GA Russell

Ron, of course what you say makes sense. But I don't set the bar so high. I'm just looking for ten albums I can recommend to my friends. I was generally unimpressed with my new recordings throughout 2010, and I was surprised last month as I went through my new CDs that there actually were ten I can recommend.

OK, TTK! I'll add it to my wishlist.

Now that enough time has passed for the thrill of ownership to have worn off, I'm wondering if those of you who have this can comment on the quality of the episodes. That is to say, I like Cassavetes and I like jazz, but is that enough? Are the shows any good? I'm giving a little thought to spending my LivingSocial $20 Amazon gift card on this. Amazon's price has risen to $20.99. http://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Staccato-starring-John-Cassavetes/dp/B003Z3C728/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I19BTJECYXMEUO&colid=RVSBV717YT9

You're welcome thedwork!

Stamps DB Brandon Browner has signed with Seattle. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350432

I got mine today and it went through without a hitch. I have a fairly lengthy wishlist left from last month, and I'm going to wait awhile and mull it over before I spend it.

BW, LivingSocial is punishing you for getting the free card!

Chris, that's my laugh of the day!

Stamps DL Tom Johnson has signed with New Orleans. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350176

My LS account now says: Your credit card will be charged within 1 business day.

Amazon's refund was credited to my account yesterday. Add to that $32.97 the $20 Amazon gift card from yesterday's LivingSocial deal, and I've got $52.97 to spend! It's burning a hole in my pocket, as my late mother used to say!

Re the Sansa clip+: Amazon offers a $4 discount on the devices described as "bulk packaging". Since the likelihood is high that I will throw away the box, I figured that it would be a good way to save money. But yesterday I noticed that the 2 gig (but not the others) is now listed as "refurbished". Makes me wonder.

FFA, there was a comment to the New York Times article that said that there would probably be a delay as their computers filtered out all of the people who ordered more than one using different credit cards. But that was speculation. When I went to bed last night, over 1,300,000 had been sold with seven hours to go. Maybe we should have a thread about how you spent the coupon!

1,259,929 sold so far.

The Mike Labinjo trade has been voided. Basically, he didn't pass his physical with the Als. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350145

thedwork, it said that you would get an email tomorrow. I think that the email will include a link to the voucher.

Here in Raleigh, a number of FM stations are now mostly talk radio (in addition to the many AM stations). I get the impression that nowadays people aren't listening to music on the radio as much anymore. A month ago I saw former Sony exec Tommy Mottola say that music used to be a 50 billion dollar industry, and that it is now a 25 billion dollar industry. The way the RIAA goes after pirate uploaders, I get the impression that they think their problems are due to piracy. But if I am right that people aren't listening to music on the radio much anymore, then I would guess their biggest problem is that they are making records people just don't want to buy or listen to.

The league announced today its plans for the Ottawa expansion draft. They realize that the way they did it for the Renegades left the team too weak to attract enough people to pay the bills, so they are going to make the new team stronger. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/cfl-develops-expansion-plan-for-ottawa/article1875499/

They are now over a million sold. Whatever it cost them, I have to think that the publicity was worth it. Imagine how many first time customers like me they got. I suppose the first sale is always the hardest.

It's in the New York Times! http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/livingsocial-gets-attention-for-amazon-discount/?hp

Yesterday Amazon informed me that they would refund my money. However, they said that the refund would take up to ten business days. So now I'm going back to keeping my eye open for the next time the Sonny Rollins Prestige box is a bargain.

TTK, some years ago I got a promo without the booklet of his album Time's Mirror. Perhaps you are thinking of that one. I enjoy it. I don't know who did the arranging.

I am on the mailing list of LivingSocial Deals. Today's deal is a $20 Amazon coupon/credit for $10. So I bought one. The deal is for today only. If you would like them to send you the offer, PM me your email address, and I will try to forward it to them. This is the first time I have bought something from them, so I am a newbie regarding how this works. ***** Edit - OK, it looks like you don't have to give me your email address. I think you can just go here and sign up for it yourself. http://www.livingsocial.com HuffPo says that Amazon has invested $175 million in Living Social. http://www.huffingto...l_n_791486.html ***** PPS - Here's a Wired report on this deal: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/01/living-social-amazon/

Don Kirshner died yesterday of heart failure. I can't say that I was a fan of much of his product, but there's no denying how popular his people were. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Kirshner

This is why I don't like playoffs. I've always disliked them most of all with baseball. I think the regular season should determine who the two best teams are, and then the championship game should be between the two best teams. With playoffs, the championship is awarded to the team that is hot at the end, on a winning streak, no matter how many teams were better over the course of the previous four months. When the Steelers won the Super Bowl a few years ago, weren't they the last-seeded team? That's kind of funny coming from such a CFL fan. Yes, I've come to terms with the fact that the two Canadian leagues (the CFL and the NHL) let almost everybody into the playoffs. What redeems the CFL situation to me is that the Eastern and Western Divisions are older than the league itself. I believe they (the IRFU and the WIFU) used to have playoffs before they began competing against each other. By the way, speaking of old age, the first year I collected Canadian league bubble gum cards (1959), the Eastern and Western teams didn't play each other until the Grey Cup game. I think that started in 1961. Don't look now, but the NHL is hardly a Canadien league anymore! JETman, I find the NHL to be hard to explain logically. The nation referred to in the phrase "National Hockey League" is Canada. Yet in recent decades the league headquarters has been in New York, and I think since about 1930 the majority of teams have been in the US. Normally, I would attribute everything to the lust for the almighty dollar, but so many of the teams have been losing so much money, that can't explain it all! By the way, here in Raleigh Time Warner has a special for two upcoming Hurricane games at half price. You would think that those two games would be against two teams nobody cares about, right? They're the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers! It might be cheaper for Toronto and New York fans to fly to Raleigh and buy their tickets half price than to buy scalped tickets of their favorite teams at home!