T.D.

All the best!

Believe it or not, I've almost finished! Rather strange, but very good. I can't outright recommend the series for general consumption due to length (over 1,900 pp.!).

I'm shocked by (but not at all unhappy about ) how badly the Flyers got outplayed. Before the series, I thought they'd win in five, with a chance at a sweep. Is it just me, or does Jagr have absolutely nothing left? I can't recall him doing anything in the series. I remember when (long ago) he was the best player in the league...

FWIW, I clicked on your link, perused the blog for about 15 seconds, and couldn't bring myself to read any of it... There's a virtually infinite supply of smug self-absorbed bloggers out there. Ragging on any particular one seems like shooting fish in a barrel.

Jacques Tutight Tommy Tutone King Tut

PM sent on $15 Fawlty Towers Complete Remastered Collection, 3 DVDs, VG+

Jessica Gomes (hubba hubba) John Astin Raúl Juliá

IMO, too much $ in football to see "the end" coming, despite possible moral justification. I was once a boxing fan, but stopped after becoming aware of the brain trauma and parasitic managers. But hasn't MMA taken off? As a hockey fan, I can tell you that sport has its own concussion-related woes...

Somewhat overshadowed by the Seau news: Player bounty-gate suspensions out. Vilma to sit out whole 2012 season. NFL doesn't look all that healthy to me these days.

I've been buying Soul Note / Black Saint "complete remastered" boxes of late. Ordered this one today:

I've been really getting into this: Can't say enough good things about it!

Hard to see in this pic, but the cover page at left reads "SCHUMANN"

I had to Google, but found here (emphasis added): Any hopes Canadian hockey fans had of ending the country's lengthy Stanley Cup drought were dashed a lot sooner than normal this season. The Ottawa Senators were defeated 2-1 by the New York Rangers in Game 7 of their first-round series on Thursday, ensuring that the Stanley Cup will remain south of the border for an 18th straight season. It marks the first time since 1996 that a Canadian team hasn't even managed to crack the second round of the post-season. I'm too lazy to research pre-1996...

This might be a reach, but Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür started out as a rock musician (until 1984). He did study composition with significant names, and "switched" to composed music, so I dunno if he qualifies. I've heard some of his Architectonics pieces (live and recorded), which are pretty good IMO. Terje Rypdal's a more obvious name who started out in rock, but he seems too far removed from the field...

I learn a lot of funny British words by doing British-style cryptic crosswords (Guardian, Times, Private Eye). One can pick up the idiom pretty quickly. Some good ones are the aforementioned yob (and variants like yobbo), bumf, bonkbuster , ladette and saddo. Just recalled frottage, a recent discovery and apparent favorite of Private Eye magazine, which is near the top of my charts...

Not in my formative neck of the woods (Upper Midwest) - the old farmers' term in that area is "colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra" or "colder than the nipple on a witch's tit"* *Memorable (to my warped mind) quotation from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow: Colder than the nipple on a witch's tit! Colder than a bucket of penguin shit! Colder than the hair on a polar bear's ass! Colder than the frost on a Champagne glass!

I find feckless hilarious for some reason...having an Irish scatological sense of humor, I often associate that word with feculent. Though American, I enjoy certain British words like shambolic, gormless...(Also really dig the Brit term gone pear-shaped, despite the meaning being rather unclear!)

Excellent Kramnik-Aronian game today. Started out as a Four Knights, of all things. Aronian sac'd his Queen for a bunch of very active pieces, but Kramnik survived the complications and won (1-0, 42). Some commentary at http://www.chessvibes.com/live-commentary/kramnik-levels-score-against-aronian

Thanks! I had meekly assumed the price change wasn't negotiable. I phoned the 800 # in my e-mail message (different from above) and was able to renew the order at the original price. FWIW, the dude on the phone was very helpful and competent.

I may live to regret this (the first 200 pp. have been good enough, but have scarcely made a dent in the total): recently started a one-volume (not just a brick, more like a cinder-block) edition of Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet.

Thanks. FWIW, J&R currently has free shipping on $25+ and a bunch of RVGs @ $5.99. I broke down and ordered the Waldron set fron J&R. The order got cancelled without any explanation. Too good to be true, I suppose. I ordered three "free shipping" boxes from J & R over an 8-day period ending Sunday 4/15. [Edited] Received the Waldron, first one ordered. The second one has shipped. The third one wound up getting cancelled - initial e-mail was a little weird, but after further investigation it appears to be a simple case of "out of stock". I do notice, however, that the "new price" for "forward delivery" (4/30 or later) is some $6 higher than the price of my cancelled order...

I was so thinking about it, but I already bought the ELO set this week, and I couldn't justify to myself buying so soon afterwards. Besides, I have TPF DVDs! Come on, everybody get happy! The Partridge Family set is one I didn't consider, though I'm known to have bad taste. Today, PopMarket is hyping a Firesign Theater box that looks very interesting, but I've splurged on too many CDs of late...

Tough one! I only found via Google, so won't give spoiler. Not a familiar name to me. The facemask thing is debatable - I've seen others mentioned, and technically some punters/kickers may have held out longest.

The two sessions with Ricky Ford & Sonny Fortune are intense. Or, to be drama with it, INTENSE!!! Either way, but with confidence. Thanks. Got the Waldron box and am very happy! This Soul Note/Black Saint reissue program is going to cost me some serious money, but I won't complain if they're all this good. I just splurged and ordered the Threadgill Complete Remastered box (yeah, I searched the archives and found some well-argued preference for the Mosaic, but price was a factor...).