Let Them Knock

Hola. Just chillin' on a Thursday night after watching the Leafs thoroughly stomp the Islanders, 8-1, only two nights after having the same thing done to them by Carolina. Congrats to Mats Sundin, who scored to simultaneously break Darryl Sittler's records for most goals (now 390) and most points (now 917). Sittler was my favorite player growing up, but if anyone had to break his records, I'm glad it was Sundin. I'd love to see Sundin win a Cup in Toronto, but I just don't see it happening any time soon.

A little more than two days to my marathon. This has been a light week for running, as you can imagine. I did five miles worth of speedwork on Tuesday and was going to run a final three-miler today, but I had too much work to do. I'll get out tomorrow at lunch. The forecast for Sunday right now is calling for clear skies and temps in the 40s at the start, with a high of 60. I'll take it.

An itemized list:

• The fallout from the Chicago Marathon fiasco continues, with city officials worrying about the impact on the city's bid to host the Olympics. In addition, some wonder if the race has gotten too big and others say the marathon should adopt minimum qualifying requirements like Boston does (although Boston allows charity runners to race without meeting the qualifying times. How do you think I was able to do it twice?). They added 5,000 more entrants this year to bring the total to 45,000, although 10,000 never even showed up because of the weather. All I know is last year, it was a great race and well-organized, but that was under ideal conditions. They need to cut the number of entrants by 5,000-10,000 and get the thing to a manageable size. And maybe get some more water.
• Radiohead has made quite a splash by releasing their new album, In Rainbows, digitally and allowing fans to pay however little or much they wish for it. I ordered it and gave them 5 pounds (or about $11) for it, and I'm happy with it; it's an excellent album. But some folks are whining because the MP3s are lower-quality than expected. They're 160 kbps, which is higher than iTunes' standard 128 kbps, but not as high as people would like. The highest-possible compression rate is 320 kbps, which is not quite CD-quality. But the way I see it, 160 kbps is fine, especially since you could have downloaded the tracks essentially for free if you wanted (the minimum would be the transaction fee, which is about 92 cents). For listening on an iPod or even through computer speakers or in my car, I have no problems with it. The album will be out on CD in December if people want a better sonic experience. I'm happy I was able to get the new album early. Nuff said.