeter looked a lot like a player in decline, Matsui is coming off a lost season and now has two knees surgically repaired, and Posada has three more years to go after losing his season with a bum shoulder. And he was unlikely to repeat his 2007 fluke season anyway. So what are we left with? Without another bat (heaven help us if they decide that they can't allow Teixeira to go to Boston), with the players who are leaving and the aging of the remainder, this isn't an offense that will go back to a 900 run juggernaut. They could have an even worse record in games in which they don't score more than 4 runs.

No, but I've been really enjoying The Tan Canary, Johnny Adams, lately. I just got his CD of Percy Mayfield tunes and his collaboration with Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Room with a View of The Blues is a great LP, too, with a remarkable recording of the Gladys Knight tune "Neither One Of Us".

First of all, Blyleven belongs on the merits. Of that there can be no doubt. For his performance relative to the rest of the league, his Ks and his shutouts. And Santo may have similar numbers to Garvey or whoever, but he played a different position, a position woefully under-represented in the Hall. As a third baseman (where his defense was much more important than Garvey's was at 1B), he belongs. Compare him to the third basemen who are in and tell me he doesn't belong.

What the fuck is the matter with the current members of the HoF? Once again Ron Santo was denied. Ten Hall of Famers who were 3B, and he doesn't qualify? Absolutely infuriating.

Jay, I think it will all work out for the best. Now you just need to find someone who is going to respect your interests and needs. You don't have to find someone who wants to listen with you, but someone who won't take it personally that you need to listen occasionally. Next thing you need to do though is talk to the roommate about alternative places to hang with the band. That's only fair.

It was the jello that got me. I hate that stuff ! Oh. I figured it was the concept of using cream cheese with the hot water.

I think I'd go with Horace Parlan '61 Messengers The second Hodges box

Apparently, only until it reaches you, Dan. Do you have a sign on your door - "the fruitcake stops here"? MG No, because anyone who has given me a fruitcake has gone off the gift list thereafter. The lesson is learned pretty quickly.

MG, fruit cake is most definitely not another name for Christmas Pudding. Its widely regarded with revulsion, as its the "go-to" gift for people you don't really care about. The joke is that there is only one fruit cake, and it just gets passed around every December 25. And Bob, don't knock Green Mold/Shit til you've tried it.

Tom, I don't think we're talking about ignoring the S.O. while someone listens to jazz, unless you mean actually listening to jazz and concentrating (or trying to) while she is blathering away about her suicidal friend, community theater role, and impending termination at work. (I realize that is part of Jay's problem due to the location of the TT). But if the relationship is a healthy one, each of those conversations should make perfect sense, if you simply change the ones about NASCAR and guns to something more realistic to the collector's gene: I am going to spend the next two hours (shopping or looking online) for that NASCAR collectible (gun) that I've been looking for. Any woman who cares about the happiness of her boyfriend or husband ought to damn well know that they are entitled to time for themselves, and if they don't share their enthusiasms, then they better damn well get used to it or hit the bricks. Or their better be extra special benefits, like that extraordinary sex mentioned previously.

Its good stuff though, right?

The one tradition in our family is a side dish made with lime Jell-o made with cream cheese (or you can use vanilla yogurt) and garnished with maraschino cherries. It was a tradition at my mother's house when she was young. At their first holiday dinner together, Dad took one look at it and gave it its name: green mold

It sure as hell wasn't like Law & Order.

Unless the sex is extraordinary, dump the girl. Not only does she mostly reject music that is very important to you, that whole "needs to talk" thing is a major warning sign of neediness. Lose the girl, keep your testicles. Or vice versa, its your call. But that would do a lot to solve your problem. After that, invest in headphones so you and the roommate can coexist in your respective little worlds in the living room. Alternatively, I would sit down with the GF and explain to her how important music is to you and that she should respect your needs a little more. If that means some "alone time", she needs to get over it.

Actually CNN says 9 years before eligibility. (I posted when the judge finished instead of getting the recap, and it was hard to follow what she had said ...)

13 years too late, but its still nice to know. Five years to parole eligibility sucks though.

I'm not sure but it looks like this is a function of the rollerball mouse that I got the last time I spilled coffee and ruined the old, cheap mouse we had. I still can't figure out though why it works in IE but not Firefox, but I'm making the adjustment back to the normal way, as I've discovered another neat function of Firefox. I set up tabs with each of the sites I usually visit each morning - Hotmail, Organissimo, the Red Sox page of the Boston Globe, the NY tabloids' sports pages, the NY Times - and chose "bookmark all tabs" and labeled it "morning". Now I'm one click away from loading all of my breakfast surfing, or, at least the splash pages. Way cool.

Regarding St. Louis shops, I was living there in the late 80s when I discovered jazz, and back then, Vintage Vinyl was far superior to Euclid. Of course, I lived in U-City so VV was more convenient but I recall going to Euclid twice, maybe three times before realizing that I'd find much more of what I was interested in at Vintage Vinyl. And right down the street was a good new music store where I got some great late 80s BN reissues. Long after I left St. Louis and discovered the Web did I end up a semi-regular customer of Euclid.

Actually I forgot about that one, and I definitely enjoyed it. Really his worst recordings are the duets with unworthy pop/pseudo blues singers.

A far lower proportion of NMCOT tracks this time (and all the way until track 7 before I had to hit the "skip" button ). Enjoyed track 4, 5 and 6 a lot, the rest was mostly "meh" or worse. Can only guess on #6, loved the tenor, I'm going to go with Houston Person. Or Gene Ammons. No, Person. Yeah, I'll stick with that.