PHILLYQ

Thanks for posting that Dave, hilarious!!! RIP Soupy, I spent many afternoons after school watching him and appreciating how funny and weird he was all at once.

Adam Clayton Powell Charlie Rangel Al Sharpton

me, too, that was a hoot!

The Village Vanguard is still around, the only one of those named. Stories from me to come(too tired now, 11 hour day at work)

Hope the food's not crappy!

...and you get to hear Stanley Crouch on drums

Frequently I mute the tube and play music. As bad as some baseball announcers are, they're nowhere near as bad as 90%+ of football announcers, especially the college ones.

Umps blow another call, Posada run back to third, Cano right near third but not touching it, catcher alertly tags both runners and only one out is called!!! I'm a Yankee fan and this is absurd- I may Fedex my glasses to the umpiring crew- they need it badly.

A-ROD WITH ANOTHER BLAST!!! He 's on fire

Kazmir over 80 pitches in the 4th, Sabathia with 29 through 3! Horrendous umpiring twice in the top of the fourth, both involving Swisher- he's clearly out on a pickoff(called safe) and then gets called out on an appeal play but he didn't leave early- I guess it's karma.

I'll call you and raise. Why did Girardi remove David Robertson, who was pitching very effectively, and replace him with Alfredo Aceves with two outs in the bottom of the 11th? That makes no sense. Up over and out Exactly my thought- with a runner on second, two outs and a good strikeout pitcher on the mound, why change??? Girardi may have outthunk himself.

Titans were without their starting cornerbacks. They got behind so early that they became helpless. As for the Patriots, I mentioned a few weeks ago that once the Pats' offense start to get in sync it will be scary. Looks like it's about to happen. This year's team is probably the most talented and deepest since 2004. They will be a Super Bowl threat by the end of the season. Started off rough owing to a lot of new faces on the field and Josh McDaniels left to coach the Broncos. They also started off the season against five straight teams without a loss. Schedule remains easy next week with Tampa Bay up next, but they might be facing another undefeated team with Indianapolis in a few weeks. Conn, why in the world did Belicheck let Brady play after halftime? At 45-0 you sit your starting QB and keep him safe. Staring at 0-6, some Titan might do something stupid and injure Brady.

Congrats and best wishes

Too late--I think tonight's game already gave me one. I wound up drinking quite a bit more than I had planned because of the game. I went to a concert Saturday night and got back to Brooklyn close to 11:00, so I went to a bar a few blocks away from my house(unbeknownst to me it's a Yankee bar) to grab a pint, watch the last inning or so and then go home. Wel, once I was there I had to stay until the end, so I wound up drinking pints(Sam Adams)until 1:30 AM!!! The bartender was giving me buybacks after two pints, so it turned out very cheap, and no driving involved- just walk about six blocks and I was in the door.

I made my October gig on Saturday at the Abron Arts center in NYC. It was an Incus Records festival and had a bunch of AG people playing there. Susie Ibarra, Fred Frith, Zorn, Milford Graves, George Lewis, Richard Teitelbaum, Cyro Baptista and Min Xiao Fen in various groupings and a big finale with all at the end. For me it's very difficult to explain the music in words, but it was quite powerful and enjoyable. Fred Frith had a bunch of different objects he applied to the guitar, like rolls of tape, a bow, and other stuff I didn't quite recognize. Milford Graves is one hell of a drummer, I'd heard some fine things he did on recordings but live he really burns(His dancing bit gets a bit showbizzy though). George Lewis was amazing!!! I'm going to start looking for a November gig to catch as I need only that and a December gig and I'll have met the 'gig a month' for 2009!!!

I paid for my order on Thursday morning last week and the discs arrived on saturday in Brooklyn NY!!! Kudos to Chuck( and the PO) for Hiroshi Tanno-like service.

Yeah, I heard Sterling and her once while out one night...just once...and I am still scarred from it! he didn't seem so bad when he did Braves games, but back then the braves sucked..... I'm a Yankee fan and Sterling &Suzyn Waldman are HORRIBLE!!!! One local writer here calls them 'Ma & Pa Pinstripe'.

First was 'Shaun of the Dead'?

Get yer frozen Pedros here!

The play-caling thing reminds me of a game a long time ago witht he Vikings and Tommy Kramer was the QB. They showed him in the huddle(remember when you used to see that on TV?!) drawing up a play in the dirt!

hello Chuck, I think I sent a PM to you but I'm not sure it went OK. I'd like the Bradford & the Leo Smith, just PM me with the total and where to paypal the $$. Thanks much.

QB ratings are largely meaningless? Please. It's simple, really: See! But really, whatever one might make of the formula , it basically measures passing efficiency. We know completions and TDs result in a higher number; incompletions and interceptions, a lower number. Anyways, here's some more stats, fwiw: Bulger -- 85.2 rating, 40-47 with a 62.3 completion % Unitas -- 78.2 rating, 118-64-4 with a 54.6 completion % Brett Favre -- 85.7 rating, 169-100 with a 61.7 completion % I'd say W-L record should maybe be the prime consideration. Can a QB lead his team to victory despite adversity (or a crappy day at the office)? Both Bulger and (with at least one famous exception) Namath seem to come up short in that category. Is completion percentage really important? Would you rather 7-10 for 55 yards or 5-10 for 110 yards? Thanks for digging up how QB rating is calculated- that's a hoot!

I have my October gig lined up- I ordered a ticket to the Incus festival for 10/17 that's supposed to include Susie Ibarra, Fred Frith, etc.

Staubach maybe. Read something a while ago that Namath is actually one of the most overrated QBs. He had a couple of good years but pretty average career stats. He had a losing record as a starter (62-63-4), a 50.1% completion rate and a 65.5 career QB rating. Compare that to a guy like Staubach (not the top tier, but in the discussion) who had an 85-29 record as a starter, a 57% completion rate and an 83.4 career QB rating. Or a top-tier guy like Montana, who had a 117-42 record as a starter, a 63.2% completion rate and a 92.3 career QB rating. A guy like Trent Dilfer has numbers more in line with Namath's: 58-55 record as a starter, a 55.5% completion rate and a 70.2 career QB rating. (Better than I expected, really). If Namath's in the discussion, Dilfer should be, too. Which of course probably means Namath shouldn't be. Keep in mind that QB ratings are largly meaningless- does anybody really know what they measure? I saw somewhere recently that Marc Bulgur rates higher than Johnny Unitas!

12th inning in game 163, WOW!!!