Quibble out of the way: "...Oden at 19 is more polished offensively at this point than Ewing was when he came into the league at 23. He has better hands and he played a smarter offensive game as a freshman at Texas than Ewing did in his prime with the New York Knicks."

Greg Oden is emerging from Ohio State. But you knew that.

And I'd take him first as well.

Patrick Ewing never got his ring because the rest of the Knicks around him ranged from adequate to bizarre, and because the opposition around the division and league were very, very good at the time. Give him the cast that surrounded Willis Reed (the last great Knick center) and he'd have been a winner, no doubt.

Here in Minnesota, we're watching a strange drama unfold around Kevin Garnett. Trades are rumored with everyone except the Chicago Cubs. (Can he play right field?) I doubt one will happen, he's kind of expensive, and even Kevin McHale can't make him enough of a giveaway to get a trade package done by tonight. And it's a shame - I like KG, and he deserves at least one ring. His supporting cast over the last several years makes Ewing's look like All-Stars. And now, with some decent youngsters (Rashad McCants, if he stays healthy, for one, Randy Foye, and a good pick at #7 in a fairly deep draft) finally appearing at Target Center, he's on the block.

Me, at #7 I think I'd take Noah - yes, he needs a bit of work on his shot, but the guy's a winner, and plays with heart every time out. And what he would also bring is some much needed speed to the T-Wolves lineup - they've needed that for years. In the absence of any big, physical inside "intimidator" I'd go for the athleticism and intensity Noah provides. Or someone with a scary high 3-point shooting percentage...

Norman (Quimby) Coleman is one of the sleaziest characters Minnesota has ever sent to elective office. That he'd be OK with deporting a beating or rape victim in order to pander to the paranoid hard-right crowd does not surprise me in the least.

I am personally not in favor of illegal immigration, and there is one and only one answer to it, just to step to the side a bit here in order to address the overarching issue: Make the employment of an illegal immigrant a felony, make the second violation (or concurrent employment of two or more) punishable under RICO statutes, beginning with pretrial asset seizure.

Back to Norman Quimby, I am hoping strongly that he is looking for a new job after next fall. Minnesota deserves better.

It's a small place, with food that's tasty, even though I can't vouch for "authenticity" beyond liking it - a lot, and recognizing it as not really Vietnamese and not really Thai.

Nice people run it, and I sadly don't get there enough. If you happen to find yourself in St. Paul, MN, it's on University Avenue, and called Cheng Heng. Been there for some years, and people keep going, so they'll probably be there for some years more - I hope. It's a tough business.

Sparky Anderson always thought it was his managerial brilliance...

Not only for "Go Cubs Go!" but also for "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request", featuring the ever-true lines: "Do they still play the blues in Chicago, when baseball season rolls around? When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?"

Damn, I miss Wrigley Field...

Very well-traveled friends from Chongquing have commented on a place here that they say beats anything they've seen anyplace in the world for Szechuan cooking, excepting "back home".

Me, I call it "the office".

Perhaps the single best way to minimize illegal immigration is to make the hiring of an illegal a Federal felony, punishable under RICO statutes. The market for their services would likely dry up quickly, once the spectacle of Federal seizures of meatpacking plants, Wal-Marts, and the homes of prominent politicians hit the media.

Was that a pig that just flew past my window?

I don't suppose this will penetrate the dangerously thick skulls of the "free-market" fundamentalists, but then, blind faith is called that for a reason.

If only this sort of vision would extend to other areas of interoperability, and propagate worldwide, we'd all be spared some of the silly VHS-vs.-Beta and HD-DVD-vs.Blu-Ray nonsense loose in the marketplace today. Then companies couldn't lock people in by making things not "play well together", they'd have to earn their customers' loyalty by actually making (gasp!) better quality phones, or DVD players, or whatever, than the next guy.

And as for the non-food ethanol question, why is this even news? What sort of demented reach is it to force a dualistic choice between eating and heating? Oh, wait, sorry, forgot...it's the "free market" at work.

When cellulosic ethanol becomes workable in real-world operations, perhaps by improved enzymatic generation, we'll have a cleaner-burning fuel that doesn't preclude food crops - it will literally be able to be made from waste wood, cornstalks, or anything else that's got a digestible cellulose fiber base. And then, and only then, will it be useful as a "bridge" fuel, helping us get towards a non-combustion-based energy future. And that remains the "brass ring", doesn't it?

I've edited stuff. A lot of stuff. From corporate propaganda to PBS documentary material. And Chase's ending was one of the finest technical examples of "backtiming" I've ever seen, anywhere, carrying the song, with visual notes highlighting specific bits of the lyrics, through much of the scene, across multiple shots, until he hit the "Don't stop..." just as he hit black and silence.

Anyone who's edited anything more complex than a home movie before will understand that. And yes, it's maybe a little too "inside baseball" for others.

Nicely done...