And this Red Sox fan couldn't be happier!

King: love ya and all, but your endorsement has been the kiss of death to all but the most favored of favorites...

My favorite (circa 2004): "The Red Sox seem to me more likely to trip than the Yanks -- Boston has Pokey Reese, after all, and who wins with him around?"

Right? Reese's # of rings = 1, Rodriguez's = 0

Funny looking over these old columns and seeing things like:

"It's a rite of spring for me, picking the Red Sox to win the East and the Yankees second. I do it every year, and every year I'm wrong. Some people clean their houses. I do this. I don't pick the Red Sox because I like them or root for them or even because I particularly think they're going to win. I pick them because I feel like I am a decent person, one who for all my flaws tries my level best to live a good life and do right by others, and I deserve to see someone other than the New York Yankees win the Eastern Division in my lifetime."

"And if it ever happens I'll be damned if I'm going to be caught having finally given in and picked the Yanks that year. It would be like playing the same lottery numbers every day, then not playing them on the day they come up. That's something that happens to losers, and I'm a loser, but that's not going to happen to me!"

"Now, I have this feeling in my trick knee that either the Yankees or Red Sox are going to stumble this year. They both have used their economic advantage to make themselves so powerful, they appear to be a division unto themselves. The Yankees added A-Rod, of course, after Boston failed to do so. But don't cry for the Red Sox, who got Schilling and Keith Foulke and kept Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez. The Yanks also lost Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte to the Astros, but you may have heard of newcomers Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez and Gary Sheffield."

Just watched the 2004 Game 7 between the Sox and Yanks on DVD. I had forgotten that we drove Brown out of that game in 3 to the tune of 6 runs. The game was over by the 5th. Just another good Yank pick-up, I guess. Hear that Sheffield guy's doin' well too. Vazquez? 9-6, 5.44 ERA. For the White Sox.

Can't wait to see what Abreu does!

I have lots of friends. Friends though work. Friends through school. Friends through bands. Friends through my kid. Friends based on common music interests. Friends based of love of Fantasy Football. Friends for politics. Friends for (lack of) religion. Gay friends. Straight friends. Bi friends. Old friends. Young friends

A previous poster made the point that it seems people expect the perfectly compatible, die-for-you friend. The question I have to ask is: "If a frienship is based upon what someone will or will not do for you, are they your friend? Or your employee?"

I've driven 30 minutes out of my way to drop friends at home after billards. I've purchased tickets to events that my friends and I have attended and asked them to pay a lesser price than what I paid. I've tipped at restaurants when friends have forgotten. Rarely do my friends know about these things. Karma and attitude have a way of paying you back with the reward of human warmth. All I ask from my friends is good conversation, no unecessary drama, and an ability to take a little good-natured ribbing. I know the ones I can ask favors from. I know the ones I can't, and that's cool as well. Friends got me my current job.

I've observed people out to dinner together having disagreements about who owes what on a dinner bill. Who has time or energy for that negative crap? Either split the bill into even sections or pick up the whole thing (nothing makes friends quicker than offering to pay or buying a round). Life's too short to worry about your 3 beers vs. my ginger ale, plus its just money people (no I'm not rich, just middle class). My friends would never take advantage of me in this regard: that's why they're my friends.

Maybe I'm just a realist. Friendship has been over-romanticized by our media, much in the same way that love and marriage has. Friendship does not need to be some epic Tom & Huck/Thelma & Louise movie. Try making a friend, not a guardian angel. Give in on things like movie & dinner choices (I have been "turned on" to many a new genre/cuisine this way). Don't be judgemental. Use some social lube (wine or weed) the first few times until you get the feel for the ropes. Assholes can be spotted on the first "date" easily, and can be avoided in the future.

Human contact really is its own reward. Sometimes there might be pain and dissapointment. What there won't be is wondering if someone is really what they say they are (computers are great masks that way). And no carpel tunnel!!!

Lori Klausutis

Google it! Mysteriously dead interns are a bitch...

(TBA beat me to it!!!!!)

"I'm not a fan of Scarborough... but the real reason the Lori Klausutis didn't gain more traction in 2001 was because Scarborough was not even in Florida when she died. He was in Washington." -- kb3edk

What, people have to be present to have someone offed for illegitimate love-prgnancies? Last I remember, Condit was at home in bed with his wife AND we weren't even sure a crime was committed (no body!) but that didn't keep the so-called liberal media from jumpin' all over that one. Are your Klausutis facts from the Florida media which you just blindly accept? Don't you see a problem with that?

Try reading up on it. It's not as cut-and-dry as "Joe not in same state".