Bob Dylan

Today is Bob Dylan's 65th birthday.

My favorite song of his is "Shooting Star", from the album Oh Mercy. I heard it for the first time a few years ago while listening to "The Coffeehouse", a mellow morning radio show from WERS. The song is romantic, but also very sad. I liked it immediately, and I was surprised it was a Dylan tune. I listened to the song a few times again today. Very nice! Happy Birthday, Bob.

Rooting Interests

With the return of Stanely Cup ice hockey, and the apparent rise of LeBron James, I'm quite engaged in this month's batch of playoff series. Here are my rooting interests:

Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes, I'm on the LeBron band wagon. Witness and all that. I think the Cavs have a tough road ahead of them in tomorrow's Game 7 at Detroit. But I'm hoping to catch some of it, to see if I really am witnessing the rise of an NBA great.

Los Angeles Clippers. The other basketball team in Los Angeles. I like the storyline of the long suffering franchise suddenly catching some good luck. (The Lakers loss to Phoenix meant LA would have to wait another year for a Freeway series.)

Buffalo Sabres. Any team with Chris Drury is worth rooting for. Plus they have Mike Grier, a fellow former Boston University standout.

Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Paul Kariya isn't there anymore, but Teemu Selanne is. Teemu's having a resurgent season. Go Ducks!

5 and 4

Ashley Prange won the Golf Channel's "Big Break V"! In match play, she beat Jeanne Cho by the score of 5 and 4.

All of Jeanne's great shots and lag putts seemed to be for par or bogey to halve the hole. Ashley played very steadily, not making any mistakes. In the end, Ashley couldn't believe she had a simple two-putt to win the thing. Jeanne couldn't believe the match slipped away as quickly as it did.

Congrats to Ashley! Well wishes to Jeanne and the other competitors.

Big Break: Ashley v. Jeanne

In Big Break V (a reality golf show on The Golf Channel), the final two contestants (whittled down from eleven contestants over the past three months) will be facing one another in match play tomorrow night (9PM EDT). I know that this is a recorded television show, and that there's much creative editing, but I believe The Golf Channel has a terrific match in the final pairing between Ashley Prange and Jeanne Cho.

On the show, Ashley is loose, often irreverent, and very vocal about her capabilities. I get the sense that Ashley knows how to relax and have a party. Jeanne seems very much the opposite: reserved, very 'internal'. I can almost feel her 'strict Asian upbringing'. But both are pretty fierce competitors. Both have really good golf skills.

I'm rooting for Jeanne, but I'm wishing both of them luck!

Brothers

My youngest brother Renato just bought a house.

My younger brother Ron posted some nice pictures from the 2006 New York International Auto Show. He also wrote about it.