Link – final-day live blog.

Those of you looking for a live blog for the final day of the regular season should check out Vegas Watch, where our favorite degenerate gambler will be providing commentary on the four games of relevance.

Haute cuisine.

Interesting read from the Wall Street Journal on cutting-edge cuisine in Spain, which has become the vanguard of the cooking-as-lab-experiment movement over the last five to ten years. The famous El Bulli restaurant is mentioned, but the focus is on some of the other culinary standouts in Catalonia.

And I suppose as long as you’re on their site, you might want to check out their banking bailout FAQ, aimed at active investors but useful for everyone.

Runway link.

I’m not going to lie: I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Karalyn. (She’s the blonde, second from right … as if you noticed anyone else in the pic.)

Karalyn West is one of the models on Project Runway – the drop-dead gorgeous one, to be specific. Turns out she’s also blogging about the show, and she’s not afraid to dish a little dirt. For example, her post on that weird car-parts challenge has her dumping on two designers:

On the topic of stupid designers…. THANK THE LORD KEITH IS GONE! AGH! it’s about damn time, don’t you think? His cocky attitude was getting really old… I mean come on.. Its one thing to be cocky and talented, but cocky and UNTALENTED is another thing. …

Shannone (Kenleys Model) Left the show on her own will because the girl booked an ass-kicking (well paid) job! If you ask me, Kenley deserved it. Me no Likey Kenley, and you cant nack Shannone for going where the money is…

Outstanding. We need more Karalyn (and more skin on Project Runway).

We watched this week’s episode last night … I know sweet F.A. about fashion, but the winning dress was fugly. The model’s hips looked a mile wide; the eye was drawn directly to the freaking test pattern across her pelvis. I don’t know many women who are looking for that kind of shape in a dress.

I was fascinated to see how the judges ripped into the two designers who ultimately went home, but when it came time to criticize that weird thing Kenley made (were there turbines in the shoulders?), their words, tone, and body language all softened. Obviously, they already know who’s going home before they go through their trashing of the bad designs, but it was also clear that they liked Kenley and were disappointed in her design, whereas they could take or leave the two they sent home.

Quick links.

Working on a book writeup, but two links worth seeing:

  • Someone did, in fact, estimate where the Twins would be if they’d done nothing this offseason. I think the answer is pretty aggressive, but a three-win swing is probably the difference between playoffs and no-playoffs for them.
  • Tom Brady is worth 1.35 Albert Pujolses. Or something like that. Of interest: Matt Cassel went to the same high school that later produced Mike Moustakas and Matt Dominguez (corrected – never blog before the double-espresso).
  • If you didn’t get the Rob Dibble stuff in today’s chat, here’s what he said about me. I’m terribly broken up about it.
  • Bad news for libertarians … and anyone else who dislikes corruption and subsidies for billionaires.

More shortly…

Links for today.

Good stuff I’ve found on teh Interwebs today:

  • Joe Sheehan’s take on the Sabathia deal. Free content, unusual for a Joe article, and very good stuff, usual for a Joe article.
  • J.C. Bradbury notices that Jeff Francoeur’s worst quotes are missing from the AJC’s Web site. I’m with Bradbury, by the way: “Frenchy” needs to shut his mouth until his OBP is no longer subterranean.
  • Revisionist history from Chuck Lamar.
  • The Big Lead weighs in (again) on the move of the Sonics franchise to Oklahoma City. I have never understood why this is a big story. It’s a business. The Sonics’ owners felt that they could make more money by moving the team. That’s the end of the story, isn’t it? If there’s something interesting here, it’s that the people of Seattle had the balls to say no to a pro sports franchise that tried to blackmail them into building them a publicly-funded stadium. Good for them. Yes, they lost their team, but the price of keeping the team was too high.
  • Monday stuff.

    I did a Q&A on the Cardinals’ draft over at Future Redbirds. The first commenter made my day.

    The dish is the blog equivalent of a cool indie band. Nice.

    I’ll be on ESPNEWS today at 3:40 pm EDT, and after that I’m off to the doubleheader at Lowell in case any of you will be in attendance. Feel free to say hi.

    If you can read Italian, check out .144, a blog written by a diehard baseball fan in Italy (and a great supporter of the growth of baseball in Italy, and the associated site PlayItUSA, with articles on US-based sports all written in Italian. It’s a good resource if you’re trying to improve your Italian vocabulary, which I’m doing right now in advance of the August visit of one of my cousins from Genova.

    Drunk Jays Fans.

    I love these guys, because they make me seem a lot funnier than I really am.

    The Onion article about me…

    …okay, not really. But it could be.