Last night, Ryan Rayburn hit two homers + a double + a single, knocking in about a zillion runs. The Tigers had JUST called this guy up from the Toledo Mud Hens (and if any team name sounds minor league, it's the Mud Hens).

The night before, Mr. Hessman (can't recall first name, also from the Mud Hens) had hit homers and such for the major-legue-leading-in-most-categories Tigers.

These guys were in the Tigers' lineup because certain familiar, established "Major Leaguers" were hurt. These two guys are just about as good as the Established Multi-Million-Dollar Major Leaguers they filled in for.

Music is the same. In any stinky little town you visit, you can find an etherial musician, if you go out to listen. Famous, rich musicians all give themselves a lot of credit, because they practice a lot, and the come up with great riffs, and they get it done, and make the audience smile.

But they know that 14-year-olds are nipping at their heels, 14-year-olds who practice a lot, and come up with great riffs, and get it done, and make the audience smile.

P.S. Stop addressing the troll. The Troll will die if either: A. We ignore him, or, B. He/she comes within striking distance of me.

Economists are not rocket scientists. Economists like to imagine that they are cool, and that the same rules for peer review apply to them, the same rules that apply to physicists and experimental medical geneticists.

Baloney! Peer review my elbow! Economists, if it's a good idea, then mazel tov. If not, then not. Actual scientists still live and die by peer review. Economists, on the other hand, judge each-others' lives' work by whether they can afford tassel loafers.

Hey Patrick Smith!

Can you put the story of NASA astronauts flying drunk into perspective? The newspaper story is unclear. Were these people flying drunk or hungover into space? Or were they flying airplanes while drunk or hungover? Or??

How common is this among pilots in the USA? I met a North Central pilot once at a party. He was drinking, and he was on call starting the next morning. He was drunk enough to think he was cool, and to tell me about it.

I have read that the original seven astronauts were hell-raising guys. But I have the impression that airline pilots are straight arrows. What can you tell us?

Because the raging never-bin-nowheres-don't-wanna-go ignorant Republican primary voters think they want a cartoon monster!

And somehow Fredo T. thinks this is okay. He is willing to make up a fake face and tell lies because he believes this is what it takes.

Fredo would be much better off if he gave the issues some thought, and spoke for himself.

I told a story that was entertaining, but that story should not be associated with me. (If any posters on Salon know me in real life, they easily could figure out who "timbuktom" really is.) No big deal, nothing life-altering, but good stories sometimes require anonymity.

We have a mildly-mentally-challeged person with the poster name of Thrasher. He or she posts recently on the King Kaufman thread. This person is preposterous, but this person is NOT anonymous.

Anonymity is not the problem. Human Nature is your problem, and you just need to deal with it. You never will solve it.

Funny wisdom is more powerful than righteous whatever...

We need vacations to restore our senses of humor and our perspective. Mr. K., please keep on this tack. Whatever message will get through better this way, than all your clever-yet-serious political writing.

Oofda!

He or she has accurate info sometimes, but he/she deseeves no attention.

Do you watch your favorite baseball team on local TV? And then every once in a while, does your team get on national TV?.. So that you have to put up with the national annoucers, rather than your familiar, beloved local annoucers, the guys you know, and who know your team?

I hate it when that happens!

Here is a thought, though. The national announcers do a good job of broadcasting THE GAME ITSELF. Even if you wish the local announcers were there, those local announcers have local baggage...

The local guys already have said so much, over the course of the season so far, about every single detail, that they need to continue, and they need to push their agendas. But the national guys just get to brodcast and report.

So, my friends, please do not fault the national guys when they do not know Magglio's favorite color. Rather, listen to them when they give or imply a realistic evaluation of your own persoal local franchise/obsession.

We have had a hundred stories like this.

Nazi proposed as Jew Regulator. Child-Lover Nominated to be Sex-Crime Enforcer. Injun-Killer to be New Native American Department Chief.

And so on.

Please start thinking that maybe the Republican NeoCons actually, consciously are evil. Rather than what we usually think, that they are just incredibly stupid and inept.

Maybe they really are trying to do Satan's work. And they get away with it because we just can't bring ourselves to belive it could be that simple.

We brought you a new troll, while you were gone. Sorry!