That’s kind of surreal. The Celtics just traded Walker and Delk to the Mavericks for Rafe LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch, and Chris Mills. Plus a first round pick. It’s hard to make sense of this one for either team. LaFrentz has a $69 million contract which doesn’t expire till 2008 or so. He also doesn’t represent a huge upgrade at center from Tony Battie, although he’s a much better shot blocker. Chris Mills is just kind of there, and his contract expires soon. Jiri Welsch might actually be something; he’s a 6’7” point guard who played well overseas. But giving up Walker for a handful of potential seems very odd. ...

Lieberman and Clark are skipping Iowa (original), or at least the Iowa caucuses. Makes sense for Lieberman, who was polling very poorly in Iowa. A little surprising for Clark, but he couldn’t make a dent in the Gephardt/Dean race, so it’s probably his best option. However, this puts both of them in the position of battling for third place in New Hampshire, which is not entirely auspicious. Even worse, if Kerry wins or comes in second in Iowa, they run the risk of being just part of the pack. ...

That was easy enough. Admire my brand-new title-based individual entry URLs, which will permit me to migrate hosts, databases, and even blog software without losing my permalinks should I ever feel the need.

The redirection solution I’ll use when I get around to fixing my archive permalinks comes from Elizabeth Lawley. ( Shelley has some notes as well.) Clever stuff. MTEntryID needs padding, though, and Shelley’s quotes got smartened. Word to the wise. Mark Pilgrim has tips on archive names (original), which are pretty good even if I don’t mind having .php on the tail of each URL. Which I don’t. But the keywords trick will be very useful, since my post titles tend to be cryptic.

Christopher Allbritton dug around (original) and came up with some fresh indications that the United States might be planning to attack Syria. I gotta agree that HR 1828 (original) is pretty indicative, although it’s also the kind of rhetoric Congressmen use to take a tough stance on terrorism in election years. I also think that Israel’s nuclear revelations are aimed at Iran, which has much more of a nuclear program than Syria. ...

Batting cleanup, this fall morning: Edward Cossette Jim Caple (original) Tom Boswell Eric McErlain (original) And A. Bartlett Giamatti: “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoon and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, you rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then, just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.” ...

WISH 69: Non-RPG Games for Gamers (original) asks about the other side of the gaming world: Recommend three non-RPG games for RPGers. Why do you recommend these three? Well, blackjack is lots of fun — no? Oh, got it. Diplomacy, first off. It takes a while to play, and some RPG groups are used to those six to eight hour sessions. Plus you can roleplay the countries. Plus it’s a sneaky introduction to the idea of diceless gaming. ...

Since 1978, he’s released 34 albums. That’s sort of the standard entry point for discussing Jandek, because there’s not much else to say. There’s no conclusive evidence about the person who makes the records, and the music is inaccessible and dark. He lives in Houston, he releases about a record every year, and he charges $8 apiece for them (or $4 apiece if you order 20 or more). It’s sort of bluesy, sort of folky, sort of out of tune. Alas, since his record label reissued all the old vinyl on CD, you can’t easily find his songs on the Internet anymore. ...

Well, since you asked (original), Eric… I stand by what I said. I am prouder of this team than I could possibly express. They gave me more than I ever expected. And I will die believing that the players on the field did not lose that game. After all, I was right. Pedro pitched like he pitches when he needs to win. Clemens faltered, as I felt he would. The Red Sox remembered how to bat. ...

Not Photoshopped.