Thanks. I very much appreciate that.

Weird sidenote
Rhymefest's version of "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" extensively references Lindsey Lohan's bisexuality, which is a little odd, since she just broke up with Samantha Ronson, who just so happens to be the sister of Mark Ronson, the head of Rhymefest's label, Allido. I'm not surprised M. Ronson didn't co-sign…

That's an awfully sweeping generalization. A woman who worked at the group home who lived in a crime-ravaged neighborhood on the South Side once said something that really stuck with me: there are no bad neighborhoods, just poor ones. What does it say about us that "bad neighborhoods" are where the poor folks live and…

I can say from firsthand experience that nothing disabuses you of romanticized views of the innate dignity of the common man quite like growing up among the feral poor. That said, I'm a sucker for hobotastic populism and Haggard's music really gets to me.

That's what the sound clips are for, though I understand some folks can't listen to them at work.

I'm sad to say I've never seen "Bobby Fischer" despite all the good things I've heard about it. I'm so adding it to my Netflix queue.

Yeah, Mantegna perhaps should have been in our great one-scene performances for his turn in "Edmond". He's the demon on Macy's shoulder, pure hate in a movie already overflowing with bad vibes.

that was a transcription error. The intern responsible has been executed both gangland and execution style.

"Godfather III" has a lot of problems but Fonda, Mantegna and Garcia are all great additions. Sofia? Not so much.

That is awesome. My dream is having Davis do the illustrations for the My Year of Flops book.

yeah, it's fucking insane how prolific Davis was, not just with Mad and Topps stuff but freelancing and movie posters and just about everything else.

bascule, I wish you'd let me know in advance that you had nothing but contempt for Sofia Coppola or I never would have posted this. I'll try to run everything by you in the future.

Here's a link to a great cartoon poster for "The Long Goodbye" featuring Bouton. It sure looks like it was done by one of Mad's Usual Gang Of Idiots:

Yeah, he seemed to have a lot of affection for Schultz whereas it's pretty clear that he kinda hated Sal Maglie and was frustrated that such a great pitcher became such a shitty pitching coach.

I dunno. What I've picked up from skimming treefingers' post doesn't make it seem too promising.

I dunno, my Nashville or Bust pieces are pretty hard to beat, least comments-wise.

After reading this book I very much got the impression that Bouton would be a pretty fun guy to hang out with. It's nowhere near as sordid or sleazy as its reputation would suggest , which is part of its charm.

It was definitely on the B/B- border. I wanted to give it a pass for the cold open alone but the Jim/Andy subplot really brought it down. I wasn't disparaging, necessarily, just mildly disappointed.

She looks like she's aged two decades in the past 20 years.

Also
there's a real intimacy to "Ball Four". It's a book of wonderfully captured little moments that build to a funny, moving portrait of baseball as a whole. It's the closest you or I will ever get to riding in the bus or sitting in the bullpen with the 69 Pilots.