Disgusting

Sure Garza had good stuff, but it takes two to tango.

Really bad showing. Embarassing.

Celtics late game offense

It's so consistent, I can only assume this is what they mean to do each time:

Fart around beyond the top of the key until there are 12 seconds left on the shotclock.

Struggle to get the ball to the guy you want to take the shot.

Frantically try to beat your man off the dribble (unsuccessfully) until there are 2 seconds left on the shot clock.

Launch an off balance or fall away jumper that has little chance of going in.

Don't get the rebound.

(mrs. noternie--who was a bit of a baller in her day--goes crazy when they hold the ball and let the clock run down. she yells at the tv every single time.)

Song of the Day II: I Am Changing My Name to Chrysler

Thanks to WBZ for turning me on to this one.

Great Arlo Guthrie performance of a Tom Paxton song. It was done the last time Chrysler was on the brink of going under, but the general tone is fitting for our time, I think. Graphics are little more than a distraction (except the last one, which is an embarassment). Couldn't get the song without them.

Lyrics here.

Oink, oink

I'm sick of the wall-to-wall swine flu talk. Enough already. I was about at my limit when a report on WBZ mentioned that the swine flu was neither more contagious nor more dangerous than any strain of seasonal flu.

So unless something changes, I'm opting out of the swine flu hysteria.

Throwing up in my mouth a little

The Celtics look like crap. Pierce hurt, Allen gone cold, Rondo immature and everybody getting outhustled. Surprised it took them so long to back down by 12.

Sox even worse. Beckett clobbered, no Sox player has reached base through 6.

Song of the Day: I need a nap

Weird Al Yankovic and Kate Winslet(!) sing this Sandra Boynton-themed tune.

138

Tied with the Toronto Blue Jays, but with a winning percentage a few points higher, the Magic Number for the Boston Red Sox to clinch the American League East Division Title is 139.

Onto Tampa for a series with the last place Rays.

Hot!

My car says it's 96 degrees right now.
Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Specter to become a Democrat

Big news?

Might be, if the Democrats could get the existing members of their party to support the party's agenda.

Does anyone know how many times the Democrats have gotten to 59 votes to end a filibuster? My guess is it's not that many times, if at all.

And what does it say about a guy that he trades one political party for its polar opposite after all this time? Go independent and I might respect you. But joining the Democrats smacks of political desperation.

Why hockey is better than basketball

Consider the following scenario:
--A seven game series sits 2-1 with the next game being a home game for the team trailing the series.
--The young start player of the home team trailing in the series is being played roughly, so much so that it is limiting his effectiveness, according to most watching.
--The home team gets blown out in game 4 as much as any team ever has in the sport’s playoff history. And the blowout starts really, really early.

In hockey there is a long string of fights involving every player on the roster, including the goaltender and, when he gets thrown out of the game, his backup. The coach gets multiple bench penalties, probably throws enough equipment on the ice to stock a Dick’s Sporting Goods and insults the weight, eating habits and genetic disposition of the ref to testicular cancer.

For Game 5, the team that lost will bring up a guy from the minors who averages more fights a week than he has teeth in his head. He will skate onto the ice with a pocket full of coupons for discounted emergency medical care, which he will pass out to the other team before faceoffs. The other team will make a similar roster move.

In basketball, the coach gets not a single technical foul and afterward admits he couldn’t motivate his players:
"I want them to think about what happened tonight and rewind in their minds because when we get to Denver, it's a one-game elimination process," [Byron] Scott said. "I told our guys in the first quarter, if we don't match their intensity level this game is going to be over quick and I don't think we ever did." He publicly absolves the refs of any blame.

Before Game 5, players on the losing team will Twitter fans the name of the club where he and his teammates will be hanging out after they are eliminated.

Globe staff: Smoke 'em if you got 'em?

The largest union at the Globe, the writer's guild, is being asked to take a 25% reduction to make up half of the $20 million in savings the NYTimes is looking for, according to Christine McConville's piece in the Herald today.

The smaller unions at the Globe are going to have to collectively come up with the other $10 million in "savings" for the New York corporate bosses.

Oh, and all of this has to be worked out by the end of the week. Imagine all those greedy union folks are dragging their feet over giving up their vacation time, 401k contributions and taking pay cuts? Granted, the Times is still in miserable financial shape and they may go under anyway, but why won't those selfish people just volunteer to work for free until then. There are still fat salaries to pay in NY, you know!

140

Happy Days are here again! Warm weather has arrived and with it, the first appearance of the "Magic Number" for the Boston Red Sox.

The magic number for the Red Sox to clinch the American League East Division is currently 140.

Song of the Day: Sweet Dreams

Creepy hard rocking version of the big Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) hit from the 80s. It's actually not as outrageous as some Manson stuff, most of which does not interest me. But this one is good stuff.

Bruins hockey: funny and relevant!

Good and timely commercial for the Boston Bruins.


Even better was this one:


This one's pretty good, too.


And finally...

77 years later, he got his job back

On Saturday, the Red Sox will have a bat boy that is 100 years old. No, they're not letting him on the field during the game. But it's a good story.

Only recently did he move into an assisted-living facility with his wife of 61 years, Harriet, who during the living-room interview stopped by and exclaimed, "Oh, the Red Sox! That's the best vitamin for him!"

Song of the Day: ...Crazy Tonight, Magnificent

I mentioned a while back that I had bought the new U2 album "No Line on the Horizon" and would give my thoughts on it at some point. I finally give it here in the hopes that the flood of email to my Inbox requesting it will cease.

I'll end the suspense with the unsurprising verdict that it's very good. I've always really liked U2. "The Joshua Tree" is on my all time list of favorite albums. Like it, most of U2s albums I find to be high quality and very consistent from start to finish. "War," "The Unforgettable Fire," "All That You Can't Leave Behind," "Achtung Baby" are all great to the finish. Try to find a better 10-11-12 finish than Ultraviolet-Acrobat-Love Is Blindness. Good luck.

And so it is with "No Line On the Horizon." Terribly original? Not really. I notice some good Clayton bass lines carrying songs more than i have in the past. But, truth be told, both the Edge and Mullin, Jr. stay pretty close to what they've always done. The thing is, if it ain't broke...

The interesting part, as it always seems to be with U2, is Bono. His voice continues to get weaker as the years go by. Maybe it's all that hard singing over the years. He certainly gives it is all both in the studio and on stage, where he's got a solid legacy as one of the industry's best frontmen. But he doesn't hide from the weakening voice. In "Elevation" from "All that you can't..." he sings "Can't sing but I've got soul, the goal is elevation."

So Bono cranks it up and lets it crack. He knows it's the ooomph that makes him and it's what his fans want from him. He gets some help in the studio, but not from the style of songs the band continues to record and perform.

It took me a few listens through before I warmed to "No Line On the Horizon" but I've grown to really like it. At first I mentioned to someone that it was at least better than just about anything else being put out which drew the response "that's not saying much." But I think it is. How many albums do you find in a year that you buy and want to listen to repeatedly, not just skipping through for one or two songs?

So there it is: I like it. Just like I figured I would.

This is my favorite song on the album: "I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight." Great energy. Lots of fun to listen to. Makes me want to jump around. And it has one of my all time favorite lyrics: "the right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear."

This is my second favorite tune on the album: "Magnificent." It's got all that passion and soul that has made U2 a fan favorite for all these years. nice work by The Edge, too.

All of a sudden...

Rondo can shoot? He hit a big jumper from 18 feet the other night and he's already hit a few from downtown tonight (mid 2d quarter).

Quite a compliment

One of John McCain's top campaign strategists did a joint event with Obama's campaign manager at the University of Delaware. In addition to noting the difficult conditions McCain faced trying to follow a very unpopular President from his own party and a quickly deteriorating economy he said of Obama's effort:

This was, in my view, the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign the idealism, the passion, the inspiration he gave to people, it was organic and it was real and it wasn’t manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign.

From Politico.

A little more on gumshoe-ing from Sam Spade

I liked this article in the Globe about the investigation resulting in the arrest of the med student as the "Craigslist killer," but I was interested in finding out even more detail. So I asked my buddy, "Sam Spade" for his input. (He is a real life detective, not in Boston.) I specifically asked him how many guys would get put on something like this where he is.

Most murders are committed by a friend or acquaintance of the victim, and even if an arrest isn't made in the first 48 hours it's usually pretty apparent that it wasn't a random thing, meaning that there isn't a big public safety threat to everyone. This case was different because it was random. Plus there were the two other girls he robbed which made it very likely he would hit again. In a case like this, the PD writes a blank check an nobody goes home until either you catch the guy or all leads dry up. (my emphasis)

This case worked out good. It's amazing to me that this guy used his own internet service to email this girl. Quite often when you trace an IP address, you find the account holder is not your suspect. A lot of times they have an unsecured wireless connection in their house that people on the outside can pick up on, especially in an apartment building like the one this guy lived in in Quincy. Plus, like the article said, people can hijack your IP address remotely.

We had a case that started in Minnesota with a person who bought a car through Auto Trader. The whole transaction was done on the internet. The Minnesota cops traced the IP address back to an account in [our place], so they turned the case over to us. We watched the house for a while and did some background and were pretty sure these weren't the right people, so we didn't get a search warrant to seize their computer. Instead, we traced the origin of the email address the suspect used through gmail, and it turned out it originated in Romania and was part of a worldwide scam.

I don't know exactly how they do it, but somehow they're able to take over an IP address without the account holder knowing. So Boston did the right thing by surveilling this guy until they had some corroborating info, and eliminated other leads.

Plus this tends take the wind out of the sail early on the inevitable defense by his Attorney that "the police only focused on my guy and did an incomplete investigation.

Song of the Day: Wonderwall

Save the Earth, go to the movies!

I'm a big fan of Happy Feet and I'm very interested in seeing this movie, too. Here's the regular trailer...

Song of the Day: It Ain't Easy Bein' Green

Don't let Mother Nature sing bad songs to you

Happy Earth Day!

Here are simple things you can do to help the environment.

The last two years have seen me:
--started using cf bulbs
--started recycling, big time
--when doing dishes, turn water off when not rinsing.
--turn off lights not in use
--turn off computer when leaving office
--when needed, chose an energy star clothes dryer
--bought real plate, silverware and started using and resusing at work, instead of using and throwing away plastic/paper
--started using insulated lunch box, rather than plastic shopping bags for daily lunch
--bought resuable grocery bags and refuse to take bags for any other purchases whenever possible.
--recycling paper at work on my own. (co-worker takes it all to recycle at his son's school)
--add insulation to the attic
--replace a couple of really drafty windows

My next goals are:
--Buy produce from farmer's markets. they're cheaper, they help small, local farmers and they reduce the number of exhaust spewing trucks delivering stuff across the country. Oh, and it would be good for me to eat more fruits and veggies. you can find one here.
--Start using rain barrels to water plants, grass.
--Investigate smell proof composting containers.

Song of the Day: Ha Ha You're Dead

Let's warm up for Earth Day tomorrow by imagining what Mother Nature would say/sing toward all of those who roll their eyes at protecting the environment if she were a vengeful, spiteful bitch. Try their best, those folks won't outlive the planet, though their actions make it a place that will eventually be uninhabitable for humans.



The fact that the song is by Green Day is a bonus. Lyrics here.

New Jersey is nicer than Mass

At least right now, New Jersey is much more beautiful than Massachusetts. I know, I was there for a few days.

Seriously, the weather in New Jersey must have been much better so far this spring than in Massachusetts. Trees are fully green there, flowers have bloomed and grass needs to be cut desperately. There are even flower trees that have started dropping flowers.

Coming back to Massachusetts, we were greeted by the barren branches on trees, winter height grass and only sporadic color from blooming flowers.

This weeks rain combined with the sun and warmth of last weekend and the coming one should help.

I know New Jersey is south of here, but it's not that far.

Will it come to this?

Was talking to a coworker yesterday about the economic situation and the frustrations people are feeling and he referenced and old movie I had never heard of.

Soylent Green. Is this sort of thing possible? Impossible? I think a better argument would be whether it was probable or improbable. I'm definitely interested in seeing the movie.

Once again, as before, more than once I've got to make it clear I'm not actively advocating for anything violent or disruptive or bad or anything to happen, be done, planned or discussed. I don't want to buy anything bought, sold or processed. I'm just watching and listening and trying to imagine what might happen in the world.

Song of the Day: Grace Is Gone

I can't hear a "my heart done got broken" song now without thinking of poor Joe. And now, checking in on him again, it's double plus ungood stuff coming from Joe.

If blogs were nickels...

I'd have some change in my pocket. I'm using them a lot. Not that I'm reading too many. And it's not that I'm posting here too much.

I'm creating too many blogs!!!!!

I like to keep my many identities separate and unknown to the general public, less the paparazzi and cybercreeps know too much. But suffice to say the one I created today means I am now the creator and manager of SIX mostly active blogs!

Three work, three not work.

Truth be told, I'm not actively posting on all six right at this moment. Some I just make suggestions and review/edit content. Some are not very busy. But still. Has this become a compulsive thing, you think? Or just an easy way to communicate?

It's only a matter of time before Blogger starts pushing me to do a Super Bowl ad for them.

Rough day for famous people

First it was Harry Kalas.

Then word came that Mark "the Bird" Fidrych had died at his Massachusetts home, at the age of 54.

Then I heard last night that Marilyn Chambers, one of the big early porn stars from the 70s and 80s had died.

And finally Bruce Snyder, college football coach who led three programs, had died. Allen final coaching job was at Arizona State, where he led the Sun Devils to an undefeated regular season and coached future NFLer Jake Plummer.

Song of the Day: 99 Luftballoons

Let's all acknowledge the fact that a song that was a hit back in the 80s was an even bigger hit when they put it out in German. And chances are if you hear the song today, it's probably the German version you're going to hear. Odd? Yes. Odd.

Here's the English version. Which will you listen to?