Put me in, coach
I'm ready to play -- today;
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield.
-- John Fogerty

Is Jeter really moving to center? Hmm. Murray Chass wrote a nice column in today's Times showing that this would not be the first time a great shortstop became a centerfielder. Fair enough.

But there's one important distinction between Derek Jeter and, say, Bobby Murcer. With all due respect to Murcer, who is one of the most likeable players in recent Yankee history, Jeter has leadership and character making him a huge asset in the infield. His influence extends far beyond the great throw-outs and dives into the stands. He's there to comfort pitchers when they get into trouble, there to orchestrate infield positioning, and there to signal how many outs there are. He's the on-field director of the Yankees defense. Putting him in center would remove him from this perch.

I would prefer that the Yankees find a way out of the centerfield problem another way.

Has it been over a week? I can remember Thanksgiving weekends where the 4 days off seemed like an eternity. This one seemed to end before it started. Between two Thanksgiving dinners (more or less), two reunions with friends from the Puerto Vallarta trip, an involved but very interesting technical conundrum on one of our big (work) projects, the season's first bitter cold outbreak and the ensuing emergency winter jacket purchase, and a lot of running around generally, I don't think I've had any four-day period that took me to so many different specific places.

You know it was a busy weekend when the Monday after feels pleasant because it's a chance just to sit in one place for most of the day.

I'm very happy with my new printer, an HP LaserJet 1020. It's 1/2 the size and was around 1/7 the price of my previous laser printer, an HP 2100M I bought in 1999. The 2100M, even after thousands and thousands of pages, was still working, but I needed a smaller printer more for home furnishing reorganization reasons. I wouldn't consider any other brand besides HP, which has made every printer I've owned since 1988. Before I got the 2100M, I considered a Brother laser printer, which was awful. (It wouldn't print.) As far as I am concerned, with printing, HP is the only game in town.

I was amused by the yellow piece of paper inside the box that said: "Important: Insert CD before connecting USB cable." I ignored this because of terrific advice by the great technology columnist David Pogue. In a piece last year, Pogue said that you should actually not use the CD with new peripherals; those CDs are manufactured months in advance, whereas the drivers you can download are always up-to-date.

In this case, the LaserJet 1020 is technically not made to work with Macintosh and the CD had a bunch of Windows files on it. (I checked because I was curious.) However, the 1020 works fine with the Mac driver for the 1022. I learned that when I scanned some of the customer reviews online.

How bad has it gotten with the Jets? After yesterday's 27-0 loss, they didn't even make the front page of the Times sports section this morning. Instead, the front page featured articles on the Giants game and a game between the Colts and the Bengals.

It's only a matter of time until the Times simply runs the AP account of Jets games, like they've been doing with the lowly Islanders.

I finally got around to watching the Bruce Hornsby DVD Three Nights on the Town. It's a documentary and concert video from his three-gig Big Apple stint last October, at the Blue Note, at Zankel Hall and at Town Hall. The concert part of the DVD is the Town Hall performance.

This DVD is tremendous. It's no secret that I am a big Hornsby fan anyway, but this DVD is a must for anyone that simply likes great music. It captures both Bruce's personality and the concert experience extremely well. In the documentary, you get to know Bruce and his quirky highbrow humor. In the concert, you can't escape the energy of his terrific supporting musicians, and watch as Bruce does his usual thing: play two songs at once, read through song requests on little slips of paper on the piano, and chat with audience members in the front row, pretty much all at the same time.

The band blasts through the usual blend of rock, jazz, bluegrass and funk. As always, there is no plan; the set list, as always, is largely improvised, as is the style of each song. ("It depends what I'm into that day," Bruce explains.) The variations on studio material are new, and many flow directly into refreshing covers. "Gonna Be Some Changes Made" turns into "Brick House." "Fortunate Son" blends into "Comfortably Numb," which Bruce performed with Roger Waters back in 1992. (Yes, "Comfortably Numb" existed well before the Scissor Sisters.)

Having run into Bruce once on Columbus Avenue, I can echo what every other fan seems to say: he's one of the nicest, coolest guys around. No wonder he's performed with just about everybody. It's great to watch a DVD that captures a musician's personality as well as genius. And at $11 (on Amazon.com), there's no excuse. Anyone who appreciates music and musicianship would love this video.

For lunch on this cold late fall day, there is one and only one destination I have in mind: Rice Bowl on Broadway between 71st and 72nd Streets.

Rice Bowl is great. I love the tofu and vegetables over brown rice. It's pretty basic, but that's why it's so good. Many gourmet restaurants saturate their preparations with a dizzying maze of gravies and sauces. In my opinion, the real test of excellence is how well natural flavors shine through without the mask of obscure seasonings. The tofu and vegetables dish is just that--fresh tofu and ripe, colorful, cooked vegetables, and nothing else. You can get as much or as little rice as you want. (Sauces, such as ginger and soy, are available in small plastic containers, good for those of us who find that fast Asian food tends to be overly drenched in soy sauce.)

Heading over to Rice Bowl. Back soon.

Floyd Norris should know better. Today's article on Google is barely an inch deep. In response to Google's share price hitting $400, it simply examines the psychology of numbers--a phenomenon of marginal relevance to actual value. It doesn't matter if the share price is $200 or $400 or splits or doesn't split. The more important questions are: does the valuation make sense? And what would cause the price to go up or down? Making comparisons to Berkshire Hathaway's share price of $87,500 is absurdly useless.

This is where I miss my Wall Street Journal subscription. The Times just plays along with the wow factor accompanying high numbers. Last year, when Yahoo issued an earnings release touting greater profits from ad revenue, the Times simply tagged along with the party line instead of inquiring whether the model was fundamentally sound.

As stated here before, there are good reasons to be skeptical of Google. It's getting very large very quickly, with an employee count increase of 60% in less than a year. It seems to announce a whole slate of gee-wiz projects with questionable tangible value without defining an overall mission of the company. And sorry to be a party pooper, but I believe this whole "search marketing" craze is in for a reality check. Search marketing doesn't always work, and it depends on the kind of business you're in, and people have yet to see a lot of hard data on whether it is successful. (To Google's credit, it is now supplying search marketing customers with tools to calculate just how effective some of those paid ads are.)

When Judith Miller was in jail, we heard an earful from the Times about the sacred role of journalists in informing and protecting the public. Why is it that when it comes to the stock market, they get taken along for the ride just like everyone else?

Abba stands to make quite a fortune from the new Madonna hit "Hung Up." That's because the song's trademark riff is a sample from Abba's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!," originally from 1979 (and which is now one of the top five downloaded Abba songs in the iTunes music store).

Apparently, securing permission took some work. But that's fine. Abba will rake in the cash from what is sure to be a huge amount of royalties, but it's nice to see each party taking into account the integrity of the other.

A strong cold front is currently in eastern Pennsylvania, moving east. When it passes, temperatures will drop around 25 degrees with gusty, cold winds. Given the date, it's a pretty sure bet this is the end of continuous mild weather for some time.

Summer and fall turned out to be warm, but the real headline of this year is how late everything was. A bitterly cold winter brought sea surface temperatures off New England to unusually low levels. This, in turn, caused a relentless series of backdoor cold fronts to delay spring. In late May, leaves had not even appeared on the trees on Cape Cod.

The trees in Central Park finally reflect the peak of fall foliage. But it would be wrong to characterize the weather this year as simply warm. Instead, it would be better described as "late."

Hopefully this means a nice, juicy snowstorm in late February or early March.

For passing time on the long flights to and from Puerto Vallarta, nothing was better than live Phish. The live versions of their songs are generally between 10 and 20 minutes long.

While I was listening to these, I decided to put together a dream Phish concert playlist. Just a couple of notes first. One, I still think the very best continuous-play live CD is A Live One, disc one. (Disc two is dragged down by an excessively wandering version of "Tweezer.")

Second, this is not an exhaustive list of my favorite live versions of their songs. These selections meet my own iPod playlist requirement, however, of having no excess chatter or material at either end of a track. It moves seamlessly (I think) from music to applause back to music.

1) Harry Hood, A Live One
2) Ya Mar, Live Phish 12
3) Taste, Slip, Stitch and Pass
4) Brian and Robert, Live Phish 17
5) My Soul, Live Phish 05
6) The Mango Song, Hampton Comes Alive
7) Sweet Jane, Live Phish 16
8) If I Could, Live Phish 20
9) Stash, A Live One
10) Slave to the Traffic Light, A Live One

This has to be one of the oddest slogans ever.

"At the crossroads of the millenium"
-- on a Riese Restaurants truck

I decided to simplify things a little by removing myself from most of those promotional email lists I've been on. I elected to be on these, but I just don't have time to read anything and they stack up in my inbox.

In this process, I discovered that some companies make it very easy to remove yourself, while others make it difficult. For example:

• Delta Air Lines was very easy. I clicked on the link and was taken directly to the page to configure my email preferences.

• Drugstore.com was also pretty easy, with a similar mechanism for unsubscribing.

• American Airlines was the easiest. I just had to reply to the most recent email with "unsubscribe" in the subject line. (Why can't they all be this easy?)

• Ceramica was also nice. I clicked on the link and was taken to a page telling me that my address had been removed. (It knew my address thanks to a unique URL, which makes it very easy for the customer.)

• Then there's United Airlines. Before doing anything, I was warned that my email address would take 10 days to remove. I clicked on the unsubscribe link and was told I needed to log in to my MileagePlus account.

The problem here was that I don't remember this number. I can recite my Delta SkyMiles and American AAdvantage numbers off the top of my head because I am always flying one of those airlines. I think the last time I flew United was in 1995, except once in 2001 coming back from Denver when passengers from another airline were put on a United flight due to mechanical failure. My paltry 3,000 recent United miles are actually not from United; they are instead from Air Canada, which is in the same frequent flier miles network and generally had the lowest fares to Montreal.

On United's Web site, you could request a password reminder, but I couldn't find any way to request your MileagePlus number. No contact information was evident. After a couple of minutes, I simply typed a letter I am sending by postal mail to the MileagePlus service center. The letter says I don't have time to look up my MileagePlus number; here's my postal and email address; you figure it out and remove me.

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, it looks like my loyalty is with the right airlines.

So A-Rod won the American League MVP. I think one of the most interesting issues in baseball, a sport so full of nuanced debates, is how to define "most valuable player."

Many observers contend, and I agree, that the most valuable player is not simply the best player. It can be the best player, but not because the player is simply the best. The most valuable player is the one that makes the biggest contribution to his team. It's the player without whom the team would have fared most worse.

And so by that definition, I don't agree that Alex Rodriguez, as good as he is, was the most valuable player this year. Instead I would have given it to Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera. Yes, relief pitchers pitch a very small number of innings. But without Rivera's spectacular consistency throughout the entire season, the Yankees don't stand a chance of making the playoffs, much less competing for the division title.

Just as a reminder, Mariano's 2005 stats:
• 1.38 ERA in 78.1 innings over 71 games
• 43 saves
• 80 strikeouts
• 18 walks

It's not just his stats. If you get to Rivera, you win. If you don't, you lose. If that's not valuable, nothing is.

I was in the elevator heading down and someone got in with her dog, a medium-sized Labrador.

"Can we switch places?" the dog's owner asked. "The dog likes that corner," she said, pointing to where I was standing. With no comment, I moved.

How Manhattan. I'll bet they were on their way out to get the dog a cashmere scarf.

Among the many highlights of my vacation just north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was--what else?--the food.

Every day, I helped myself to generous amounts of salsa and guacamole. This was not just any salsa and ordinary guacamole. No, this stuff was singing. The guacamole, a lush green, featured huge avocado chunks and a slight zest. The salsa, thick but composed of finely diced tomato and onion, sizzled with a hefty infusion of cilantro.

It got to the point where, since this was available at every lunch and dinner, I added it to nearly everything. I don't know how I can ever eat guacamole at home again. Now I know why my friend from Texas refuses to eat Mexican food in New York City.

Add Pacific sunsets, good company, fun times and great scenery, and it was a very nice vacation.

With an impending vacation, today has been backup day.

I created my backup system in July of 2003. It was around that time that the cost of losing data would have become uncomfortably high. As business has grown, I'm more and more happy that this rather compulsive backup regime is in place.

How compulsive is it? You decide.

• Every night, all work documents and email are backed up to my iDisk on the .mac (dot-mac) server.

• Every week, the entire hard drive is backed up to an external hard drive.

• About every three months, all work documents, email and personal mail are backed up to CDs. One copy of each CD is stored here; another is shipped to at least one location off the island.

• Also about every three months, all of the above and some other things are backed up to the free space on my EarthLink Web server. This site only takes up very little of the 300MB I have, so I figured I'd use the extra as backup space.

• And of course, most active and archived work products are stored on the EarthLink server space my teammate and I share. We created this space to avoid dizzyness caused by excessive email attachment syndrome.

It may sound complicated, but because the most frequent parts are fully automated, it's actually pretty easy. And it seems like every other day, I'm either reading or hearing about someone's data loss. I highly recommend such a redundant backup system for anyone whose data means everything.

There are many great individual sportscasters: John Madden, Marv Albert, Mike Emrick, Vin Scully and so on. But I think the Rangers broadcast team of Sam Rosen and John Davidson, who have worked together for what must be two decades, is one of the best sportscasting teams out there.

They have great chemistry, simply building a great discussion of the game instead of competing with each other. John Davidson's knack for matter-of-fact insight is impeccable. And what would any hockey game be without at least one Sam Rosen "It's a power play goal!" His narrative is even, exciting when warranted, and always intelligent.

The Rangers have gone through many changes since the 1980s. Kudos to all the people who recognized that the Rosen-Davidson team is untouchable.

At around 9am this morning, I needed color laser printing done, so I first went to the Kinko's on 72nd Street between Broadway and West End. The counter associate said printing 5 copies of a two-page PDF would take ten hours and would not be done until 7pm.

"Can I print it myself using one of those self-service stations?" I asked.

"No, our only color laser printer is down."

I hopped on the 1 train down to 59th Street and went to the Kinko's at Central Park South and Broadway. Within two minutes, an associate took my CD, popped it into a PC behind the desk, and printed what I needed.

(I also admit that it was nice being able to FedEx these printouts from the same store, although I still don't think a merger is the best way to accomplish this.)

Anyway, next time I need something at Kinko's, the lesson is: go south, not north.

A "Not In Service" MTA bus just made an illegal left turn from West 65th Street onto Broadway. Cars from New Jersey do this all the time, but I was surprised to see an official vehicle do the same thing.

Granted, the "no left turn" sign is tiny. It's on the northwest corner of 65th and Broadway and is very hard to see.

There are two traffic lights facing oncoming traffic on 65th at Broadway. The right-hand traffic light should have a green right turn arrow instead of a green light. The left-hand traffic light should have a straight, upward green arrow instead of a green light. And maybe the city can splurge for a larger sign.

Left turns should not be permitted on this corner. The turn, at significantly more than 90 degrees, is awkward, and there's enough gridlock at that intersection already.

For years, the small market on Columbus Avenue between 60th and 61st Streets was the little deli that couldn't. For starters, it was gross: dirty floors, disorganized goods, and passive service. The only time I went was for emergency refreshment while taking Bar/Bri at Fordham Law School across the street.

About a year ago, Alan's Marketplace opened in this space. The entire store is redone, with bright lighting, fabulous deli sandwiches, a choose-your-own salad stand, fresh baked goods, and basic produce. The place at lunchtime is packed--judging from much of the chatter I overheard, with many Fordham Law students. Alan's Marketplace is one of the area's best delis, and it deserves its large crowds.

Hooray for the visionary entrepreneurs who took a dilapidated deli and transformed it into a veritable hub, creating jobs, pumping tax revenue into the economy, and feeding many hungry students and professionals.

There's been a bug in my system for at least two years and I still don't understand it. Sometimes, maybe every few weeks, a document will not print. The light won't start flashing on the printer. Nothing happens.

However, this is easily fixable by unplugging the printer USB cable from my PowerBook's USB port, and then plugging it back in. Immediately, the printer activates and everything is fine.

I have no idea why this happens. And nothing is being rebooted, although there is probably some kind of reset happening with the USB port. Who knows?

It may have to do with applications that are open, but it's not worth diving into complicated tests, since I have a proven solution to this problem.

I think with any operating system, if you have solid workarounds for nuisance bugs, you're doing well. That's why I'm still using Mac OS 10.2.8. Upgrading to 10.3 or 10.4 would surely bring an entirely new set of hassles. 10.4 looks cool but doesn't have anything compelling enough to justify the switch, and its performance on my 667Mhz/512MB machine would probably be mediocre.