Arrrrgh! My eyes!

I've got a couple of items in my head that I'm wanting to write about, but I can hardly keep my eyes open long enough to write. Not because I'm terribly tired, but because my allergies have finally kicked in over the last few days and my eyes are an itching burning bloodshot mess.

I guess I could do more to minimize the symptoms, but I refuse to hermetically seal myself in the house when the weather is as nice as it's been this weekend. The Allegra and Nasonex and Optivar eye drops help, but I still feel like I want to take my eyes out and put them in the fridge for six weeks.

To make matters worse, I'm umpiring a Little League game tomorrow night and I'll really be feeling it after 2 1/2 hours in a pollen haze. Hopefully it will rain...

Tags: Allergies Allegra Nasonex Optivar

Gas Price Map

Ever wondered what the price of gas is in another part of the country, or how it compares with the price of gas at home?

GasBuddy.com has a neat interactive US map showing the average price of gas in each county. (link via the super-right wing Human Events Online)

Tags: Gas prices

Your mileage may vary

In yesterday's Washington Post, columnist Dana Milbank had a wry look at the hypocrisy of many congressmen and women who spent the day decrying high gas prices as their big SUVs idled nearby:

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.

"Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away.

.....

At about the same time, House Republicans were meeting in the Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas). The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).

.....

After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg). Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15). Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14). Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17). Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).

Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush "remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards."

Also waiting: three Suburbans, a Nissan Armada V8, two Cadillacs and a Lexus. The greenest senator was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg), at quadruple the fuel efficiency of his Indiana counterpart Evan Bayh (D), who was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).

Millbank was able to clear his head of the fumes created by all of those gas guzzlers to see the point that most of Washington seems to be missing:

America may be addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it. But America is in the denial phase of this addiction -- as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions to high gas prices: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: that Americans drive too much in too-big cars.

In the interest of full disclosure, our small SUV and compact car are rated at 27 and 34 MPG highway respectively.

Tags: Republican DemocratCongress Senate Gas prices

Sentinel: Monty's to relocate, not close

Today's Sentinel and Enterprise had a short update on the Monty's Garden story. While the restaurant is slated to be razed for a Walgreens, the current owners say they plan to relocate the business:

LEOMINSTER -- The owners of Monty's Garden restaurant say that if a agreement involving the sale of their building goes through, they will relocate.

"It still is not a definite deal," said Leslie Frechette, referring to proposed plans from a Peabody-based development company to demolish the building at 35 Central St. and replace it with a Walgreens drug store.

How can we ensure that Monty's relocates to another site in Leominster and that another chain restaurant doesn't come in and put more pressure on local eateries? The town should work with New England Development to ensure that Monty's can move to one of the two proposed restaurant sites on their plan for development on rte. 117.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Walgreens New England Development

Close to Home (Friends and Neighbors in the News II)

On Sunday, a young woman and her unborn child were killed by a drunk driver in Lancaster. The story has been all over the news here, and in Tuesday's newspapers we started to learn a little more about the victims. As tragic as it is, it hit especially close to home because of the eerie similarities between Michelle and I and the family that was tragically broken in the crash.

According to the Sentinel and Enterprise, Katelin DiSessa was schedule to give birth to her baby boy in late May, had been to her shower on April 1, and had recently finished the baby's room. She was killed when the drunk driver struck the SUV she and the baby's father were riding in around 6:00 pm Sunday on Sterling Street (rte. 62), as they headed back to their home in Leominster. They had been visiting his parents in Clinton.

Michelle and I are expecting the last week of May. We celebrated our baby shower on April 2, and have recently finished furnishing Jackson's room. On any given Sunday evening, we could be found driving our SUV up Sterling Street to our home in Leominster after a visit to Rota Spring Farms for ice cream or to my parents in Clinton.

The other thing that caught my eye in the article was the name of the officer on the scene, a friend I knew from my days teaching at AUC:

[James] Rousseau, after the crash, kept asking if his bride-to-be would be all right, according to Lancaster Police Officer Juan D. Ramos.

"All he said was, 'Is she going to be OK?'" Ramos wrote in his police report, which graphically described the scene where DiSessa was trapped inside the SUV.

Steven Fugure, an off-duty Sterling police officer, witnessed the wreck and told Ramos he was driving behind the couple's SUV when Zoller began driving straight at them, according to Ramos' report.

Rousseau, who was heading west, swerved to the left to avoid Zoller's white 2003 Ford van, but the van struck the passenger's side of the SUV, Fugere told Ramos, according to Ramos' report.

Zoller smelled like alcohol, slurred his words and had bloodshot eyes when he spoke to Ramos after the crash, according to Ramos' report.

Police arrested Zoller after he failed field sobriety tests, according to Ramos.

I can't imagine the grief that father and fiance must be feeling, but reading the account I was also struck with how difficult these sorts of tragedies must be on the police, fire, EMTs, etc. that have to respond. In addition to Juan, I know that a friend of my sister-in-law also was on the scene as an EMT, and I probably know some of the other emergency personnel that were called to the scene. The Lancaster Times and Clinton Courier had a story today on how they try to deal with the experience.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Lancaster Clinton Drunk Driving Accident Atlantic Union

T&G: Mayor says loss of Monty's could "be a boon" to Leominster

The fallout from yesterday's announcement that local landmark Monty's Garden was going to be razed in favor of a Walgreen's continues, with another article in today's Telegram and Gazette. Mayor Dean Mazzarella almost sounds like he regrets the impending change, but hey, Walgreens will be a good neighbor, so everything will work out:

Mayor sees pluses, minuses
Drugstore at Monty's site will fill a need
By Matthew Bruun TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

LEOMINSTER--The loss of landmark Monty's Garden could still be a boon to the downtown corridor, Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella said yesterday.

Walgreens is developing plans to build a new store at 35 Central St., where Monty's has stood for more than 70 years. The popular Italian restaurant has been a family business since its founding in 1933.

Walgreens spokeswoman Carol Hively said yesterday plans for the store were very preliminary, but he confirmed the company's interest in building in Leominster.

"It breaks my heart to think of losing Monty's, but I'm not the one who has to make that decision," Mr. Mazzarella said yesterday, referring to the Caligaris family's apparent decision to sell the business.

"I've known the family forever. I know what those people have put in for hours," Mr. Mazzarella said. "They've been around it their whole life."

.....

The mayor said the bright side to Walgreens' entering downtown would be filling a commercial void. There hasn't been a drugstore downtown in years, he said.

"The trick is, can you get a Walgreens to go downtown and look like it belongs here?" Mr. Mazzarella said. He said he surveyed several other Walgreens locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and it appears the company is willing to work with communities on defining a look that fits.

The mayor implies that the family has just tired of working long hours and is ready to sell. Could it be that the family has seen their business suffer with the influx of national chain restaurants over the last five years? Maybe they saw the opening of an Olive Garden off of rte. 2 this fall as the final blow to their business.

And the spin about the city not having a downtown drugstore may be technically accurate (depending on your definition of downtown), but it's pretty disingenuous since a new CVS opened a couple of years ago only two or three blocks south of the site. Not that I have any fondness for CVS, but does Leominster need another chain drugstore three blocks away?

Update 11:40 pm: The Sentinel and Enterprise also had an article on Monty's today. Looks like one of our city councilors gets it:

At large City Councilor John Dombrowski said "it's a shame" that Monty's might be leaving.

"It's a unique restaurant," he said.

The sale might represent an overall problem that all locally-owned restaurants, not just Monty's, are facing, Dombrowski said.

"This may be a sign of them having trouble competing with chains," he said. "So sell out, that's what happens. They sell the real estate, and now they'll be able to sell their liquor license, and there's no shortage of suitors for that."

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Walgreens CVS

Clearly not from around here

Paul at Powerline shared some impressions on Mitt Romney:

Tonight I had the privilege of attending a dinner with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and two or three dozen journalist types. Romney's statements were off the record but I can report the following three impressions: (1) in many ways, Romney would be an exceedingly attractive presidential candidate, (2) Romney is an instinctive problem solver and an instinctive conservative; most of the time the two sets of instincts won't collide, but the problem solver instinct is the stronger of the two, and (3) Mitt Romney is a man of real substance.

Obviously, Paul isn't from around here. Man of real substance? What a hoot!

Tags: Massachusetts Mitt Romney Republican 2008 Election

Monty's Garden to be razed...the sterilization of Leominster continues

This is particularly sad news, from the Telegram & Gazette:

Landmark restaurant to be razed
Walgreens to replace Monty's
By Matthew Bruun TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

LEOMINSTER-- A downtown landmark appears headed for the wrecking ball as Monty's Garden makes way for a Walgreens pharmacy.

The restaurant at 35 Central St. opened in 1933, and holds the city's first liquor license, according to a history on the restaurant's Web site.

Monty's co-owners said last night they could not comment on the state of the transaction, a time line for the restaurant to be torn down or whether the owners have plans to reopen it elsewhere.

The City Council last night took its first look at a request from lawyer Steven B. DiPace, on behalf of the Richmond Co., seeking the sale or exclusive use of 12 parking spaces on city-owned land between Central and Adams streets, as well as access to and from surrounding land connecting the parking lot to public ways.

The access is sought "to be utilized exclusively by and for the benefit of the proposed new Walgreens which is to be constructed on the site currently occupied by Monty's Restaurant, which will be demolished as part of the area development plan," the petition says.

Monty's has been one of my favorite restaurants since I was a kid, and is the favorite local restaurant of Michelle and her family as well. I have many fond memories of the place (including the waitress who attributed a tough piece of veal to "a sick pig"), and it's a shame to see it go.

Not that it's a huge surprise. Mayor Mazzarella and the planning board have been hell bent on turning Leominster into Anytown, USA by fast-tracking approval of big-box retail stores and chain restaurants in places originally set aside for industry. For years, the mayor has been saying that the arrival of Longhorn and Applebee's and Chili's and Friday's and The Olive Garden and the restaurants not yet announced in the rte. 117 development wouldn't have a negative effect on local restaurants.

Yet, the most historic of them all is the first to fall. But at least the mayor gets the little part of Sam Walton's empire he's been coveting. It's not the Wal-mart supercenter he tried to foist on the people of the South End, but it's a start.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Walgreens Walmart

Don't take your ones to town.

There aren't words to express the genius of this clip:



Another hundred or so classic Sesame Street clips are linked at foldedspace.org (via TV Squad).

Tags: Johnny Cash Sesame Street Big Bird You Tube

Friends and Neighbors in the News

From last Thursday's Sentinel and Enterprise:

Pair of motorcycle wrecks sends one rider to hospital
By Aaron Wasserman

Two motorcycle accidents within a span of 90 minutes created traffic delays on local roads Wednesday afternoon and sent one Lunenburg resident to the hospital.

.....

Another motorcyclist escaped a separate accident without much harm after a South Lancaster woman driving a black Chevrolet Blazer knocked over his vehicle while he was traveling south on Route 117.

The Blazer's driver, Edna Roberts, 75, said at the scene that she could not see the motorcycle as she turned from an I-190 exit ramp onto Route 117.

"I looked both ways and sat for cars to come by and with the sun shining in my eyes, I couldn't see the motorcycle," she said.

The accident occurred at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.

The motorcyclist, Raul Burgueno, 56, of Arlington, said he hurt his right arm and leg, but eventually drove off under his own strength.

His burgundy Honda motorcycle, adorned with a Uruguayan flag, had minor damage to its structure.

Roberts approached Burgueno and apologized to him before he continued on his trip.

"I did not see him and I just feel terrible," she said.

I know to keep reading when the article references a "South Lancaster woman" (or man) as only Adventists claim South Lancaster as their place of residence.

Tags: South Lancaster Leominster Adventist

Looks like we'll have a race for state rep

According to the Sentinel and Enterprise, Claire Freda, my city councilor, has decided to run for state rep against incumbent freshman rep Jennifer Flanagan:

LEOMINSTER -- The race for the Fourth Worcester District state representative seat is on.

Ward 3 City Councilor Claire Freda has officially pulled papers to run for the office currently held by state Rep. Jennifer Flanagan, D-Leominster, according to Brian McNiff, a spokesman in the office of Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin.

"I've been thinking about it for a while," Freda said in an interview Friday. "There are a lot of issues facing Leominster right now. I don't think the state has been very responsive to us."

Freda pulled papers April 11 in a meeting at the Secretary of State's Boston office, she said.

"I am looking forward to a campaign," she said. "I have heard from a number of people that they will be supportive of my candidacy ... I guess peoples' approaching me made up my mind. I have had a lot of people calling me and telling me that they hope I run."

It's pretty clear to me that Freda is going to try to paint Rep. Flanagan as inexperienced (She's in her early 30s) and an "insider," since she was essentially a legislative aide with late rep Mary Jane Simmons for her entire adult career before being elected to the seat two years ago. More from Freda:

"That's probably one of my biggest issues," she said. "I've been involved in 18 different budgets in the city. Every year the state gives us less money, and we have needed to raise taxes to give people the quality of life they expect in the city."

She added that she and Flanagan, whose current office is her first elected position, differ on some issues.

"I think, as someone who has never served as an elected official, her priorities are not our priorities," Freda said. "They're not mine, anyway."

....

Freda is not enrolled with any political party, McNiff said.

The City Councilor switched her status from Democrat to unenrolled Feb. 28, according to City Hall records.

"I'm still a Democrat at heart," Freda told the Sentinel & Enterprise in March. "Some of the philosophies of the Democratic party seem to lean a little bit further (to the left) than where I am. It's just not the Democratic party that I grew up with."

So essentially, Freda is running as an independent because she doesn't think she can win a primary against Flanagan (where activists are more likely to vote), but she does think that she can win in a general election where, if she doesn't have a more conservative candidate on the ballot with them, she can appeal to the right.

I voted for Flanagan in the last election, and expect to again. We don't need to move backwards to "the Democratic party [Freda] grew up with."


Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Democrat 2006 Election

Re-launch

After blogging in fits and starts for a little over a year, I've "re-launched" the site in the last couple of days. Or at least, that is my intent. I can't promise that I my interest in blogging won't fizzle out again after a week or a month as it has on occasion since I started the blog in March of last year, but I intend to stay current.

I came to the realization that I needed to make a subtle change in the way I approached this endeavor. Previously, I would always ask myself whether a reader of this site would be interested in a particular topic before I would post anything. Often I would end up scuttling posts or not posting at all because I figured no one would care. I've decided that while caring what a reader thinks might be good policy if I'm writing for a publication, or a commercial site, it is irrelevant to a blog.

So I've decided to restart the blog with a simple idea: If there is something that interests me as I read the news or cycle through other blogs, or just in my everyday travels, I'll share it here. The only people reading these entries will be people who care about me or my interests anyway, so why worry whether or not someone will be interested in a specific post?

The tool that has most helped me organize my daily reading and thus made it a lot easier to blog systematically is Bloglines. It allows me to get all of the posts from news sources and blogs in one place, and it continually sweeps the internet for updates so I can read these sites any time I want, or continually if I want. I can "subscribe" to any site that has an RSS or XML feed. You can check out my Bloglines blogroll to see how it works.

All of the sites that I read (either daily or occasionally) and that have feeds are listed on the right in the Links via Bloglines section. That section is organized by topic. Other sites that I check regularly but do not have feeds are listed under Other Links.

I hope you find something interesting here. Feel free to add comments to any of the posts if you'd like, or you can email me using the link at the right.

Tags: Bloglines Blog

First gubenatorial debate

The Democratic candidates for governor had their first debate yesterday. It will be broadcast on channel 4 Sunday morning at 8:30. I may watch it, if I remember to set the DVR to tape it. In any event, moderator Jon Keller shared his impressions in a long post on his blog, outlining what he found to be the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three candidates.

At this point, I'm undecided between Deval Patrick and Chris Gabrieli. I would not vote for Tom Reilly in the primary under any circumstance, and would have to think hard about supporting him if he won the nomination (the only other possibility would be independent Christy Mihos. Kerry Healey is not an option).

Keller on Patrick:

It's a matter of taste, of course, but I find him an impressive presence on TV, thoughtful and articulate. When they were talking about gas taxes, he wryly needled Gabrieli about his gas-guzzling campaign RV. And the best part about Patrick: he's a man of conviction. He was willing to endorse licensing illegals to drive, even though he has to know how toxic that position will be in some circles. He flatly rejects the income-tax rollback as "fiscally irresponsible," while Gabrieli tries to have it both ways, saying he wants to do it but might not be able to. And he has the guts to stand up for Cape Wind at a time when every other politicians in sight is running for cover. To primary voters sick and tired of waffling, spineless pols, Patrick's boldness continues to be his strong suit....

As for Patrick, his biggest strength is also his most profound potential weakness. Giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, defending the use of race as a layoff criteria on legalistic grounds, dismissing the voters' demand for a five percent tax rate as "irresponsible" -- these are all defensible positions, even principled in a way. But they're also ultra-liberal. And maybe I'm just getting old, but I can't seem to recall the last time an ultra-liberal Democratic candidate for governor got to pass "go."

And his thoughts on Gabrieli:

He flashed some humor, was specific without getting too bogged down in jargon, and gave largely sensible answers. He staked his claim to the center by touting his support of charter schools and refusing to endorse drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants. Money quote: "We have to be very careful and making it very clear to people as Democrats we are not in favor of illegal behavior.... Citizenship should mean something." Gabrieli floated above the Reilly-Patrick fray, and his rebuttal to Reilly's point that even Bush and Cheney have released their tax returns was clever: "That won't be the only place I'll end up disagreeing with Dick Cheney and George Bush."....

Gabrieli also has a problem that the debate exposes. He's too cute by half. He's all for the income tax rollback to five percent, but maybe not right away, and if you listen closely to his pitch, maybe not at all. He likes the wind farm project, but supports Ted Kennedy's backroom move to kill it by letting Gov. Romney veto it. In response to a question about willingness to use race as the sole criteria in an employee layoff decision, Gabrieli appeared to say both yes, he would, and no, he wouldn't, according to my transcription, but that may have just been confused syntax. I'm sure the Gabrieli people will say this is all just Chris being thoughtful and avoiding simplistic sound bites, but it sure smells like waffling to me, and I bet it will to others.

Tags: Massachusetts Democrat Governor 2006 Election

A formidable foe

Reading this post at the News Blog, I was struck by how much more difficult (if that's possible) war with Iran could be as compared to our current situation in Iraq, especially in the naval arena. An excerpt:

So what do we know? Iran has likely acquired cruise missiles with speeds up to 3 times faster than current American anti-ship cruise missiles. The ones it has likely acquired from the Ukraine have a range of up to 3000 kilometers. It probably also has a number of shorter range supersonic cruise missiles (we can't be certain of exactly how many) to augment its inventory of slower Silkworm cruise missiles (the Silkworm is a Chinese variant of the French Exocet). And even these slower Silkworms can be very dangerous to our naval forces....

Imagine these cruise missiles being deployed in mass attacks against our ships in the Gulf, and against oil tanker traffic (the reason our ships would be in the Gulf in the first place). The chance of incidents much worse than the one that happened to the USS Stark [in 1987] becomes greatly magnified. Unless we know the location of these cruise missiles and can take them out before they are launched, our sailors will be at tremendous risk in the event of a shooting war with Iran.

The complete article goes into much more detail into how advanced the Iranian arsenal is and how they acquired these types of weapons. I was surprised at the suggestions that their arsenal might be more advanced than ours in this arena.

Tags: Iran United States Defense War

Sports Culture vs. Jock Culture

Steve Gilliard has an excellent post on the difference between Sports Culture and Jock Culture. Here is a portion of it:

Sports culture is the thing you see every day, it's the t-shirts, the throwback jerseys and the tailgating. It has relatively little to do with athletes. It's about group identity and socialization. The players are a footnote to the team identity. Take AC Milan. People are so passionate about that team, that they protest outside their headquarter for a new manager.

Jock culture is a very different thing. While people love to support teams, that love doesn't always follows to athletes. People like what Barry Bonds can do for the Giants, they have no use for him as a person. Bonds is the personification of what is wrong with jock culture. Arrogant, loud, abusive towards women.

Because there is a big divide between the team and the athlete. While rooting for a team is a natural part of adulthood, athletes are often men-children, who are at once possesors of the male ideal, and frighteningly unable to deal with reality. Pro sports is the one area in adult life where paternalism reigns for men. The military is the polar opposite, where young men are encouraged to be responsible, not only for their actions, but to the unit.

Most 23 year olds have responsilbities and duties, at work, within the family, in their personal life. But athletes do not. Athletes have one responsibility, which is to perform. They don't direct their own actions, they don't manage their own affairs, they can even create buffers in their personal life.

The irony is that at the high school and college level, jocks are usually disliked by most students. They are often the parental idea of the perfect child, while to their peers, they're hated. Why? Because they are allowed to terroize their surroundings while receiving praise from adults.

He goes on to talk about effect the Jock Culture has on the way male athletes treat women. I think he describes the life of an elite athlete pretty well.

Tags: Sports Athletes Culture

"I think you're an..."

From the AP:

Nobody expects to get a letter from a member of Congress that ends with an expletive.

But that's what happened when Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., recently corresponded with a resident of her southeast Missouri district.

The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter a — "i think you're an. ..."

Here's the letter.

Tags: Republican Congress Missouri

Greg Can't Play...MUMPS

The Washington Post ran a story this morning on an unexplained outbreak of Mumps in the midwest, and ran this fantastic old photo from the 1950s.

A Jan. 16, 1957 file photo shows Greg Cox, left, 7, in Altamont, Ill., as he looks at his friend Jon Douglas, 6, through the doorway while he recovers from mumps. In the worst outbreak in more than 20 years, mumps cases are spilling out of Iowa, popping up in at least nine other Midwestern states. Cases have also turned up in Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Greg's parents posted the sign but it didn't work out too well because most of Greg's playmates were too young to read. (AP Photo, File)

I wonder if Greg's parents posted signs for "Being Sassy" or "Didn't Finish Chores" on other occasions when he couldn't go out.

Tags: Iowa Mumps

Shut it, Please.

He's a fine pitcher and all, and I'm glad he's off to a 4-0 start, but I wish Curt Schilling would keep his mouth shut.

Tampa Bay lefthander Scott Kazmir didn't care for comments Curt Schilling made this week on WEEI radio, when Boston's ace said the reason the Red Sox and Devil Rays have had numerous bench-clearing incidents is because of Kazmir ''hitting multiple batters every time he threw against us. I don't know if any of it was intentional, but he kept hitting players."

Kazmir, who will pitch the series finale tonight against Tim Wakefield, responded to Schilling's comments in today's St. Petersburg Times.

''I don't know why he would say that," said Kazmir. ''I never tried to hit anyone ever.

''What can you do? Why would I, of all people, get thrown into everything? I was looking at a video before of past things with the Red Sox and Devil Rays and they had all this other stuff before I was even in pro ball. And all of a sudden it's all because of me? OK.

''It was very surprising to hear that."

Schilling, who improved to 4-0 with last night's 9-1 win over the Devil Rays, went on to say in the radio interview, ''We made it clear to them, for the most part, that we were only throwing at guys on their team because their young pitchers couldn't throw inside. Obviously, he's getting better and he's learning. But you don't learn to pitch in the big leagues inside, you learn how to do that in the minor leagues. And you can't do that here because you get people hurt."

Kazmir responded, ''So, I guess I don't know how to pitch inside if I hit a guy or two? It doesn't make too much sense. It's his opinion. He wants to be heard."

It'll be interesting to see if Kasmir comes inside tonight or if he'll be afraid to. Something tells me someone will get plunked.

Tags: Boston Red Sox Tampa Bay Devil Rays Curt Schilling