16-INCHES

Fwd: Vending memories

2010-12-31T11:53:00.000-06:00

Begin forwarded message:

Date: December 30, 2010 11:38:11 PM CST

To: tink0004@aol.com, bigarspice@aol.com, marcperper@aol.com, MANNYFEF@aol.com, harlan288@gmail.com, jlevenstam@gmail.com, JAYSLAWR@aol.com

Subject: Vending memories

-----Original Message-----
From: Reiner M <mreiner_2000@yahoo.com>
To: mark reiner <mreiner_2000@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thu, Dec 30, 2010 8:40 pm
Subject: And Bernie Just Says "I'm Curious"

Submitted for your approval. Circa 1973.  The setting is down right field line 
  at Old Comiskey, where the vendors are waiting for John to give out the items.  
  Bernie, Tidd and Irving are already there, when Gary Shulman, Nerd and I walked 
  in the little doorway.  At this point, I pressed the record button on my tape 
  recorder.
  
  As we enter, Nerd is "serenaded" as you will hear. A vendor who went to Sullivan 
  
  with Gary and I, Allen Gilbert makes reference to those days when he greets me 
  as "hi old Division buddy"   Division was like a home room where you got all of 
  your important messages before going off to class.
  
  If you listen carefully, Irving will mumble something about....Jewish Holidays.
  
  There are some comments that sound like they come from Glick & Lane?  (Help me 
  here with your feedback)
  
  But,  the funniest part is that Bernie had been bothering Nerd about where his 
  mother works?  To this day, I still don't know what that was about, (maybe Gary 
  or someone can elaborate for us?)    When Nerd asks "What do ya want to know 
  fer?" Bernie just says "I'm curious"    The irony here is that within 3 years 
  Bernie would again wonder about Nerd and his mom: but this was about "where did 
  Nerd put da money"  after Mark's mom died in '75 from getting the wrong medicine 
  
  in the hospital
  
  Another highlight is Johnny Skweres who gets mixed up, and calls me Larry!  When 
  
  asked who is he talking about, you'll here him say "Reimer  or is it 
  Weimer?"     Could it be possible that Johnny was mixing me up with another 
  friend from Sullivan who vended at that time:  Larry Weiner?   Guess we'll never 
  
  know for sure.
  
  NOTE:  Due to poor sound quality, it might be easier to understand everything a 
  little better if you turn your speakers down which will help eliminate some 
  distortion
  
  Anyway, enjoy this golden moment from our past

A.U.G.gie Doggie GI Joe STEYR .556 1/6 scale iMac PhotoBooth BORED WinterNacht EineKleine NUT0musak screen picture... ;=)~

2010-12-20T12:27:00.001-06:00

Kitty-Ratz-Rock-Damen-Avenue-Whorridor!

2008-07-24T16:52:00.000-05:00

2007-11-12T00:15:00.001-06:00

MEXICAN BEISBOL CHEERLEADERS... OLe!!!!!! ;*}~~~~

2007-11-11T02:51:00.000-06:00

MEXICAN BEISBOL CHEERLEADERS... OLe!!!!!! ;*}~~~~

Images linked to by http://homerderby.com/archives/366:

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/liga-mexicana-de-beisbol.png)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/pericos-de-puebla-cheerleaders.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/guerreritas.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/pericos-de-puebla-cheerleaders-group-close.jpg)
(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/pericos-de-puebla-cheerleaders.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/diablos-rojos-del-mexico.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/porristas-de-beisbol.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/los-diablos-rojos-porristas.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/quintana-roo-tigres-chacho-conquista.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tigres-qr.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tigres-quintana-roo.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tijuana-potros-edecanes-2.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tijuana_baseball_01.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tijuana-potros-edecanes.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tigres-qr.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/guerreros-de-oaxaca.gif)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/guerreritas-lluvia-dos.jpg)

(http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/guerreritas-lluvia.gif)

Check out this video!

2007-11-07T22:56:00.001-06:00

Here's the link: http://www.vtap.com/cgi-bin/clip.cgi?sl:0~CL0106692588%25235921e4d0c

•^•|•^•|•^•
...from my iPhone...
simply AwEsOmE!
-;-)-(-;-)-;-)- - - -

Pablito & Connito: full-size pic- DSC02088.JPG

2007-11-06T14:50:00.000-06:00

DSC02088.JPG

Fwd: HALL OF FAME--SUN-TIMES/DAILY NEWS ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING--Don DeBat

2007-11-05T17:26:00.001-06:00

Begin forwarded message:

From: Don DeBat <don@debatmedia.com>
Date: November 5, 2007 2:46:09 PM CST
To: Al Placek <aplacek@triton.edu>, Bob Gorzynski <ragorzo@internationallabel.com>, 'bwossow' <bwossow@suntimes.com>, 'clarkbell' <clarkbell@comcast.net>, Dan Cahill <dcahill@suntimes.com>, Dave Gorak <joda@mwt.net>, debatnet@aol.com, 'desi4' <desi4@hotmail.com>, DMiller@suntimes.com, dsouth92@netscape.net, 'egordon' <egordon@acsillinois.com>, 'Erik DeBat' <riskone@earthlink.net>, 'ford528N' <ford528N@SBCGlobal.net>, Gary Thorsen <gt34@sbcglobal.net>, 'garyb1115' <garyb1115@comcast.net>, genoa35@aol.com, Gil Muratori <gilmuratori@bellsouth.net>, Herb Gould <hgould@suntimes.com>, Hergpun@aol.com, Jerry Jess <vwstuff53@msn.com>, John Nocita <jnocita@suntimes.com>, 'onid' <onid@prodigy.net>, "'paul.sortal'" <paul.sortal@opco.com>, 'shadigradi' <shadigradi@mac.com>, 'thebeholder' <thebeholder@sbcglobal.net>, thepantsbox@aol.com, 'tonydudek1014' <tonydudek1014@yahoo.com>, 'vmatteucci5' <vmatteucci5@hotmail.com>
Cc: aimee@debatmedia.com
Subject: HALL OF FAME--SUN-TIMES/DAILY NEWS ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING--Don DeBat

HALL OF FAME GROUP:

This global e-mail answers Al Placek and others who have e-mailed Don DeBat:

Obviously we are trying to reach out to all the people who played regularly or in tournaments with the Daily News between 1970-1978 and Sun-Times between 1979 and the present. I sent an e-mail to Gary Thorsen about tickets and have not heard back. We could easily have 100 players + wives & dates, so I would not be surprised it we attract 150-200 people to honor this historic 35 year run.

Dave Southwell, Bob Egan and myself are hosting an organizational get together on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. at the West Side Billy Goat.

1. The meeting will be to come up with a list of players who we will reach out to and hopefully attract to the dinner. We are looking for phone numbes, home addresses and e-mails.

2. Erik DeBat already is designing a multi-color a logo for the Hall of Fame jackets.

3. I will bring jacket samples. There may be a chance to order a game-style jacket and a fancy winter style with leather sleeves.

4. Jacket orders will begin and likely continue until the night of the dinner. Delivery will be March or April, 2008

5. Forward this to and eligible play for which you have an e-mail address.

Don DeBat

Don DeBat
DEBAT MEDIA
1633 N. North Park Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
312-944-1177 wk
312-944-8877 fax
312-914-7192 cell
email: don@debatmedia.com
www.debatmedia.com

Fwd: Daily News/Sun-Times softball teams will be inducted into 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame on January 26, 2008.

2007-10-23T20:54:00.001-05:00

Begin forwarded message:

====================

From: debatnet@aol.com
Date: October 23, 2007 7:43:58 PM CDT
To: debatnet@aol.com, breedingholstein@hotmail.com, mobobbitt84@yahoo.com, onid@prodigy.net, desi4@hotmail.com, THEPANTSBOX@aol.com, garyb1115@comcast.net, dsouth92@netscape.net, ford528N@SBCGlobal.net, ragorzo@internationallabel.com, Genoa35@aol.com, riskone@earthlink.net, vmatteucci5@hotmail.com, thebeholder@sbcglobal.net, whosekaper@yahoo.com, clarkbell@comcast.net, tonydudek1014@yahoo.com, paul.sortal@opco.com, shadigradi@mac.com, bwossow@suntimes.com, egordon@acsillinois.com
Subject: Fwd: Softball Hall of Fame

Risk Softball Group:

The long, long wait is over. It is official.

The Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times softball teams will be inducted into the 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame in the "Historic Teams" category on January 26, 2008.

If you played on the Chicago Daily News or the Chicago Sun-Times softball team between 1970 and 2007, congratulations, you will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player who contributed to this great 37-year softball dynasty.

It all began in 1970 with the original Mike Royko and Don DeBat Daily News Media League Team in Lincoln Park, and continued with the Grant Park Championship team of 1975 which compiled a record of 18-1. The era continued with the solid Sun-Times team managed by Royko and captained by DeBat starting in 1979 at Grant Park (also 18-1), and participation in saloon leagues at Lake Shore Park, and later Clarendon Park. In the 1980s, the team, managed by DeBat, won numerous championships in Grant Park.

Manager Dave Southwell inherited a winning Sun-Times team in 1994, fresh after the Old Style Tournament win in 1993, and promptly won the Old Style Tournament again in 1994 and several championships in ensuing years. This unprecedented era of powerhouse softball continued with Southwell and Bob Egan's great Sun-Times tournament teams of the late 1990s through 2007. The Egan/Sun-Times tournament team recently won the 2007 Royko Tournament in Grant Park.

Please see additional team history from our nomination, attached.

Obviously, we need to get organized for the January 26 Hall of Fame dinner. I would expect that we will be ordering Hall of Fame jackets, rings and solid gold jock straps. It would be great to get together in early November to start planning. We need to reach out to as many current and former players as possible to inform them of this lifetime 16-inch softball achievement.

Please respond to my personal e-mail: bigbat1177@aol.com, or call Don DeBat on my cell: 312-914-7192, or drop me a line at work.

Don DeBat

DeBat Media Inc.
1633 N. North Park Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
--------------------------

CHICAGO DAILY NEWS/CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
HALL OF FAME NOMINATION

Gary Thorsen, Softball Hall Of Fame Committee:

After surveying the number of guys who played on the team in the Chicago Daily News Era (1970-1977) and the Chicago Sun-Times Era (1979-2005) I think we might get 100 players to show up for the induction dinner. With guests and family, the total number may hit 200 people. I don't know what the record is for number of players over the years, but we had tons of guys and most of them are still around.

Also, Rick Kogan of Tribune Magazine is planning a story on 16-inch softball and is featuring the Sun-Times, among other. We had a photographer following us around in July of 2005. Story will publish in spring of 2006.

What is the deadline for my final package of nomination information on the Daily News/Sun-Times team? I still have all the old score books and team photos from through 1970-1994.

THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS SOFTBALL TEAM (1970-1977)

The Daily News team primarily was started as a company softball team (Grant Park Industrial League) + a sampling of ringers ("The Royko Legmen") I played for and ran the Daily News team with Mike Royko and Tim Weigel from 1970 through 1977, when the paper went out of business. I started the Media Softball League at Lincoln Park in 1971. The league consisted of all the daily news papers and TV stations. The Daily News won the Media League Championship in 1973. From this team, Don DeBat, Mike Royko and Tim Weigel already have been honored with individual induction into the Hall of Fame in the Media Category.

Other members of the original Lincoln Park Media League team were mostly guys from the newsroom, including Bob Billings and Tom Siebel (City Desk), Clark Bell, Dan Miller, John McDonough, Dave Gorak, Tom Sellers, David Hall(Business Desk), Jim Bowman (Religion Writer) and John Nocita and Jack Bruza (Art Department), Bill Jauss (Sports).
(MORE)

HALL OF FAME DAILY NEWS/SUN-TIMES—PAGE 2

The Daily News team moved to Grant Park in 1974, and made it to the Tournament of Champions finals in 1975, with the addition to several great players (Royko's Ringers) including: Tom Bonen, Gil Muratori, Ken Gilard, Jerry Jess, Don Garbarino, Mike Skowronski, Al Hansen, Sam Gendusa, Paul Sortal, Bob Gorzynski, John Nocita and many others. We lost the tournament final 13-12 to Environmental Control, another great team loaded with ringers.

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES SOFTBALL TEAM (1979-2005)

After an off-year in 1978, the year the paper folded, Royko and I moved to the Sun-Times, and re-launched the team in 1979. That year we played the CTA in the Tournament of Champions finals lost 10-7 as Mayor Byrne and husband, Jay McMullen, a Daily News reporter, cheered for the CTA.

I managed and played shortcenter and pitched for the Sun-Times between 1982 and 1994 after Royko went to the Tribune. The stars of this era include Steve Kus, Dan Cahill (2005 Hall Of Fame inductee--Media), Al Placek (2004 Hall Of Fame inductee--Playboys), Glen Placek, Rob Placek, Roger Franzek, Bob Gorzynski, Tom (Bomber) Horn, Dave Southwell and many others.

In the 1990s Grant Park became an Open Saloon League. The Sun-Times won the Major Old Style Tournament in 1993 and 1994 plus the Tournament of Champions in 1999 and a couple of Royko Tournaments in 2001 and 2002. Royko died in 1998, the year after our famous Daily News Reunion Game, in which he pitched and got a base hit even though he hadn't played in more than a decade.

In 1999, after a four-year layoff (I took a buyout at the Sun-Times) I was lured back to pitch in the Grant Park Saloon League and have pitched for the Sun-Times ever since. I pitched a 4-0 shutout to beat Peoples Gas in the Tournament of Champions at Grant Park in 2003.

Sun-Times sports writer Dave Southwell and Sun-Times ad man Bill Wossow ran the team in the mid-and-late 1990s and early 2000s and are sending me info on the current era. Bob Egan managed the great Tournament teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
(MORE)
HALL OF FAME DAILY NEWS/SUN-TIMES—PAGE 3

Over the 35-year history, The Daily News/Sun-Times team won more than 30 league championships and more than 500 of games at Grant Park, Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Park and numerous tournaments.

Tournament high-points include winning the coveted Grant Park Old Style Tournament in 1993-1994, plus the Grant Park Tournament of Champions in 1999, Grant Park's Royko Classic Tournament in 2001 and 2002. The Sun-Times was runner-up in the Royko Tournament in 2003 and 2004. The Daily News was runner-up in the Tournament of Champions in 1975 and 1979.

DAVE SOUTHWELL'S CONTRIBUTION

In 1995, reporter David Southwell inherited the captainship from Real Estate Editor Don DeBat, who continues to pitch for the team. Advertising executive Billy Wossow became captain in 2003.

Since 1995 the Sun-Times won seven championships including two Grant Park Tournament of Champion titles, two Mike Royko Memorial Tournament championships, one Chicago Classic championship, and two league titles at Grant Park. The team qualified for the league playoffs every year and never placed lower than fourth place in the Chicago Classic.

During this incredible run the team also placed second 11 times in various leagues and tournaments. All told, the team placed in the money with third place or higher finishes an amazing 24 times in nine years of league and tournament play.

Over the last decade the Sun-Times continued this dominance despite a high turnover rate at both the newspaper and the softball diamond, forcing a constant cultivation of new players from a variety of departments.

(MORE)

HALL OF FAME DAILY NEWS/SUN-TIMES—PAGE 4

The team has included players from everywhere in the building. The team has been represented by reporters, editors, pressmen, paper handlers, mail room workers, mechanics, drivers, driver helpers, machinists, advertising executives, salesmen, building engineers, and even a security guard.

In addition, since the Chicago Sun-Times/Daily News softball team celebrated its 35th year of continuous competition in 2005, I think next year's Hall of Fame induction should honor it as a "Historic Industrial/Corporate League Team."

A brief capsule follows:

In addition to more than 20 Grant Park Softball League championships, the Sun-Times/Daily News has won more than a dozen major tournaments, including such highlights the 2003 Tournament of Champions and the 1993 Old Style Classic Tournament.

The team was launched in 1970 by Media Hall of Famers Mike Royko and Don DeBat. Early on we were joined by Media Hall of Famer Tim Weigel.

Royko and DeBat organized the Media League which played at Lincoln Park in the early 1970s. Although the team always had a large number of newspaper staffers, the 1975 and 1979 teams which excelled in the Grant Park Tournament of Champions, also from time-to-time was blessed with the services of such Hall of Famers as Tom Bonen (ERV-Strikers) and Mike Tallo (Bobcats).

In decade of the 1980s and early 1990s the Sun-Times team managed by Don DeBat, was a powerhouse in the Grant Park League with such stars as Dan Cahill, Steve Kus, Glenn Placek, Rob Placek, AA pitcher Tommy Horn and Hall of Famer Al Placek (Playboys).

(MORE)

HALL OF FAME DAILY NEWS/SUN-TIMES—PAGE 4

During the mid-1990s through 2004, the team, managed by sportswriter Dave Southwell, continued its dominance. Southwell continued DeBat's efforts to find quality ballplayers who actually worked at the newspaper.

These facts are just a preview. We are working on our formal induction nomination package, photos and press kit. We hope the committee believes the team is worthy enough to be inducted.

Sincerely,

Don DeBat


***********************************************************
                                                    9/9/05

     DAILY NEWS/SUN-TIMES SOFTBALL MEMORIES # 1

Hey Hahn, Daily News people, and friends of Royko:

What is even more a mystery is why was Mike keeping softball score sheets from 1975 that eventually were placed for posterity in the Newberry Library?

Well, I can answer that one--it was the year we loaded the Chicago Daily News softball team with ringers and won 18 in a row at Grant Park! Unfortunately, we lost the Tournament of Champions final game 13-12 to Environmental Control, a team infested with City of Chicago Streets and Sanitation Dept. employees and some of the best softball ringers from the South Side. Mike was the pitcher and his record for 1979 in Grant Park was 18-1.

Sincerely,

Don (Batman) DeBat

(In case you forgot, DeBat is the former real estate editor of the Daily News  and captain of the Daily News softball team. DeBat played in three softball leagues at age 60 this year. He is still pitching for the Sun-Times, which went on to win many championships after Royko retired and moved to the Tribune.)

P.S. The Daily News/Sun-Times softball team--which is still in business after 35 years--has been nominated for induction into the 16-Inch Softball Hall of Fame. Yes, that means such original (pre-ringer) Daily News team members such as John Nocita, Dan Miller, John (Sinker Ball) McDonough, Dave Gorak, Jim (Bulldog) Bowman, Dave Hall, and even Bill Jauss are eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame. In the 1971-1974 era our only ringer was Don (Garbo) Garbarino, my roommate from Missouri J-School.

Stay tuned. DeBat allegedly has 26 boxes of score books, signed softballs and trophies, including one with an electric clock from the 1979 Sun-Times team that won 19 in a row before losing the final game of the Grant Park Tournament of Champions 10-7 to the CTA, while Mayor Jane Byrne and husband Jay McMullen cheered for the bus drivers.

In 1979, Royko pitched and the ringer-loaded Sun-Times team posted a record of 19-1.

*********************************************************                                                  9/11/05

             DAILY NEWS SOFTBALL MEMORIES # 2

To Clark Bell,

Of course you were one of the great Daily News stars. I think I have a home movie of you hitting the ball over the right field fence at Thillens. I created my list off a 1971 photo taken the first year at Thillens and you were not in the picture, but Jauss was. He later played for Chicago Today against us.

Tim Weigel wasn't in the early photo, although he made one of the greatest catches ever off Max Saxinger's liner sliding into the fence face first in his debut with the Daily News at Thillens.

What year did you start at the Daily News? I think you and Tim arrived around the same time--1972 or 1973? I also didn't mention the original Daily News guys, other than Royko, who are no longer with us: Tom Sellers, Tom Seibel, and Jack Bruza.

You and Tim were also big contributors to the 1979 championship Sun-Times team along with the following non-ringers: Bob Gorzynski, Herb Gould, Jim Warren, Dan Gorman and Al Hansen, plus a host of ringers--Dave and Paul Sortal, Garbo, Gendusa, Lenny Cudzillo, etc.

Let me know when you are downtown. I'd be glad to hoist a few and talk about the Hall of Fame nomination. If we get in the Hall of Fame would be nice to have a great turn out at the January, 2007 dinner.

Don

-----Original Message-----
From: bigbat1177@aol.com
To: gt34@sbcglobal.net; debatnet@aol.com
Sent: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 7:04 pm
Subject: Re: Softball Hall of Fame

Gary,

Thanks for the great news about the Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times historic 16-inch softball team's coming induction into the 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame on January 26, 2008.

Please call me on my cell 312-914-7192 and give me more details about how we can generate a large turnout at the dinner, and a corresponding public relations campaign for the Hall. We expect 100+ players to attend the dinner to celebrate this great honor.

Don DeBat

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Thorsen <gt34@sbcglobal.net>
To: bigbat1177@aol.com
Sent: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:43 pm
Subject: RE: Softball Hall of Fame

Hi Don

The Daily News Team will be honored this year at the Hall of Fame dinner on January 26. Please call me at 630-670-1692

Congrats

Gary

From: bigbat1177@aol.com [mailto:bigbat1177@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 1:16 PM
To: gt34@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Fwd: Softball Hall of Fame

Gary,

Thanks for putting Jerry Jess on the ballot. He is in poor health. See below.

Also, any news on the Daily News/Sun-Times historic team nomination? People keep calling me. I think we will bring 100 + people to the dinner.

Don

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa & Jerry Jess <vwstuff53@msn.com>
To: DeBat Don <bigbat1177@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 6:02 pm
Subject: FW: Softball Hall of Fame

I sent my resume into Don Debat and he voted for me. But living now in Phoenix from 1979 when I left Chicago I still miss the game, Yet dream of it most every night. In the 1960s I played with and against all those mentioned

I remember it was the bottom of the 7^th and Eddie Zolna was pitching, men an 1^st and second and my team is down by a run two outs, I hit a long line drive double to right center my favotite spot even being a right hand hitter, and we win, Clarendon Park in the 1960s. Please, because of my poor health. This would mean so much to me. Bless you and hopefully , uj

Jerry jess

3121 ease yucca st

Phoenix, az., 85028-2616

602-767-7672

From: Melissa & Jerry Jess [mailto:vwstuff53@msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 3:28 PM
To: 'bigbat1177@aol.com'
Subject: RE: Softball Hall of Fame

Please Please Please   do what ever it takes my health is not good and this would be truly a blessing Please, uj

From: bigbat1177@aol.com [mailto:bigbat1177@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 2:54 PM
To: vwstuff53@msn.com
Subject: Re: Softball Hall of Fame

Jer,

Oh, it's Gil Muratori who is in the Hall.   Sorry. I nominated you. I will find out what is up with the Daily News nomination.

Don

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa & Jerry Jess <vwstuff53@msn.com>
To: DeBat Don <bigbat1177@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 7:02 pm
Subject: FW: Softball Hall of Fame

HELP PLEASE, uj

From: Melissa & Jerry Jess [mailto:vwstuff53@msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 5:01 PM
To: 'gilmuratori@bellsouth.net'
Subject: RE: Softball Hall of Fame

I played for or against all those guys. I remember at Clarendon Park bottom of the 7^th, I hit the tying and winning run of off of Eddie Zolna

From: gilmuratori@bellsouth.net [mailto:gilmuratori@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 4:41 PM
To: Jerry Jess
Subject: Softball Hall of Fame

Hope all is well with you guys. Just found a bit of information for you concerning the Hall of Fame. I received a phone call Saturday evening informing me that I had been selected into the 16" Hall of Fame. Not sure how it took place but they had been looking for me for a few years and found me on the internet using Google. Look for "Sixteen inch (16") Softball History" or "Softball Hall of Fame" on the net and you will find out more about it. Lots of names we both remember: Ron Brasch, Frank Lentine, Ed Zolna and many more.

Tony Reibel seems to be the man in charge. They have broken down the history into various eras: Pioneers, old-timers, etc., etc.

Hope you can hook up and get your name placed in nomination by whoever does that.

Stay well.

<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>

Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail!

size=2 width="100%" align=center>

Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail!

Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail!

Alinsky's Rules for Radicals

2007-10-17T21:35:00.000-05:00

pathickey said...

Officers,

You were targeted long ago - try to place where and how much damaged the people undermining any and all confidence in law enforccment have succeeded: The old Commie Saul Alinsky who captivated the media and the Catholic Church so effectively wrote these rules that have been used against you -

Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:

1 ) Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2 ) Never go outside the experience of your people. It may result in confusion, fear and retreat.

3 ) Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear and retreat.

4 ) Make the enemy live up to his/her own book of rules.

5 ) Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.

6 ) A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

7 ) A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

8 ) Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

9 ) The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10 ) The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

11 ) If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

12 ) The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

13 ) Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.

As a career educator I learned that - bullying must be met with equal force.

Be Careful and respond in kind!

10/17/2007 10:44:00 AM

http://www.bungie.net/images/News/WeeklyUpdate/WarthogB110707.jpg

2007-10-13T21:56:00.001-05:00

http://www.bungie.net/images/News/WeeklyUpdate/WarthogB110707.jpg

"KAPERS TAKE IT... ALL!!!" ;-) Hamlin Park Fall `07 Champs!

2007-10-03T19:14:00.000-05:00

A Taste of Wicca

2007-09-28T23:35:00.000-05:00

P------, Schmencils!

2007-09-26T00:31:00.001-05:00

Vending_Schmending meets Da Cop Shop!

2007-09-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

Town Hall Flatterer

2007-09-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Kapers Picture Night 1 (video, actually!)

2007-09-08T23:37:00.000-05:00

PROFILEs in Courage

2007-09-07T00:19:00.001-05:00

Put B_LEE inns Starting Lineup, SweetLouMerlot!

2007-09-07T00:15:00.001-05:00

Augie's Minor League Call-Ups (HOW BOUT THEM KAPERS!?!)

2007-09-04T22:37:00.001-05:00

(belated) Happy Birthday, P.D.B. ! ~ (“All right, you’ve covered your @ss now.”)

2007-08-07T07:04:00.000-05:00

MONDAY, AUGUST 06, 2007 - http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/

"All right, you've covered your ass now."

As my vacation winds down tonight, what more appropriate way to say goodbye to carefree relaxation for another year than to reflect on what would turn out to be the most costly, most ill-timed and catastrophic vacation in American politics (until 2005)?

It had come out a year ago when Ron Suskind had published his landmark book, The One Percent Doctrine, that when Bush was vacationing in Crawford, Texas in August of 2001, the CIA had sent him a memo entitled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside US." After having phoned it in, we can only surmise the reaction, or lack thereof, that necessitated a face to face meeting with someone whom, after barely more than six months on the job, people were already beginning to view as a failed president. According to Suskind's source, when Bush had gotten the personal briefing from panicky CIA analysts, the nonplussed Chief Executive was quoted as saying,

"All right, you've covered your ass now."

As if doing one's part to apprise the President of the United States of an impending attack on a massive scale by a major terrorist organization is a mere middle management affair motivated by nothing more than a desire to cover one's ass.

That, as we all now know, took place on August 6th, 2001, six years ago today.

Ripley at Zencabin, as I'd previously said, thought enough of me to email me recently to contribute to his/her blogswarm on August 6th. With catching up on backed-up email and the news, the bridge in Minnesota collapsing, Congress caving in to Bush's bullying over the FISA renewal and otherwise settling back in after my vacation in the Berkshires, I felt obligated as a liberal blogger to add my tiny flame to what hopefully would be a blazing torch. Yet, I didn't have any ideas, anything new to add to a story that has been legion across the Internet for six years now.

OK, the CIA tried to warn Bush during his vacation that bin Laden wanted to hit us using our own planes and Bush didn't think enough about the warnings to do his part over the next five weeks to stave off the attacks. We all know this. There's no sense in beating a dead horse.

Then, thinking about it some more I thought again of how history is about more than names, dates and events. The lifeblood of history, what makes it so fascinating to people like me is what gives it its significance: Cause and Effect. Sometimes a story has to be given added context by subsequent events before we can fully appreciate its significance and impact.

What happened between Bush and Congress this past week over the FISA renewal will be a case study in political science classes for decades to come, although I imagine a growing number of poli sci students will be asking themselves, "What in God's name were the Democrats thinking when they caved in to this lunatic?" Indeed, given how toxic Bush has proved to be for his own party, the same students may even be so bold as to ask what the Republicans were thinking when they sought to make legal what for six years had been illegal.

But the sheer unmitigated gall of George Bush preemptively charging Democrats with caring more about their vacation than national security just adds an extra dimension and hardly any more luster to the story that began six years ago of a so-called President who did just that then somehow, with an inexplicable, evil political agility that had to be engineered by Satan himself, turned America's darkest day into his brightest, shiniest hour of triumph.

It's been said for years many times, in many ways by better writers and thinkers than me that September 11th, 2001 was our Gulf of Tonkin, the attack for which bottled spiders like William Kristol in PNAC were quivering with anticipation like a 15 year-old in his first whorehouse. It provided us with our whole rationale for invading Iraq because not nearly enough people in Congress, on the street or in the fourth estate bothered to ask what possible connection that Saddam Hussein had to either 9/11 or al Qaida.

When the final chapter of this administration is written thousands of years from now, when everything that we spent hundreds of thousands of hours every month writing will be dissolved into an undecipherable electronic soup, it will be said that George Bush's seeming incuriousness regarding that August 6th, 2001 presidential daily briefing, presented to him by the same agency that had armed the Osama bin Laden under Reagan of whom they were then warning him, was merely mirroring our own incuriousness.

Because after September 11th, when George W. Bush's own popularity had soared to stratospheric heights, asking sweaty uncomfortable questions such as, "What does Iraq have to do with 9/11 and al Qaida?" were then deemed to be unpatriotic, subversive and even professionally suicidal (Phil Donahue can tell you all about that).

But the plain fact remains that while Bush's interest in Osama bin Laden continually flags and is only revived once every couple of years when a new video comes out, his interest in indefinitely occupying Iraq and getting his grubby hands on those oil deposits has never waned. He's never taken his eyes off the prize and still insists that Saddam's past threat to his people (once again, enabled by Ronald Reagan) alone justifies an eternal presence that thus far has killed going on 3700 US troops and close to a million Iraqis, if human rights organizations' estimates are reasonably accurate.

And it's all but been admitted by George Bush himself that it's all about the oil. In the summer of 2005, he told us if we don't get our hands that that sweet, sweet light crude from Iraq's oil fields, well, the terrorists will get it. But terrorists aren't interested in grabbing oil. They're not in the oil business. George Bush and Dick Cheney were (are?). Their interest in anyone's oil is to sabotage their pipelines (as with al Qaida's attempts in Saudi Arabia of late) and cause economic upheaval.

Bush's seeming lack of interest in the August 6th, 2001 PDB may have had a rationale behind it. Perhaps he, like PNAC, was waiting for another Pearl Harbor, waiting for his own Gulf of Tonkin and the political invulnerability that his closest aides told him he'd inherit as a result. And it can't be mere coincidence or an act of innocent incompetence that the only people who have benefited from Iraq's invasion and occupation are the oil cartels and oil services giants such as his Vice President's former company Halliburton and KBR. Them and at one point over 400 private contractors working in Iraq. Private security, it came out in Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater, in their heyday, gobbled up about a third of Iraq's reconstruction budget, which helped condemn 25,000,000 baffled and furious people to live without hospitals, schools, in poverty, in the dark and near open sewers.

If nothing else, the best thing that George W. Bush can give the United States is not an upper hand in the war on terror, not economic prosperity, not a strengthening transportation or military infrastructure but an ongoing object lesson in the fatal consequence of incuriousness, in not questioning authority regardless of the might of its political capital, in defiance of the zeitgeist.

Let Bush be a lesson of the perilous folly of timorousness and incuriousness, and the value of speaking truth to power. Or, if bankrupt of the truth as we were in early 2003, to wring the truth from it.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

http://hjhop.blogspot.com/2007/08/bush-determined-to-strike-in-us_06.html

MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 2001 -

GW Bush Determined to Vacation in Texas

You know, I was in New York City two years ago (2005). Walking through the city, I noticed that something was different, but I had a hard time putting my finger on it. It just occurred to me what it was. There used to be a couple of big buildings in Lower Manhattan, the World Trade Center. Now, I'm no engineer, but it seems to me that entire gigantic buildings do not simply disappear of their own accord.

During one of my lobbying trips to Washington, D.C. I noticed something else. One side of the Pentagon seems, I don't know, somehow newer than the rest of the building? And it had that "new military operations center" smell. I am no more an intelligence analyst than I am an engineer, but I have the sinking feeling that something is not quite right here.

And here's another weird thing: America seems to be invading and occupying a surprising of Middle Eastern countries.

Also, have you noticed how everyone in the world hates us? Hm.

Have you noticed how Iran's influence seems to be growing in the Middle East?

Isn't it funny how the Taliban has moved into western Pakistan where they operate with complete and utter impunity?

And have you noticed how utterly unattended to the whole Israeli/Palestinian mess remains?

And why is it that every time that I want to get a coffee I have to sign a loyalty oath? (OK, I just do that because I want to. The Starbucks people look at me like I just handed them an unsolicited loyalty oath or something.)

Don't we have one less major city than we used to?

Isn't North Korea nuke-ready now?

Didn't there used to be a Geneva Convention Thingy?

What about due process? We had that once.

Privacy. I remember privacy rather fondly.

It seems to me that the Office of the Vice President used to be attached to the Executive Branch.

I remember when people used to occasionally appear when Congress issued a subpoena, no matter who the fuck they worked for.

And do you remember when pernicious power-grabs on the part of the White House were met with that whole Checks and Balances thing? Those were some good times.

Oh, well. Without actionable intelligence I can't be bothered. I have a great book about a goat that I really want to read.

This was a post for the PDB blogswarm. You probably guessed that, however.

pdb blogswarm

POSTED BY BING AT 9:08 AM

LABELS: PDB BLOGSWARM

====================================

===================================

3 COMMENTS:

Batocchio said...

What's scary is that even ironically/sarcastically, you've given more reflection to all those events than Bush apparently has ever bothered to.

AUGUST 6, 2007 11:32:00 AM CST

Sorghum Crow said...

I wish Bush would go on strike.

AUGUST 6, 2007 2:35:00 PM CST

Tengrain said...

HJ - Great post. You manage to say in a few words what few people can say in thousands.

Good to have you in yet another swarm.

Your fan,

Tengrain

AUGUST 6, 2007 10:34:00 PM CST

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Addendum: Here's a technorati links page to some of the other bloggers who had joined today's blogswarm. It's not quite the 200+ that Ripley had hoped for but it's good to see that so many bloggers are still able to wax eloquent and remain outraged six years after that fateful day. Good work and thanks to all for turning out for Blue Gal's and Ripley's project.)

Update #2: Here's the most complete list that I can dredge up of the bloggers who'd participated. Please visit their sites and give them some love.

Kevin Hayden @ America Street.

A Poetic Justice.

Disgusted in St. Louis.

NTodd.

Sinfonian @ Blast Off.

Morse @ Sestakastan.

DivaJood.

The Largest Minority.

Vagabond Scholar here and here.

I'm Not One to Blog, but….

A Boy and His Blog.

The Aristocrats.

The Pittsburgh's Women's Blogging Society..

I Was Just Wondering: What If…?.

Semidi.

dhonig @ My Left Wing.

Lucky Strike Parade of Hits.

tengrain @ Mock, Paper, Scissors (and possibly the best one in the whole blogswarm).

Coffee Messiah.

Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes (what, are we on acid when deciding on blog names?).

Erin Alecto @ The Left Coaster.

Dcup @ Politits.

Xan @ Corrente Wire.

Samurai Frog @ Electronic Cerebrectomy.

La Sirena.

Distributor Cap NY.

The OtherWhirled.

Steve Benen @ the Carpetbagger Report.

Plus plugs from Skippy the Bush Kangaroo @ Xnerg and @ Crooks and Liars and from The incomparable Melissa McEwen at Shakesville..

Anybody that I've missed, please notify me and accept any half-assed apologies in advance.

WICKER 16" ROUND ROBIN PLAYOFF POOLS

2007-07-13T16:26:00.001-05:00

From MATTY B from da DOGZ:

TimmO-

Your info regarding Wicker Park playoffs is incorrect. If you win early on Sunday, you do play Pimienta later that same day, however, you're also going to have 5 more games vs. the rest of your POOL over the next three weeks (including Primo once again.) No two-out-of-three's until you reach the Final Four.

Official info is below.

Gold Star's slot, should you win, is in yellow.

WICKER 16" ROUND ROBIN PLAYOFFS
1.Teams are assigned to "POOLS" based on standings.
POOL A	POOL B	POOL C
1.) Dogs	2.) Pimienta	3.) SWAT
6.) Beachwood	5.) He Gone	4.) Knuklehedz
7.) Warriors	8.) United Nations	9.) NWSK
12.) play-in winner	11.) play-in winner	10.) That's Us
2. Play each team in your pool twice (6 games each.)
3. One winner from each Pool (best Round Robin
record) will advance to Final Four
4. The "non-pool winning team" with the best record
(season and playoffs,) also advances to Final Four
5. Playoffs Tie-Breakers:
a.) Fewest forfeited games (season/playoffs)
b.) Season/Playoffs Head-to-Head
6. Final Four:
a.) Re-Seed -- based on season and playoff records.
b.) Seed #1 versus Seed #4 (Best of 3 games)
c.) Seed #2 versus Seed #3 (Best of 3 games)
d.) Losers play a consolation game (one)
e.) Winner of 1 v 4 plays winner of 2 v 3
for Championship (Best of 3 games)

Re: [greenlight16] Re: "Playoffs" Recap...

2007-07-13T16:22:00.000-05:00

J.P. - Thanks, please zap it back to me @t

shadyogrady@gmail.com

and

shadigradi@mac.com

and

shadigradi.16inchers@blogger.com

(the last one should THEORETICALLY post it on my

www.16inchers.blogspot.com blog... try & see if it works...)

Sincerely-

TIMMO

On Jul 13, 2007, at 1:28 PM, Janak Paranjape wrote:

TimmO,

What's your personal email so I can get you that schedule?

Also, any other Wickerites should know that the Round Robin schedule is at the park ready for you to pick it up. Tell others if you see them at different parks.

Janak
-----Original Message-----
From: greenlight16@yahoogroups.com [mailto:greenlight16@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Timothy O'Grady
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 7:07 PM
To: greenlight16@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Timothy O'Grady
Subject: Re: [greenlight16] Re: "Playoffs" Recap...

Thanks Matt! Sorry again about that drop and that fiestyness that followed... I sometimes also get too easily agitated after my electro-shock therapy treatments! ZZZZAAAAAAPPPPPPP!!! %=> (actually a usually dependable cocktail of coffee, anti-depressants and ADD "ka-Blooeyz") brought to a head by an earlier run-in with BJ regarding a foul ball down the right field line... Oyyy veyyy; why indeed DO we do this stuff sometimes????

:-)

- TImmO -

Shat Out 2 my Homeyz on the iPhone whilst on the iToilet... !

"@@@@@@@@@@@@

On Jul 12, 2007, at 5:08 PM, Matt Banovic <mban24@yahoo.com> wrote:

TimmO,
Your info regarding Wicker Park playoffs is incorrect. If you win early on Sunday, you do play Pimienta later that same day, however, you're also going to have 5 more games vs. the rest of your POOL over the next three weeks (including Primo once again.) No two-out-of-three's until you reach the Final Four.

Official info is below. Gold Star's slot, should you win, is in yellow.

ROUND ROBIN PLAYOFFS
1.Teams are assigned to "POOLS" based on standings.
POOL A POOL B POOL C
1.) Dogs 2.) Pimienta 3.) SWAT
6.) Beachwood 5.) He Gone 4.) Knuklehedz
7.) Warriors 8.) United Nations 9.) NWSK
12.) play-in winner 11.) play-in winner 10.) That's Us
2. Play each team in your pool twice (6 games each.)
3. One winner from each Pool (best Round Robin
    record) will advance to Final Four
4. The "non-pool winning team" with the best record
    (season and playoffs,) also advances to Final Four
5. Playoffs Tie-Breakers:
    a.) Fewest forfeited games (season/playoffs)
    b.) Season/Playoffs Head-to-Head
6. Final Four:
   a.) Re-Seed -- based on season and playoff records.
    b.) Seed #1 versus Seed #4 (Best of 3 games)
    c.) Seed #2 versus Seed #3 (Best of 3 games)
    d.) Losers play a consolation game (one)
    e.) Winner of 1 v 4 plays winner of 2 v 3
         for Championship (Best of 3 games)

----- Original Message ----
From: Timothy O'Grady <shadyogrady@gmail.com>
To: GoldStarSoftball@YahooGroups.Com
Cc: old-scarz@yahoogroups.com; kapercentral@yahoogroups.com; GangGreen16@yahoogroups.com; greenlight16@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 1:45:59 AM
Subject: [greenlight16] Re: "Playoffs" Recap...

-I-F- we win "Playoff for the Playoffs" game @ 11 am---- (vs. M & S)

THEN the 2 pm "Actual" "Playoff Round" takes place, AND it's a best 2 out of 3... (vs. Pimienta... uh-oh!)

Lose at 11 am, that's all folks!

WIN at 11 am, we could Lose ONE if we win the OTHER two, anf then we'd ADVANCE yet again!!!

ANY QUESTIONS?

JUST WIN, BABY!

(and BRING them RINGERS!!!)

------------ --------- -----
On Jul 11, 2007, at 11:32 AM, ? wrote:

...Not sure the team members understand the upcoming schedule...

Luggage? GPS? Comic books?
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.

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Damn

2007-07-04T23:29:00.001-05:00

Damn
Originally uploaded by Insomnia Jones, J.D.

From BEER to e-Ternity! Way to go Steve-O! ;-)

Olbermann to Bush & dick: RESIGN !

2007-07-04T22:29:00.000-05:00

Now THAT's telling it like it IS !

iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype- NYT/Pogue

2007-06-26T23:48:00.001-05:00

New York Times - Circuits - David Pogue

State of the Art

The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype

Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

http://tinyurl.com/ywldlz

The iPhone, set to be released on June 29, is three devices in one: a cell phone, a wide-screen iPod, and an Internet communications device. More Photos >

By DAVID POGUE

Published: June 27, 2007

Talk about hype. In the last six months, Apple's iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google. Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the "Jesus phone." All of this before a single consumer has even touched the thing.

Skip to next paragraph

Multimedia

Slide Show

David Pogue Puts iPhone's Camera to the Test

Video

The iPhone Challenge: Keep It Quiet

Interactive Graphic

Pogue's Review of the iPhone

So how is it?

As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it's flawed. It's substance; it's style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.

Unless you've been in a sensory-deprivation tank for six months, you already know what the iPhone is: a tiny, gorgeous hand-held computer whose screen is a slab of touch-sensitive glass.

The $500 and $600 models have 4 and 8 gigabytes of storage, respectively — room for about 825 or 1,825 songs. (In each case, 700 megabytes is occupied by the phone's software.) That's a lot of money; then again, the price includes a cellphone, video iPod, e-mail terminal, Web browser, camera, alarm clock, Palm-type organizer and one heck of a status symbol.

The phone is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese. The glass gets smudgy — a sleeve wipes it clean — but it doesn't scratch easily. I've walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there's not a mark on it.

But the bigger achievement is the software. It's fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can't get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone's 16 functions.

You've probably seen Apple's ads, showing how things on the screen have a physics all their own. Lists scroll with a flick of your finger, CD covers flip over as you flick them, e-mail messages collapse down into a trash can. Sure, it's eye candy. But it makes the phone fun to use, which is not something you can say about most cellphones.

Apple has chosen AT&T (formerly Cingular) to be the iPhone's exclusive carrier for the next few years, in part because the company gave Apple carte blanche to revise everything people hate about cellphones.

For example, once the phone goes on sale this Friday, you won't sign up for service in a phone store, under pressure from the sales staff. You will be able to peruse and choose a plan at your leisure, in the iTunes software on your computer.

Better yet, unlimited Internet service adds only $20 a month to AT&T's voice-plan prices, about half what BlackBerry and Treo owners pay. For example, $60 gets you 450 talk minutes, 200 text messages and unlimited Internet; $80 doubles that talk time. The iPhone requires one of these voice-and-Internet plans and a two-year commitment.

On the iPhone, you don't check your voice mail; it checks you. One button press reveals your waiting messages, listed like e-mail. There's no dialing in, no password — and no sleepy robot intoning, "You...have...twenty...one...messages."

To answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up. (When you're listening to music, that pinch pauses the song. A double-pinch advances to the next song.)

Making a call, though, can take as many as six steps: wake the phone, unlock its buttons, summon the Home screen, open the Phone program, view the Recent Calls or speed-dial list, and select a name. Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal.

E-mail is fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.

The Web browser, though, is the real dazzler. This isn't some stripped-down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.

Finally, you can enlarge a Web page — or an e-mail message, or a photo — by spreading your thumb and forefinger on the glass. The image grows as though it's on a sheet of latex.

The iPhone is also an iPod. When in its U.S.B. charging cradle, the iPhone slurps in music, videos and photos from your Mac or Windows PC. Photos, movies and even YouTube videos look spectacular on the bright 3.5-inch very-high-resolution screen.

The Google Maps module lets you view street maps or aerial photos for any address. It can provide driving directions, too. It's not real G.P.S. — the iPhone doesn't actually know where you are — so you tap the screen when you're ready for the next driving instruction.

But how's this for a consolation prize? Free live traffic reporting, indicated by color-coded roads on the map.

Apple says one battery charge is enough for 8 hours of calls, 7 hours of video or 24 hours of audio. My results weren't quite as impressive: I got 5 hours of video and 23 hours of audio, probably because I didn't turn off the phone, Wi-Fi and other features, as Apple did in its tests. In practice, you'll probably wind up recharging about every other day.

So yes, the iPhone is amazing. But no, it's not perfect.

There's no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You can't install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web. The browser can't handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos.

The two-megapixel camera takes great photos, provided the subject is motionless and well lighted (samples are at nytimes.com/tech). But it can't capture video. And you can't send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones.

Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges. Eventually, you'll have to send the phone to Apple for battery replacement, much as you do now with an iPod, for a fee.

Then there's the small matter of typing. Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first.

Two things make the job tolerable. First, some very smart software offers to complete words for you, and, when you tap the wrong letter, figures out what word you intended. In both cases, tapping the Space bar accepts its suggestion.

Second, the instructional leaflet encourages you to "trust" the keyboard (or, as a product manager jokingly put it, to "use the Force"). It sounds like new-age baloney, but it works; once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably.

Even so, text entry is not the iPhone's strong suit. The BlackBerry won't be going away anytime soon.

The bigger problem is the AT&T network. In a Consumer Reports study, AT&T's signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities. My tests in five states bear this out. If Verizon's slogan is, "Can you hear me now?" AT&T's should be, "I'm losing you."

Then there's the Internet problem. When you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot, going online is fast and satisfying.

But otherwise, you have to use AT&T's ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Times's home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo. two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.

These drawbacks may be deal-killers for some people. On the other hand, both the iPhone and its network will improve. Apple points out that unlike other cellphones, this one can and will be enhanced with free software updates. That's good, because I encountered a couple of tiny bugs and one freeze. (There's also a tantalizing empty space for a row of new icons on the Home screen.) A future iPhone model will be able to exploit AT&T's newer, much faster data network, which is now available in 160 cities.

But even in version 1.0, the iPhone is still the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years. It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles.

In other words, maybe all the iPhone hype isn't hype at all. As the ball player Dizzy Dean once said, "It ain't bragging if you done it."

E-mail: Pogue@nytimes.com. For his regular column tomorrow, David Pogue will answer frequently asked questions about the iPhone.

G*S 11... - H.G. 12... ;-(

2007-06-18T02:11:00.001-05:00

Re: Appalled and Aroused

2007-06-15T13:34:00.000-05:00

I've smashed a PC laptop while I was naked und sveaty... ...but I'd
have paid her to do it (und mein little "freundshaft" ;-)

2007-06-12T17:35:00.001-05:00

BrandonLee023's "Vending-`Membring":

"COPS @t Wrigley..."

As I've said in the past, or as Snagglepuss used to say "As I always say, sometimes" ...if you wait at the main gate at Wrigley long enough you'll see everyone in the world.

Well tonight I saw about six different police officers that I had worked with or knew at the game, some with their families and some out with the guys.

We all exchanged pleasantries- I got congratulated on my retirement a few times. I don't see why that merits congratulations; all it means is that I got old and quit my job.

While selling programs today, a family of six- two adults and four children (a Brady Bunch looking group- which probably means second marriages for both) bought four scorecards (and pencils) from me.

As I was making the lady change from her $20, the husband says "Does that include the super-super-super-duper police discount?"

I responded that the police discount was built right into the price, just like at the F.O.P. store. This mooch didn't realize with whom he was toying.

I learned that both he and his lovely bride are officers and both receive a premium pay for what they do (which is to be forced to take a plum assignment). This premium pay amounts to about $250 a month more apiece than I got when I was so employed.

Rather $250 a month a piece more than a similarly tenured officer who didn't get premium pay and had a crappier job (like me).

I informed him that it was likely, judging by their apparent ages that I retired with more time on the job than they had combined, so trying to BS me wasn't going to be an easy task for him. He didn't argue when I gave him the figures about my 29 years so I figured that he and the luckiest girl in the world both had less than 10 years apiece.

We said a friendly goodbye and I bet he learned something. Maybe not.

Additionally they ran out of scorecards tonight when they were selling at a brisker pace than most nights so even though I made a decent buck I could have made more if they were on the ball.

Riding to work, trying to stop for some candy for the cashiers, I sort of tripped on my bike scraping my shin on the pedal. I had blood on my socks and my right leg.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to sleep...

Your Pal, Brandon

ROUND ROBIN PLAYOFFS
1.Teams are assigned to "POOLS" based on standings.
POOL A	POOL B	POOL C
1.) Dogs	2.) Pimienta	3.) SWAT
6.) Beachwood	5.) He Gone	4.) Knuklehedz
7.) Warriors	8.) United Nations	9.) NWSK
12.) play-in winner	11.) play-in winner	10.) That's Us
2. Play each team in your pool twice (6 games each.)
3. One winner from each Pool (best Round Robin
record) will advance to Final Four
4. The "non-pool winning team" with the best record
(season and playoffs,) also advances to Final Four
5. Playoffs Tie-Breakers:
a.) Fewest forfeited games (season/playoffs)
b.) Season/Playoffs Head-to-Head
6. Final Four:
a.) Re-Seed -- based on season and playoff records.
b.) Seed #1 versus Seed #4 (Best of 3 games)
c.) Seed #2 versus Seed #3 (Best of 3 games)
d.) Losers play a consolation game (one)
e.) Winner of 1 v 4 plays winner of 2 v 3
for Championship (Best of 3 games)