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What A Wynn-derful World

Lest this become a baseball blog, we remind you that we still have our Trading Spaces Store in operation.

Soon to be added is the book Yes You Can: Home Repairs Made Easy, by veteran Trading Spaces carpenter-babe Amy Wynn Pastor. Yes, we make no bones about the fact that she is a remarkably good looking woman. But can she ever build things! And the book - which I browsed tonight at my local bookstore - is a treasure trove of hints on how to do practically everything around your house, from fixing leaky toilets to painting. It's written in a straightforward style and for you Amy Wynn fans there are plenty of pictures of your home improvement heroine. If you click on the hyperlink, you can get the book from Amazon and throw a few cents toward the continued operation of this website.

Baseball As Usual

You're the CEO of a large international corporation that does business in all corners of the world. Due to circumstances beyond your control, your employees underperform. Do you:

a) call together your COO, your CFO, your other high ranking officials, for a skull session to see what you can do, or

b) throw together a statement to give to the press saying "Enough is enough", chastise your entire staff for not acting like "true employees", and publicly call for your staff to pull it together?

That is why baseball is such a wacky business.

#6854 - Mets Come Close To That Elusive No-Hitter

As close as one can come without getting one. Aaron Heilman hurled a one-hitter - the only hit coming from Luis Castillo - against the Florida Marlenes tonight as the Mets streaked to their fifth consecutive win after starting the season with five straight losses. It was, in fact, Heilman's first complete game.

This has got to be the year. Maybe tomorrow? Pedro is going up against Al Leiter.

#6851: Pedro Comes Pretty Close

Thank goodness the Mets took one from the Braves. And Pedro Martinez was the man today as Mr. Who's Your Daddy only gave up two hits.

The no-no could come this year if Pedro keeps doing what he's doing!

"Trading Spaces" Fansite Reopens With Four New Recaps

About two years ago, your webmaster began watching a humble but growing little cable TV design show called Trading Spaces. It had an interesting premise, two neighbors swap rooms for two days and redecorate a room for $1000 or less, with the help of a professional designer and a carpenter.

In spite of our championship of the show (and a lot of good vibes from those who worked within the show), Trading Spaces was on its way to becoming one of cable's biggest hits.

Until the day that people stopped watching it.

Then the show's producers and network got pretty desperate, and started making changes to rekindle people's interest in the show. The winds of change were apparent with the beginning of this season, where there were now a selection of rooms to choose from and one being a jackpot bonus room worth more money, plus a more "verite" feel to the proceedings that made these new episodes a chore to recap.

Now, TLC is on the verge of premiering a new, reformatted Trading Spaces that bears only a vague resemblance to the original format, with the chief difference being that the show has lost its central guiding presence with the dismissal of hostess Paige Davis. We feel that the new TS is going down the wrong road, emphasizing homeowner/designer/carpenter conflict and the sort of pathos that typifies everything that has gone wrong with the genre (see under "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"), rather than the giddy, harmless fun of the original.

For those reasons, Dave and Robair present the new Trading Post Goes Old Skool, which will now feature highlights and recaps from the first four years of the show. It's almost as if Season 5 never happened, with the exception of one celebrity show that hews to the old format as done in Seasons 1-4. We may be expanding the site's focus to include Trading Spaces Family, which has happily stuck with all the original trappings of the 2001 vintage TS, from graphics and theme music to attitude.

We hope you enjoy our take on these older shows, many of which are no longer being aired.

Intel Presence In Computer Commercials Gets Even More Obnoxious

I think it's a co-op requirement, but for years any computer commercial that has made mention of Intel processors have always had to stop dead for five seconds so that Intel's logo animation and theme can be played.

It's gotten worse. Intel, apparently, now wants its logo to be a certain size on the screen. Mainly, MUCH LARGER. So much so, that Dell now has to move its end-of-spot tagline out of the way to make way for the Mega-Intel logo.

Makes me glad I have AMD chips in all my machines.

Crossword No. 2

My first published crossword puzzle appeared around the first of the year in the February 2005 Games Magazine.

I've just sold a second, and for the first time, it'll be in the newspaper. I will be having a puzzle within the next few months in the Los Angeles Times. This puzzle is syndicated around the country by Tribune Media Services, and is bylined so you'll open the newspaper and when you see "Puzzle by Dave Mackey" on there, you'll say, "Hey, I know that guy" or "Hey, that's my son's music teacher!" or "Hey, this puzzle is too *%?/#&@! hard!" (Actually, it'll run midweek, so it is not that hard.)

After the puzzle appears, I'll tell you what led to its creation.

Of course, we don't open the champagne around here unless and until I sell a puzzle to the New York Times.

Mets No-Hitter Watch Moves To DaveMackey.Com

I am pleased to be hosting the Mackey Bros. annual countdown (or count up) of major league baseball games since a New York Mets pitcher has thrown a no hitter. Robair hosted the count last year on his now-dormant Eggplant blog.

The last time a Met has pitched a no-hitter is ... well, NEVER. For all the great pitchers the Mets have had over the years - Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, Bobby Ojeda, and most lately Tom Glavine - no Mets pitcher has ever been able to retire all 27 batters. With Pedro Martinez on staff this year, we've got a good shot. And The Yankees will NOT be his "daddy" this year!

This is my 40th season as a Mets fan. I've waited long enough. So has Robair. C'mon Pedro! And Let's Go Mets!