So last year I did a top stories-type recap, both with actual news and my life. The year before was five word recaps. Before that, I was out of the country, and I don't think I even considered a year in review post in 2001.

As tempting as that last option is, I'll take the next shortest option that doesn't require trans-Atlantic flight.

January: Goodbye Walter Brown, hello Harry.
February: Three Lombardis equals dynasty, bitches!
March: Hockey and basketball - it's Madness!
April: John Paul departs, Benedict arrives.
May: Felt is Deep Throat? Huh.
June: Visited Chicago and Maine. Woo!
July: Took teacher's exam, NHL returns.
August: Wentworth hires me, finances rejoice!
September: Expensive gas mars driving vacation.
October: Pale Hose win Series, finally.
November: Red Sox drama begins anew.
December: W and Santa are watching!

Happy New Year to all!

Another fantasy football season has come and gone, and depending on how you look at it I either finished 10th (out of 10) or 8th (former my regular season mark, latter my final position based on consolation games). I'd feel better about my performance if I were just filling out the league for someone, but considering I run the league, I feel like I should at least be going .500 for the season.

Consider that my opening week line-up featured:

* Aaron Brooks, who would get benched

* Ahman Green, who went out for the season with a quad injury (and later had surgery for a ruptured tendon)

* Curtis Martin, who went out for the season with a knee injury (late in the season, after weeks of being stuck running the ball in the Jets' makeshift offense)

* Michael Clayton, who may have lasted into week 5 before his lack of production sent him packing

And that was for a week where I won. My roster also featured Deuce McAllister (season-ending knee injury), Chad Pennington (season-ending shoulder injury), and Tyrone Calico (lack of production, cut before season-ending injury). So it was a nice combination of bad luck and drafting poorly; I'll claim the former based on my 1-2-1 record in games where I scored over 100 points.

Now I just have to figure out who - if anyone - I want to keep from this team.

Happy Merry to all! Hope that Holiday is treating or treated you well. I'm still kind of sickly full from dinner (and post-dinner snacking, which you think I'd have passed being kind of sickly full, but I'm not that bright), but doing OK. I may be one of the last people to have discovered the appeal of the game Apples to Apples, as my sister-in-law and her boyfriend got a copy and we played it a couple of times. It certainly went better than my attempts at playing spades and hearts, whose rules I tend to confuse for the first half of the game. Cribbage went better, as in both games I managed a 24 point hand.

Not sure what my favorite present was. It's probably a toss-up between the first and second seasons of NewsRadio or a pair of slippers. I know, slippers, but when you have feet of my size any footwear that actually fits is cause for celebration.

Is it a recent development, or is the popularity of the Christmas song "Dominick the Donkey" something I've managed to miss over my 36 years? I'd not heard of it until last week, and now I can't escape it. What the heck?

Only two of us from the regular team made it to bar trivia last night, and at the end of the first half we were down by 16 points (which I suppose is a lot, given that a perfect score for the first half is 50 points). But we battled through the second half and managed to eke out a win on the final question in a semi-themed Christmas game that wasn't always to our liking. Anyway, questions:

What modern country was home to the St. Nicholas who inspired Santa Claus? Turkey - We had no idea. I thought Hungary, Mason thought Romania. We went with the latter. We needed to head farther east.

What 1977 Jim Henson offering was a holiday special featuring otters that was narrated by Kermit the Frog? Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas (Sly) - I suppose it can only be this, given that there's not a wealth of otter-related holiday material out there. I had heard of this, but in no way did it enter my consciousness when we tried to answer the question. The guys running the game claim it merits classic status. I'll leave that open to the court of popular opinion. But really, of all nights for our resident Muppet fan to not be there...

What US state was the first to make Christmas an official state holiday, doing so in 1836 (I'll give you a less defining hint than we got: the state would later not be a US state for a while). Alabama - The actual clue we got was that it was a Gulf Coast state. We guessed Louisiana based on the somewhat jazzy music being played during the question.

In what ocean would you find Christmas Island? Indian Ocean (Paul) - we went with Pacific. I suppose we were close.

What actress played Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Juliette Lewis (Chris) - she had pre-skank days? Anyway, I remembered that it was someone who was a "name" actress, just not who. For some reason Christina Ricci came to mind. Must have been all of her Addams Family work.

What four letters start the names of two - and only two - US states? K, S, T, and V (Paul, but with kudos to Jack for his alternate answer) - we had 'C' briefly, until I started writing out postal abbreviations and stumbled across CT. Go figure we forgot the one closest to us. I have a feeling this is where we made up some ground.

Who wrote "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and all that)? (Hint: he may be better known to us young'uns for recurring cameos on a sitcom.) Mel Torme (Chris) - Were it not for the hint, we'd never have gotten it. Good thing I was a Night Court fan back in the day.

What country was the first to popularize Christmas trees? Germany (Brian) - we bet to hold second, not expecting that the team in first would miss this. I wonder what they put? I was a little nervous that it would be some other Germanic country, so perhaps they went with Austria or something. Not only did we get the win, but being only two of us, we had a credit left over from our $50 bar cash prize. Woo hoo!

Let the hyperventilation begin: Johnny Damon is now a Yankee, to the tune of 4 years for $52 million. This seems like a lot of money. I'm sure Jon will give a reflective, well-concieved analysis of the signing (certainly in comparison to the apocalyptic rantings of sports radio).

I am unsure who'll be out in center for the Sox in the coming year (my guess is that whoever it is spent a lot of 2005 in Pawtucket - or perhaps even Portland), though if they can bring a shortstop with them when the show up for spring training, so much the better.

So today I started the book Crossworld, in which the author discusses the history (and even some sociology) of the puzzles, documents his own addiction to the New York Times puzzle, and enters the world of competitive puzzling.

At the beginning of the book, the author notes that he is from a town "at the northernmost end of Boston's North Shore (white-clapboard public buildings, preppies, gulls wheeling in the deep, snug, boat-filled harbor)..." As I also hail from such a town, I glanced back at the cover to get the author's name. Turns out that the author, Marc Romano, was in my brother's high school class. I knew him a little bit (about as much as an 8th grader can know a senior who isn't a family friend), and the book seems like him in tone and spirit (that being said from 20 years after our last meaningful interaction, which was undoubtedly not that meaningful).

It's a pretty good book, owing something to Word Freak but able to stand in its own right. Some of the Amazon reviews feel that Marc's a little too-focused on himself in the text, but as a blogger I don't have much ground to stand on making that argument. I will say that I'd have liked a little more meat to the history of the puzzles, but I don't think there's a great deal of primary source material from which to work.

I was going to post yesterday on the minor irritation caused by the turnstiles being down at North Station when I came in for work. This forced two commuter trains' worth of people to use the lone gated entry, meant primarily for wheeled contrivances.

Of course, given that I could just have no subway to use, like our friends in New York, such complaints look pretty paltry. I look forward to Boggie's take on this, assuming he ever posts again. My guess is that work has outdone itself and sent him on a job to either McMurdo Sound or the International Space Station (in which case we'd better get photos of penguins or a first-hand account of zero-gravity toilets, respectively).

Barring the weekend in Chattanooga, I feel better today than any day since Thanksgiving. I know I'm jinxing myself by saying that, but I figure I might as well say it now before the bird flu hits.

A pretty uneventful weekend, spent either Christmas shopping or watching football. I had hoped to liven things up by seeing the blog equivalent of Cooch shooting blood from his ears based on Nomar signing with the Dodgers, but nothing yet.

The revelation that W has sicced the NSA on us piqued my interest. That he fully intends to continue doing so makes me plutonium wonder what it takes to Allah get put on their yellowcake watch list. Probably more Bin Laden than this.

As Jon mentioned, our governor, Mitt Romney, has decided to pack it in after only one term, opting to not seek re-election next year. I caught a little of his press conference on this, and it bore a certain similarity to the autobiography the first President Bush wrote on The Simpsons, as Mitt (like 41) stated he'd pretty much done everything he wanted in one term.

Romney now goes off to see if his steady shifting to the right over the last year or so gives him any traction in a run for the White House. Good luck with that; I'm sure there'll be some questions about the same-sex marriage thing when you stump at Bob Jones U.

Though, if nothing else, Romney will go down as the greatest governor of the last 20 years. Consider his opposition:

Mike Dukakis - who looked like a genius, until he ran for President, lost focus, and helped plunge the state into a recession well before the rest of the country caught on.

Bill Weld - a liberal Republican and Boston Brahmnin as well-known for his love of the Grateful Dead as for whatever he did while governor. Was going to be an ambassador until Jesse Helms stuck his nose into things.

Paul Celucci - elevated to governor when Weld resigned to chase that ambassadorship, won the office outright in 1998. Preached fiscal austerity, but ran up personal debts of $750000 and apparently let the Big Dig firms audit themselves. He also resigned over an ambassadorship, but actually got the post, serving as ambassador to Canada.

Jane Swift - Ah, Swifty. Between using her staff as domestic help and a state police helicopter to commute to and from her home out west, she managed to become very unpopular. At one point she had a favorability rating in the single digits. She was the first governor to give birth while in office, which I guess is something.

No pub trivia last night, I was too busy segueing from the "nose running like a sieve" stage of whatever I have to the "sinus pain and coughing up of stuff with the consistency of tar" stage.

(Apologies if this catches you while eating.)

I did have one of my more surreal nights of sleep (or "sleep," given the relative lack thereof), highlighted by my taking a Benadryl to induce drowsiness - only to wake up 90 minutes later when all the stuff in my sinuses apparently converged on the same point, creating a singularity of snot. Trust me, that's the sort of thing that gets your attention, pharmaceutically-induced sleep or no.

I've been running at about 40 percent effectiveness at work, though I'm doing pretty well with things not requiring me to leave my desk. Outside of wanting to nap, I actually feel OK. That will likely change when I leave to go home and expose myself to more of our frigid weather. Really, what's with the single digits?

Not too much to add, as being sick has generally curtailed activities. We did go to the wife's work holiday party, which was fun but abbreviated due to her being sick. We did stay the night at the Omni Parker House, which I can't complain about. We definately had one of the rooms they use for specials, as it was on the smaller side, but it was pretty well appointed. I'd go back.

So I'm back to being sick again. Or, perhaps more accurately, whatever I had that was never completely cured has mounted a comeback. It's not been too bad (the wife is much worse off, and it could be that I segued seamlessly from what I had to what she has), though for whatever reason it seems like one of the side effects is a lack of tiredness (as you might imagine given the time of this post).

Another side-effect (well, more of a self-imposed condition of trying to get better) is I've spent a fair amount of time lying down and watching sports, which is never a bad thing. I got to watch Northern Iowa and Appalachian State punch their tickets for the 1-AA national title game, and see top-ranked Grand Valley State hold off Northwest Missouri to take the D2 crown. All the games were well-spirited and went down to the last play. I know bowl games can be exciting, but there's something abotu having games like this at the end of a playoff that cranks up the intensity. I don't think I'd have cared as much if it were the close ending of, say, the Fort Worth Bowl.

I also got to see a bit of the SWAC title game between Grambling and Alabama A&M. I didn't even know they had a title game. Of course, I didn't see any of the second half, wherein the Tigers turned it into a rout.

Topping this off was an installment of Ice 2005, a two-hour block of bobsled, luge, skeleton, and curling. There wasn't enough bobsled for my taste, and the curling was a men versus women Team USA skins event (four ends, team with the hammer has to score two points to take the end), which was different. I suppose it would be too much to ask for this show to appear all year and actually follow the World Cup circut (or whatever curling's equivalent is).

Italy. Ghana. Czech Republic.

USA.

Damn. This is not going to be an easy group at all. It may very well be the group of death. B (England, Sweden, Paraguay, Trinidad) and C (Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro, and the Netherlands) are pretty tough, too.

Groups G and H vie for the weakest groups. No worries about France and Spain making the second round this year, unless France coughs one up to Togo.

I figured I missed the World Cup draw as I was doing an errand for work, but as of now they've not ever started yet. Are the Oscar people running the show? Considering a message just came across that the official mascot just finished presenting a song to the world, I'm going to assume that, yes, Gil Cates is at the helm.

I almost missed the pick for good, as when I left the building to go to the post office, I nearly got crushed between one of those Bobcat things and the building. Though it's nice to know that Lewis Black is in town; how else to explain the snow, thunder, and lightning?

Unrelatedly, commisserations to JQ for his second place finish last night on Jeopardy!. Go figure that this time, everyone knew the final question. Glad to see he got the question on the Phillipines, though!

About the time today when most Americans are somewhere between lunch and their mid-afternoon snack, a drawing will be held in Germany to determine the first round groupings for the 2006 World Cup finals. This article does a nice job of describing the process and has a link for following the draw live, if you're so inclined.

The US kind of got screwed going into the draw as they did not get one of the top 8 seeds, based on a formula FIFA devised using past World Cup experience and world rankings. Mexico managed to pick one up, though, which is a little galling given that the US did better than Mexico in the last World Cup and beat Mexico in the most recent qualifying. The Netherlands also missed a seed, punishment for missing the 2002 tournament.

This still leaves the question on the best and worst draws for the US team, a question answered here. I do have some disagreements, though.

First, the author suggests that Germany would actually be a nice first round opponent, as they aren't as strong as in the past. As true as this might be, this fails to note that:

1. Even without the world beating talent of previous squads, they're still good.
2. The tournament is being played in Germany.
3. Germany will play in the largest stadiums, which I imagine will be filled with German fans.

Playing at home gives you a huge bump; look at how Japan and South Korea did in 2002. A good German team with that bump will be very hard to beat.

The best choice from among the seeded group has to be France. They failed to qualify in 1990 and 1994, and didn't get past the first round in 2002. And while plenty of French fans will be in attendance, you'd have to think that locals would at least root against the French, if not in favor of whoever they're playing.

Out of the second pot, I'd go with Angola. It's their first World Cup, and they're about as surprising a qualifier as anyone (they and Togo would probably share that award). From the third pot I suppose I'd take the Swiss, though they're close enough that they should have some fans in attendance (I also don't want to chance a repeat of our loss to Poland in 2002).

As for the draw of death, how's this for starters: Brazil, Paraguay, and the Netherlands. For fun, you could sub out Brazil and the Netherlands for Argentina and the Czechs. Heck, any of the seeded teams outside of Mexico will be tough. Sadly, we don't get a shot to play Mexico in the first round.

I would add that I'm at a loss to explain how Australia gets into group of death consideration. They've not qualified in 34 years, and made it to Germany by beating Uruguay - South America's fifth-best team - in a playoff decided by penalty kicks. I can see why England wouldn't want to play them - the English can't seem to beat Australia in any of the other sports they compete against each other in - but I really don't see why we should fear them.

(And isn't that a statement worthy of coming back to bite me in the ass?)

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed.

First off, congrats to James Quintong for winning last night on Jeopardy!. It was, as he termed it, a war of attrition, evidenced by his locking up the win going into Final Jeopardy - with $4200. He's said that tonight's game will be more entertaining. Just hope it's another win.

Finishing what I started earlier in the week, there is very little that can be said for the state quarter class of 2008:

Oklahoma - I'm not particularly crazy about this design, but I think I like the idea behind it.

New Mexico - here are two very different takes for the Land of Enchantment. Hot air ballooning and nuclear warfare? Where do I get my moving van?

Ideas that come to mind: the symbol from the state flag (a cop-out, but at least something to fall back on), a kachina or other symbol of the native American population, some sort of Roswell-inspired alien design (can't we have at least one fun state quarter?).

Hawaii - out of the several designs here, I think number 14 is most striking, though I'm not sure how (or even if) they could get that same effect on a coin. Number 2 is pretty good if you want to go in a non-native direction. A spoof of the usual reverse side using a nene goose and native plants rather than olive branches would be interesting.

Arizona and Alaska - no designs for either of them on the site I keep linking to, and I can't find much out there elsewhere. This article has a good slide show of suggested images, though I'd have to say if it's a barometer of the social climate in Arizona, perhaps it's best that my lone "visit" there was a walk across the Hoover Dam from Nevada.

Arizona might have the toughest problem of any state, though: how do you get it's most obvious icon - the Grand Canyon - on a coin?

There's pretty much nothing for Alaska out there. But they've got a good site for their coin commission, if nothing else. I'd like to nominate the Iditarod as subject material, though getting a sled dog team on a coin may be tough.

Program note: as he's mentioned on his blog, James Quintong will be on Jeopardy! tonight. He's been quite mum on his performance, so check your local listings and keep your fingers crossed!

After a few weeks off, we returned to bar trivia with the same result as last time: second place. We lost by two points to a guy playing on his own, and given the winning score it was pretty impressive. Anyway, your questions:

What rapper-turned-actor made his film debut in the 1994 movie Renaissance Man? Mark Wahlberg (Phil) - we had no idea, but settled on LL Cool J pretty quickly. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and really, how much of a rapper was Marky Mark?

What South American country is named for a tree or the people who collect its wood to make dye? Brazil (Paul) - we followed roughly the same logic, though I was fairly sure there was a brazilwood tree. Good thing there is, too, as the Brazil nut grown on a completely different tree. Take that, logic!

With the help of accountant Walter Diemer, what company was the first to produce bubble gum? Fleer (Myron) - Right on the company and the name. We couldn't come up with it, and guessed Wrigley's, even though we were pretty sure that wasn't right. We started talking about card companies pretty late, and I think if we'd taken that tack earlier we'd have come up with it (or at least come closer).

Whose debut album was 1999's On How Life Is?

What rock (more pop than rock, really) musician was the first Western performer to play in both Israel and the Soviet Union, doing so in 1979? Elton John (Sly) - We went with Paul McCartney, based on his Back in the USSR album and the musical clue of "Back in the USSR" by that first band he was in. Given how obvious some of the earlier musical clues were - "Mrs. Robinson" for a question about David Robinson and "I Ran" for a question about, yup, Iran, it wasn't that much of a stretch.

Of course, we also were thinking of a reasonably legitimate rock person, as per the question (the parenthetical comment is mine). Feathery capes and platform shoes are only really rock if they're on Ziggy Stardust.

This was actually much harder than the final question, naming the continent whose highest peak is Mount Kosciusco. They'd have been better off asking that one in reverse.

It appears to still be a little early to find the final designs for the 2007 state quarters, but here's what we've got:

Montana - they took the route that gave us the very nice Mississippi quarter: give the US Mint some ideas and let them design something. Like many of the western states, the ideas tend to focus on natural beauty and features. At least one has a state outline involved, which I kindly ask the folks at the Mint to ignore with prejudice.

There are a bunch of ideas here, the only one that really piques my interest is the Little Bighorn one, which seems ripe for a controversy (or contrivoversy).

Washington is also going this route (OK, expect that people are unless I tell you otherwise), and you can read the official press release about the final designs here. The prominence of the state outline is highly troubling, and I would whole-heartedly back either of the last two options over any of the first three. I would tend towards the orca one given that Native Americans aren't getting a whole lot of play where state quarters are concerned. Couldn't hurt to throw a bone to the people whose land got stolen.

Though, I have to say, Bigfoot on a state quarter would totally rock.

Idaho - finding information here is pretty tough - the site I've been linking to for many of these entries doesn't even have a short list of themes. This article gives us what we're looking for, and isn't that a mixed bag?

The falcon, fine. The Sawtooth Mountains, great. A "Farmland Tapestry" is, uh, interesting. The state song sounds like we're viewing the state in a museum ("and here we have Idaho, next to the petrified dinosaur poop"), and "Bold and Distinctive" sounds more like "have to come up with a fifth idea before I get to go home for the weekend."

This may be the first case where an outline of the state would be welcome.

I also find the lack of a potato in any design to be perverse.

Wyoming - the only one of these I like is the one using the lariat. In official channels, I can only find that designs were due to the state at the end of April. There's really nothing about what the final themes were.

I have a feeling the quarter will either wind up taking the logo off of the University of Wyoming's football helmets or somehow play off of Yellowstone and/or Old Faithful.

Utah - honestly, I think this one is pretty good. The only other thing I can find in a cursory Google search is information on the formation of a commission to come up with designs. The page for the commission on the state's website is not working. That bodes poorly.

Were I to guess, there will be a final design featuring a beehive, one the Great Salt Lake, and one with a seagull (perhaps centered on an outline of the state). Given its position as the state's official snack food, perhaps a Jell-o mold could sneak its way in.

If you're a job-seeker, it may not be the wisest thing to have the email you submit with your materials to share the name of this band. Especially around here, where, you know, there are a few of us whose families came over from Ireland.

While I was away being a nerd this weekend (the skinny: 4th place as a team, 9th place individual scorer, discovered that pineapple Coke is good while watermelon root beer isn't), I got a West Virginia quarter as change, an in observing such it came up that I'd not updated the Mark Across America portion of Travelin' Jones to include new quarters and such.

It's nice to know that someone cares. Or is at least willing to make it seem so.

Rather than making the promise to update things that I will likely not keep in a timely manner, here's a preview of the 2006 state quarter designs:

Nebraska - you can see all four finalists here, and I'll mention that the winner is the Chimney Rock design, which I like quite a bit. There is part of me, though, that wishes they had saluted their unicameral legislature.

Nevada - here's the winning design with some finalists. The bighorn ram quarter finished second (it's the state's official animal) and the miner came in third.

According to this article, roughly a quarter of the votes came from children. Which I think goes a long way to explaining why the horsies won over the scarier animal and the gruff miner.

I do think they missed a golden opportunity in not selecting a slot machine paying off in Nevada quarters. Would that be the first time a coin appears on itself?

There's also little to disagree with for this quarter-turned-PSA.

Colorado - if nothing else, the winner and other finalists get the point across: Colorado has mountains. I'm not crazy about this one. Pretty blah, really.

North Dakota - bison are great, but I'd have gone with Roger Maris.

South Dakota - no big surprise that Mount Rushmore won, but I didn't realize that the pheasants grew so big out there. The lack of scale is a little off-putting. The sheafs (sheaves?) of wheat are a nice touch, though.

Tomorrow: 2007!

We saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. It was clearly much darker than the first three (in keeping with the shift in tone in the books), and the least "Hogwarts-centric," meaning that it was less concerned with the school year as with the plot involving You-Know-Who.

It's also the least true to the book of the four, but not in a bad way. There's a fair amount of stuff left out as well, but given the length of the book there's no way they'd be able to put it all in a movie without it approaching Fanny and Alexander-type length. I thought this hurt the portrayals of Krum and Delacroix the most, as they're not much more than place-holders in the movie. Between the two of them they probably get 10 lines of dialog, if that.

As for the actors getting older, they're all still believable as 14 year-olds. As much as the main characters have changed, I thought the difference in appearances in Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom were the most striking.

I was also pretty surprised that Cho Chang had a Scottish accent. Me and my cultural biases.

Anyway, it's another solid entry for the franchise. Especially when you can use half-price passes to go see it. Viva parsimony!

And with the movie we got six previews:

* Aeon Flux, which looks like they crossed The Matrix with Gattaca. Though that may well be the vibe from the series; I never watched it.

* The Shaggy Dog, another remake of the man-becomes-canine Disney film, this time starring Tim Allen. Yes, there are wacky hijinx and valuable Lessons Learned. Hopefully, one of them is that you should never see a Tim Allen movie.

* Cheaper by the Dozen 2, which leads me to ask, "Why?" Basic plot: Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt's huge family takes on Eugene Levy's richer big family. There are wacky hijinx and valuable Lessons Learned. Hopefully, one of them is that most movies should not be sequelized.

* King Kong, which I have to say I have no interest in. I've never been that interested in the story in general, which leads me to ask: are there supposed to be dinosaurs on Skull Island?

* The new Superman movie had a very vague preview, mostly short snatches of film that give you a general idea that he's back, but without showing too much of the film. It piqued my curiosity, but didn't show enough to really pull me in.

* Finally, there was Happy Feet. It's an animated cross between The March of the Penguins and... Swing Kids? Strictly Ballroom? One of those dancing movies, anyways, as it appears to be about penguins who dance. Robin Williams does his fey Latino voice for one of the penguins, which is problematic.

Since we knew we weren't going to make our usual trivia game tonight, the wife and I decided to try the game at one of the local bars here. The bar's chalkboard advertised an 8 pm game, but it never materialized.

But in the spirit of the thing, here are five questions that I've come up with inspired by our attempt at local nerdiness:

What ale claims to be Ireland's oldest? Smithwicks (Ted) - since 1710, according to the advertising material they had at the bar.

What TV host's middle name, McFeeley, was the last name of his maternal grandfather? Fred Rogers (Scott) - this is in honor of New York Giants kicker (assuming he hasn't been cut yet) Jay Feely, who went 0-3 down the stretch in an OT loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

The name "cole slaw" came to English via "koolsla," a term for cabbage salad in what language? Dutch (Paul) - they aren't just about windmills, tulips, and lax drug laws.

Who hold the record for most consecutive games played in the NFL? Jeff Feagles (Brian) - I'm in JD's camp on this one, given the turnover at that position.

What explorer's first trip to North America was on the Matthew? Giovanni Caboto, aka John Cabot (Anthony) - as the bar is located on Cabot Street, I figured I'd throw this in for some nominal non-pop culture content.

Two interesting notes from today:

1. The car rolled over 40000 miles. It seems like a lot given that we've only had the car for two and one-third years, but it has gone to Detroit, Pittsburgh, South Jersey (twice) and Hilton Head (in addition to the numerous trips to Maine). The good news is that, it being a Toyota Corolla, we've probably only used about 15 to 20 percent of its lifespan.

2. I learned a new word today: pharyngitis. It's a general term for an inflammation of the tonsils and back of the throat, and I'm non-plussed to say I'm currently fending it off. Started with a sore throat on Wednesday that, rather than going away conveniently after a day or two, has decided to set up housekeeping.

Not 100 percent sure what's causing it, but based on the prescriptions I got today (antibiotic and ibuprofen to take the edge off the sore throat) I'm assuming it's not strep or some other viral cause.

As you can imagine, it made for a fun holiday weekend, though I was able to power through it to enjoy Thanksgiving and a visit from the in-laws, and a pair of confounding BU hockey games - a 1-0 win over two-time national champ Denver (the first shut-out for the backup goalie) and a 6-5 OT loss to Colorado College which saw the Icedogs score two goals in the last two minutes - only to cough up the game-winner in the first minute of the extra period. Also notable was that a CC player managed a hat trick and four penalites (of the 19 total called in the game). The celebration for the former is obvious, but what do you throw on the ice for the latter? Handcuffs?

While most of us are enjoying turkey today, it looks like Jeffrey Loria is carving himself up some Marlins.

Beckett and Lowell to the Red Sox, Delgado to the Mets. Expect Dontrelle Willis, Jack McKeon, Miguel Cabrera, and Juan Pierre to be sent somewhere in return for single-A players and a bag of balls.

Marlins management refuses to call this a fire sale, opting instead to say they're tailoring the roster to fit their revenues. This also came about as the team announced they're going to pull up stakes if they can't get a stadium deal done, which while understandable - they've been playing in Dolphins Stadium too long - just adds to the Era of Cheap Feelings that's being reborn in south Florida.

That Loria's been through this before when he owned the Montreal Expos is hardly cause for optimism. I mean, look at the farce that became before the team was moved. All I'm saying is that when Loria sells the Marlins and they become the Las Vegas Croupiers, beware if he comes sniffing around to buy your favorite team.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to one and all - and especially baseball fans in Miami, who could use the positive distraction.

Former RA, current trivia compatriot, now blogger: please welcome Mason to the links at left. He's easily the youngest of the linked bloggers, which should be good for something. He's also often half-loaded, which should also be good for something (hey, he says as much in his first post).

It looks a little discordant to see the single-name link, but given that my wife may be the only person I know who regularly uses his first name - and even then not 100 percent of the time - it's fitting.

OK, Craig, I hope you're happy - I got to go 0-2 for BU-Michigan basketball tilts, as the Wolverines made the trip east and knocked off the Terriers 51-46. Which bookends the 1989 Rumeal Robinson homecoming, a 73-65 win for Michigan.

Michigan got an early lead and was able to keep BU at bay most of the night, though we did get the deficit down to 2 in a number of places. It's hard to decide what was most frustrating:

* Michigan scoring 12 of the game's first 16 points,

* The number of shots missed by BU from within three feet (heck, one foot) of the basket,

* Guard Brian Macon continually falling for a hardwood version of the neutral zone trap - he'd get over half-court, bring the ball to the side, and get hemmed in by a couple of defenders. This had to have happened a good half-dozen times.

Even if the Michigan of now isn't quite the Michigan of the Fab 5, a threepeat would have been huge for a program like BU's. Now the hopes for a win over a "major" opponent lie in next Tuesday's game against URI (I have scant hopes of winning at George Washington, given that they've gotten back to top 25 form, and even if you don't consider Bucknell major, they play like they are; I suppose a win at UMass isn't completely out of the cards).

I just hope there's some sort of crowd. There was no listed attendance on the box score available from the BU athletic web site, but if I had to guess I'd say 2500 people were at the game. Which is pretty good for a BU hoops game, but sadly typical for the level of support the program gets.

On a vaguely related note, I was amused to see that Michigan has a guy whose sole job appears to be handling stools for the players to sit on during time-outs (picture, if you will, director's chairs without backs or arms). At the time out he'd set them up on the court in a little semi-circle, and when the time out was over he'd take them back and sit with them at the end of the bench.

I really hope this guy has duties I don't know about. Otherwise, I'd suggest to the Michigan tax-payers who read this that they should contact their elected officials.

Prior to the game, the wife and I had dinner at the Super 88 Market Food Connection, a food court connected to an Asian supermarket. It was fantastic! I had a chance to try both a grilled pork and a grilled beef bahn mi, a Vietnamese sub sandwich. I would highly recommend either; the pork has a somewhat sweet sauce, while the beef was quite spicy. And at only $2.75 a pop, it's hard to go wrong. Though next time, I'll try the pho with one of the sandwiches I haven't tried yet.

While it's not the sort of "butterfly causes hurricane" example of chaos theory that everyone loves, our foray to play trivia last week was caused by an unusual chain of events.

The wife and I were not going to play last week, and we made plans to ride home on the train together. I normally catch one that leaves North Station at 5:25, and we planned to meet and get on that train.

That was until I got stuck late at work and suffered a s l o w T ride and arrived at the station around 5:30. At this point, the 5:37, the next train home, was delayed due to a mechanical problem. So we waited. And waited some more.

No train was forthcoming.

Adding to this was the arrival of passengers for the next train - one that, according to other passengers, is often cancelled. Meaning that there could be three trainloads of commuters trying to squeeze on to the 6:10.

Off to trivia we went.

And, to make a long story short, the wife and I came in second, losing by a single point. This week's questions will give you a taste of how that came about:

What musician and producer performed the song "Cruel to Be Kind" and wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" for Elvis Costello? Nick Lowe (Shawn) - For some reason I got stuck on Nick Cave during the question, which is clearly wrong but was also impossible to clear out of my head. The only other Nick I could come up with was Nick Drake, which wasn't right, either. And on top of everything, I now need to download "Cruel to Be Kind."

Manitoulin Island, the world's largest freshwater lake island, is located in what country? Canada (Paul) - We got this right, but out lack of surety led to us bidding only 6 of a possible 10 points. D'oh.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, a painting seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, was done by what artist? Georges Seurat (Greg) - I had no idea, and the wife's answer of Manet was as good as any. Seurat was bandied about briefly, but not seriously.

The 1977 film Grand Theft Auto was the writing and directorial debut for what Oscar-winning director? Ron Howard (Greg) - now this I'm pissed at myself about. I know that Steven Spielberg's first film was Duel. I know that Ron Howard was older than Richie Cunningham, and thus could have written and directed his first film in 1977. But I went with Spielberg anyway. Stupid me!

The protozoan Plasmodium is responsible for what disease? Malaria - this was our first thought, be we then thought that malaria was caused by a virus and looked elsewhere. We wound up answering typhus (or typhoid fever, can't remember).

David Adkins is the real name of what comedian (hint: his stage name uses just six letters)? Sinbad (James) - we thought about this one for a long time, and we used pretty much all of our time up before the wife mentioned Teller of Penn and Teller. Seemed good to me. I know, you may be thinking that Teller isn't much of a comedian, what with the not talking and all. But how much of a comedian is Sinbad, really?

Not too much to report from the weekend past - I nearly killed myself by eating too much on Saturday (note to self: never combine a large lunch with a birthday dinner, especially when dessert is the size of a small manhole), and Sunday got to take the youngest nephew to his hockey game (one goal and three trips to the penalty box; the former is pretty normal for him, the latter not so much).

Caught the tail end of the Pats game, and I can't say I'm much relieved. The idea that they have to hang on against the Saints is worrisome. Thank God they play in the AFC East, where 10-6 will win the division.

Only other thing of note is that we got our trivia reward on Thursday, as we went to the Bruins-Maple Leafs game. Were this a "good, bad, ugly" post, the time spent with friends would have been the good, the result the bad (Leafs, 4-1), and the Bruins' generally atrocious play (especially on the penalty kill) the ugly.

Let's just say that, for the next tournament, I'd prefer the tour of the Sam Adams plant, even though I can go on that any old time.

I'm a week behind in posting about bar trivia, the good part being that we returned to our trivia bully ways last week with a win. The bad part is that I now have a sheet of answers to which I'm not sure if I remember the questions. I'll do the best I can.

I'll post about this week next week, as the wife and I will be at the BU-Michigan hoops game at Harry's House. Come to think of it, we'll be there for BU-URI the following Tuesday, too. I'll have to talk her into playing the local game in Beverly one of these Sunday nights.

Anyway, some questions from the best of my recollections (and a couple rewritten a bit):

What 1981 movie was both Sean Penn's first and Tom Cruise's second? Taps (Greg) - We didn't remember this at all, which led us to guessing The Outsiders, which was clearly wrong from the year.

What are the birth stones for the following months: February, April, September, and November? Amethyst (Shawn), Diamond (Greg), Sapphire, Topaz - without getting too gender-stereotypical, the two women on the team got all of this pretty much as they were being said. I'd have known April; you'd think I'd remember November, it being the wife's birthstone and all.

What state ranks third, behind California and New York, in revenue from film, TV, and commerical production? North Carolina - The way the question was originally asked had North Carolina second, but as I couldn't remember the way it was worded I went with the way I could most easily verify. This was made a little easier for us when the emcee gave a clue of "Dawson's Creek," which was shot in Wilmington.

Twiggy Ramirez is the bassist for what band? Marilyn Manson (Greg) - We were stuck between the actual answer and Limp Bizkit. Well, not so much "we" as the one person on the team who'd heard of Twiggy Ramirez. He went with the not correct answer, which we could hardly fault him for, what with the lack of knowing.

What author created the wild beasts known as yahoos? Johnathan Swift (Jack) - In Gulliver's Travels, as indicated.

It's November 14th and the temperature outside is somewhere around 60 degrees. I'd go off on my usual concern here, but when the next day like this probably won't be until April, I'll chalk it up to a climatological hiccup and enjoy.

I'll certainly enjoy it more than some residents of Stoughton who, in less than a week, went from having a quiet neighborhood to being auxillary parking for the new IKEA there. We have some IKEA stuff, and we'll likely make a trip down in the next few weeks. We'll try not to park on anyone's lawn.

I was not surprised to see a message when I got in to work this morning. I was surprised that it was from Boston mayoral candidate Maura Hennigan.

I was also not surprised that she was calling to ask for my vote. Though, as someone who doesn't live in Boston, I wasn't able to help her very much.

As it turns out, she could have used my vote, and whole lot more. The Menino dynasty continues unimpeded, with four more years of marginally comprehensible mayorality on the offing.

In other news, the guy I know who was running for mayor of Brockton did not win, but he did manage to get 44 percent of the vote. Closer to home, our mayor got re-elected pretty handily. That surprised me a little, given how worked up people were over the state of city finances when we moved to town.

Our ward elected a new city councilor, in kind of an interesting race that some pitted as one divided by the major street that runs through the middle of the ward. The winner lives on the side of the street closer to the ocean, while the loser does not. Neither do we, but I voted for the woman who won, mostly because she was the only candidate to make concrete statements about issues. Everyone else either wanted further study (such as on the high school, which two studies have already determined needs to be replaced) or changes without suggesting a new plan (such as everyone who wanted to get rid of the trash fee, but had no way of replacing the lost revenue).

I was a little surprised to see stories about this being a national test, given that the biggest races were for NJ and VA governorships already held by the Dems. I suppose that they kept them means something, especially given W's jaunt into Virginia to stump for the GOP candidate. Though given the money and dirt involved in the NJ race, the meaning is appropriately muddy.

Can't really speak to the Governator getting shot down on all of his proposals. Perhaps the lone Californian linked at left will say something.

The Good - The alma mater that still has football is riding a two-game winning streak, as Manchester-Essex has posted back-to-back wins over Northeast Regional and Minuteman Regional. Nicely done!

The Bad - Not only might we have a third undefeated team to gum up the works in college football - hello, Alabama - the AP voters have also put a one-loss team, Miami, ahead of them in their poll. The BCS still has Alabama in third - barely. Perhaps a little too early to decry flaws in the BCS - again - but it's not looking good.

The Ugly - Colts over Pats 40-21. Ugh.

I was contemplating what I was going to write - there having been a whole lot of nothing to take up the week - when I noticed that my tape giveaway page had today as its day of last update. I found this odd, as I don't think I've touched (or even looked) at the page in a good month, if not longer.

To the best of my knowledge, the update date includes comments. Those comments appear to be, by and large, comment spam. While I feel compelled to clean the comments out, I can't say I'm particularly motivated to do it right now.

Anyway, as you may have guessed from the lack of questions I didn't go to bar trivia this week. Qualifying for the next tournament starts this coming Tuesday, so it'll be back to it then. However, one of my teammates went out last Wednesday and, by chance, wound up at a place that also does bar trivia. He sent some questions, so I'll throw those at you instead:

What shoe company was the first to have an athlete as an endorser? Converse (Greg) - as noted, the erstwhile Chuck Taylors.

What are the tallest mountains in the US, Japan, France, and Greece? Denali, Fuji, Mont Blanc, and Olympus (Greg).

In 1969, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, who became the first non-Brit depicted on a postage stamp?

What four musicians recorded the Burt Bacharach song "That's What Friends are For" in 1985 as a fundraiser for AIDS research? Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John (Allyson).

What type of bear is the world's largest land carnivore? Brown Kodiak bear - Looking back, the question as emailed to me noted the largest "ever recorded," not the more general sense that I gave it hear. I suck.

While I can't say I've been following the whole Theo Epstein saga very much, there are four things I think I've taken from it.

1. Using the Star Wars paradigm, Larry Lucchino is Darth Vader rather than Obi Wan Kenobi to Theo's Luke Skywalker.

2. While it's pretty senseless to get worked up over a GM - not that it's stopping anyone here, as, like Jello, there's always room for Red Sox melodrama - the likely candidates to replace Theo are, in a word, underwhelming. The two names that seem to crop up a lot are Towers - a Lucchino crony who had spent the last decade shaping the baseball force that is the San Diego Padres - and DiPodesta, who spent a jillion dollars to shape the Los Angeles Dodgers into a team that couldn't overtake the Padres if it had sails and a favorable gale.

Of course, the way these things seem to be going there's a 23 year old economics grad from Stanford who will be offered the job in a couple of weeks.

3. Perhaps the biggest (only?) winner in all of this is the Boston Herald, which has dedicated increasing numbers of column inches to the role of the Boston Globe, the local paper of record and minor stakeholder in the Red Sox, in this fiasco. I can't say I'm a big fan of the Herald's descent into becoming the New York Post's second cousin, but times like these does illustrate the beauty of being a two-paper town.

4. Regardless of all of this, people will still be paying a boatload of cash in 2006 to see a team you could have seen for a fraction of a price in 2005 when the players were in Pawtucket and Portland. There's a certain chutzpah in a team like the Red Sox going into a youth movement, almost a dare that fans won't pay $75 to see the Yawkey Way version of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Though it's not much of a dare, as the owners know that fans will blink.

Good thing hockey is back; it'll give me something to focus on until mid-June. Not that the Bruins will be playing that late.

So we're heading towards the final hour of Halloween here, and all I have to say is whoop de frickin' doo.

While the idea of free candy and very low-scale hooliganism appealed for some time, I've never really cottoned to the idea of Halloween as an adult holiday. This gets some testing living as close as I do to Salem, but the worst I got this year was being stuck in Salem traffic over the weekend (compounded by the snow we got, which is a whole 'nother topic).

It also got some testing today as we were allowed to wear costumes to work. I did not. I've never been really happy with how I turn out when it comes to costumes (the end result usually doesn't match my expectations), and I can't say I was motivated to come up with something. So I dressed as normal and said I was a guy from Salem rather than from Beverly. Such is what passes for wit from me these days.

I suppose I don't begrudge anyone their fun on Halloween, as long as I can opt out and spend the time as I see fit, only punctuated by the very occasional trick-or-treater. Now that's a neat trick that's a treat for me.

So the Red Sox break their World Series drought last year, and the White Sox follow suit this year. So who's next?

The Obvious Choice - Chicago Cubs Be it billy goats, Bartman, or the indifference of the Tribune Company, the Cubs still reign supreme in the cavalcade of baseball's loveable losers. It's just that their kingdom is just so small now, what with the lack of Sox. There are other subjects, some of whom I'll mention later, but the A-list is now just the residents of the Friendly Confines.

As much as people worried that the Red Sox win would change their character (it hasn't; we're still fatalistic about our team, and seem willing to throw over one of its architects for putting together a team that only won 95 games and made the playoffs - you'd think the Sox were in the Big XII), the Cubs may have an even bigger stake in their reputation for being also-rans.

But if we're working backwards to get teams off historical slides, you could only do better by bringing back the Providence Grays.

The Semi-Obvious Choice - Cleveland Indians Never mind their 1990s successes - that led to exactly zero titles - and consider their previous history of futility. It's a little sullied by their actually winning Series in the past (even if it isn't exactly recent past) and not having to play in Municipal Stadium any more, but when you get to be so bad that a movie like Major League can play on it, you've reached a very interesting place.

The Bridesmaid's Choice - Atlanta Braves OK, they won the Series in 1995, but have lost four others during their lengthy streak of NL divison titles. Take out '95 and you have to go back to 1957 to find a Series win - when the team was in Milwaukee.

Rip Van Winkle's Choice - Philadelphia Phillies For a while, at least, Van Winkle could have gotten in two naps between Phils' appearances in the Series. You had 1915, then 1950, and then 1980. There's been less time to sleep since then, with appearances in 1983 and 1993, but you never know when they're going to slip back into a pattern that will send them back to the Series in 2042.

The New Futile Kings of the Rustbelt Choice - Detroit Tigers All the stuff that applied to Cleveland in the 1980s when the Tigers were good can apply here now. They do have a pretty good history, so they may be less wanting than others, but it's hard to get past the blunt force trauma that is the last 10-15 years of Tigers baseball.

Le choix de l'immigré - Washington Nationals Consider that the two previous teams named the Washington Nationals never finished higher than 7th - often in 8 team leagues. Then you have the two Washington Senators - the first was about as bad as the early Nationals teams, the other moved to Texas and still has never been to the World Series.

And, oh yes, this current Nats team used to be the Montreal Expos - no World Series appearances, a laughable stadium, and a lingering death of a final decade in Montreal, fittingly capped in their time as wards of the league.

So with this combined record of baseball futility, wouldn't a World Series be a welcome, if almost freakishly unprecedented, change? And it would twist the knife further into Peter Angelos, whose crankiness and inability to buy a competitive team makes him very hard to tolerate.

Of course, we'll probably get the Yankees in '06. Ugh.

The bad news is that we had to pay our full tab last night. The good news is that we paid because there was no bar cash as part of our winning the Tournament of Champions. All hail!

We did take home Bruins tickets for a game to be determined (Sam Adams, who sponsors the game, is sending us the tickets). We also gave the sponsor some product development feedback, as they tested two beers on us last night. One was a Bohemia-style lager, the other a brown ale. The former was OK, the latter was pretty good but tasted more like a porter than, say, Newcastle.

Still, free beer is free beer.

Anyway, your questions:

What actor was on the University of Miami's 1991 national championship team and played in the CFL with Doug Flutie? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Paul) - it seemed to make sense from what little we knew about The Rock and the timing of his football career. Unlike the last couple of weeks, this wasn't necessarily part of a rock theme, though pairing The Rock and Rock Hudson is something.

What is the more common name for the condition known as epistaxis? Nosebleed (Chris) - We tried to break the word down into its components, and while "epi-" was well-known, "-staxis" was not. From looking it up, it's Latin by way of the Greek for "to drip." We took a more sound-alike approach and guessed cataracts. Like Thomas Dolby, we (and our answer, somewhat literally) were blinded with science.

Mount Elbert is the highest peak in what western US state? Colorado (D'oh! via email) - we had no idea, and the Nirvana song that was playing was a bit of a red herring. We guessed Idaho based on instinct. I don't know if we ever really thought about Colorado. Oh well.

What four elements are named for countries? Francium, Polonium, Germanium, Americium (Myron) - As noted before, it was English element names, and to be fair Americium is named more for the continental landmass than the USA. But it was what they were looking for, so no arguments. We actually got all parts of both multiple answer questions (the first was name the act from their first album).

What was the name of the limo driver in Die Hard (hint: he shares his name with a clothing pattern)? Argyle (Greg) - a perhaps little-known fact: De'voreaux White, the actor who played Argyle, was also the kid that Ray Charles shoots at in The Blues Brothers. We got this, and enjoyed the playing of "Chrismas in Hollis," which Argyle was favoring in the movie.

What was the first major league baseball team to win a second World Series? Chicago Cubs (Greg) - Our love of irony was as deep as Greg's, as we got this one, too. There was some talk about the Sox, fueled in part by not knowing who won the 1905 Series (I believed it was the NY Giants... and was right, go figure). Of course, I also thought the Cubs won the '06 Series, when it was in fact the ChiSox. So I got a little lucky. Moreso than the Cubs, at least.

What actor's final screen appearance before his death in 1985 was as Daniel Reece on the TV show Dynasty? Rock Hudson (Chris) - we were a little stymied by this, though I put it together with the help of the opening strains of a Queen song. Knowing what we know about Freddie Mercury, and knowing that the timing was right for Hudson, we went with it and were correct. Woo!

I spent almost an hour today trying to get set up for a FedEx.com account. It was not successful. Let's just say that when you get an email saying you have five days to reply, and even though you reply within seconds of getting the email you are told your account has expired, you're asking to get replaced. Apparently this has been a problem for a couple of months, but the folks in Memphis are taking their sweet time in fixing it.

Though if this is my biggest complaint, things have to be going pretty well.

Recently back from a weekend in Chicago (well, mostly Evanston) full of trashy goodness. Thanks to the McSorensons for hosting and the Foghat folks for their work. Though I never want to hear about Matthew Sweet or Northwestern-themed items again.

My flights worked out such that I was able to moderate for the last 3 rounds of the mirror they had at BU. Kind of my own Phil Collins-at-Live-Aid moment, but with a shorter plane flight and much less out of tune jamming with members of Led Zeppelin.

Not too much to talk about otherwise, I was pretty much out of touch for all of the weekend's sporting events outside of watching football over lunch on Saturday (mostly focusing on Northwestern's pounding of Michigan State) and the tail end of last night's World Series game (which I did the head-bob nodding-off thing during, so I can hardly say I watched even that part of the game we saw).

While the folks at Motorola obviously want me to pronounce the name of their ROKR phone to go along with its iTunes capability, every time I see the name I can only think of one thing:



(With thanks to the folks at Gizmodo for coming up with a picture better than anything I could have cobbled together.)

The trivia bullies got their comeuppance last night, as we missed the final question and came in second. Worst part is, we were pretty close to coming up with the right answer. Oh well, better to come in second this week than next, which is the Tournament of Champions.

Anyway, your sample of questions:

In what movie does Leslie Nielsen play the President of the United States? - Scary Movie 3 (Jack) - We had no idea, and guessed Hot Shots. Turns out he's not even in that movie. I don't think any of us had seen Scary Movie 3. Heck, I've not even seen 1 or 2. There was a definite presidential theme, as the third quarter of the game had four out of five questions related to that office.

What Gulf coast state has "You Are My Sunshine" as an official state song? Louisiana (Paul) - Given a previous question asked about Florida's state song, and knowing that it wasn't Texas, we had a one in three chance. That turned to none in two pretty quickly, as we figured Louisiana, with its musical history, could have come up with something better. We went with Alabama. Whoops.

This has been your Minimally Ironic Question of the Week.

In 1988, Bill Clinton appeared on what TV show where he played "Summertime" on the saxophone? The Tonight Show (James) - Yup, we made the Arsenio mistake. Most teams did. I'm a little irritated at myself for not catching this, as I remember the whole thing about that lousy keynote speech. Damn.

What are the end points of Boston's Freedom Trail? The Boston Common and the Charlestown Navy Yard/USS Constitution (Ted) - We got the Common, but went with the Bunker Hill Monument instead, as it's farther away from downtown Boston than the Navy Yard. Still not sure why you go past the Navy Yard only to come back to it, though I assume it's due to the stature of Old Ironsides and not the preponderance of one way streets (which shouldn't matter if you're walking the trail, though that's not the easiest part of the trail to walk, based on the one time I walked that part).

What TV show featured the first inter-racial kiss in prime time? Star Trek (Greg) - Uhura and Kirk lock lips while under some sort of alien mind control in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren." This was half of a mini-theme in the game, as we were also asked what show had the first inter-racial married couple (more extra credit - The Jeffersons (Greg) - the wife, of course, was played by Roxie Roker, who is Lenny Kravitz's mom.).

What book ends, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." The Catcher in the Rye (Greg) - The wife knew this, which was good. None of the rest of us did. The musical clue was "Instant Karma" by John Lennon.

What country is home to the world's oldest university, founded in 1088? (Extra credit for naming the school.) Italy, University of Bologna (Ted) - We were stuck between Italy, Germany, and France. We went with France, which wasn't too bad of a guess given that the University of Paris is second-oldest. It's just 150 or so years younger than Bologna. Looking at the list of oldest continuously running universities, Germany's oldest is younger than schools in Britain, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Austria. So at least we didn't go with them.

FWIW, the University of Bologna is now known as "Alma mater studorium," or "fostering mother of studies" to reflect its status as the oldest university.

Our mis-step her dropped us from first to second, as the second place team got the question right. Better luck next week.

Let me say this now, just in case I never get the chance to do so again this season:

The BU men's ice hockey team is alone atop the Hockey East standings.

Of course, they've won the only league game played in this young season. Odd to start the season with a league game, but I suppose the addition of Vermont to Hockey East is forcing some scheduling quirks. Though it now gives me an opportunity to go back to Burlington and actually spend a night in Vermont.

Given the reliance on youth, the Terriers had some good team play going on Saturday, moreso than in the recent past. I think I also saw more nifty skating and puck-handling that in that recent past, which is a welcome return to the days of the 1990s when we were awash with gifted players.

So there's room for optimism on Comm. Ave., and the pride in knowing that most of the teams picked above us in the pre-season coaches poll lost this past weekend (Maine had to show us up, beating Denver twice).

In vaguely related news, I was a captive audience for a chunk of the ND-USC game this past Saturday, in violation of my personal probation. Not sure of the best way to put myself on probation for this violation, but I'm sure it involves game tape from the Gerry Faust era. There was one TV in my location that had Michigan - Penn State, so I tried to focus on that. Sadly, I missed the ends of both games.

I also missed the end of the Pats-Broncos game, but that was by choice. I've seen enough trips to Denver that ended in a loss, I didn't need one more. Especially when the Pats mounted a reasonably good comeback from a horrific second quarter. The secondary needs help. Badly. Even with the likely return of Tedy Bruschi, which I find both amazing and foolhardy. Look what medical clearance did for Reggie Lewis.

While it doesn't quite live up to the moose that was wandering around MetroWest when we were at Babson, there was an article on Boston.com today noting that a wild turkey that had been snarling traffic in my new hometown of Beverly had finally been captured by animal control. I'd link to the story but, really, that sums it up.

Apparently, the turkey liked to hang out in the middle of one of the larger roads in town (one that I used to drive a bit when I was subbing, but rarely go down now), causing both tie-ups and potential accidents. The most recent incident involved a school bus that nearly went off the road trying to avoid the bird. I know dead fowl isn't the most pleasant thing for school-aged kids to see, but given the choice I'd have not risked the accident and given Tom what was coming to him.

In any event, he's caged up now, and will be released back into the wild in the near future. There is no need to panic.

While the media around here is more hot and bothered about the "will he or won't he?" of Mitt Romney and his political future, there is something interesting about the Boston mayoral race.

Tom Menino, the incumbent, is seeking a fourth term. Maura Hennigan, a city councilor, is trying to unseat him. As part of the process, the two have been participating in various fora and town hall-type meetings.

What's they've not been doing is debating.

Hennigan, like any good challenger, is spoiling for a fight. Menino, like any incumbent whose nickname is "Mumbles," isn't even using the word 'debate' in casual conversation. This sets up some unusual scenarios, such as last night's event at BU where Hennigan and Menino answered questions from the crowd - but wouldn't appear on stage together or directly interact.

This seems pretty gutless on Menino's part, if perhaps not a bad strategy for someone who isn't the most polished public speaker. It'll be interesting to see if this hurts him at all, but given the general lack of interest in the race I'd think not. Still, it'd be nice if he got taken to task for being a chicken.

Working off of the various posts about the ABA (mostly from Dinan), I was curious to see if Chattanooga would be home during TrashMasters weekend. Only one think kept me from finding out.

There's no schedule.

Neither the team's website nor the ABA website has a schedule for this season. Going off of last year's schedule, the season should start in about a month.

Is it me, or are they cutting things a little close? I mean, given the status of the current ABA, I can see teams not getting game dates because a junior high dance booked the space beforehand.

Maybe they're going to run the season like America's Next Top Model, with games announced by cryptic notes left by the commissioner. "Do you have what it takes to end the reign of knights? Be ready to get on the team bus at 7 am." If they only had a meeting every week where one losing team was eliminated from the league...

I'd never been called a trivia bully before last night. But, with another win posted by the team back to calling itself No Onions, that's what the emcee deemed us. Fair enough; I'll take the name-calling if it means I have a $7 tab at the end of the night.

(Though, to be fair, I should have been at the inaugural BU women's varsity ice hockey game - a 2-2 tie with Quinnipiac - but passed given back pain that made sitting in a cold rink for 3 hours seem like a bad idea. Not that sitting in a pub for three hours is much better, but I could at least delude myself.)

It wasn't as easy as last week, as we had to come from behind to win on the final question, and even then I had to go back and clarify my answer. But a win's a win.

Anyway, for those who like to play along:

Prior to Ottawa, what four cities served as capital of Canada? Kingston (Ontario), Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City (Paul) - I didn't figure Quebec would have any given the British versus French thing, but our lack of knowledge has us go with Toronto and Montreal by default. We guessed Halifax, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Guessing St. John was less of a good idea. Had we thought about it perhaps we'd have gone with Quebec City. Kingston... no.

To what land east of Eden did Cain go to after killing Abel? Nod (Greg) - We had no idea. Guessed Babylon because we heard another team say it. We're going to hell.

Tachophobia is the fear of what? Speed (Scott) - we got this one, so I will not be haunted by the Ghost of Classics Professors Past

What are the top four wine-producing countries in the world? US, Italy, France (Greg); Spain - We got the first three, and did as Greg did in going with Australia. Not a bad idea; they're apparently fifth. I had suggested Spain, but Australia seemed just as likely. Not that I didn't lord it over my team briefly when Spain turned out right.

Who was the first actress depicted on a US postage stamp? Grace Kelly, aka Princess Grace of Monaco (Greg) - I was a little surprised that an early actress didn't get the stamp treatment previously, but I suppose there was a time when getting a stamp was reserved for those who made Serious Accomplishments. We went with the Princess, thankfully.

What rock group formed in the 1960s had a first album called England's Newest Hitmakers? The Rolling Stones (Jack) - There seemed to be some thematic elements to last night's game, including two questions involving these guys.

Louis Washkansky was involved in what scientific first in 1967? First recipient of a human heart transplant (James) - this was the final question of the night, where I had to clarify things a bit regarding the nature of the operation. It probably helped that I realized I needed to do this on my own rather than having the guys running the game ask (or, more likely, judge us wrong). As with so many epiphanies, it came when I was in the bathroom.

I've been thinking about this whole Supreme Court thing. Clearly, W feels the pressure to replace a woman with a woman (though I don't know if it was as urgent of nominating the first female lawyer that came to mind). He's also feeling pressure to put a Latino on the Court, given the growing demographic power of that ethnic group.

Putting this all together, if he needs a Latina (with helpful bench experience), there's really only one candidate.

Hail and welcome to the newest blogger added at left, Laura De Veau. She should do much better than her husband, whose New Year's resolution to blog more ran out of steam before 2005 was a week old.

Not much to report from a rainy Columbus Day off - spent most of the time doing errands and watching TV. My trip to the mall led me to discover that Zales has made October "Diamond Right Hand Ring Month" or some crap like that.

I have an idea what finger I'd put that ring on, but right now it's extended in Zales' general direction.

I should be more, I don't know, upset, sad, dismayed, something about the Red Sox getting swept out of the playoffs. But when I think about it, 95 wins seems like the absolute maximum for this year's edition of the team.

You should go to Cooch's page and read his story about the end of the season (too lazy to put up the link, but it's on the Bruce's page, too). I really don't have to add anything else, other than to say I should start preparing now for all the new names.

I suppose I now have the "we got beat by the best" impetus to root for the White Sox, and I'm marginally interested in having back to back seasons where long-cursed teams finally win the big one. I could also support a Houston win, but they're a bit too trendy for my taste.

Unrelated to anything baseball, had a pretty entertaining day today. Started out by going to the Topsfield Fair, which bills itself as the country's oldest agricultural fair. We did see the New England's largest pumpkin, and some summer squash arranged and painted to look like KISS (had I only brought the camera), but we really went to see the dogs. There was an agility session, followed by a border collie demo, followed by the state police K9 unit (note that, to the best of my knowlede, no dogs participated in more than one session).

The agility was interesting, clearly not what you see during the Great Outdoor Games and such. Many of the dogs were beginners, and showed it. They'd clear the first obstacle, kind of half-complete the second, stop, scratch, sniff some interesting patch of ground, do another obstacle in reverse, etc. Still fun to watch, and we got to see several types of dogs try agility, not just the Jack Russells and border collie/ Aussie sheepdog types. This ran on both sides of the spectrum, as there were some bigger dogs (labs, retrievers, even a Tervuren that was the size of a small horse) and smaller ones (corgis and a Scottie dog).

We did see some other displays, got to pet a goat, and ate the usual fair fare. The rain cut things a little short (we never did see the K9 unit), but it was a good time.

Tonight we did something a little less bucolic and went back in to Agganis Arena (after being their last night for the hockey team's 4-0 exhibition win over the University of Toronto) to see the David Gray show. If you're a fan, I would recommend getting tickets. He puts on a solid show, nice mix of new stuff and old, and gives you your money's worth. Doesn't chat much with the audience, which was interesting but not particularly problematic.

I don't have Craig's gift (or note-taking materials) for putting together a set list, but I can give you the first five songs:

1. "Nos Da Cariad" (Life in Slow Motion)
2. "Please Forgive Me" (White Ladder)
3. "The One I Love" (Life in Slow Motion - if you've heard a new song by him on the radio lately, it was probably this one.)
4. "Lately" (Life In Slow Motion)
5. "Slow Motion" (do you need me to tell you?)

I can't place the sixth song, but he did follow it up with "Sail Away" and "This Year's Love" (both White Ladder). Then followed mostly stuff from the new album. He did a 4 or 5 song encore, ending with "Babylon." Sadly for the wife (and for me, as I also like it), he did not do "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye," perhaps not surprising as it's 9 minutes long and thus hard to work into the set. I'd have liked him to play a longer set and end with an encore of this and "Babylon," but what do I know?

I know I'm missing about a million details, but it strikes me that there's a connection to be made between our agricultural policy that pays farmers to grow marginal crops or nothing at all, the economic/security/whatever benefits to using less oil, and the growing market and acceptance of biodiesel as a motor vehicle fuel.

It's probably too much to ask that someone seeking office to connect the dots that I haven't and make a cogent policy out of this, but I know I'd be more inclined to vote for someone who does.

(Of course, I left out the whole part where the auto companies would have to get on board. If they don't make the vehicles, there's not much point to making the fuel. Feel free to suggest the appropriate subsidy, tax credit, or blackmail that would make that happen. Or to say that I'm out of my tree.)

A Conspiracy of Dunces

Game 1: Matt Clement gets shelled, leading to a 14-2 White Sox victory. Clement spent several seasons toiling for the Cubs, so he's well aware of the lack of playoff success for Chicago baseball teams. And while he can't help the Cubs as they didn't make the playoffs, he can bring some joy to his former city in another way...

Game 2: Tony Graffanino, a solid player for the Red Sox since being rescued from Kansas City, lets a routine grounder get through the wickets. This will eventually allow Chicago to put five runs on the board, enough to best Boston's four. Graffanino spent four seasons playing for... the Chicago White Sox.

Game 3: Keep your eye on reliever Mike Meyers, who was born in... Arlington Heights, Illinois. North of Chicago.

Yeah, well, Matt Clement. Huh.

Bar trivia started late last night because of the game (which, after about the sixth inning, seemed a little pointless), but the members of Stupid Sexy Zinc persevered and put a White Sox-like hammering down upon the rest of the field. Going into the final question, we had 101 points while the second place team hadn't even broached 80. Given that you can bid up to 20 points (in even increments) on the final question and only lose half if you're wrong, we could have put anything down and still won.

But, of course, we got that question right, too. In fact, we only missed two questions all night, which are among these:

From what sport do we get the idea of winning "hands down?" Horse racing (Boggie) - as noted in the comments, it comes from the jockey's ability to finish without lifting his hands to work the reins. Which makes a lot more sense than any suggestions we had about the connection, which were few and mostly related to horses being measured in hands.

We wound up going with wrestling, based on the ref's hitting of the mat during a count. Made sense at the time, moreso than anything else we came up with.

At the start of Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins is celebrating what birthday? Eleventy-first, or 111th (Greg) - We put down both a number and a word, which was actually not quite right but we got credit for putting 111. It was a good time to have our resident Tolkein expert around.

The meerkat is a close relative of what other animal whose name starts with the same letter? Mongoose - Pure guess, but a decent one based on the similarities that come to mind when you compare Riki Tiki Tavi and Timon (or is it the other one?).

What controversial 20th century author was married to a relative of the Red Baron? D. H. Lawrence - He came to mind in the most fleeting of moments, and went through again because I didn't realize he was 20th century. I think at least one other person on the team had the same thing happen. We went with William Golding, thinking that The Lord of the Flies may have dredged up some controversey, what with all the rampaging. I also thought that the song, "Superfly," may have been a clue.

It still might have been, depending on what Lady Chatterly's lover was using.

What US state is the flattest (in this case meaning having the smallest difference between its highest and lowest elevations)? Florida (Shawn) - We started out with the plains states, thinking about Kansas and that study that proved the Sunflower State is actually flatter than a pancake. Then the guy running the game noted that the answer was based on smallest difference in highest and lowest elevations, and we thought some more.

I remembered something from John McPhee's book Oranges about how the higest elevation in Florida is only something like 400 feet (close - it's apparently 345 feet). We talked about a few other states, but eventually stuck with Florida - not that it mattered, this being the last question of the game. Bow before our trivial prowess!

Let's see... two years ago right now I was standing on an altar, exchanging vows and having a priest make fun of a large, gold object that I now wear regularly. I can't say I remember many of the details, but I thank those of you who were there (as well as many who were not) for your support, prayers, and best wishes.

To celebrate, the missus and I will make our regular bar trivia game and watch the Carmine Hose hopefully down the Pale Hose. Those that know us should not be surprised.

The Good: The Sox made the playoffs, the first time they've done so three years in a row (with thanks to Cooch, as the first time noted that they'd never done this was the first time I'd been made aware of it). They even did so by taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees, and not relying on the Indians inability to get the job done at home.

Which, by extension, is problematic as it gives the White Sox some momentum going into their playoff series with the Red Sox. This is less problematic than not actually making the playoffs at all, of course.

The Bad: The alma mater lost what is at least their 15th straight football game on Friday. I've not looked at their 2003 schedule, but I'm pretty sure the streak starts with a loss to Martha's Vineyard in that year's Divison VI Super Bowl.

Tough times for Manchester-Essex, certainly the toughest in my memory. Hopefully they'll get things righted soon.

The Ugly was today's Patriots game, which I theoretically had tickets to but passed on to go visit the in-laws in Maine (as the tickets were to be had through the wife's work, they were very much only in theory). So, if I had to find a silver lining here, it's that I was saved the hassle of traffic and seeing an even worse loss than my lone Patriots outing.

We were listening to the Sox game in the car coming home during the worst of this - I'd seen the first half, which ended 17-17. I've not gotten any information on how the wheels came off the cart, but the score indicates another problematic day on defense.

Maine, on the other hand, would also qualify in the good category. Played another round of golf, this time at the Hampden Country Club, which unlike many country clubs has a public course and is only 9 holes. But it will always have a special place in my golfing memory for one reason.

I shot an honest to God par on the second hole.

If I were Cooch I'd have what happened down in precise detail. Instead, I can tell you I hit an iron off the tee, clipped the top of a tree but landed about 10 yards from the green. Used some sort of pitchy-putter looking club to get on the green, and rolled in an 8 footer for a par 3.

Note that the next time through I shot an 8.

For most of the day I had no consistent feel for any of my clubs. I'd have a good shot here and there, but it wasn't like Hilton Head where I was driving consistently. It also didn't help that, at one point, I was hitting at the wrong green (the 7th and 9th greens are very close).

But it was still fun, and a day golfing where it wasn't sub-tropical, which is always nice. The rest of the weekend was quiet, no complaints. Except for that work thing tomorrow, but I suppose that can't be helped.

A couple of months ago I went on new insurance. For the first time ever, I was asked to get prior authorization from a doctor to get a prescription. It was a hassle, especially for something I've been on for a while, but I worked through the morass and got it done.

Fast forward to earlier this week. I've changed insurance again, and wouldn't you know it, the folks at Blue Cross Blue Shield want another prior authorization. Remember this is for:

* The same medication
* At the same dosage
* And the same instructions
* From the same doctor
* On the same prescription
* At the same pharmacy
* For the same condition
* (Which is chronic, by the way)

When the revolution comes, you can bet that BCBS will be among the first against the wall.

Playing as The D.J. Schepker Experience, we managed to bag our second win at bar trivia last night (we named ourselves after a friend who plays on another team, who finished third last night but are also in the Tournament of Champions). Nice to have a $20 tab for four people.

We only missed two questions, so I've thrown in three of the more challenging ones to round things out:

Who won an Oscar for her 1990 portrayal of Annie Wilkes? Kathy Bates (Greg) - for some reason I focused on the first name and came up with Susan Sarandon, who of course played Annie Savoy in Bull Durham, not the psychotic fan in Misery. This was actually part of a bonus where we got the other three actors for their Oscar-winning roles (Randle McMurphy, Ben Sanderson, and Leticia Musgrove for those who want to play along in the comments).

Who was the first female hip-hop artist to earn a gold record? MC Lyte - apparently it was that song about rocking your body and/or the party.

Name the five US states that border only two other states. Delaware, Florida, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington (OTC) - The question was originally the four US states, as they'd forgotten about Washington. Thankfully, they remembered, as we included the Evergreen State over South Carolina. You'd think having been there recently I'd have gotten it; my argument is that we were on the coast and not up in the part that we thought might touch Tennessee.

The lead-in to the question noted the only US state to only border one other state. I'll put that out there for extra credit. Maine (Scott) - Bordering only New Hampshire, of course. Sorry to say that the wife wasn't there for the home state shout-out.

Calamine is an ore of what element? Zinc (Scott) - we had no idea on this one, though we tried to concentrate on what might be "soothing" elements. Which is a category they never really cover in high school chemistry. One of our team had the idea that because calamine lotion is pink, and Pepto Bismol is pink, the likely candidate was bismuth. His logic trumped our wild-ass guessing, even if it didn't lead to the correct answer. As it was, we never even wild-ass guessed zinc.

I won't even try to explain Allyson's comment regarding zinc, as you had to be there. Though I'm sure fans of The Simpsons will understand the reference, as far as that goes.

Who became the youngest winner of the Australian Open women's singles title when she won at age 19 in 1991? Monica Seles (Greg) - OK, this wasn't particularly more challenging - the person who came up with her did so pretty quickly - but there was a lot of geography and I wanted to mix things up. It did confirm that my base of tennis knowledge has eroded badly.

Sign that your fantasy football team is going to lose: in between rushing for three TDs, an oppenent's running back finds the time to throw for a TD.

After a triumphant start, the Chapman St. Ghettoz are 1-2. Fantastic.

I have similarly sanguine feelings about today's doubleheader between the Sox and the Jays. While it has the propensity of being a momentum-giver, losing both could suck all the air right out of the city. I know, a happy thought for a Tuesday morning.

Thought this was an interesting statement, made by a current Harvard undergraduate regarding content on The Facebook:

"You can't be responsible for what you're saying at all times in your life."

If this isn't a future President of the United States speaking, I'll eat my hat.

(For those of you unclear on The Facebook: back in the day, most schools put out a facebook, where they printed a picture of yourself that you sent them and listed where you were from and your interests, usually deep things like "people" and "travel." The Facebook is a website which more or less does the same thing on a nation-wide basis, giving students the ability to post a variety of information, which sometimes gets the student in trouble.)

I will say that I agree with this student to the extent that, as what's posted there can be ephemeral, it may not truly represent who the student is. However, I do not agree that I shouldn't hold someone responsible for what they put in print. If you bother to put something on-line in your name, it's yours, even if you were joking. Problem is that, in cyberspace, no one can hear you be sarcastic.

The student was also concerned about university officials using the site for informational purposes, which I'd counter with the idea that if you don't want to get pinched for doing something, it's probably in your best interest not to post pictures or a blow-by-blow account where anyone who knows about the site or Google or something can get at it.

I recently finished Brave New World, a book that I'd picked up once or twice in high school but never read. I can safely say that I didn't miss much. The world A.F. seemed much too much like a caricature, and I don't think the ending could have been more heavy-handed.

And while it doesn't strike me as a book commonly assigned in high school, it did make me wonder what books that are commonly read in high school that I missed. For example, two books that everyone in my high school seemed to read other than the classes I was in were The Red Pony and The Yearling. I'm told by the wife I didn't miss anything with the former, the merest thought of which sends her into paroxysms of disgust.

In any event, I'm giving you all the chance to shape my reading list.

Simply comment with the name of the best book you were assigned to read in high school. By "book" I include books, plays, and poetry (collections, epic, and otherwise), and by "assigned" I mean either what you think it means or a book you chose but got credit for reading (my sophomore year we got to choose books, but had to run them by our teacher first).

To help narrow things down, these were among the works I read in high school:

The Odyssey, The Iliad, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Babbitt, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Crime and Punishment, A Tale of Two Cities, The Old Man and the Sea, The Chosen, The Sound and the Fury, Treasure Island, The Scarlet Letter, Catcher in the Rye, The Sun Also Rises, Dandelion Wine.

Since then, I've read The Great Gatsby, some other Sinclair Lewis stuff, and a whole raftload of Greek drama and other classical bits.

So, based on that, recommend away!

If you thought you heard a lot of screaming, or felt a disturbance in the Force last night at, oh, sometime between 10 and 10:30 pm EDT, you can probably trace it back to the Red Sox losing 7-4 to the Devil Rays, a result that sent the Sox from leading the AL East to out of the playoffs (if the season ended yesterday).

I thankfully avoid most sports media (Cooch notwithstanding), so the Red Sox Nation suicide watch that must surely be going on does so without me. Given how the team has played this season, what disappointment I'd feel if they didn't make the playoffs is tempered by the season-long display of inconsistency. It's not like you couldn't see this coming.

Besides, it's all working out as MLB planned, what with the three game series against the Yankees to end things. It could turn out that we'll win the AL East after all and somehow banish the Yankees from the playoffs.

Not that I'm expecting it. But it could happen.

The Patriots, on the other hand, are a cause for concern. They did not look good last week, and have to play Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Atlanta over the next few weeks. Most of these games take place on the road, to make matters worse. It would not be surprising if this team is sporting a 2-4 record at some point. It would also not be surprising if they then finished the season 12-4 or 11-5 and get into the playoffs.

The current offensive coordinator by committee will take its fair share of heat should the losing come to pass, but given how the defense let Jake Delhomme connect on a number of what can only be called eephus passes, you have to look over there as well. Mostly at the defensive backs, who are awful young. Super Bowl or no, they're still learning, and while you'd expect them to make more mistakes in big games, the idea that they'd play back to the mean over a number of games makes sense.

Only a month or so before I can start kvetching about the Bruins and Terriers. Things go right for the Sox, I can complain about all four in one post. That should drive off even the most persistent reader.