Baseball is almost here (and yet another snowstorm approaches): Thursday is the first spring training game for the Red Sox. And today's Boston Globe had an article on Tim Wakefield, which included a cute little part about his newborn son:

Wakefield's is gripping story: Knuckleballer still contributing

Sure, it was great that [Tim's] son [Trevor] was born in the same year that generations of fans were forced to stop complaining that the Sox had not won a World Series in their lifetimes. Better yet that Trevor's mom, Stacey, took him to Game 1 of the World Series, with his father on the hill at the start of the game.

Everyone's already mentioned this, but I feel I have to as well since it's such a cool (and, more importantly, useful) product: Google Maps. It's much easier to read than Yahoo Maps or Mapquest, and more fun to use, too.

It's been out for a few weeks now, but the only reason I didn't mention it sooner is because it didn't work with Safari (my browser of choice on the Mac). But now it does, so I'm switching completely to Google Maps for maps and directions.

Back in November of last year I mentioned that I thought the painting on the wall in "Goodnight Moon" -- the one of the rabbit fishing for another rabbit -- was pretty bizarre.



Well, someone was kind enough to drop me an email on the matter:

I think it's from another book, about a baby bunny who wants to go be various things independently, and its mother says it will be something associated whatever thay are -- e.g., baby will be a fish, so mother will catch the fish; baby will be a sailboat, so mother will be the wind; that sort of thing. I can't recall the title at the moment, and I may be wrong about the fish/fishing thing being in it, but I think that's the case.

This sounded familiar, and a little Googling pointed me to "The Runaway Bunny," which was written and illustrated by the same people who did "Goodnight Moon." So what I mistook for a wacky picture was simply some clever cross-promotion...

I don't know if I'm the only one seeing this, but the new spam on the block is, oddly enough, Christian-related. Glancing at my spam folder -- which is caught and moved from my inbox by SpamSieve -- I see several messages for Christian dating services, which I can sort of understand. But "Refinance with ChristianFamilyLoans.com"? What the heck is a Christian loan company?

Personally, I don't think these are real "Christian companies." (Would Jesus send spam?) They have to be weaselly spammers (like there's any other kind) capitalizing on the current right-wing/"Christian" leanings of the country .