Kevin Bresnahan

I tend to agree that there is a lot of mindful bashing. And the bad guys are so deserving of the bashing/killing that you really have no sympathy for them. Guilty pleasure, really. I am starting book 5 - I bought a box set of the first 6 books - and so far, I have been able to decipher some things well before Reacher. For instance, in the 3rd book, "The Visitor", I figured out that the victims were being hypnotized by the FBI agent about halfway into the book. (highlight the previous text to see the spoiler). It was one of those books where you close the book and say out loud, "You idiots!! It's right in front of you!" I do enjoy a good action/mystery/adventure book and these are well written. I can see myself going through this series pretty quickly. Heck, I've already gone through 4 of them on two weeks.

I started reading Child's Reacher series and I agree with all points. Reading a Reacher novel is a lot like watching a Rambo movie. The bad guys are sneaky, dirty scumbags that deserve what Reacher dishes out and he will kill or maim them all by the end. I see that they made 2 movies but... with Tom Cruise as Reacher??? Jack Reacher is 6' 5" 220. Tom Cruise?? Really? No way.

I've seen Benny several times. I've actually lost count, to be honest. You are right in that he used to put on a great show with lots of great tunes. But the last two times I saw him, he played the exact same set list in almost the same order. The stories were the same too. In fact, they broadcast the second set to the last show I went to. I listened to it on the ride home and the second set was identical to the first. He used to play different tunes each set but not today. He is 90, after all. I was very glad I didn't buy tickets to both sets like I usually do for guys like Benny.

I skimmed the Acid Jazz scene a few times, picking up CDs from A Tribe Called Quest, Us3 & Buckshot LeFonque (Branford Marsalis). I have no problem with it or that particular term to describe it. What I don't understand is that they chose to co-opt late 60's/early 70's funky soul as a branch of it. Shirley Scott's "Hip Soul" was just what the title said it was - Hip Soul. Sure, you could dance to it, but I doubt this was getting cranked up at the dance clubs back in the day.

I have this music on the CD "Legends of Acid Jazz". Legends of Acid Jazz... What were they thinking with that series name? Terrible name but it was used to put out some great music that might not have made it out of the vaults otherwise.

192 kbps might be the cutoff for where people stop being able to tell that it's compressed, but since most of us listen to Jazz with prominent cymbals, which often get mangled during compression, our music might not pass the "smell test" with 192 kbps.

Unfortunately for Goff, Brady is now the yardstick for the kind of QB everyone wants. There is only one TB12. Goff can still be a very good QB. He needs a few more pass catchers. Cooks is a very good WR that's getting great WR $$. He's no Julio Jones when it comes to fighting for the catch. If he ain't open, he ain't catching it. They missed Kupp out there and they really don't have much at TE. Get him another WR threat and a tight end that can draw off a safety doubling Cooks and see what happens.

I keep reading all of these doomsday predictions for Goff, like he is somehow incapable of learning from his past performances. The defense at the line of scrmmage that the Patriots used against Goff was very close to what the New York Giants used against Brady in 2007. Pressure up through the middle of the line to force the QB to make bad throws or throw it before he wants to. They added another twist by going to a zone defense in their secondary - the first time they went zone all year. Goff was confused and the coaching staff didn't have an adjustment ready for it. They started to figure it out in the second half but by then, the Patriots had shifted another way. If Brady could figure out how to beat this D in later games, Goff can too. He's still young (24) and has a lot of football left in him. BTW - the biggest game time adjustment was when the Patriots went to their 22 personnel package (2 TEs, 2 RBs & 1 WR) in the 4th quarter. It forced the Rams into their base D, which is designed to stop the expected run. So the Patriots emptied the backfield and threw out of this formation and got LBs on the "receivers" (TEs & RBs) instead of DBs that would be there if they had their nickel D. They ran the exact same play 3 times in a row and connected with 3 different receivers. It worked every time and resulted in the only TD of the game. Excellent write up here: https://www.patspulpit.com/2019/2/5/18211298/new-england-patriots-uunorthodox-personnel-formation-los-angeles-rams-super-bowl-rob-gronkowski

I know that this will be as useful as pissing in the wind, but whatever... "Spygate" was not about cheating. It was about filming the defense from the wrong location. Period. Anyone and everyone could and still does use tape to study opponents. the act of taping is NOT AGAINST THE RULES AND IS NOT CHEATING. You could then and still can film the defense from the proper location. Furthermore, that new restriction is still NOT in the rulebook and was only put into place the year that the Patriots got screwed over for it by NY Jet fan Roger Goodell. "Deflategate" had nothing to do with cheating and certainly nothing to do with Tom Brady. It was a pure witch hunt concocted by former New York Jets employees Mike Kensil & Roger Goodell, who knew nothing about science, simply to hurt the Patriots. Every single football used during any cold-weather game is below the league's mandated minimum. Every single one of them is below the league minimum in a cold-weather game. There is also the simple fact that an overinflated football goes a lot further in the air than an underinflated one, but no one seems to understand this. Last point - Brady's suspension for Deflategate was not upheld in court because the judges found that he was involved in some scheme to deflate footballs. In fact, the lower court ruled that it was totally bogus. Brady's suspension was upheld by the courts because they ruled that Article 42 of NFL Players' Union contract with the league granted absolute power to Roger Goodell for all discipline. The upper court never even talked about football inflation. They simply ruled on the contract's language. Brady dropped the appeal because his mother was undergoing chemo and not doing well. He was done with the drama and just wanted to put it behind him.

You mean like this? Left-handed no less.

I know, too funny! Being a Pats fan, I know all too well how close their Super Bowl games have been. With the exception of their first two losses (pre-Belichick/Brady), they've been nail-biters to the end.

You got that last part wrong. There is no way to say that ANY ball was either properly inflated or deflated since THEY NEVER RECORDED THE STARTING PRESSURES. Watch the Sports Illustrated story on line that shows the refs checking the air pressure of the balls before a game. Nothing written down. No care about accuracy. The check is cursory, and that's being generous. Deflategate was made up by Mike Kesnil, the director of operations for the New York Jets for 20 years, son of the President of the New Jets, including the time when Bill Belichick resigned as their head coach and pissed off the entire Jets organization. Deflategate was a smear from the get-go.

A "PED user"? That's rather simplifying what really happened. Did you know that they couldn't even identify what "PED" it was? They called it a PED because its chemical composition resembled another PED. Edelman supposedly doesn't even know what caused this result. But you see, the NFL can suspend anyone for anything. They suspended him for 4 games for "PED use" because they can. Period. Because of Article 42 of their union contract with the league, there is nothing any player can do about it either. You can appeal to the person who issued the original suspension but the chances of getting it overturned are slim. Very slim. Even less than slim if you have a Patriots helmet on. BTW - I don't think the next union contract negotiations are going to go well for the NFL owners. There is no way the players are going to allow Article 42 to stay in place. Outside arbitration, like what is used in every other professional sport, will remove former New York Jet staff member Roger Goodell's ability to ban any player simply "because".

Maybe not the NFL, but I will certainly look back upon it fondly.

As Scott noted, the clock only stays stopped for an out of bounds play with under 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter and under 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter. It's Rule 4.3.2.a. From http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/7_Rule4_Game_Timing.pdf Scrimmage Down Article 2 Following any timeout (3-36), the game clock shall be started on a scrimmage down when the ball is next snapped, except in the following situations: (a) Whenever a runner goes out of bounds on a play from scrimmage, the game clock is started when an official spots the ball at the inbounds spot, and the Referee gives the signal to start the game clock, except that the clock will start on the snap (1) after a change of possession; (2) after the two-minute warning of the first half; or (3) inside the last five minutes of the second half.

Yes it was, but if you are a Patriots fan, the final score was so sweet! I still can't believe they won. Their regular season losses were against such crappy teams, I never thought they'd get to the Super Bowl, never mind win it.

Yes, but when I ordered it on the 23rd of January, there wasn't an option for 2 day delivery, so I don't understand the rush.

Mine arrived today... on a Sunday via the US Post Office. I don't get why Amazon paid the extra money for Sunday delivery. I didn't ask for it.

In today's world, if you say something false but enough people cheer, it's the truth.

Thanks for finding that. I don't understand how can they keep a straight face and say "remastered from the original analog tapes" and cut "from 24-bit/192kHz transfers" in the same sentence. They are cut from a digital master. It doesn't matter that they used the original analog tape to create the digital master. It's still cut from a digital master. That's all we need to know. No reason to buy these LPs when they are cut using a digital master - just buy the CDs. Since I already have all of this music on CD, there is no need for me to buy this box set at all. And don't get me wrong - I have no problem with digital mastering. None. I just don't understand why they don't cut the LPs with the analog master. I assume it is to make it easier to cut due to the ability to use a digital delay circuit as a "look ahead" during the cutting process. The more I think about this, I am betting that they went digital because it made it easier to cut. Without dubbing & splicing analog tape, you cannot make an analog tape to play back for these cuts and I doubt that you want to stop/start an LP cut to swap tapes.

So now Craft Recordings is releasing an LP version of this set: https://store.craftrecordings.com/collections/john-coltrane/products/coltrane-58-the-prestige-recordings-8-lp-box-set-free-prestige-t-shirt No mention of who mastered these records. No mention of who cut these records. No mention of where they are being pressed. No anything, really. You would think that for $32.50 per LP, they would at least tell you something about it. But hey, I should go pre-order it to get that spiffy Prestige tee shirt. I wonder if it has bits of ground up vinyl embedded in it?

It's 0 degrees in Maine this morning. Cold but not too windy. It's the wind that gets you.

If you got a CD-R of a title, I would strongly recommend backing it up to a hard drive. I use Exact Audio Copy and create a .WAV & .CUE set of files just in case my original CD-R dies so I can re-create it.

Isn't chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez (Aric) still in the Seattle area?

The only one I think about picking up these days is a vinyl copy of the Horace Parlan set. I have or have had nearly all of the ones I've wanted over the years... Well, I am kicking myself for not picking up all of the Miles vinyl boxes instead of just the Blackhawk set.