Dan Gould

Archive!!!! Anything can happen (server failures, etc)! I know that Jim already has the info, but it might be useful for him to have this particular list (now 79), so I could simply hand it over to him. If I get approval from list people, I am open to any protected disposition--give me guidance, Organistas. I didn't even bother to try to protect my email by using [at] instead of @, so do with it what you wish, Chris.

Despite Jim's pleas, I hope that between the checks that are in the mail and a few more days of paypal contributions, we can cover two full years of board expenses. My check won't do it, but I'm still putting it in the mail this AM.

Yeah, and no player chooses "very very short-term" over "very very long-term" cuz no one wants long-term security, right? What a joke Boras has become. Or maybe the "very very long-term" offers were for like a million a year. You know, 100 year, 100 million. take it or leave it.

Someone explain to me why he is making a stand over something that with three clicks, he can eliminate from view forever.

Let me add one more thing: Goodspeak bitches that I am refusing to abide by Jim's directives. Yet what is it that Jim said: Use the ignore function I am doing that; he can't seem to manage it himself. He now says that if he can change the settings to not see my avatar, he would do so. So here is the only message I will ever direct to Goodspeak: Click My Controls Click Board Settings (on the left column) Change Do you wish to view members avatars when reading topics? to "no" Done and done.

Now that someone has quoted Goodspeak's posts, I know now what his problem is. As I stated, he has been placed on the Ignore list. He also sent me two PMs, I moved to block his PMs before opening them. IMHO, his complaint, and apocalyptic threats, have no validity whatsoever. I will change my avatar, if and only if, Jim Alfredson asks me to do so. There has been a solution from the start - change your board settings to make avatars not visible - yet Goodspeak refuses to avail himself of this option. I like this avatar a great deal - and it has nothing to do with whether or not it continues to piss him off. I like it as a reminder to myself that whatever instinct I may have to "go medieval" on someone on this board, its really a bit silly to fly off the handle like that. I see myself in that gif of the angry, crazy person battering himself into oblivion over something he sees in the pixels. In short, that avatar serves as a reminder to me that there is no reason to post bitter hateful things. It reminds me of what I used to be, and why I intend to change. I intend to change - but the avatar stays.

Patrick, when paypal funds get withdrawn they get their cut - regardless of whether or not it was paid by C/C or checking account (I'm pretty sure that's the way it works). As to Conn.'s comment - We've got about $1900 dollars to cover. That's $20 to a hundred people. Not very much when you think about it as 1 regular priced CD at Borders, or a couple of mid-line CDs. My vote was for annual because when it comes up, it will have been quite a while since the last donation, and everyone should be well inclined to do their part. To avoid the New Year's-Christmas financial crunch, I'd start the pledge period in early November, give people a chance to round up the dough before they get stressed by Christmas shopping.

Nor had I, but I had a dog who loved bacon. Oh man ain't that the truth! In fact, when we make bacon with Sunday Brunch - not very often - we pour off the grease into a small glass and pour it over their dinner. Very healthy treat, highly recommended for dog owners. Healthy! Man our dog basks in the smell alone and that's about all he'll get except maybe a scrap or two of that dried pork belly. After that glass o' grease I'll bet that Coltrane makes like Brotzmann out in the yard. Seriously, dogs need fat calories as much as anything else. Plus, like I said, we don't make bacon very often, I'd say less than once a month.

No, I believe you are to be the Head of the New Member Welcoming Committee. But no skimming off whatever he extorts in "initiation fees".

More than one person now! For the record, considering the relatively exhaustive choices above it, option 6 was the "I'm not going to pay a stinking dime for this place, if he wants to keep the board, don't buy the kid any new shoes for a couple of years. If he doesn't want to keep the bird, c'est la vie." I thought that option 2 was fairly distinct since it depends on a set group of people to cover the expense for everyone, at a set rate, while the other options assume that a much larger group will donate what they can. Sorry if that wasn't clear. Anyway ... it now appears that yearly and semi-annual or quarterly pledge drives are equally popular, so Jim may want to think twice about what he posted in that other thread. I honestly expect that this current crisis situation is going to result in sufficient funds to cover 2008. Jim said he was over $600 in paypal, so there was more coming snail mail I'm sure, and that was before the determination was made that he should be relieved of the burden of funding the board. So, we will most likely be looking at a fund drive starting say, October-November 2008. I'd suggest that at that point we see if the full-boat can be raised again, and if not, Jim can announce that a second drive will start in May for the second half of the year. I totally agree with Paul that a monthly drive, while easy to meet the goal of $175 or so, would be so omnipresent as to become too easy to ignore.

If, and I emphasize if, the Yanks are out of the Santana sweepstakes, what's to stop the Bosox from walking away from it all? If you take the view that the Bosox were in it primarily to drive the price up for the Yanks, if the Yanks are out then the Bosox can just tell the Twins to either go away or "Here's our package(reduced from previously)- if you want it, OK, if not, see ya." Thsi has largely been a two team market for this deal. If no one else makes a good offer for Santana, then maybe the Twins have overplayed their hand and they may get only the draft pick when Santana flies the coop after the season. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. What's to stop the Sox from walking away? Uh, probably the likelihood that the Yanks will sweep back in? Why would the Sox offer a reduced package? See the above answer.

Nor had I, but I had a dog who loved bacon. Oh man ain't that the truth! In fact, when we make bacon with Sunday Brunch - not very often - we pour off the grease into a small glass and pour it over their dinner. Very healthy treat, highly recommended for dog owners.

A check will be en route tomorrow - I'd rather Jim get all of my contribution.

Well, as time continues to go by with no deal announced, its harder and harder to believe that the Twins really are satisfied with any of the packages the Red Sox have offered. Now both Gammons and the Boston Herald consider it more likely that the Twins will hold onto Santana ... but does anyone else have the nagging suspicion that the Yankees are going to swoop in, make a slightly better offer - but not give up their third best pitching prospect - and get him in the end? That's been their M.O. before, and the Star-Tribune reported that the Twins never heard from the Yankees that they were out of it, either. Hankie Steinbrenner keeps saying that they don't pay any attention to what other teams do, least of all the Sox, but his baseball people have to understand that without a big move, they've fallen behind both the Sox and the Tigers for next year's pennant race. They need Santana more than ever, because none of those youngsters are going to dominate right off the bat - and now I think they are going to get him.

I've never understood ketchup on a hot dog, or worse yet, ketchup and mustard. For me, if there is mustard available, its gotta be spicy; yellow mustard at a ballgame just makes me want to eat the dog plain. The best mustard I've found is a honey mustard that starts sweet but finishes very sharp, its great on hot dogs and ham sandwiches. Otherwise, melted cheese and onions always work for me, but I'm not a fan of relish or sauerkraut.

OK, as Joe G. said, it looks like a consensus is emerging, so let's see how the membership as a whole feels. Understanding that it is Jim's board and his final decision, the ongoing thread and the responses here should show him how important the board is and the preferred way forward. I think that solving the financial side of things will ease but not eliminate the strains of running the board, but its a big start if we can formalize a system whereby Jim will no longer be responsible for the financial side of having the board continue. Beyond that, decisions need to be made about admin functions, specifically the question of volunteer moderators as well one or two people empowered to interact with the hosting company regarding service outages and the like, plus installation of any software updates. I suggest that people willing to perform these duties should volunteer in this thread; otherwise, Jim can choose to use the "tap the shoulder" method that we once had in place for the BFT and approach people he'd like to have on the team himself. Either way, its all going to be his decision, this poll is just meant to get a formal sense of what the group supports.

One other thought regarding moderators: We don't need gorts who will make unilateral decisions. A group of people should be chosen as moderators, one for each sub-forum. Those people should do things like they do at Blindman's: if something comes up, the moderators discuss it amongst themselves and then make a decision, whether to close a thread or delete or edit a post. In all honesty, I don't think that this type of moderation is necessary, if the decision is made to keep the board essentially as it is. Moderators will change the feel of the place. The best choice may be to remind people what is expected in their posting behavior, and when people deviate with excessive profanity or personal attacks, perhaps posting privileges get suspended? I know it sounds a lot like getting a "time out" but when you think of the way Jim has run the place, it really is a lot like a house over-run with kids and then out of the blue, the fist of doom comes down and people say "whaaat? Why??? I didn't do anything!" Think of the Babe thread when Jim suddenly closed it. I'm just throwing out ideas here ...

A couple of observations: On the question of the political forum as a "steam valve". If you really don't want politics discussed, its simple: No politics becomes the rule. Blindman's forum follows this and their mods spot and close threads that head in a political direction immediately. Closing the politics forum does not mean that politics will seep in to the rest of the board - it means that the people who take over as moderators simply have to enforce the rules. And speaking of that, I had a discussion with someone from that board: Tom Rushen. He had a problem with a Mosaic set and people suggested he post here about it. He basically stated that he could not tolerate this place, because of the way political commentary appears in every forum. The fact is that some people here do slip in little digs and comments and references, and it does drive people away. So there is some food for thought. Second, it seems to me that we need to do a yearly pledge drive with the goal of covering the entire yearly cost of the board. I realize its a little late to begin, but with the "crisis" situation, I am sure that people would pull together and cover the $1800 needed. The money goes into Jim's account, if its an interest earning account, he keeps it. Several advantages: Fewer "free riders". If x-number of people commit to $10 monthly, others will think "well, we're covered." More people contribute, more money is collected. Unlike a PBS pledge drive, this would not be an annoyance. It would be an annual reminder that its time to express your appreciation of the place, and if a tote board or a tote-thread could be established, we can keep people reminded of what is needed to reach the goal of covering one more year of board operation. Last but not least, on a personal note, Goodspeak and 7/4 will now and forever remain on my Ignore list, without exception. They can goad me all they want, you have my word that I will not engage them in any way, shape or form. I don't pretend that I am in any way blameless in that situation, so its time to step up and do what needs to be done.

Well, as far as the big two go, apparently reports about the Angels being involved on Santana were erroneous. Their GM told the club's beat reporters that it isn't true at all. And Lil' Boss reiterated to the NY Times that they are out of the bidding. So it looks as though it comes down to this: The Twins need to decide whether they like the deal that is on the table enough to pull the trigger and trade their best pitcher. The Herald reported earlier today that the Twins want to get this done by tonight, so I expect we'll have an answer. Will Carroll has reported that its "all but done" and apparently the Twins designated someone from their 40 man roster for assignment - usually a sign that something will happen soon. Come to think of it, with a 72 hour window to negotiate with Santana, its not like they had to clear space on their roster immediately, either. So who knows - but I think the odds are probably about 75% that this first step gets completed tonight. As for the Tigers, I have to agree with the WOW comment. Willis has been trending downward, has a high-maintenance pitching motion that in my opinion will blow up his arm sooner rather than later, but he probably figures to do well at least initially against teams that haven't faced him before. And Cabrera in that lineup, with Miggy and Sheffield, makes it an extremely dangerous lineup. Should the Tiger pitching staff bounce back, they become instant favorites in the Central, and in my opinion, even if Santana comes to Fenway, strong contenders for the pennant. This is a very bad day for the defending AL champions.

I'm seeing Yankee fans elsewhere who believe that the Sox will refuse to put the cash on the barrelhead for Johan. Obviously they didn't learn the lesson from Dice-K. They thought that it was all about keeping him out of a Yankee uniform yet they really did want him and they got their price. Yanks fans will get that same lesson again, I am sure. Glad that you are satisfied with the deal as it apparently stands. By which I mean, I am glad that you don't mind taking Coco instead of Jacoby. The rest of the package has a great deal of upside. The Twins can grab a lot more young talent if they go ahead and trade Joe Nathan, too.

I'm Norah Jones' father.

Like Ed, I always err on the side of caution and keep my inputs low when dumping an album into the PC. Then after editing out pops, I "normalize" or "maximize" each track. Obviously it helps to get rid of the pops because otherwise they will inhibit the amount of gain applied to the music.

Well, since time is running out I gotta get the latest Owner's Meeting news out there: According to the Boston Herald, the Sox and Twins will resume "serious" negotiations in the Santana sweepstakes. Yankees are reportedly out, and no one has stepped in to replace them as serious suitors with anything close to an acceptable offer. There are at least two Sox packages being discussed, one centered on Jon Lester (the Twins saw no red flags in his medical file) and the other centered on Jacoby Ellsbury. The team has held firm to the insistence that they will not give up any two of their top three prospects, yet it looks like they are very close to a deal. I don't know if its true, but Jayson Stark quoted an NL GM as saying that if the Sox get Santana, they'll be "the greatest team in the history of the friggin Universe."

I'd like to suggest that anyone who is interested in maintaining contact with people that they post their emails in this thread. I know you can end up with plenty of spam but I haven't been shy about posting my main email address on the board and my spam situation is no worse than most. So I'll start: anyone who doesn't have my email and wishes to keep in touch, its dangould@hotmail.com If others follow suit, you can peruse this thread and collect emails of anyone who you don't already communicate with offline. As for the closing of the board, I'll live, as I think we all will. There really isn't a lot of "new" jazz discussion going on and for that matter, I've largely moved on musically as far as time spent listening goes. I'll miss Jim S. posts because while we communicate offline, you don't get the same sort of "general interest" type of commentary. I'll also miss Chris A.'s posts of objects from his treasure trove of jazz and blues memorabilia. Its too bad that I will be offline for the final week of the year, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Sorry, but the Yanks already have Giambi. Seriously though, nothing is official but it appears that the Yankees have dropped out of the bidding and will turn their attention to Dan Haren (according to the Daily News) and the Globe broke the news that the Sox and Twins exchanged medical information on Jon Lester and Santana, so the Globe is suggesting that a deal could happen this morning. Still no word on who is involved for sure though. Certainly exchanging medical files is a good sign, I just hope that Theo didn't bend on the "only one top prospect" stance. Meanwhile, it will be real interesting to see how Beene deals with the Yankees. He's never been one to give away his prized young stars, and I would expect that he would never back off an initial, minimum demand of Hughes + Cabrera. If Yankee fans had a problem giving up Hughes for a two-time, lefty Cy Young winner, how are they going to feel about a guy who is only a couple of years younger and far less accomplished? Wouldn't it make more sense to just stick with the young guys you've developed, preach patience til your blue in the face, and see what happens? I mean, Hughes could become Haren in a couple of seasons and give you Haren-level performance years before Haren became decent. Its just silly IMO to give up the same players for Haren, but that is what old Billy is going to keep asking for.