Dan Gould

A little late to the party, I'm afraid-and not a lot to say on this one. #1: I thought MJQ at first, but then not, then I did again. So I'm going to say, not the MJQ. #2: Me no likey. Farting bass and unimpressive scat. #6: Lush Life, nicest performance of the disc, but no guess. #7: At first I figured it was Bobby McFerrin, then I realized it had to be a girl singer. Then I remembered that McFerrin has like a 6 octave range or something, so maybe it is him? "Paper Moon"-and not a favorite performance by any means. #10: Must be Jon Hendricks with vocals on the Morgan classic. Shouldn't have seen the light of day, IMO.

Chris wasn't just the messenger-he made value judgements ("a disgrace") without being able to say anything about the reasons behind the decisions made by Max's family. That's what I responded to and questioned. Now Chris tells us that "all of Max's children signed papers to have him committed to this home" and simply ignores the likelihood that Max's children are doing what they feel is best. Who are we to question those decisions? Until I hear that Max is being abused, or has hateful, hurtful kids who just want him out of their hair and taken care of to the barest extent necessary, I will not second guess their decisions. Again, if its a question of money, I think we'd all want to contribute to help make Max's remaining time more bearable.

I totally agree!

If its a "disgrace" then you must know that his family does not care how he lives out his days, and put him in the worst home imaginable. And since you cannot document that, you have no idea why or how he got where he is. I'd suggest it is far more likely that one or more of Max's friends came to see him and was terribly distressed at his situation, and decided something ought to be done. I would not be surprised at all if this is a common reaction of people who are not intimately familiar with the situation who come to see an old friend after such a decision is made. I've been to those kinds of homes. Its damn depressing. Its damn depressing to see someone you love in such a poor state, and in such a facility. You may leap to conclusions about how this came to be, but you don't know. He's going to be "brought home"? If his family can no longer give him adequate care, what good is that is going to do? Hey, if its a matter purely of $$, tell me where to contribute. But otherwise, jumping to conclusions is ludicrous. I'll be interested to see what Crouch reports, specifically about Max's family, the decision to leave him in the home, the economic and care factors behind that decision, etc.

I don't think there's any doubt that this woman recorded O'Reilly. How else do you include such lenghthy, verbatim quotes in your suit? I think Bill's in deep shit.

It's a terrible story but without a lot more intimate knowledge, we ought not to second guess the treatment decisions of his family. That is, unless you can prove: They don't love him and wish him to suffer He in fact does not need 24/7 care OR They can provide that care and just don't want to This isn't a disgrace. Its a terribly sad end to a glorious life.

Al Grey: All-Stars Live Out Dere (with Jimmy Forrest) Snap Your Fingers Having a Ball Sextet (Billy Mitchell) Boss Bone Night Song Night Train Revisited (with Jimmy Forrest) Ain't That Funk For You (with Arnett Cobb) The Last of the Big Plungers Shades of Grey Struttin' and Shoutin' Me 'n Jack Thinking Man's Trombone Live at the Floating Jazz Festival Truly Wonderful (Jimmy Forrest) New Al Grey Quintet Johnny Griffin: Jazz Jamboree Change of Pace The Jamfs are Coming Kerry Dancers Grab this White Gardenia To The Ladies Catharsis! JG (Argo) Tough Tenors (Griff-Lock Quintet) Way Out! French Cookin' (Paris Reunion Band) at the Jazzhus Montmartre Vol. 1 The Big Soul Band Sincerely Ours (with Rolf Ericson Blues for Harvey Call it wachawana Introducing Close Your Eyes Studio Jazz Party Take My Hand A Blowing Session NYC Underground Soul Groove The Congregation Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me Chicago, New York, Paris The Cat Night Lady Jazz Undulation (with Dexter Gordon) Bush Dance Jazz a Confronto and The Great Danes Paul Griffin: Pours on Some Soul Sauce

"Surely"? Remember, we're dealing with the Cubs here ... and seriously, except for Zambrano, their rotation strikes me as being on the fragile side. Well, maybe Wood is fragile, maybe not. But it takes more than one messed up year to decide that Prior is fragile. There's no reason why those two won't have monster years like 2003 and pitch them into the Series. I say "surely" because there is no other team with the pitching staff to put a team in close competition for the promised land like the Cubbies, and both of them are locked up for a while. Add to that Zambrano, who's a great pitcher for a nutcase (take it from me, a Red Sox fan, he's Oil Can Boyd redux) and they will compete for the playoffs for a long time to come. And someday it will happen. And anyway, if the Yankees sign Pedro and get Nomar to play second base, and have a 230 million dollar payroll, I will become a fulltime, exclusive Cub fan, so they better make the world series!

And I thought this was one of the sets I didn't have already. Is it a foregone conclusion that the Ben and Sweets date has no alternates or unissued tunes? That one is a stone classic, but it would be great to hear more from them.

Not if they fix the bullpen (and there are a bunch of real closer available this year), re-sign Nomar, and sign Beltran (or do something about the outfield). With that team's rotation, it should surely make the world series in the next few years.

I was in summer school after my freshman year at FSU, so it wasn't until sophmore year that I had to find a new job (didn't really want to go back to Woolworth's). That was when I got hired by the town's Parks and Rec department. Weekday mornings, I was assistant Tennis instructor, first for the wealthy wives and then their kids. Then in the evenings and weekends I was one of the Tennis Court monitors, taking reservations and checking people's court membership tags. A pretty good job, spent outdoors, playing tennis or working on the tan, no muss no fuss. Couple of things I didn't tell alot of people though: I got "involved" with one of the wealthy wife tennis students ... a real "Mrs. Robinson" kind of situation. Guess I looked good in tennis shorts back then! On a few occasions, non-town residents would try to use the courts. Most of the time I insisted they leave, but toward the end of the summer, on a couple of occasions, I got offered $20 to look the other way, and, well, I did.

Joe hits it on the head. CD Street isn't like ebay, which needs to monitor what is posted for sale on an ongoing basis, but mostly relies on the mainstream press to call attention to questionable items. Unless someone brings this to CD Street's attention, it will stay up for a long, long, long time, is my bet.

But I assume you tell them why this is necessary, and that gives them the negative publicity they so imminently deserve. I would think (hope) that people who learn how scummy their business practices are will think twice about ordering anything else from them ... And as another criminal likes to say, "that's a good thing!"

My only problem with it is the sale of the naming rights to the club, and then calling it Dizzy's Club Coca Cola. To link Dizzy with the drink ... If they needed Coke's $$, well, I don't have to like it, but OK. But to create such an awkward, ridiculous sounding name is just sad. But I guess they couldn't name it the Coke Club-the Association of Pushers and Affiliated Scum would have filed a trademark infringement suit, right? Seriously, while I may hold my nose at the commercialization, linking Dizzy to this travesty makes it far worse. Is there any other example of linking a real life person to a facility bought and paid for by a corporation? Do the Heat play at Shaq's American Airlines Arena?

Through my parents I have developed an appreciation for antiques and folk art, specifically Americana items. Not overtly political things, but objects that incorporate national symbols-eagles, stars-into the design. Unfortunately, I can't presently afford to pursue that interest, but at some point in the future the start of a nice collection will be had. That is, once me and my siblings can come to an agreement! I know the biggest fight will probably be over one of the larger and most spectacular pieces: A 200 pound, iron eagle, measuring almost three feet at its longest. It was apparently once mounted on a public building somewhere. Not to get too far off topic, but there's one object in their collection that I do not desire. Its a grave marker for a Union officer who was killed in the Civil War. Its a beautiful piece of iron, in the shape of a sword, inscribed GAR. But in my opinion, it is not an item that should be sold or collected. Somewhere there is a Union officer whose grave marker is missing. Having it feels like desecration to me. Anyone else agree?

Schilling has a dislocated tendon and will require surgery. Officially, he's "doubtful" but according to Theo, if this were the regular season, he'd be in a cast. In the words of Charlton Heston, damn them all to the hell.

On both Long Island and in Connecticut, we were more than 30 miles outside of NYC, and we called it THE CITY, too.

BTW, while my job at the Five and Dime wasn't actually during the Pleistocene period, we did have the old fashioned cash registers, had to consult the plastic chart we got from the bank to figure out sales tax, and for those rare credit card transactions, we had to compare the card number to the latest booklet of stolen credit cards to make sure it was OK. Its kind of interesting to have worked in such a throwback store, just before the time Woolworth's really fell on hard times-the tiny store that still had just about everything the big box retailers have now, just a lot fewer selections. But we had a toy department, pet department, houseplants, clothing, hardware, sewing and knitting stuff, the whole shebang. And the lunch counter was a definite throwback to a time rapidly disappearing. Wasn't your Walmart snack counter, but took an entire wall of the store and had a full breakfast and lunch menu. Great burgers and fries, that's for sure ...

First job was at a Woolworth's. They paid in cash, so the $100-$150 a week I made seemed like quite a lot of money! Two minor memories that come to mind: This was around the time that the Rubik's Cube was popular, and believe it or not, through trial and error, and not through those "Solve Rubik's Cube" books or by rearranging the stickers, I learned to solve that thing. In fact, I was rather proud of myself because it wasn't a matter of mindlessly following someone's directions, I had a system and knew that if I kept doing what I was doing, eventually the corner pieces would align and then it was a fairly simple thing to get the rest in place. Anywhoo ... one Friday night (the only night we were open late) I was working the cash register and had a Rubik's Cube and the manager got pissed at me for playing with it, and eventually we made a bet-if I could solve it by 7 pm, he'd do my job: clean up the lunch counter, including dumping the grease traps from the grill, and sweep the store. And of course, I won. And to his credit, he made good on the bet. The other stockboy in this little store was the son of a high level Woolworth's exec, and he acted like he owned the store-did what he wanted to do, and the manager could hardly do anything. Real spoiled a-hole. Well, he started going out with the girl who worked the lunch counter (she was in my high school, he went to school in the next town over). And, well you know how young love can be. One day, the two of them disappeared together, and the regional manager was in the store, so the two managers came to me and asked if I knew where he was. I said I thought he was in the stock room. We went back there, there's no one in the stock room, but there's a light on in the stock room for the lunch counter. We walk in, and uh, how shall I put this? She was "on her knees". As an innoncent sixteen year old, I'd never before witnessed such a thing.

I'm less concerned about Pedro tonite than whether Schilling can pitch again or be effective. If he can't, or isn't, we're done. He's the whole f-ing reason we're favored. The other key is Damon doing his thing. The statistics are simple enough that even "idiots" can understand them: Damon scores once, the winning percentage is like .600+. Damon scores more than once, the winning percentage has got to be over .700.

I just posed that question to my wife (as die hard a fan as I am). She said she wants them to win it all, but we agreed that beating the Yanks and ruining Steinbrenner's winter would be at least somewhat satisfying. The problem is, with all the turnover this team is likely to see, this is our best shot imaginable, in all likelihood. With Varitek, Pedro and Lowe as free agents, and a big whole to fill at shortstop, I'm not sure how soon we come together so well as a team again. You can bet they'll spend big bucks, but who is in and who is out is too up in the air. We gotta do it now.

In the sense that you have your view and I have mine Sorry to disappoint you about not offering a rebuttal. OK, let me add this: As you indicate, the time is somewhat indeterminate. Modern enough not to seem remote, but not right up to date. So it can be taken as relevant to today, but not topical. I think this was by design. It allows one to disregard prison life as we now know it, for a slightly hazy past where questions about prisoners tend not to intrude. But maybe prison life was nicer a generation or two ago. From what I know, it wasn't, but I'm not an expert. I doubt it was quite as collegial as it appears in the movie. Bruce H in his post nails it, I think. OK, a rebuttal wasn't entirely necessary, but I did hope you'd respond in some way. Now that you have, I must say that the time is most assuredly not "indeterminate". If there are no specific dates given, the passage of time is seen throughout the film, specifically in the progression of pinups Andy has on his wall. I would argue strongly that gang warfare (when did the Crips and Bloods start battling in prisons across the US? Not the '40s, '50s or '60s) and racial warfare were not the same as they are now. Drug use, I'm not so sure about, but certainly the drugs going into prison during the time period covered was largely pot and heroin, not crack or PCP.

Somewhat inspired by Chris A.'s "On The Street Where You Lived" thread, let's hear some growing up war stories ... you know, not the minor nicks and scrapes but the accidents that scared the crap out of your folks and had them racing to the hospital/Doctor. I was rather accident prone as a child. Among them: Tumbled down the concrete steps in the apartment building where we lived in Chicago. Mom was doing the laundry and found me in a heep at the bottom of the stairs. That would be the first concussion. Carelessly walked behind the swings at the park, got clobbered in the side of my head. That would be the second concussion. Came flying down the walkway in front of our house on Long Island, turned the corner toward the front door when my feet went out beneath me, and I went headlong into the corner of the brick steps. Put a huge gash in my forehead, 12 stitches to close, you can still barely see the scar. At my older brother's little league game, I was chasing some kid around a wire fence-the kind that aren't prison-type barbed wire, but the metal comes to a twist at the top. I climbed part way up the fence to see where the kid was on the other side, slipped, and the metal tore into my throat. It didn't hurt that badly, but the look on the adult's faces said otherwise. Turned out it just missed my carotid artery. That's another still barely there scar. So how did you scare the hell out of your parents?

How exactly have we dealt with the prison life issue when I have pointed out that you are applying gang/race/drug issues from the present day to a time up to 50 years ago, and you offer no rebuttal or response? FWIW, I agree with you that the ending is too pat and sentimental. One aspect no one's mentioned: Morgan Freeman has an awesome voice and does a tremendous job with the narration.

I think Houston matches up better with the Cards than the Braves would have. They've got the bats to stick with the Cards, and two very good starting pitchers who can shut down a lineup. And I'd be very afraid when Matt Morris pitches against Houston's homer-happy lineup. That will get ugly in a heartbeat if he doesn't somehow keep them in the park.