Dan Gould

I've wondered about this everytime I hear a kick-ass solo after which the crowd goes crazy. If you're the guy following the kick ass solo, how do you start, knowing that the crowd is applauding the other guy? I'm not asking in terms of what you do to follow that, but more like, the first few bars aren't even heard-do you "coast" through those til you have the audience's attention again? Do you not even think about it?

Nice pic, Harold. Did you see your namesake serve as equipment boy for the Sox last week? Pretty funny stuff, though I understood that the people he replaced also got the chance to be Baseball Tonite analysts, and I missed that part. Anywhoo, I'll concede the division, but I think you're still a tad too optimistic in some ways: For Brown to be a fearsome reliever, he has to find a fastball above 90 mph, and that doesn't seem physically possible. As Torre said, he might get you out of a jam with "courage" but really, how often can you hope for that without any stuff to back it up? As for Quantrill, he's a disaster since the all-star break, with an ERA over 6 since then. In fact, Quantril is the reason they're hoping Brown can be effective out of the pen, because they don't trust Quantrill and they can't throw Flash every day. In fact, how did the Sox come back on Saturday? Against Quantrill, and they were resting Gordon. Last, I'm not sure you "got past" Santana as much as managed to win on a day he was on a very short pitch count. I don't think the Yanks win the opener yesterday with Santana pitching deeper into the game. But I say, keep beating the Twins, send them into a tailspin through the weekend. Beating Santana in a short series is a tough job, and I'll enjoy watching the Yanks try. As for Pedro, I wouldn't say he's come up lame. He actually hit 96 on the radar gun which is a season high. He had no command though. He needs to get his command back pronto, and keep the intensity that he showed when he kicked it up and worked out of a bases loaded no outs situation. In other words, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Pedro just yet. It will definitely be interesting to see if the A's can stop the Angels march or not. They're certainly the hot team right now.

Dan, While your team may not win the division, I will give you credit for hanging on until the end and never giving up. Nothing worse than someone who jumps on the bandwagon at the last second or bails on their team when the chips are down! I'm not a RedSox fan or even an American League fan but I'll pull for your team (at least in the AL)! I'm sure I will be a big help as they drive towards the pennant! Mark Thanks, Mark! Philly, As I've been saying, both teams want to avoid Minnesota (and Santana) in a five game series, but especially the Red Sox, since as wild card they'd be on the road for three of them. So I guess at this point I have to root for the Yanks to sweep today, and that the A's (or Aneheim) sweep this weekend. I likes our chances if its Yanks/Minnesota and Sox/A's or Angels. Of course, as worried as the Yanks are about their pitching, we've got to start worrying about Pedro. 10 hits and five earned runs in five innings to Tampa Bay??

Here's a picture from Hank Mobley's last recording session:

Extremely creepy, that Willie Wonka movie. The first time I saw it was when my son was 3 or 4, and my father got it for the grandkids. I thought it was very S&M toward kids, tempting them with candy and then punishing them for it. I disagree. Kids are not punished for wanting candy or reacting to candy being dangled in front of them. They're punished for being obnoxious, disobedient brats. The only arguably blameless child is Augustus, who hardly is warned not to try to drink the chocolate lake before he falls in. What I do find dark and depressing though is the boy's home life of extreme poverty and geriatric bedridden relatives. But I think the creepy vibe of the chocolate factory is more just a fun house kind of atmosphere, where things may get strange or a little frightening but the moment passes quickly. Oh yeah, and that Oompa Loompa melody-just try getting that out of your head!

Well, Harold, I bet it feels good knowing that if not for another Red Sox Manager Brain Fart, it would have been a sweep in Fenway and a 1.5 game lead heading into the last week (which would be half a game right now with the rain outs). Kind of like Florida State/Miami and "Wide Right"-the gift that keeps on giving. But I'll bet your feeling pretty antsy about El Duque having his start pushed back with a "tired shoulder" though. And that comes after two starts in which he averaged twenty pitches an inning. One old fart gets his wish and gets positively hammered in Fenway, the other old fart comes up lame. Not good with the playoffs so close. I admit the likelihood of a division lead collapse is not great, but with three against Minnesota, its quite possible that Toronto and Baltimore will have something to say about the AL East.

Unfortunately, we're not entirely fine. Turns out that Bellsouth got positively clobbered, and our DSL may not be back until October 6th!

No doubt about it! How dare they call me a nice person!!

I'm sure it was a record of some sort (no, really, it was!). What I do remember is the positive feedback I received, which was: "Nice person!" It left me thinking, how in the heck do they know I'm a nice person? I'd rather get the nuts and bolts of positive feedback: Quick pay, good communication, that sort of thing. Or even a blanket comment like "I would buy again" or "good buyer" but to decide I'm a nice person, well, that and the requisite cash will get me a cup of coffee and not much else.

Well, for future reference, now I'll know! Maybe you should have grabbed that dancing dude icon Brad is so fond of.

Would you mind telling that to Nessa? Speaking of which, if you had put a wink next to your observation, I wouldn't have responded. But I couldn't interpret the smilie you used, so it left me confused as to what you were trying to say, which is why I asked if there was something wrong with my comments.

I calls 'em as I sees 'em. Is there something wrong with that?

I used to never stretch, but had a steady experience (at least twice every every season) where after swinging the bat, the first step out of the batter's box would injure my hamstring or quad, and this happened batting righty or lefty, so it didn't matter which foot I pushed off of. I started doing intensive stretching before game time and it stopped happening.

I'm weird when it comes to this. Can't stand clutter in the house - totally tolerate it in (and on) the car. Never been one to wash by hand, and since we moved to a neighborhood that doesn't seem to have any car washes, its been even longer between them. And that's despite the fact that I park under a pine tree now. We need a "shoulder shrug" smilie.

Not as successful with Disc 2, I'm afraid. I'd say the theme though is "tracks that are not quite ready for prime-time as far as audio quality goes". Track 1 - Couldn't take this past about 3:15. Track 2 - The famous Rollins calypso, St. Thomas. Track 3 - Straight No Chaser, probably liked this loose jam session track best. Track 4 - Bye Bye Blackbird. Elvin on drums? Track 5 - NO. A thousand times, NO. Track 6 - My guess is Hub. But I'm probably wrong. Thanks again, Tom!

Well, I was slow to give the discs a listen, but how's this for dedication? Picture a house that's doubling as an oven in the aftermath of a hurricane. Our intrepid reporter is desperately trying to fan himself into some semblence of, well, not comfort, but less discomfort. What do I do? I get out the old disc man and give the BFT a careful listen! Track 1 - Well, I'd hope that the following tracks would constitute a few of your favorite things! Unfortunately, I wasn't at all engaged by this pianist. Kind of made me think of Bill Evans, but mostly because he's a pianist I don't like either. Track 2 - Woody Allen? No, I'm serious! I heard he can really play ... Anyway, before my "time" but I have to say that there's a vitality and spirit that is infectious and fun. Track 3 - I know this, I know this, I know this ... but what the hell is it? Definitely a Blue Note. Stan the man on tenor? Great track, and I'll surely kick myself when I see the other responses. Double Track 4 - "Taking a Chance on Love" - love the tune, don't care for the performance. Guess we're oh for two on pianists. Track 5 - Is this trombone or trumpet? Muted? OK, its trombone. Nice, but no guesses. Track 6 - DKDC Track 7 - A classic pop tune from the early 70s, "Killing Me Softly". Wasn't this written in response to Don McLean's "American Pie"? I think I read that somewhere. Anyway .... UGH! As pop music: Four stars. As jazz: negative infinity stars. I'm just thankful they didn't cover that other singer/songwriter classic, "At 17". Track 8 - I'm going to say its someone who's listened to some Rollins, but otherwise, DKDC Track 9 and 10, liked them but no clue. Track 11 - Thank you, but NO. Track 12 - All the Things You Are. See track 11. Track 13 - Lester Leaps In. Loved the start, hated the overblowing. Big I'm afraid. Thanks Tom for an interesting first disc. Not all hit the spot, but some definitely did!

Delray Beach checking in. The short story: Wind definitely stronger; but it blew for a shorter length of time than Francis, which was moving so slow. Power stayed on 12 hours longer, didn't lose it til 11 pm Saturday, which gave me false hope we'd make it through without losing it. Damage was nonexistent and cleanup very minimal (I think Francis knocked down a lot of stuff that would have otherwise come down in Jeanne). Best of all, we used the fence sections that we salvaged from the first storm to brace the existing fence sections; it must have worked-they stayed up! To give you an idea of the difference in clean up: Francis filled 23 large trash bags with tree debris. Jeanne only filled 5. Worst was yesterday, baking in the house with the dog. But power came on about 6 pm, just in time to save what was in the freezer from reaching the point of no return. Now the only problem is that our DSL was knocked out, otherwise I'd have posted last night from home instead of this morning at the office. Glad you made it OK, David, hopefully we'll hear from Marty soon.

Well, amazingly, at 7:30, we've still got power in Delray Beach. It started wavering about 4:30 pm, but never so much that, say, the TV would switch off. The lights dim for a split second; the PC battery beeps, but its kept on going. The good news at the moment is that the eyewall has past us, but its directly east of Jupiter where my wife's family is, so its definitely getting very heavy there. Not sure how much longer the power will hold-radar shows a really, really, really strong band of showers is about to go through Boynton (Marty's town) and then us. If we still have power then ... But anyway, we're playing with the house's money at this point. With Frances, our power went off long before it got heavy here, and we've had strong winds and heavy rain for many hours now.

I don't want to sound alarmist, but the forecast has deteriorated significantly for Palm Beach county and maybe even Broward. The storm ain't movin north yet, and its now definitely expected to strengthen, with category 4 status not out of the realm of possibility. So, I'm a shuttin down the PC and I'll see you guys when I see you. Stay safe south Floridians ...

I don't know about your particular program, but when I was going through the process, Evan, I had to keep the names on the files so that I knew which version and what order I had them in. Then when I was satisfied with the playlist and sequencing, I renamed everything "track001" etc. You ought to be able to do that, I would think.

The Red Sox MUST let Pedro walk after this year. Anyone who is so unnerved by his string of futility that he's gone from "raise the Bambino from the dead, I'll drill him in the ass" to "the Yankees are my daddy" has no f-ing business being in a Red Sox uniform. And Terry Francona is a fucking moron and people in Boston should beat the October rush and string his ass up right now. The man got his freaking job because the other guy didn't know when to lift Martinez. So now the single most important game of the year arrives, and he isn't smart enough to lift him. Martinez was lucky to pitch seven innings-his fastball reached 91 exactly once, he had little command and absolutely no fucking business being out there in the eighth. There were multiple fly outs to the deepest part of the park. I mean, his stuff was so weak, it made more sense to send Pedro out in game seven than it did last night. And yet that fucking asshole doesn't have a fucking clue. And now Pedro thinks of himself as the Yankee's bitch. That's just fucking great. The Sox have to let the prima donna bitch walk, and put the money into Carl Pavano, so they'll have a new number two to go with Schilling and a future number one when Schilling leaves. Let Pedro's "daddy" throw money at him.

If you look at the forecast track, Berigan, I think Jax is gonna get near-hurricane force winds from this one. Sorry to hear your Mom is missing treatments.

I wish, but with my car in there, there's barely enough room for the mower and the other odds and ends. My wife is sure that her plan will work, and I certainly hope so. Hopefully you, Marty and me won't get impacted too badly-but I'm definitely anticipating another lengthy power outage at minimum.

Yeah, but it all worked out fine in the end. And I think Bill was a happy camper. B-) Ultimately I put it up on the big ebay site, made about $5 on it. One of the rarest BNs ever (you know it had to be if after all those years Bill had never found it or found someone who had it), but no one wanted it.

Delray. We have the same problem-the trucks came by today to pick up the debris-but the one thing they wouldn't take are the remains of the fence, because the debris is headed for the chipper, and the nails in the wood would kill the chipper. So what the hell are we supposed to do with this now? (my wife's idea is to use some heavy duty rope to tie the wood together. I guess it may work ... my thought also is to secure the wood under a tarp. Maybe if the tarp is held down by the wood and the wood is tied together, it won't take flight. I hope.