Comments welcome by email. I don't care if you disagree with me but name-calling and cussing are not acceptable. Comments that are just rude and not relevant will not be posted.
No, I didn't carve those cheerful pumpkins. They were done by the Upstairs Neighbor but since he has them out on his front steps, I see them every time I'm coming or going.
Not many trick-or-treaters by here this evening. First had one all-boy group and about an hour later an all-girl group for a total of 11 kids, most of them familiar faces from the block. In years past there have been more but the boys next door are pretty much grown up now so we don't get all their friends anymore. (As teenagers, they all seem to go elsewhere to party for Halloween.)
As I do every year, I re-read the original "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" story and this year put it into HTML as I read so if you're not familiar with this classic American short story, you can read it here. I have yet to see a film version that really conveys the mood of the story. Either they're too silly or they try to turn this simple tale into a full-fledged blood & guts horror story. I simply enjoy the language used by Washington Irving, though I remember that when I first met Ichabod Crane in print (rather than the 1958 Disney version) I was in 7th grade English class and had never seen such a long vocabulary list before—we lived with our dictionaries for a few days there—but it was worth it!
The Devil Rays parted ways with first baseman Travis Lee on Thursday with the mutual announcement that his mutual option had been mutually declined. But while there was mutual admiration amid talk that Lee could return next season, the Rays already are pursuing other options, including one closer to home—having had trade talks with St. Louis about acquiring Tampa native Tino Martinez.
Manager Lou Piniella said he spoke with Martinez—with the Cardinals' permission—at a charity breakfast Thursday to gauge his interest in coming home to finish his career.
"I asked him how he felt, that it's not the easiest thing in the world coming home, and I think he felt it would be workable," Piniella said. "I told him we've got time, that nothing's imminent."
Acquiring Martinez, who turns 36 next month and is coming off a down year, is one of the Rays' options to replace Lee. Another would be to sign a heavy-hitting outfielder and/or DH and move Aubrey Huff to first base. A third choice would be to wade through the market of free agents and non-tenders and sign a first baseman.
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Martinez played for Piniella in Seattle in 1993-95, then starred for the Yankees for six seasons before signing with St. Louis in 2002. He hit .262 with 21 homers and 75 RBIs in 2002, then .273 with 15 homers and 69 RBIs in 2003. He is due a salary of $7-million next season, though the Cardinals are likely to pay half or more.
I keep hearing wonderful stuff about iTunes. In fact, I've already downloaded the software and was just waiting for my budget to free up a few dollars so I could indulge.
So what the heck is this crap? I go to a website and up pops a security warning: "Do you want to install and run iTunes Detector?" In other words, some otherwise legit webmaster has decided that it's a great idea to automatically install software on my computer (except that I have security settings that warn me of this sort of nonsense before it actually happens.)
There is NO EXCUSE for this sort of thing—EVER!
Heck, there's not one word of explanation in the warning or on the page that's trying to force this on me or even at iTunes about what this software is. Why would I want to install something that somebody is trying to sneak onto my computer???
We've been through this before with Comet Cursor and Gator. Wonder why I'm suspicious?
Happy Halloween!
