Baseball season is upon us, so let us celebrate by revisiting “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” a classic article by George Plimpton. Hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the Harvard dropout and aspiring monk with the 168 MPH fastball attended NY Mets spring training wearing one work boot and carrying a French horn. The NY Times reminisces about the long ago hero who still gets recognized by fans these many years later.

I want a photo of “M-Vader” and “the giant Darth Tater” in a lightsaber duel (and I don’t mean with the help of Photoshop). Who would win? Darth Tater is more likely to go to pieces, right? But M-Vader has an easily cracked shell.

Muppet Central has more details on Disney’s plans to release complete season DVD sets of The Muppet Show. When when when?! They aren’t sure. This news prompted me to look up the title of the informative Muppet book I checked out of the library multiple times as a kid. “Of Muppets and Men: the Making of the Muppet Show” by Christopher Finch is now out of print and very good condition used copies are going for over $100. But the library (both my childhood one and current one) still has their copy!

New Parent Lesson #32
When a high chair tray is advertised as “Dishwasher Safe” that has little bearing on whether it is also “Small Enough to Fit in Your Dishwasher even though Your Dishwasher Is of a Perfectly Normal Size.”

I always enjoyed looking through the Eziba catalog. When I realized I hadn’t seen one in many months, I visited the website to see what was up. The ominous closed message of “updating and remerchandising” made me quickly line up a news search — what web retailer would cut off its lifeline unless it had serious cash problems? Turns out Eziba never recovered from a mistake of immense proportions. After carefully splitting their mailing list into those most likely and least likely to make catalog purchases, they sent off their catalog to those least likely to buy instead of most likely. That major oops sent them into bankruptcy. Overstock.com picked up their assets last week for $500,000. Unfortunately the third world artisans who supplied the handcrafted products sold by Eziba are unlikely to see any of the payout.

Two odd tidbits from a NY Times article on Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown:
Stuck in Logan Airport without his driver’s license, he borrowed a copy of his book from the man behind him, showed security his author photo, and they let him on his flight.
While enjoying front row tickets at an Aerosmith concert (courtesy of Steven Tyler), he also happened to be filmed for a concert scene in the movie “Be Cool.”

Conversation from the “you know you’re a parent when…” files:
Me (unplugging an AC adapter): Hey, this adapter is leaking battery acid or something.
Hubby (takes a very brief look, knowing full well that adapters don’t leak): That’s spit-up. Baby spit-up.
Me (feeling stupid): Oh. Oops.

For those cat lovers who were listening closely during last week’s episode of “West Wing” here are the cat residents of the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum. Note that a recent set of kittens was named after that batch of hurricanes last year (Charley, Frances, Ivan). About half the cats are polydactyl, they and others are descendants of a six-toed cat given to Hemingway by a ship’s captain.

XM Satellite Radio’s original two satellites are cutely named “Rock” and “Roll.” The company launched a third satellite recently and referred to it only as XM-3, unlike previous press releases for the other two that used the catchy names. Officially or not, however, XM-3 is actually “Rhythm” and XM-4 is “Blues.” Perhaps the new press release writer(s) need to be reminded that a little fun isn’t bad for publicity.

The NY Times sketches the scene at Book City, China’s largest bookstore, and then delves into the madness of the country’s book publishing industry. Private publishing is illegal, however, “culture houses” pay state-owned publishers $1,250 to $2,500 to get the ISBN number necessary for commercial sale of a book. Piracy is rampant and writers get minimal payments. Foreign agents are often appalled by the business practices; one says it is “like playing ice hockey without referees.” But there’s a surprising amount of material available to the general public so at least the government control, or lack thereof, is not limiting the range of available reading.