The bad: why is Bud Selig still associated with baseball? The man has been in charge for 10 years, and I have yet to see one example of why he's so revered by his fellow owners. I was preparing to write an indignant column about how, should there be a strike/lockout, I would boycott MLB, companies who sponsor MLB, and MLB-endorsed products for up to five times the number of games lost, but you know what? I don't really care anymore. These guys deserve what they get. And the argument put forth that football has become the national pastime is ringing truer every year.

The good (the story isn't good, but good things can be done to help make the situation better): I was listening to NPR this morning on the way back from dropping Karen off at Midway Airport, and heard a fascinating and depressing report on the effect of AIDS throughout the world. You can read today's report by copying and pasting this link: http://www.npr.org/news/specials/aids2002/index.html -- and do it soon. It's unbelievable that 14 million children have lost one parent due to AIDS, and Africa is suffering the most. But it will get worse worldwide: China is just starting to suffer from the disease, which they are only reluctantly acknowledging (mostly due to their corrupt blood donation programs), and Asia and Africa will have more problems before anything improves. I want to keep this on my mind -- certainly this is a more important issue than a bunch of millionaire athletes battling a bunch of multimillionaire CEOs over who gets my money.

Other issues: Karen is now in New York; I'll join her Saturday... I've now burned 12 Superhits CDs and am up to June 1979. There's no way I'll finish the whole thing by supp Thursday; I'm hoping to be somewhere around 30-35 discs when we leave (not that we'll have time to listen to them all during the trip)... Such beautiful weather in suburban Illinois today. I'm going power walking after work to enjoy it, and will try to do this every day (6:30 a.m./6:30 p.m.!) from here until fall.