Dan Gould

What could a pc cost in a month if left on 24/7? Three dollars? I have no idea but there's been a clear correlation between the months when I have left a Dime download proceed for several days and noticeably higher electric bills.

I have to say I am very curious what snide comments a person who listens to that crap comes up with. Care to share?

Big Wheel, if your Dad now has a "ditzy" and I presume younger girlfriend, I would strongly suspect that she has made a major impact on his music taste and listening habits. There may also be an element of trying to pretend he's younger by listening to a younger style of music, like the Chicks. As far as I am concerned, I can't express any problem whatsoever with my Dad's musical taste, for the following reasons: He's older and therefore his musical interests could never have been polluted by Spyro Gyra or any of the crap Big Wheel mentions. His LPs include plenty of classic 50s Sinatra, plus Ella, Louis, and Ella & Louis. The Ella and Louis albums were on the stereo with some regularity growing up, and when in the late '80s I was looking for new musical horizons, it was hearing those very same albums, serendipitously, that led me to think that jazz was of possible interest. I am sure it helped that they sounded so familiar. Last but not least, while his straight jazz interests never got past the swing era, ever since I started collecting jazz and would use his stereo or play CDs in the car, he has expressed appreciation for what he heard. Didn't make him want to go out and buy something - he's rarely been one to listen to music solely for pleasure - but he's always complimented me on particular tunes or artists. Heck, when I was living at home in the early '90s and planned a trip into NY for a show at the Blue Note or Vanguard, without my asking he would offer to meet me at the club from his office. My dad's one hip dude.

Track 1 - Definitely BN era Jackie Mac. Perhaps from The Connection? Doesn't sound like his usual BN piano cohort. Track 2 - another BN gimme, its Hank. Track 4 - I'm going to go out on a limb and recall (perhaps completely incorrectly) that Matt has at one time or another mentioned some level of respect for Woody Allen. Could this be him? Remainder of the disc was much like Disc 1 - varied from "OK" to "not terribly interesting" and none of it really demanded multiple plays. but thanks for those two gimmes, it makes me feel like I'm almost good at this game.

Well, I hate to say it but Disc 1 varied from "pleasant enough" to "not holding my attention". No names jumped out at me and frankly, none of the tunes made me want to immediately hit the back button to hear them again.

Thanks for the advice. At least the tracker has stopped the upward climb in the "remaining" message, now it just gives a big ? My problem is that our electric bill has skyrocketed lately (summer in Florida, what can you expect?) and I have a hard time justifying the PC being on 24/7 for some ridiculous amount of time.

Thanks Swinger. I'd forgotten about the Yahoo group. Hopefully some folks will jump back in.

Since there are many people here who are also members of that community, I figured I'd post the question here: Does anyone know what happens when you are way late to a torrent and you end up the lone guy in a swarm with just one seeder? I ask because while there appears to be one seeder, I downloaded for about three minutes and then the download rate went to zero, and in the meantime, while I am not downloading, the tracker indicates that at my current rate of zero bits per second, it will take a whopping 180 days to complete this download. Parenthetically, its an interesting existential question, when a download rate of zero still yields and estimated time of completion. Why doesn't it just say "never"? Of course, at the rate that the estimate keeps climbing, we'll probably reach "never" in about two hours. I'm starting to feel like the guy in that Progressive commercial. So, anywhoo ... is there any hope for me on this? Is there any point in keeping the connection open? Are there any Delbert fans who can help a brother out? I don't think my wife would appreciate it if I leave the connection, and PC, on for the next six months. Plus I really wanted to bring this concert with me on vacation in August.

While Direct TV did nothing to promote this little freebie, I decided to check the Extra Innings channels last night so I had the great pleasure of watching the collapse with the hometown television crew. When exactly does it end? If the Red Sox keep pissing away games, the end of the promotion may coincide with the end of my marriage.

Yeah, I was laughing about that signing all the way until Loretta non-chalanted the groundball and the tying run scored. Last night makes two games in a row that a total lack of clutch hitting allowed a beaten team to slip past us. Pisses me off even more having it happen at home. What should be a 4.5 game lead is instead a scant 2.5. Cash may not have to spiff up his resume after all.

Back to the important stuff: More reasons the Yanks should be worried: Red Sox had more away games than any other team in the first half, so they have more home games than any other team in the second half (44-32 is how the remainder split), and we know how the Sox play at home. Coming out of the break, the Sox are looking at a stretch of 26 out of 38 games being played at home. Definitely the time to get some daylight between us and the rest of the division. It might take a minor miracle - or a major trade - for the Yankees to make a move between now and the mid-August 5 game set at Fenway. In addition to the friendly split of home-away games, when the Sox are out of the Fens, its never for very long. Only five road trips remain, and all but one are two series or less (I will admit though, that 9 game road trip (Angels, Seattle, Oakland) comes at a critical time, as it is bracketed by the Yanks going and the Blue Jays and White Sox when they return. I dare say, the situation coming out of that stretch will be critical to the outcome of the race.

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty certain that Sunshine used to cover D-Rays baseball. Maybe its under another Fox regional channel now.

Well going back to cable would restore the local TV games on Sunshine, but the whole reason that we went satelite when we moved was because we heard horror stories about Adelphia from different people, basically that both price and service were outrageously bad. So I don't think that's an option. And no indication that DirectTv is a part of this Extra Innings promotion, either. I should mention that there is one advantage to satelite: I get "ESPNA" which I believe stands for ESPN-Alternate. Normally its blank but when there's regional ESPN coverage, like when the Yankee game got switched to 8 pm on a Sunday, I get both broadcasts.

won't help me. But what really makes me is the way DirectTV packages their sports offerings. NESN is part of all of those regional sports networks, and they have a package that includes all of them. But to get the baseball broadcasts of any of those regional sports networks, you have to buy Extra Innings, which I just cannot justify the cost. Bottom line is that, since buying our house and going to satelite TV, I don't even get standard cable offerings like Sunshine. So, NO chance to see Devil Ray games when they're playing the Sox, and no Florida State football either. Basically, unless I give in and buy Extra Innings, the only baseball I can get is national broadcasts by ESPN or Fox, plus those increasingly rare TBS broadcasts, plus WGN. And being in south Florida, anytime they can show a New York team they do, so half the time that Fox has the Red Sox as the national game, we end up with the regional coverage, be it Yankees or Mets.

The simple fact is that Ricci and Lois feel a need to bring out jazz "bigwigs" whether musical or otherwise, while this board has a completely different vibe and therefore absolutely no reason to even think about doing such things. Ya wanna debate Crouch? Go wherever he is. Don't invite him here or suggest that he be invited. Better yet, write a bad review, and then go hang out in his neighborhood. Soon enough, you'll get your chance. But keep your hands up at all times, and be sure to wear steel-tipped shoes when you try to find his testicles.

I'm one of them I was banned as a result of our, well, let's call it a collision. No problem. Unless he missed me, I'm the other one. In honor of another person banned from the Org and AAJ (DEEP): Hans, CLASP!

Shit. I don't know how I can place an order, and I don't know how I can't. I never should have opened this damn thread.

Chris' rejected blurb for Stanley's book: You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Throw Up!

I paid about $50 for a copy a year or two ago (original vinyl) and there's nothing particularly special whatsoever about her voice or the performance of the Messengers (who are only on the latter half of the tunes, and Horace, Hank and Watkins are replaced by Kenny Drew, Ira Sullivan and Wilbur Ware on two of those tunes). Unless you enjoy utterly bland chick singers there is no reason to hunt this down.

That's not a bad choice. Have you heard how Papi keeps asking him if Ortiz' daddy had anything to do with him?

Saturday Night Nessa? Stayin' alive ... Or, as the original lyrics went, Barely alive, barely alive

And one other thing I wanted to mention. The bullpen has been up and down (other than Paps) for most of the first half, mainly because Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez have been nothing like what was expected. But the positive side is that it has forced Francona to bring the youngsters up and not only let them pitch, but let them pitch critical innings. Remember the names Manny DelCarmen and Craig Hansen. Their overall stats don't show it but their recent performances (since Francona gave them all a pep talk about pitching big innings, and rah rah rah) have been outstanding. MDC is very much like Flash Gordon: mid 90s fastball, 12-6 curve that buckles knees. He's been terrific recently and if Papelbon hadn't blown the save, everyone would be talking about the two perfect innings he threw to get a 3-2 game into Pap's hands. Hansen is a first round pick from last year, upper 90s fasball and nasty, nasty slider. Think righthanded big Unit (he's almost as tall). Just tremendous stuff, he has to keep the ball down and he's almost unhittable. Recent performances have only been marred by bloop hits and seeing eye grounders. Nobody seems to get a good swing on this guy. IF these guys continue to develop, I think the Sox have, in-house, all the relief pitching they will need, now and for a while to come. I gotta say, its very exciting watching these guys!

You can't include Konerko as a "banjo hitter" and Crede has some pop too - but I agree that there are some weak bats above and below those guys. And as great as the Thome trade was, their answer in centerfield after sending Rowand away has been an outright disaster. They do have some serious power arms setting up Jenks, which helps a lot. As far as the Red Sox 3-6, I think we have to be thrilled that we are in first place and near the top in scoring considering how bad Varitek has been. Worst thing is, the strain of catching usually gets to him by September and if he doesn't get his average up before then, he might very well be below the Mendoza line when its all said and done. On the positive side, I have to expect Coco to start hitting like he did for the Tribe soon. Lots of room for improvement there. Also on the plus side is Alex Gonzales, who was as the Mendoza line at the end of May and goes into the break hitting over .280. With his glove, any offensive contribution is cake, and he has stopped being an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup. Big help getting to Youks, Lorreta and Papi. Another plus is that Wily Mo Pena should be reactivated after the break. He was out for a month plus after surgery to remove his hamate bone in his wrist (the same thing people thought was Sheffield's problem originally). He probably won't have as much power - Papi had the same surgery and said it took a year to regain his power stroke - but he's a dangerous right handed bat to have off the bench, and I have to admit I was excited by his apparent improvement while he replaced Coco. Yeah, he struck out a lot but he also took more pitches, took more walks, and showed a huge improvement in BA and OBP. At this point its obvious that we'd be better off with Arroyo, but I am hopeful that by next season it will look like we got a steal as WMP blossoms and the rest of the NL catches up to Arroyo.

hey can i get some on this pick 30 HRS He is having a monster year. Between him and Ortiz, voters may have no choice but to pick a DH for MVP this year. BTW, from last year's break to this year's, Ortiz has hit 57 homers - and that's with last year's break coming a week later than this year, so its not even a full 162 games. Considering how Ortiz tends to really get hot during the summer, I have to believe he has a shot at being the first non-steroid user to break Maris' mark.

Your boys are awful and one of the biggest disappointments of the season.