PHILLYQ

I was also in Catholic grammar school(2nd grade). The nuns stopped classes and we prayed. Never saw them so sad. Not only was he the first Catholic president, but my neighborhood was also largely Irish-Italian, so a president of Irish heritage was particularly special.

The big retailers are doing their best to ruin Thanksgiving too. Wal-mart and a couple of others are now opening ON Thanksgiving, even if it is at 10:00 PM

I hate to go back on my word but since you asked: If Bobby Valentine becomes the manager of the Boston franchise of the American League, I will cease to follow that team at all until such time as he is fired. And you can take that to the bank. To me that makes no sense. You root for the team through thick and thin. As players come and go, we, as fans, are still there. I may not always like (more often than not, if you have to know the truth) what the Mets do but I've been rooting for them for 50 years and I'm too old to kick the habit Agree with you on that. I became a Yankee fan in 1964. I was eight years old, the Mets were a joke, the Yanks make the WS and lose in 7 to the Cards. They don't sniff a game after #162 until 1976, by which time I was 20 and had suffered through Horace Clarke, etc. for my adolescence. I stuck with my team through thick and thin and I still do. It's much easier now to be a Yankee fan, but I remember the lean years, the Stump Merrill years, etc.

He seems to do better with a relatively young team, like when he had the Mets. I think of the collapses the Mets had when they needed to win one game and get in the palyoffs and I always thought that Valentine would have found a way to win them. He knows a LOT about baseball, but that said, he can also rub people the wrong way.

I now live about 10 blocks away from Madison. The Kent, featured in The Purple Rose of Cairo. Woody Allen grew up, IIRC, on 14th & K. The Kent is still there and badly in need of an upgrade.

That's an interesting lineup. Have you seen them? I saw them in January at the Blue Note in NYC. Excellent show, Cindy Blackman was outstanding.

I wish I had been there. I never saw the band, though I'd seen Jerry Goodman with The Flock at the tail end of the Fillmore East. Hey Philly, we're the same age and both Brooklynites. I knew I liked you for some reason or other. And you went to high school at Midwood? That's about 7-8 blocks from my boyhood home! I preordered the box only because it has the extra disc with more Central Park stuff. If it has the Mar Y Sol cut that's even better.

I'm wondering how they manage the $$ on this. It's a 37000 seat stadium, Ramirez is signed at about $11mil/year, Reyes will be at least $10mil/year, Pujols about $20-25mil/year. It doesn't seem to leave much for a pitching staff, etc.

Paterno had enormous authority at Penn State. If he had any suspicions, as well he should after hearing 'inappropriate', 'child' and 'Sandusky' in the same sentence, he SHOULD have every one looking into this creep. Instead, he would have us believe that it was perfectly OK to tell his boss and DO NOTHING ELSE. With great power comes great responsibilty, and Paterno dropped the ball bigtime here, resulting in a sick predator on the loose for years more and more victims added to his sick scoresheet.

Maybe not strictly what you're looking for, but Henry Threadgill does some interesting stuff with trombones.

Have a great beer for your B-day!!!

Wow....Sandusky should do his victims and the world a favor and kill himself. Creating a foundation to help troubled youth , then going out of your way to harm them, is about as evil as it gets. And the D.A. just.....disappeared???? The foundation is a way to keep up a steady supply of young boys, much like you may find molesters working as sports coaches for kids, etc.

I just finished watching it and it's brilliant! Thanks so much for posting the link.

That is some scary stuff and it appears that it's not an isolated incident either. IIRC, another player had some family members kidnapped in Venezuela.

I got it a few days ago(CD Imports on Amazon. I was a bit hesitant because I had ordered something previously from them and they didn't have it. Got a refund though, without any hassle) and gave it a spin and I think it's GREAT. I had never heard it previously and I was wary about ordering it due to the instrumentation. Cello instead of bass led me to think it might sound a bit tinny or stiff as far as the rhythm goes. I was completely wrong. The music is raw, it swings like mad and doesn't sound the least bit tinny or stiff. Kudos to JLH for an excellent reissue, bith in terms of sound and packaging. Please let us know of any future releases, there's sure to be a lot of interest.

Yeah, and still no Cleveland show. I wonder if it's still on the table. I had to get the Mahavishnu set- I was at one of the Central Park nights.

Here's something from APRIL: http://www.timesonline.com/columnists/sports/mark_madden/madden-sandusky-a-state-secret/article_863d3c82-5e6f-11e0-9ae5-001a4bcf6878.html#user-comment-area

I was made particularly nauseous by Matt Millen's comments about Sandusky. Apparently Matt knows the guy, knows what he stands for, and wouldn't at all be surprised if all the charges amounted to nothing. That said, Matt continued, people do make mistakes... Mistakes. That's how Matt categorizes molesting and ruining the lives of children. To him, apparently it's just an understandable character flaw that occasionally comes to light. Shameful. That is nauseating.

happy Birthday, Jeff! Pleae do another disc of Afro-Klezmer stuff, the last one was really cool.

1)He could make sure that Sanduasky gets nowhere near the campus and has no association with the school 2) He could CALL THE COPS- this is a very serious crime. 3)He could ask the AD, college President, etc what happened to the allegations against Sandusky 4) He could contact the graduate assistant and see what happened as a result of the allegations 5) Threaten to go public on Sandusky if he doesn't come clean PATERNO DID NONE OF THE ABOVE Sure, he may have done the technical minimum required of him as an employee at Penn State, but he has an obligation as a human being, a father, an adult responsible for young people entrusted to his care to do much more. He failed in that miserably, probably to save face for the college.

Love Ali but hate what he did to Frazier. Frazier was an honorable man in a world very short of honorable people. RIP to a true champion in and out of the ring.

The more that is coming out the more I'm thinking that everyone, Paterno included should go. They all knew that something very wrong was going on there and they didn't act in a manner that was intended to make it stop. They were more interested in preserving the image of the school and the folks running the athletic department. If I'm in the shoes of any of these people and I hear 'inappropriate' 'child' and 'Sandusky' in close proximity I CALL THE COPS! I also make damn sure that this guy doesn't even get to breathe the surrounding air of the college or any of its satellites. Nobody did any of that to their eternal shame.

Ravens/Steelers was a hard-hitting game and very intense. I thought the Steelers had it in in the bag but the Ravens made some big plays at the end.

Melky's a pretty decent player, definitely plays hard, great arm. He was a nice player on the Yanks and is still popular in NYC.

Packers still undefeated, 49ers have one loss. Don't know how many folks got to see it, but the Giants/Pats game was excellent! Scoreless at the half, lead changes in the 4th quarter and just when it looke dlike the pats had the game the Giants score late and win. I'm a Giant fan and I was high in the 3rd quarter as the Giants looked great, low in the 4th as the Pats tied and went ahead, then finished on a high as the Giants won. Jet fans were also very happy at the result. A great game for football fans.