Dan Gould

Good for you, Peter. I remember the angst you had making the decision to move, and I always wondered, after your marriage ended, whether you'd come to regret the move and decide to head back east. Good luck, my friend - I know you'll be happy when you settle back in.

A Pioneer-Press report has the Sox now as the favorites to land Santana, and they don't give up Buchholz or Ellsbury in the deal: http://www.twincities.com/ci_7584709?sourc...;nclick_check=1 Masterson was coached by Tony Gwynn at San Diego State and he considers him a can't-miss pitcher with a killer sinker. He definitely rates third or fourth behind Lester and Buchholz in the pitching prospect list. Lowry is actually not considered any great shakes defensively (at this point) but appears to be a very good offensive force, with the usual excellent plate discipline. I have to say I really like this deal if if the Sox can get Santana signed to an extension beforehand. It would be tough to part with Lester, I'd really like to see what he can do when fully recovered (he's up to 218 now - when he reported to Spring Training last year, he was at 200, so you know he still needed the time to recover from the cancer treatment), and Lowry looks to be someone who could have rid us of Julio Lugo sooner rather than later. But Santana in the rotation and Ellsbury and Buchholz still on the roster is a huge thing.

I had the misfortune of hearing Pure Pleasure which is truly horrid. Mileage really varies - Jim S. has dissed this in some pretty nasty terms. Iirc, he describes it as sounding as like everyone was staring at the clock, waiting to get the hell out of there. I've seen this many times on eBay but never taken the plunge. Still curious though, wish someone knew what its like. Curious about this, I came close to buying a Japanese CD lately. Last but not least, you are also missing a Soulnote date led by Ran Blake.

If you only want "great" albums in your collection, don't bother. If you don't mind forking out small beer for an album that's merely enjoyable, and honest though commercial, pick up "Everybody come on out" or "Use the stairs" both on Fantasy LPs which I'm sure you can find cheap, or "More than a mood" (Music Masters), which is straight ahead stuff with Freddie Hubbard (and that one's deleted, too). MG I'm going to guess that MG is simply unaware of the Concord release Gene Harris Trio + 1. Its a tremendous reunion of the principals from Blue Hour and no one can accuse it of being "snoozy" - its a rip-snorting barn-burner of a set with Stan and Gene (and Ray Brown) ripping up three blues plus "Battle Hymn" and a ballad. An all-time favorite of the former GHF.

You really should - but check AMG for what came out on 32 Jazz.

Can you quote that copyright notice? Thanks. Its in Larry's earlier post here.

What's meant with "his work"? The content, the software, both? I can't imagine that anyone can have a copyright on this information: [artist] [personnel] [instruments] [date of recording] [location] [tracks] [issued as] [bla] [bla] His copyright notice/warning clearly implies that he does think he has a copyright on that same information. So he steals what others have compiled and then threatens anyone who uses his own compilation of non-copyrightable information.

Finally its time to fix the siding on our house. Its currently a mixture (don't ask why) of wood and some no-longer manufactured synthetic. Stucco has been popular with many neighbors in the development, and it all looks pretty good. However, today a rather annoying man was here to try to sell his "weatherguard" alternative which is supposed to be impermeable to water, never fade, and include significant savings on the utility bill. It also promises to be super-pricey. But the problem really comes from his dissing of stucco as an alternative. He is basically saying that the weight is so much more than the siding, it will inevitably crack in less than a year. We look at the houses that have had stucco done and see no problems at all. Any advice is appreciated.

Oh hell yeah! There was a column on the cnnsi website in which someone nominated Hank Aaron as sportsman of the year and pointed out how well the members of the '72 Dolphins team would do to take a lesson from Hank in how to deal, with grace and class, with the eclipsing of your cherished record.

So you simply knew that Feeley would make a mistake and the defense would come through when it absolutely had to? I cannot understand that level of confidence. The game easily could have been lost, and I was surely worried that they were going to. I don't know, maybe if you're just a Pats fan, losing isn't an option. But if you're a Red Sox fan and a Pats fan, a history of disappointments conditions you to expect the worst.

Well, Denver-Chicago turned out to be a barn-burner, with some awesome plays on both sides of the ball. One of the best games I've watched this season. Yeah, it was, but on paper were you really excited about the quarterback duel between Grossman and Cutler. It simply turned out to be a suprisingly great game Which is why you can't reject a game based on apparent matchups - or you would have missed two great games yesterday.

Cuz he was stuck on 3000 hits? Cuz he was a humanitarian who died trying to aid his countrymen?

No, they did not do "exactly the same thing." They (typically) borrowed to some degree (discography does not require that one perpetually re-invent the wheel) but (1) they tended to acknowledge their sources 2) they also did original discographical research, and 3) they tried to incorporate corrections when their errors and omissions were pointed out to them. Lord doesn't "borrow"; he copies wholesale from previously published discographies, usually without acknowledgment (though acknowledgment of wholesale copying of Lord's sort and scale wouldn't make it ethical), does no original research, and does not correct errors. And while shamelessly stealing from others, he threatens anyone who uses his work with copyright infringement!

He really said that? He only scored two TDs and the threat of another led to the blocked punt that produced another score. What an incredible dumb ass that dude is.

i agree you never saw gail sayers return kicks. http://munilot.com/blogs/vhr/archive/2007/...-returners.aspx The man has already broken Sayer's team record for TD returns! There was a chart on ESPN of the guys ahead of him, and its just ridiculous - guys with 12 or 16 returns - in 120 or 150 games, while Hester has ten in like 20 career games! Its the equivalent of someone approaching Willie Mays' 660 homers - in like five years instead of 20.

Well, mark me down as most concerned about the Steelers game. Last night was a wake up call for the Pats to remind them that no one will lay down for them (well, no one other than the Dolphins and Jets) so it will be interesting to see how they react. Since the Dolphins didn't even have to play a play-off team in '72, I don't even know if they ever had a gut-check game in that season, but the Pats have had theirs, now we'll see if they are as for real as people thought. On a separate note, does anyone know how much money was lost in Vegas on that game? Maybe this will mean slightly more realistic lines the rest of the way. I bet a lot of people went big for the Pats when they heard that McNabb was out, only to get burned.

I still cannot wrap my mind around the concept of Missou playing West VA for all the marbles. I fully expect that at least one of them will blow it in the Conference Championship games. I'm sure whoever has got broadcast rights to the Sugar Bowl is hoping for the same, since neither of those teams will bring in a lot of fans. I'm sure they're hoping Ohio State gets a bid. If a crazy season like this can't force the NCAA to give in on instituting a tournament, what will?

Well, Denver-Chicago turned out to be a barn-burner, with some awesome plays on both sides of the ball. One of the best games I've watched this season.

That goes double for me.

A fascinating look at the legal issues surrounding Bonds' indictment, courtesy of the Hardball Times. Pretty damning, too, and what surprises me is that this lawyer is identified as a criminal defense attorney. Judging from Court TV, criminal defense attorneys are constitutionally incapable of saying positive things about a prosecutor and his case. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...ough-the-noise/

The kind who allows greed or lust to triumph over reason and good judgement. I know that dipshit is calling me a moron, but I trust that you are not implying that I allow greed or lust to triumph over reason and good judgment, Chris.

Actually, the page they set up doesn't throw off any phishing signals, but you do have to click to get the "tax refund request" and that threw Norton into a tizzy. Good Norton, good boy!

Now they're trying to pretend they are the IRS? Brings new meaning to the phrase "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." They are even stealing bandwidth by linking that image direct from the irs.gov site! And of course the right clicky on the link shows that it is http://www.gigata.com/auction/cgi-bin/.hap...ceva.alyfel.php What is sad is that while the vast majority of US citizens would laugh at the thought that the IRS would approach them about a tax refund, there are still people who will happily give up their info in expectation of a refund. Does the IRS have a "spoof" address? Edit: and here is something interesting - when I get BS like this, I like to switch browsers to IE, because the "fraud monitoring" of my Norton only works with that browser. Every time I've done that and clicked on the link, Norton recognizes the site as a "known phishing page" and disables it. But it didn't do anything this time, even though the site URL starts with a bunch of numbers and then duplicates the URL of other IRS links. I guess this is really is a new phishing site. Beware!

Now that I've had my fun, let me just say that I think Jim overestimates the talent of a .285 hitter. .285 hitters are in almost all cases, nothing more than solid major leaguers. Chances are that if they hit with power (and are therefore more "valuable") they don't hit for as high an average. A .285 hitter is interchangeable with about 60% of the league, won't ever get a sniff of the Hall of Fame, and is generally forgotten by everybody as soon as he retires. Stanley Turrentine was most assuredly not a ".285 hitter". IMHOP, he was a perennial All-Star, save for the career dip he took in the Fantasy years.

Considering how intelligent baseball analysis ("sabermetrics") is moving away from BA because it is one of the most variable of all hitting statistics, I am really wondering what Stanley's OBP (on-base percentage) and SLG (slugging percentage) was, so I can determine his all-important OPS (On-base plus slugging). Better yet, how did he do away from his "home field" of RVG's studio? If you want a true picture of the man in full context, you have to control for the effects of recording at Rudy's, (I'm going to call that statistic "RVG+") and if you really want to get the very fullest measure of the player, you've got to control for the fact that he played and recorded in an era in which brilliant recordings were a workaday habit for many (to keep up the belabored baseball metaphor, I'll call that one "ERA+"). It is my considered opinion that Mr. T's ERA+ was a very solid .870. Borderline Hall of Fame credentials but unfortunately some voters place too much emphasis on the decade of the Seventies, where his ERA+ admittedly slipped to .790.