Nothin' but a hound dog

"I bet you $100 you can't train a basset hound to smell dope."

The Missus, who grew up around basset hounds, found the drug-sniffing basset on a recent episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" implausible.

"You might be right," I said. "But I'm intrigued enough by your bet to do a little research."

Which is how I ended up corresponding with Wayne Booth from Southern Star Ranch K9 Training Center in Florence, Texas.

"Not just any breed can be a narcotic dog," says Mr. Booth. "Even breeds like labradors, we look at 100 of them to find one that has the needed drive to do the work."

So my bet with my wife?

"She won! And if you need a trained dog, we have them."

No thanks. The last thing I need in my home is a dog that can smell my vices. I wonder: Would she bark as I headed out the door for hoops every Saturday morning? Or when I reached for that third helping of turkey and gravy?

Yes, we are playing this Saturday, November 25. Please let me know if you will or will not be there. And check back here Friday night for a cancellation if we don't reach a quorum.

Happy Thanksgiving.

No hoops November 18

There's a kiddie tournament at St. John's tomorrow, so no hoops this week. I asked if we grown-ups could possibly field a team and was told that would be fine as long as we wore the eighth-grade uniforms. I don't know about you, but all that Halloween candy has left me a little too puffy.

Take it easy this weekend.

I have a five-gallon jar of mayonnaise. Will you accept that?

According to Wells Fargo, the following are valid forms of ID for check cashing and suchlike. Please present one from each category when making transactions at the drive-through.

Class A:
Driver's license
Military I.D.
Passport
State ID
Alien registration

Class B:
Credit card
ATM card
Student I.D.
Sam's Club card
DNR license

One of the few clubs I'm proud to belong to: St. John's hoops. Last week was stellar, with several new faces and an ideal number of players. Please let me know if you will or will not be playing tomorrow. We tip off at 8:00, as usual.

Stunning 3D thrills . . . eventually

I thought the new Microsoft 3D maps featured in this morning's paper looked awesome, so I went to live.com to check them out. Now I can't wait to see them. . . I mean, they're not compatible with Firefox (50 million downloads, 12% worldwide market share), but I'll see them as soon as Internet Explorer is done downloading the .msi file and installing the Virtual Earth 3D Beta (file 2 of 2), which I had to approve through a series of dialog boxes. After that (and the .NET Framework 2.0 download) I'll be ready to go! Well, as soon as the setup wizard closes and I close all open windows and restart Internet Explorer.

I can't wait!

Nov 4: Game on

Yep, we're playing on Saturday, November 4. We tip off at 8:00 a.m. Please let me know if you will or will not be playing.