Frayed Knot

Most of the troops traveling out to and in from overseas deployments do so through the international airport in Bangor, Maine ... Who knew? - both about that being the spot used for arriving/departing troops and that Bangor even had an international airport. Anyway, a group of locals - mostly senior citizens, some with military connections but not all - make a point to greet all the troops upon their arrival with a handshake, an expression of thanks, free cell phone use, maybe some chocolates, etc. They've been at it since 2003 and are "on call" 24/7. Phone relays are used to inform each other of incoming flights and tallies are kept of both the number of flights and soldiers greeted since the start. This is a documentary film focusing on that effort and specifically on several in that group.

having constructed this list and looked at everyone else's, I'm convinced this was a bad decade for movies compared to both the 80's and 90's. That was essentially my point all along. Hell, I did a quickie search of just '71-'74 and came up with: French Connection, Last Picture Show, Cabaret, Godfather, Deliverance, Jerimiah Johnson, American Graffiti, Mean Streets, Papillon, The Sting, Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, ... and obviously a bunch more. I really hate to sound like one of those 'it was all better in the old days' types and I know the movie biz (and society) has changed and there are a bunch of reasons for the disparity between eras ... but Geez!

I didn't mind 'Knocked Up' (not bad - not great) - it's just that the contrast between the rest of his list and that one struck me as funny. You can almost hear the guy thinking: Yes, I prefer all these foreign language arty films that, unlike me, you unwashed type don't have the intellect or the breeding to appreciate. Oh yeah, and that Apatow guy and his band of horny low-brow post-teens just slay me!

His ill gimmick was to title all his novels as The [surname] [Noun]. The Scarlatti Inheritance (1971) The Osterman Weekend (1972) The Matlock Paper (1973) The Rhinemann Exchange (1974) The Gemini Contenders (1976) The Chancellor Manuscript (1977) The Holcroft Covenant (1978) The Matarese Circle (1979) The Bourne Identity (1980) The Parsifal Mosaic (1982) The Aquitaine Progression (1984) The Bourne Supremacy (1986) The Icarus Agenda (1988) The Bourne Ultimatum (1990) The Scorpio Illusion (1993) The Apocalypse Watch (1995) The Matarese Countdown (1997) The Prometheus Deception (2000) I heard Ludlum claim one time that not only wasn't it his intention to name books that way but actually didn't realize the pattern until he turned in a new book (probably his 4th or 5th) without such a title. At that point, he said, the publishers "broke into tears" and convinced him of the wisdom of sticking to the by-then established formula.

Richard Brody of The New Yorker wasn't very Hollywood happy this decade And he picks TWO American films and 'Knocked Up' is one of them?!?!?! But I guess it fits in with part of my point about this decade's films - I can find a better top 5 from the '70s even without leaving the all too short John Cazale catalog. I enjoyed reading Ludlum when I was a twenty-something. I did too (IIRC 'The Bourne Identity' was the first one I read) - a girlfriend at the time got me into them. But after about 3 or 4 books there was a sameness to them and I eventually gave up (on both the books and the girl). I'm not normally a big reader of fiction, but of that type of book I preferred the less prolific but more interesting and varied Frederic Forsythe. His books were made into better movies too: 'The Odessa File'; 'Day of the Jackal'; 'Dogs of War'.

Trying to put together a top ten (in no particular order): Lives of Other Letters from Iwo Jima Million Dollar Baby Michael Clayton Almost Famous Slumdog Millionaire In Bruges ... and I obviously need three more which, unless and until I come up with something better, will be filled in with Juno, and the very overlooked The Bank Job and The Lookout On goes 'High Fidelity', off comes Juno.

Trying to put together a top ten (in no particular order): Lives of Other Letters from Iwo Jima Million Dollar Baby Michael Clayton Almost Famous Slumdog Millionaire In Bruges ... and I obviously need three more which, unless and until I come up with something better, will be filled in with Juno, and the very overlooked The Bank Job and The Lookout

See if this helps move the discussion along - or at least throws in a few suggestions: Best Picture Nominees 2000: Gladiator; Chocolat; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Erin Brockovich; Traffic 2001: A Beautiful Mind; Gosford Park; In the Bedroom; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; Moulin Rouge 2002: Chicago; Gangs of New York; The Hours; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; The Pianist 2003: Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King; Lost In Translation; Master and Commander; Mystic River; Seabiscuit 2004: Million Dollar Baby; The Aviator; Finding Neverland; Ray; Sideways 2005: Crash; Brokeback Mountain; Capote; Good Night, and Good Luck; Munich 2006: The Departed; Babel; Letters From Iwo Jima; Little Miss Sunshine; The Queen 2007: No Country for Old Men; Atonement; Juno; Michael Clayton; There Will Be Blood 2008: Slumdog Millionaire; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader

I was actually going to start a thread on this too. In part because I can never remember what year these flicks came out so I need a larger list to choose from before I could form an opinion. But also because I stumbled across the latest rendition of 'At the Movies' - the next generation of the Ebert-Siskel show - where the two current guys are picking their decade's best. They're still in the process of counting down so they haven't gotten to #1 yet, but of the ones they have picked I'm thinking ... really?!? Those are the BEST ones? Michael Phillips (one of those Chicago papers) 10 - Minority Report 9 - Gosford Park 8 - Mulholland Drive 7 - United 93 6 - Zodiac 5 - Y Tu Mama Tambien 4 - Once 3 - Climates (Turkish) 2 - Ratatouille A. O. Scott (get a real name dude) - NY Times 10 - Million Dollar Baby 9 - 25th Hour 8 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 7 - 4 Months, 3 Weeks ... (Romanian) 6 - Best of Youth 5 - Where the Wild Things Are 4 - The Pianist 3 - Brokeback Mountain 2 - A.I. Now I saw and liked some of those, saw and have virtually forgotten others, and failed, as usual, to see a bunch -- but few of them struck me as best of the decade types which led me to wonder whether it's just been a bad decade, bad (or at least odd) choices, or maybe just me.

Michael Clayton

The little I read up on Cazale recently mentioned that he also knew Pacino from his theatre days and it was Pacino who convinced the director to allow Cazale to read for the part in Dog Day - a part written for a much younger and more energetic street-wise kid, a far cry from how it eventually was portrayed by the then nearing-forty Cazale. Another note had Streep threatening to quit 'Deer Hunter' if Cazale were taken off. The shooting was arranged to film his scenes early on in the process.

Cazale is, of course, correct. I hadn't realized he died so soon after making 'Deer Hunter' (before it was finished filming even) or that his resume was so short otherwise. Quite an impressive resume even if a sucky way to get it.

This actor appeared in just five feature films in his career but all five were nominated for Best Picture Oscars (three won) - name the actor, and the pictures while you're at it.

Combined list. A few things were changed around from the above pre-lists. Main snag was that I omitted Maine earlier (now I 'Remembered the Maine'), otherwise I just swapped a few guys a step or two higher or lower. 30 - Wright 29 - Santana 28 - Beltran 27 - Castillo 26 - Murphy 25 - Feliciano 24 - Francoeur 23 - Rodriguez 22 - Pagan 21 - Pelfrey 20 - Tatis 19 - Sheffield 18 - Santos 17 - Stokes 16 - Reyes 15 - Redding 14 - L. Hernandez 13 - Maine 12 - Figueroa 11 - Cora 10 - Delgado 9 - Church 8 - Parnell 7 - Misch 6 - S. Green 5 - Schneider 4 - Nieve 3 - Dessens 2 - Thole 1 - Reed As always, both list and creator are open to questions, suggestions, insults, IQ tests, etc.

Pitchers: * Santana - Even with the injury-shortened year it’s no contest All others tie for last -- but, since we have to place them in some kind of order .... * Feliciano - Seems weird to put a specialist this high, but he had lower WHiP & ERA totals than just about everyone else and, unless someone else wants to correct me, I don’t remember him being too bad on the inherited runners situation * Rodriguez - Yeah, I know, but at least he had half a good year. Same number of hits and HRs allowed as Feliciano and in fewer innings but double the number of walks and half again as many runs allowed * Pelfrey - Had some good games here and there while leading the team in innings pitched * Stokes - Geez, the walks allowed by this staff was frightening * Redding - Better than Livan * L. Hernandez - Not as good as Redding * Figueroa - A little of this, a little of that * Parnell - Was great for a while, then lost his control, then was horrid as a starter * Misch - Some decent relief outings plus a fine start or two * S. Green - Hit a few more batters why doncha? Good stuff but I wonder sometimes if he knows where it’s going * Nieve - Looked good for a time and then (say it with me people) got injured * Dessens - Actually did OK during the brief time he was out there * Rounding out the rest: Takahashi - Niese - Putz - Perez * Out of the running -- Broadway, Stoner, Fossum, Switzer, O’Day, Wagner

After Sullivan. I put them together like that because the two were virtual statistical twins vying for the same role; one could call them the Suck and Suck-A of backup OFers. Sullivan's near-freakish capacity for triples and the fact that he was awarded the starting job for a while instead of Reed gave him the edge.

As I suspected coming in to this, this season is going to produce a real wide variety of answers with certain players ranking near the top of some lists and sinking to the bottom of others. When we get a few more responses and some sort of consensus starts to emerge it’ll be a good spot for folks to make an argument for their choices - particularly in those spots where they vary from the pack. I haven’t concocted the full list yet, but I’ll start by sorting through the hitters * Wright - even in a down power year he was still out there everyday and put up .307/.390 BA/OBA with 52 XBHs and by far the most Runs Created on the team * Beltran - despite missing a huge chunk of the season and only coming back when things were virtually over, he was the best (and only) all-around offensive threat while he was in * Castillo - one of only three full-timers, his high OBA and middle IF glove partially makes up for the total lack of slugging * Murphy - leading this team in HRs is like being the best ice hockey player in Peru, but playing almost everyday and knocking 53 XBHs helped to obscure the low OBA. He loses out to Castillo due to his early failure in LF * Francoeur - despite the concerns about his future here it was a good half-season * Pagan - next among the fill-ins. His ridiculous triples total actually shoved his slugging above everyone except Francoeur and his ‘D’ would have pushed him higher if not for the atrocious base-running * Tatis - beats out Sheffield due to better durability and despite the seemingly endless string of rally-killing GiDPs * Sheffield - best thing about him was the bang for the buck we got * Santos - nice find and seemed to get a bunch of big hits along the way but mostly shined mainly as compared to the rest of the backstops * Reyes - wins the SS competition despite only half the ABs of the backup * Cora - this is what back-up short-stops look like folks * Church - the slugging we saw for half of 2008 never came back * Delgado - was going great for the first 100 ABs, then didn’t get any more * Sullivan - Reed - Cory wins the competition of virtually identical slappy 5th OFers * Thole - promising first 50 ABs * Castro - that 8 of his 20 hits were for XBs is the only reason for him getting this high * Schneider - just never hit * A. Hernandez - looked better than the last time we saw him * out of the running - F. Martinez, Valdez Evans, R. Martinez, Berroa, Brown, Anderson

Of course if you decided to pass on every potential 18 y/o star jock with an inflated sense of self-worth the list of potential picks suddenly goes way down. Hard to know whether this guy is actually a bigger dick than your run of the mill HS draft pick or just the one of the bunch who didn't sign here and whose - once private but now suddenly available - comments to his equally dorky buddies we happen to be reading.

Except that, at worst, he would have been $1mil down the drain and not $127mil. Much smaller bullet.

Woody resorts to playing the hopelessly optimistic, mid-western dork from his 'Cheers' days. A bit grisly at times but otherwise an above-average flick.

This is one of those flicks where I'm listening to the debut of the sequel being trumpeted as if it was the follow-up to 'Born to Run' even though I have absolutely no memory of the original even existing. The Johnny Depp pirate movie series was the same way.

2004RANKINGSPOINTSPLAYER30Mike Cameron29Tom Glavine28Al Leiter27Mike Piazza26Kaz Matsui25Braden Looper24Cliff Floyd23Steve Trachsel22David Wright21Ty Wigginiton20Richard Hidalgo19Ricky Bottalico18Eric Valent17Mike Stanton16Jae Weong Seo15Jason Phillips14Orber Moreno13Todd Zeile12Kris Benson11Shane Spencer10Jose Reyes9Matt Ginter8Vance Wilson7Mike DeJean6Wilson Delgado5Danny Garcia4Dan Wheeler3David Weathers2Heath Bell1Karim Garcia

From BA: Jenrry Mejia signed with the Mets two and a half years ago in relative anonymity. His $16,500 signing bonus looks like a clearance-aisle price today for the organization�s No. 1 prospect, a power-armed righthander who reached Double-A in June before just turning 20 last month. Pitching for Surprise yesterday after missing his last scheduled start due to illness, Mejia touched 96 mph with his fastball once, otherwise ranging from 90-95 mph and mostly sitting 92-95 (he�s been clocked as high as 98 mph in previous outings here in the AFL and during the minor league season). His fastball is a swing-and-miss offering, not just because of its velocity but because of its outstanding movement. Mejia generates tremendous cutting action on his fastball, and he�ll also put some sink on his heater as well. Between the velocity and movement, Mejia has a pitch he can use as an out pitch or to induce grounders�71 percent of his outs on balls in play were groundouts during the minor league season. �It has a lot of power�it gets on you quick,� said Surprise pitching coach Tom Phelps, the Yankees� Double-A pitching coach at Trenton during the 2009 minor league season. �He has a fastball that will cut, and he also has a fastball that will sink. As long as he keeps it down in the zone, he gets a lot of ground balls and a lot of early outs and quick innings. The big thing for him is controlling it in the zone and not getting behind hitters and walking hitters.� Mejia did a good job limiting free passes during the regular season with high Class A St. Lucie, where he had a 1.97 ERA in 50 1/3 innings and walked 2.9 batters per nine innings. His walk rate increased to 4.7 per nine in 44 1/3 innings upon his promotion to Double-A Binghamton, an increase partly due to better competition but also likely because six of his 10 Double-A starts came in August and September when he was returning from a strained right middle finger. The shakiness with his command has carried over to the AFL. He�s allowed 11 walks in 11 1/3 innings and has an 11.91 ERA through five starts. Mejia did allow five runs yesterday, though one was unearned. Two other runs scored after Mejia left the game with two outs and runners on second and third in the fourth inning, when White Sox outfielder Jordan Danks hit a groundball single off Mets righthander Josh Stinson to bring home the runners. Aside from improved command, scouts want to see more consistency from Mejia�s offspeed pitches. His 78-82 mph curveball showed flashes of tight spin and sharp downward bite at times, but he also threw some slurvy ones as well. Mejia didn�t show much of his high-80s changeup, but it�s a projectable offering, too. �When he just throws it and doesn�t try to overthrow it, he�s got a good curveball,� Phelps said. �It looks like his heater, he�s got good deception and it�s got some quick break to it. Also his better secondary pitch is his changeup. His changeup has a lot of depth, has real good arm speed and looks like his fastball. He�s got the pitches to complement (his fastball), it�s just a matter of him being able to control it in the zone and keeping it down in the zone.�

I didn't really have a problem with the cool chick digs the shy dork plot line. I mean, yeah, like she'd ever give me the time of day but there was enough damage going on elsewhere in her life that wanting to hang with a "normal" guy made it at least a plausible device. In all it started a bit slow but I got into it. Like Sharpie said, nice little flick. Probably wasn't more popular due to lack of the Apatow-ness now expected from teen romance flicks. I looked up Margarita Levieva (the one who played 'Lisa P') on IMDB because ... well, because why not!?! born: 1985 St Petersburg, Russia. A member of the Russian Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastic team - although attended HS in New Jersey.

BA lists Flores as 10th best prospect in Sally league this year