Half a dozen of us journeyed to Fat Cats last night. The view from the patio at the end of West 10th obscured Jacobs Field enough, so I did not have to see the fireworks, I only heard them. Had the Baricelli Cheese Plate for an appetizer. BCP consists of three cheeses from the Baricelli Inn. One needs only to see that place involved to know how large the portion was...or wasn't. I had a really good Barbecued Pork Chop, as well. Plus drinks.

Highlight, lowlight, spotlight, whatever kind of light for me involves that damn Ashley Judd again. For the life of me, I must have blocked out this woman's acting career from my mind. Best Friend mentions a movie where Ms. Judd is in Alaska. I can't get "Imsonia" out of my mind and say she's confusing her with Hilary Swank. Of course, we're covering her movies with Morgan Freeman, especially that one with Caviezel in it. Nothing, can't remember it. I find out later it's "Eye of the Beholder". Who watches that drivel? Apparently, people who like me to be wrong, that's who. And I keep failing to mention "Simon Birch", where Simon kills Ashley Judd with a foul ball. I'm not kiddin', right in the old noggin.

Gale with the best line of the evening to me: "If you don't want to give an officer cause to pull you over, you may want to take that flower out from behind your ear." Thank you.

Meal of Links

Vince Welnick died today. He was a keyboardist for the Grateful Dead. Of course, the Dead have had three other keyboardists who all, well, they all died. People talk about a curse, but I dunno. Welnick was also with The Tubes and I happened to listen to "What Do You Want From Life?" today. I can't think of a song that captured pop culture at its time like that one. "A microwave oven--don't watch the food cook" is a great line, because that was what was thought of at that time. "Randy Mantooth", hah!

Two guys fooling around with Diet Coke and Mentos. "No." That's the first thing you've said in the last four hours. That's a fountain of conversation there, buddy. That's a geyser."

How to get a prize out of a claw machine. I do not see the sledgehammer approach listed.

Exercise Yard

I cannot believe how pissed I am tonight. I was all set to watch Corrales-Castillo III on Showtime, and I learned at 9:00 the fight was cancelled. Now I have to hear "The Classy Jimmy Lennon, Jr." introduce flyweights for the main event. Hey, Joe "Firm but Fair" Cortez is the ref! Damn that Jose Luis Castillo, he committed the cardinal sin of boxing, by not making weight at 135. Are you kidding me? The last time these two fought, Castillo didn't make weight. They took the title off the table and fought anyway. Castillo won. So, everyone, I mean everyone, knew that yesterday's weigh-in was big.

I heard last Saturday that Castillo was at 142 and I thought uh-oh. Chico Corrales was on the record as saying that if Castillo did not make weight, the fight was off. I didn't pursue finding out about the weigh-in yesterday, because I thought there was no way he'd be over. Then I find out he came in at 140! Absolutely inexcusable. Fines are definite, suspensions possible, because believe it or not, Castillo's promoter Bob Arum probably lost $1 million, and Corrales' promoter, at least several hundred thousand. That's why folks are mad. The last time I recall this happening was Leonard Dorin not making weight at 135 for a title defense a few years ago. It boggles the mind.

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34 Across: Conductor of the world premiere of "La boheme" (15 letters) Answer: Arturo Toscanini