I made my first foray into the abyss known as The Cheesecake Factory on Friday. I know, I know, the last person in America to try it. I didn't even know there was a bar in there. We must have picked the correct evening, as it was not crowded and we were seated riight away.

I think if there is a next time, I'll stick to the appetizers, because they were decent. Tex-mex egg rolls, taquitos and buffalo chicken wings were sampled. Then I decided I wasn't very hungry and got one of their "specialities", teriyaki chicken. It was OK, not the greatest. Then four of us split a piece of Chocolate Oreo Mudslide cheesecake, some chocolate thing with oreos in it. It reminded me more of pudding, instead of cheesecake, and that was not necessarily a bad thing. But, I can see how people pig out on those desserts. It's just that you have to have a bit of moderation during your meal.

Meal of Links

Helmets are made for all kids of sports now. Overall safety is debated.

We were regaling kids the other day with nostalgic stories about the milkman and the paperboy. As further proof, the old ways don't cut it anymore, malls increasingly turn to restaurants and movies for their anchors.

Maybe if my eyes get bad enough, I'll need the 103-inch plasma TV from Panasonic. Only 70 grand.

Exercise Yard

HBO came through with an interesting doubleheader last night. The first bout was the Mosley-Vargas replay from last week. "Sugar" Shane Mosley looked better than he has in a long time and disptached Vargas in the 6th. Let's face it, Fernando Vargas phoned this one in. He looked completely disinterested and it's tough to judge Mosley's performance on that point. Of course, Mosley now wants Mayweather. But not this year. He says let someone else fight Floyd in November and he'll take him on in early 2007. Money talks, but not with Shane. So, we'll see if Oscar de la Hoya takes the November bout.

The second fight had champ Carlos Baldimir taking on Arturo "Thunder" Gatti on Gatti's home turf in Atlantic City. It was Gatti's 20th bout on HBO. Gatti ate Baldimir's right hand all night and these were big shots. Gatti is not built for 147 as he threw punches that hurt the smaller guys, but Baldimir probably thought it was a fly or something, the way he shook them off. Gatti got his butt kicked and finally got KO'ed in the ninth. Gatti's legendary warrior mentality and comeback ability disintegrated fairly quickly after five rounds, then the crowd decided their boy was not going to come through and they sat on their hands. It was not surprising that it happened, given Gatti is 34. What is surprising is how poor of a showing it was. The years of pounding caught up to him in one night. Baldimir is 35, however, and looks pretty fresh right now.

After the fight, guess who Baldimir called out? That would be Mayweather. I think Floyd Landis got off his bike today and challenged Mayweather, as well. Jee-zus, talk about the golden goose right now.

Anyhow, it was a strange night for HBO, as two of their feature boxers, Gatti and Vargas, are seemingly headed for retirement at the same time. It shows how fickle the game can be. The HBO cards, while decent the next few weeks, have nothing that looks exciting on paper. Lots of retreads, including Sharmba Mitchell, Ike Quartey and others, might make for interesting bouts, but nothing earth shattering. That's why Mayweather's next fight is so highly anticipated.

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