T.D.

I was never good at football betting, but OK... Spread opened Pats -3-1/2 COLTS, has moved out to 5 the last I saw. Over-under is a vertiginous 56-1/2. This is a tough one. I'll say NE, as long as the spread stays under 7. I'd take Indy +7. I'll go out on a limb and say under 56.5, as one team may cross bettors up and try to play ball-control (most likely Indy, as in the last Super Bowl, though the unpredictable BB often goes for an unexpected game plan). If betting real money, I wouldn't put much on this game. Aside from bragging rights, there's really not huge motivation, as both clubs are highly likely to win their respective divisions.

I agree that NFC East is the strongest division, if we go by consistency of team strength. Even though the strongest clubs aren't as good as the AFC's best, there's no doormat, and the current cellar-dweller, Philly, is arguably dangerous. That said, the AFC South isn't too far behind (lag is due mostly to Houston), and the AFC North would be up there if Cincy wasn't having a horrible season (do the Bengals have any chance at turning it around, or is their season a write-off?).

Thanks to the invaluable "ignore list" feature (mine has one member, and it ain't Clem ), I hope to never know...

Hilly Kristal The Fighting Seabees G. B. Shaw

And now it's really over: UConn 22-15 USF.

Not that we should feel compelled to geographically justify our rooting preferences, but I'll note that Conn's avatar was born in Somerville, MA...

I pretty much draw the line at $20. I think I've bid over $20 a couple of times on eBay, but only on discs I expected to trade quite a bit higher (they did, so I didn't win). $25 would be the absolute "line in the sand."

Wow. I just looked up the details on Romo's contract, because I've always been inclined to view (non-guaranteed) football contracts as funny money compared with other sports. But Romo's deal is 6 years, $67 MM, with $30 MM guaranteed money. That seems pretty darn good for Romo. I didn't know football contracts had been including so much in guarantees. However, I also saw some comps: Marc Bulger, Rams, 6 years, $65 MM, $27 MM guaranteed; Matt Schaub, Texans, 6 years, $48 MM, guarantee not disclosed. That looks like a decent deal for the Cowboys, since Schaub had barely played before this season and Romo arguably has a brighter future (much brighter IMO) than Bulger.

The Angels, with an aggressive owner, always seem to come up as a possible destination for A-Rod. I wouldn't completely rule out the Mets, as they'd love to seize back-page tabloid headlines from the Yankees, but the price tag is likely too high. Ron Guidry's contract as pitching coach expired along with Torre's, and he appears unlikely to return, so jettisoning Mattingly would toss two NYY legends on the scrap heap. But I'm not sure that Mattingly's ready to manage yet. I'd be surprised if Torre manages next year. 67 years old, with a price tag of $5 million a year or more. Who are the big free-agent pitchers? Yankees will have to spend big bucks here, with Mussina looking washed-up, Clemens gone, Pettitte a question mark. Will the Cubs make any big moves? It's hard to believe that they spent so much money last off-season, given that the parent (Tribune) company is up for sale, but they could spend more after getting to the playoffs this year.

I got some Amazon gift certificates for recent birthday, and picked up some finance books. Finished the first, have skimmed parts of the others. Nassim N. Taleb, Fooled by Randomness; Taleb, The Black Swan; Richard Bookstaber, A Demon of Our Own Design; Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard Hudson, The (Mis)Behavior of Markets.

Al Haig Trio, Invitation Also, put in a low-ball bid on eBay, and got Dameronia Live at the Theatre Boulogne at a very low price. Awesome! I'm a huge Dameron fan...

Rrose Sélavy Marcel Cerdan Champ Bailey

I've read a lot of Ross's writing on modern classical music. Generally find it uninteresting, often dislike it, but there are occasional good articles. I'd only purchase his book at a very low price; might peruse it via library. I look at his blog occasionally, and am rarely impressed. I agree that Ross's reputation is inflated by the "exalted" institutions in which is writing appears. OTOH, I don't know of any recommendable general books on modern classical.

So what do you think abou it? Now, I haven't heard the Bakery album, but I know that Lundgren can play, if given the right setting. It seems that he is rather conventional when he's calling the shots himself, but can be forced into a more adventurous mode if the setting asks for it. Well, it's pretty good, but perhaps I would have been better off going for a more adventurous setting. Lundgren can certainly play, but his approach on this album seems a little conventional and polite. Granted, it must be tough to record an album full of such well-known bop standards. So, I'm a little disappointed, but the set isn't going onto the sell pile.

Ray Kroc Jack Ham Warren Burger

Agreed!

Uh, does she receive any money from those CD sales? (Serious question) Granted, the sales could have ancillary benefits... I've been down on Naxos for a long time, and almost never buy their CDs. When the discs were much cheaper, I'd use them to experiment on new repertory, but anything I really liked, I eventually repurchased on other labels due to performance and sound quality (orchestral recordings used to be particularly problematic). I also have some issues with the label's non-payment of artists and other financial issues, but then nobody's forcing artists to sign with the label... My opinion of Naxos has gone up over the past couple of years, as they've reissued a lot of American classical repertory that was originally on other labels. Still, I usually say "no thanks", although that attitude has caught some flak on various forums.

I haven't heard it, but as far as lower-priced sources go, it's been at yourmusic.com for a while. Come to think of it, I ought to put it on my queue there...

I fear, based on experience with chess sites, that an urge to look at chess hotties correlates strongly with a need to get out more... But I do recall a certain World Chess Beauty Contest

Great job, congratulations! For the chess fans on the forum, you might think about posting the game (doesn't have to be annotated), so we could play it over...

Thank you! Very kind, much appreciated. As far as what was said/deleted before, what I don't know won't hurt me...

So what do you think abou it? Now, I haven't heard the Bakery album, but I know that Lundgren can play, if given the right setting. It seems that he is rather conventional when he's calling the shots himself, but can be forced into a more adventurous mode if the setting asks for it. I just ordered it, will post some impressions when it arrives. This session may fall on the conventional side, but it's repertory I really enjoy (bop standards, incl. tunes by Dameron, Gryce, Bird, Silver, Bud et al.), so I'll surely have an opinion.

Interesting article. I had already read it, because the link had been posted on various chess sites. I like chess a lot. Played as a kid/teen, then picked it up again just before age of 40. But it's a tough game in the sense that mastery requires a great deal of obsession, and many chess players are rather, er, unbalanced...I haven't been playing as much, or keeping up with "theory" (studying openings is really boring), the past couple of years.

I haven't bet on football (aside from Super Bowl pool squares) for quite a few years, and my former betting was never successful. But I pay attention to point spreads and over-unders (nothing more exotic). For instance, the football pools on this forum only require picking outright winners, so taking the biggest favorites (as measured by point spread) is almost a no-brainer. I won the playoff pool last year by going almost totally by point spread. Granted, there were very few participants, and my picks only differed from Conn's by one game...

Jan Lundgren Trio, Cooking at the Jazz Bakery. This is somewhat of a gamble, as I've never heard anything by Lundgren, but I recently read some good writeups on Doug Ramsay's blog and elsewhere.