Dan Gould

He's only showing one vote, though. You or Dan? Or, because he's a Dem-o-Kong, do they only count half each? MG

A friend of mine has had a cable modem while we've stuck with DSL and whenever we talk about connection speeds and go to whatever website it is that you can run a test, his cable connection blows our DSL out of the water. (I'll get to why we stick with DSL in my next post. )

No votes for Kong? That dude could swing!

Yeah, but those are about the only weaknesses, and you got through without Radke for a part of the season anyway. A healthy Liriano, an improved Boof, Hunter signed to an extention or just having his option picked up ... really the only thing you need is find a better bat than Rondell White. Twins will have plenty of support from the prognosticators next year.

dude - its just a little saturday a.m. diversion! Does that mean that come Saturday night, the King of Beers will pull ahead?

But they all fall in the same category. "Royal" by accident of birth.

For me, its B.B.

Rogers was flinging it at 94 last night. I thought he was a soft-tosser but if you can spot your FB at 94 and spin that curve, you'll shut down a lot of lineups. If Bonderman can hold that lineup one more time, I like their chances against Wright, particularly if Wright does his usual five inning stint. And Big Al, at least A-Rod is still sucking it raw.

My Graduate degree is from Wash U. so I guess I can help a tiny bit. I haven't been though for 15 years so some of my info may be wrong or out of date. For music shopping, Euclid Records has to be number one on the list. If you aren't familiar, check out their website. In University City (right next to Wash U.), there was a good vinyl place called Vintage Vinyl. If they are still there, I'd check them out. Restaurants, St. Louis is thick with them but I can't think of any near Wash. U. O'Connell's serves the greatest hamburger I've ever had anywhere. Best bar in U. City was Blueberry Hill.

What a sad way to end what? 4 months of superior baseball? Sorry Twins fans. On the plus side, presuming that the Yankees beat the Tigers, I do think that the A's offer a stiffer challenge. They clearly have the starting pitching to deal with the Yankee bats, and in fact I believe they won the season series pretty easily. The problem is the lineup which can be so anemic. But pitching wins, and the A's finally have a Division Series won.

What about the 2003 World Series against the Marlins? Quick add: There was also the 2001 W.S. with the Diamondbacks. If I may offer an excuse ... I just ain't too smart since I passed 40!

Thanks for that link, David. While there's a lot of speculation, it also contains a lot more info than has otherwise been disseminated publicly. The facts appear to be: Odd Flight Levels (like 370 or 37000 feet) are reserved for eastbound traffic like the 737. The executive jet was flying at FL370 instead of 360. The executive jet may have had no transponder signal and ignored communications from ATC; however this occured in an area known to have communication "black spots" which makes a mess of any assumptions about intent. It seems to me though that even if the pilots had willfully turned off their transponder and ignored radio communications, ATC should have had no problem recognizing the conflict and giving the 737 a command to avoid the collision. Think of what happened when the jet carrying Payne Stewart (?) flew on autopilot with everyone unconscious or dead. ATC couldn't raise the plane but moved everyone out of their way while the military jets were scrambled to investigate. There's absolutely no excuse, in my mind, for not giving the 737 the proper instruction, if in fact you can't raise the smaller jet.

I am also a concerned Twins fan, but I hope the Yankees win, eventually go to the World Series, and get swept by the Met's. That would really f#&k up the mind of Yankees fans! That would be ultimately sweet but those dern Yankees always seem to find a way to win. I'd say take em out early and often! Yes! A thousand times, yes!!! Aside from the unique and unheralded 2004 collapse, the only time the Yankees have lost in the Torre era is during the first round. Let's hope that Unit's slider is flat and he gets hammered, and that the Gambler brings his "A" game. I saw he has an outstanding home record, so that may help. A wint onite means that the Yanks face elimination with Jaret Wright. Me likey that. Will this be the first play-off match up of 40 year old pitchers?

Ya gotta love it - Tigers even up the series and that puts lots of pressure on an injured Unit to come up big. I like the fact that RJ is a mediocre 7-7 lifetime in the playoffs, and that when he's wrong, he gives up the long ball which it seems like the Tigers regularly swing for. Unfortunately, The Gambler is much worse in October. I'll tell you this much: Any Tiger fan has to worry every time Todd Jones comes in to close one out. One of these days its gonna kill them, and every one will wonder why he doesn't let the guy who touches 103 (with far better control than Farnsworth has even dreamed of) get those last three outs.

I knew we'd end up regretting giving Greg the heave ho ...

I'd say the only excuse would be leaving this mortal coil. I'd ask Parker for his address and send a registered letter, since he doesn't respond to PMs.

I could not believe it when the Dodgers ran themselves into two outs at the plate, and of course it has to be the critical play in a 1-run loss. What the hell is wrong with Kent that he couldn't score from second on a double off the RF wall???? How can you misjudge it? Doug Freaking Mirabelli scores standing up on that play. Papi makes it to the dugout before the throw reaches the plate. Sending the runner afterwards was dumb, but I don't think the third base coach even saw him.

That's probably because those bands are what programmers consider "classic rock" in addition to the Stones, Who, Led Zep, etc. Please tell me, aside from Hendrix, what black artists are missing from "classic rock" programming, because I thought that between Hendrix and Living Colour, there weren't any black artists involved in rock. That's valid up to a point if you want to narrowly define it. However look at the Rock N Roll hall of fame and the Black representation there. Admittedly there's more R n B,Soul etc there but they are there. It's just unfortunate that oldies radio isn't that inclusive but like you said a lot of that is on the doorstep of big corporate radio. Here's the thing: "Classic Rock" was never defined as the "roots" of rock n roll, where you do find all of the great black artists, but as rock's "glory days" of the 60s and 70s, distinct from rock's "early days" which was once covered by "oldies" formats, and is virtually exclusively white, outside of Hendrix.

One big problem with the application of that story to this situation: The dumb ass 'bored' pilots asked for and received clearance to deviate from their assigned flight level:

Flight data and cockpit recorders were taken from the executive jet. Its still unclear what was recovered from the tail of the 737. I'd like to see clear evidence if they are charged. I don't think any professional pilot is foolish enough to turn off collision avoidance equipment, nor do they just decide to ignore the clearance they've received and choose to fly at a different altitude just cause they want to.

I never understood the super hard-ass approach to managing. It never seems to work for very long, even when you find success.