...while wondering what ever happened to Joe Carter

Exxon-Mobile, Inc. reports net earnings of $10,000,000,000.00 Yes, that's billion, with a "b". This represents a 75% increase over last year. Paired with congress' gift of $4 billion in tax breaks in August's energy bill, it would appear that hurricane Katrina, to quote Barbara Bush, is turning out to be, "a pretty good deal", for the oil companies...The Jolly Green Giant has died. Len Dressler passed away this week in Palm Springs, CA, at the age of 80. In addition to voicing the big green guy, he was also the voice of Snap (as in Snap, Crackle, Pop). Who knew?...Early leader for Best Promotion of the new NBA season comes out of Gotham, where the Knickerbockers are selling what they call the "Brown Seats" package. It features discounted prices for tickets in the arena's lower bowl (the seats are brown) for games against the Pistons, Sixers, Pacers, Spurs, Clippers, Nets and Nuggets -- all of the former stops of head coach Larry Brown. Additionally, in a nod to his days with the Carolina Cougars, the Charlotte Bobcats have been included as well...Lewis Libby? -- don't care...Blatant Lie of the Week comes from Dr. Jerry Buss who, when talking about the outlook for the Lake Show said, presumably with a straight face, "this is the year we've always wished for". In response to same, Line of the Week goes to Warriors beat writer Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, who wrote, "Yeah, back when Magic and Kareem were winning NBA championships, and when the Shaq-Kobe teams were three-peating, Buss and Laker fans were dreaming of the day Kwame Brown and Smush Parker would come along and lead the Lakers to the promised land."...From the Department of miscellaneous minutiae, according to answers.com, it was on 17 September 1982 that :-) was first documented as having been used to indicate jokes in an internet "thread", by Scott Fahlman, at Columbia University. When you impress a date with this, as I am sure you will, think of me...Also in 1982, yet another reason to appreciate the greatness that is Bill Joel -- his 52nd Street became the first commercially released compact disk...Well, the NBA is certainly cleaning things up. I mean six days into the season, there have only been two arrests. Granted, Andre Miller and Darko Milicic were only cuffed for unpaid tickets. It's a start, no?...Oh yeah, hockey's back...With Theo out in Beantown, wouldn't it be interesting if Steinbrener fails to re-up Brian Cashman and the Boy Wonder goes to the Dark Side?...Did you see Devin Harris drop 20 on the Spurs in the 4th quarter on Saturday? Boo-ya!...If you think that the Eagles' signing of Brian Westbrook to a five-year extension during the same week they suspend T-O indefinitely was coincidence, you're wrong...So espn.com previewed all 326 Division I NCAA basketball teams. Yes, every one of them. Click here to check it out. It's an Insider item, so you'll have to pay to read it, except for 32 free ones, including my Temple Owls. This got me wondering, is this because John Cheney's boys are gearing up for a great season or because, well, who would pay good money to read about Temple? As I perused the list of other free reads, I got my answer. Among the freebies were UC-Irvine and Davidson...Bill Gates is up to over $6 billion dollars -- in philanthropy, with the majority of the money funding global health initiatives. Isn't this how it should work?...While we're on global health, Time Magazine ran this Op-Ed piece, by Bono, in their 7 November (2005) issue...Curt Schilling is officially off the Bad Man List. If you'll recall, it was October of 1993 when Schilling was relegated to the BML, for sitting in the dugout covering his head in a towel, refusing to watch whenever teammate Mitch Williams pitched in the World Series. Public shaming of a teammate other than Barry Bonds -- very uncool. He's off the list though, now that he and his family have taken in Katrina evacuees. Every bit helps...Coolest Random News Blurb of the week comes from Australia, where an unnamed dude (I mean, he has a name, they just didn't give it), fought off a shark -- with his fists. That's hard core...Runner up? "Indian stone-throwing festival injures 50." Sometimes this stuff just writes itself...Yao Ming has donated stem cells for research. What's the over/under on how long it takes until his DNA is on eBay?... You've got to love November: Charlotte and NO/OKC have winning records, Utah's in first place and the Clippers are undefeated....Until next time,
Paz.