AELNSST to open. Obviously ex 1, but which?

I may have mentioned here before that my break-even point for club play is winning three out of four over the long run. (That's also about what the current rating system would expect given the usual ratings of the players involved.) Just found that from January 1, 2007 to now, a span of 372 club games, my winning percentage is 75% right on the nose.

PI?IFORM

What letter(s) can be the blank there?

Oh boy. I got a summons for federal jury duty last week - I have to be on call from today through the end of 2009, checking in each week to see if I have to serve. I already mailed back my stuff, including my request for exemption form for the time I'll be in Malaysia for the WSC. Haven't heard back yet on whether my request has been granted, though. I know nothing about the judge's policy on granting exemptions, but my excuse is hardly frivolous; I'm optimistic that it won't be a problem. However, if my request is denied, and I happen to be called in for service on those days, it gets interesting. The penalty for playing hooky is $1000 plus up to 3 days in jail or community service. The money isn't an issue - I'd have to eat a plane ticket and other expenses if I didn't go, so it's a wash. But if I got jail time or community service time, my job standing might be affected. Wouldn't be fun to explain to my employer that I'm in jail for no-showing jury duty. That's the absolute worst case and I suspect it's highly unlikely, but I'm not sure it's unlikely enough that I should risk it. Well, no use worrying about it now; I can't do anything but wait until they say yes or no, and then make the call.

EDIT: Decision made: worse comes to worst, I'll go to Malaysia anyway and take my chances.

Here's something I haven't seen discussed. How did the 25 minutes per side time limit come to be, and why 25 (it's a roundish number, but not as round as 20 or 30)? And part two: Do you think we'd be better off at a different time limit, either shorter or longer? And try to avoid saying that 25 minutes is fine simply because you're used to it - try to put yourself in the position of picking a number out of thin air, with no established norm.

I'd go with 15 minutes myself. It's not blitz - it's long enough to take a little time on crucial plays if you need to. I can play essentially my normal game in 15 minutes if I have to, and I suspect most experts could. It would increase the value of speed, but not so much that playing fast would become too important at the expense of playing well, I don't think. Also, 15 minutes would let tournaments and club sessions have more games, and I like more games, plus more games means a larger sample size for ratings to be based on.

Good luck to everyone, except when your opponent's LJ handle is LEVATOR plus J.

In other news, don't you hate schedule conflicts sometimes? I had the chance to play a reunion gig in OKC this weekend with a band I was in 20 years ago. Mostly classic rock covers and danceable 80s rock; we played some fun stuff, most notably a bunch of songs from Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Reconnected on Facebook, as apparently happens to someone every 13 seconds these days. I'd have enjoyed playing the show and seeing a lot of people I haven't seen in forever, but my nephew's first b-day is tomorrow and the whole family is getting together, and I decided I shouldn't miss that. The rest of the band all still live in the OKC area, so there's a good chance of another reunion one-off gig happening some time when I can make it.

My younger brother Brian just moved here from New Orleans. This article discusses what he and his new colleagues are up to:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A901866

Just learned that the word WINNING has a seven-letter front extension.

Was thinking about this when I tuned my car radio to the Cardinals-Giants game last night, and nope, not St. Louis vs. San Fran. Didn't even really think about the baseball game being played for much higher stakes. I'm more of an NFL fan than an MLB fan now. If MLB got a salary cap, that might change, but it doesn't look likely. As for the NHL or NBA, who play 82-game exhibition seasons, wake me up in April. Don't care much about the big-time college sports - the whole enterprise is so shady and hypocritical that I can't get into it. I need two things as a fan: meaningful games most of the time and a level playing field. The NFL, while it has problems of its own, is the only major sports league right now that provides both.

Not because I'm sick, but because it's Wednesday and not Monday, when the Austin club meets. Three games at home vs. Quackle.

Game 1, W 484-381. Tie game after 5 turns (my LENIENT, Q's BRUISED), but fortunately my C(U)ITTLED (TELT#, EL, NE, BID) on turn 6 doesn't get blocked. But on turn 7, the Q whips out I(SO)gAMETE with the first blank, one short of a TWS. Well, okay then...one S, one blank unseen. I can and do play BUNJE(E)# for 31 to cool down the huge S spot, which no one ends up taking anyway. I stay 20-30 ahead, picking the Z late while Quackle fishes - I get the S, but Q probably holds the blank. WIVE is on the board, hookable for SWIVE. After playing ZEA# to widen my lead, I'm up 53 with one in the bag, I've got AACLNRS, and the pool is AEELPRT?. I think CARNAL takes an S in Collins, but I'm not 100% on it. And playing a shorter C-starting word to block the SWIVE lane isn't a guarantee either, since Q could bingo making CH#. (Though if I'd spent more time, as I would in a tournament, I think I may have been able to block everything Quackle could have. So it could be argued that play and pray wasn't strictly necessary here.) Okay, down the hatch...whew, CARNALS# it is, and no bingo in reply.

Game 2, L 482-521. Barnburner, just 10 turns for me, 11 for Q. After 6 turns I had three bingos (SPOILER, POU(T)INES 2x2, vE(S)TIGIA) and trailed 341-334, to Q's GRIEVOUS, TERATOID and big J, Q and X plays. Q then played WANK leaving hooks to a TWS column, which I was happy to see since it allowed me ALIYAH/WANKY# for 63...but Q promptly responded with the other blank, ZEbRINA# for 88. Only down five points going into the endgame, but holding GNNTU vs. DEIRT, forget it.

Game 3, L 387-508. Traded bingos early (Q's FlICKER, blank as L, my NEATENS), but Q scored 47 with a big overlap while I had junk and exchanged. Exchange brought me UN(F)ETTER, and I drew the Q with a U just sitting there at 2H...but quite annoyingly, I didn't have a playable Q word there. Quackle, meanwhile, hits JOINS for 45 to go up, then OrDINEE# to go up a lot, then *another* nine, C(OU)RTSIDE, to make fun of me. Oh well, 1-2 -57 for the night it is.