If the stars align, Roger Clemens may be going for his 300th win on Wednesday, May 21st at Fenway.

I have bleacher tickets for that night.

TeeVee deconstructs ESPN’s draft coverage.

Yes, the NFL draft is television at its absolute finest — an orgy of overkill, trivia and white noise, and, really, aren’t those the things that make for memorably surreal viewing experiences? And yet, in the same way that art aficionados mull if Da Vinci truly achieved perfection with the Mona Lisa, that students of music contemplate the impact of changing one note in Mahler’s ninth, the way film critics debate whether Welles spends too much of “Citizen Kane” focusing on the sled and not enough time showing off some skin, I wonder if it’s possible for ESPN to improve its draft coverage any — to take this masterpiece and make it better.

I’m quoted in Jimmy Guterman’s Business 2.0 article about business blogs.

Jason Butler, senior product development manager for regional job-search site BostonWorks.com , supervises two blogs, one for job seekers and one for human-resources professionals. “We opened up the HR blog because we want to be able to help people using our products,” Butler says. …

Also, if you’re in Boston on June 9th, you can see me at the Weblog Business Strategies Conference talking about “Managing a Business Blog.”

Focus on the Family — you may remember them from the Faith Soloway flareup last December — is not happy with the latest Buffy episode.

I posted this job yesterday for Patrice, who is now accepting resumes for Mandy’s old job. If you are interested in working at a local non-profit doing all sorts of interesting things in the community, check out this job listing for Director of Programs at Boston Cares.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of Programs takes the lead in initiating and developing relationships with non-profits, schools and community groups that advance the mission of Boston Cares. This person works closely with other staff at Boston Cares and volunteer committees to improve existing programs and shape new initiatives.

Today is NFL draft day, the day where millions of football fans, suffering through the dead months between Super Bowl and training camp, plant themselves in front of ESPN and dream that the 21-year-old man shaking hands with Paul Tagliabue will lead his new team to victory. Today is a day of great hope.

And because even I can’t justify sitting on the couch for eight hours watching people talk, today also marks my traditional stopping point for a full spring cleaning; I’ve spent every draft day since 1991 cleaning my home from floor to ceiling.

Can these proposed changes really ease traffic woes at the Sagamore Bridge?

A long-awaited fix for the summertime traffic that snarls an entrance to Cape Cod appears to be on the way, with Governor Mitt Romney yesterday calling the extension of Route 3 to the Sagamore Bridge a top priority that will be completed before the end of his first term.

I got this email in my inbox this morning, from one of my former China students.

Mr Butler:
Hello! I am an English learner from China. I have got a few questions. Please reply.
1. It’s time for __ rest.
I wonder whether an indefinite article should be filled in the blank. When I searched this on the web, I got hundreds of both expressions. So which is better?

2. She finished her homework as __ as she could so that she could go to the party.
I think the answer should be ‘fast’, but my teacher says it should be ‘soon’. Could you tell me the right answer and the differences between ‘fast’ and ‘soon’?

It’s pretty impressive they kept my email address on file in Yantai. Here was my response:

1. If you are using it this way, you can either write it like this:
* It’s time for a rest
or
* It’s time to rest

“Rest” can be used as a noun or a verb

2. This depends on whether you are describing “how” show was doing her homework, or “when”.

“She finished her homework as fast as she could so that she could go to the party” or “She finished her homework as quickly as she could so that she could go to the party” both describe “how” she did her homework.

“She finished her homework as soon as she could so that she could go to the party” describes “when” she did her homework.

Depending on what you mean, either one is correct.

Ok, all you grammarians out there, was my answer correct?

The New York Times writes about my favorite gadget, and the cult that surrounds it.

Not since the PalmPilot debuted in 1996 has a new electronic contraption sparked a cultlike following and so many zealous proselytizers.

The interest rate may be lower, but higher fees for late payments, surcharges on foreign exchanges, and reduced grace periods are among the new and innovative ways credit card companies are nicking consumers.

Industry experts say the changing fee policies are intended to hedge risks by imposing harsher penalties on those who make late payments or other missteps …

This is my favorite new tactic:

Many issuers are also now imposing higher interest rates, or penalty rates, on customers whose credit ratings decline for any reason, including late payments to other creditors. Last month, Chase sent out notices to customers reminding them that they must make timely payments not only on their Chase card accounts but also on all other loans or accounts, even with other creditors, or run the risk of a higher rate on their Chase cards. …

“It really did alarm a lot of people,” she said, “but it has become a general industry practice now.”

The fees on some mall “gift cards” are usurious.

Today’s New York Times has an appreciation article on Buffy, with some thoughts on what the author would like to see happen in the series finale.

Vampires, hellgods, snake demons � I’ve watched Buffy battle them all. But they weren’t as scary as the knowledge that, very soon, I will no longer have an excuse to put life on hold every Tuesday night. I admit it: over the last six years, I’ve devoted an almost embarrassing amount of time, energy and thought, both personal and professional, to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Now, with only a few weeks left until the May 20 series finale, I’m facing my “Buffy”-less future…

On a random side note, it’s great to see Joss tossing some work to former Firefliers Nathan Fillion and Gina Torres, who portray the Big Bads on Buffy and Angel, respectively.

The Herald reports on yesterday’s hearing in which Alexander Pring-Wilson was denied bail.

An Ivy League whiz kid accused of down-and-dirty murder concocted three different tales of heroism for investigators, only to leave a boozy confession to the crime on a gal pal’s voice mail, prosecutors said in court yesterday.

Pring-Wilson apparently did not consider that, in the wake of murder, people might talk to each other. The Globe detailed his three different stories:

After Colono fled, Pring-Wilson dialed 911 on his cellphone and reported that he had just witnessed a fight but had not been involved, Lynch said. She said Pring-Wilson told the operator, ”I just saw it happen. I’m just a [expletive] bystander.”

He then called a friend, Jennifer Harmen, with whom he had gone to a reggae concert in Cambridge earlier on the night of the fight, and left a voice message in which he said, ”I got attacked by a group. Um, I fended them off. I stabbed them a couple of times and, um, don’t repeat this to the police,” according to the prosecutor.

Pring-Wilson later told fire and police officials that he jumped into an ongoing fight to try to stop it, Lynch said.

The lies were enough that the judge denied bail.

[Defense Attorney] Denner had presented [Judge] Singleton with polygraph test results, psychological reports, acceptance letters from nine law schools, and an inch-thick stack of recommendation letters to buttress his assertion that Pring-Wilson acted in self-defense while fighting with Colono and did not pose a risk of flight. …

Singleton, however, was unmoved.

”His actions to conceal the crime led me to believe the defendant should be held without bail,” he said before denying Denner’s request.

You would think that someone accepted to nine different law schools would have been able to predict that lying to the police makes you appear untrustworthy.

Today’s Globe reports on how universities are cancelling summer programs in Asia.

I talked to Harriet last week, WorldTeach is cancelling their summer program in Yantai due to infection fears. Looks like there will be no peng you this year.

Jay has some pictures from last night’s Sox game. Mmmm, beer.

Jay and I were at the Sox game last night, watching Pedro shut out the Devil Rays. We moved on up (I was able to score some Globe tickets), so instead of sitting in my bleacher seats, we sitting in the front row behind the 3rd base dugout. Woo hoo.

There’s something indescribably blissful about watching baseball in 25 degree weather. I kept expecting Smokey the Bear to come on the Jumbotron and start chanting “Here we go Bruins, here we go.”

Of course, now that the Bruins’ season is over, Smokey’s got himself some free time.

NYT: American households are spending an increasing percentage of their disposable income to link themselves to the outside world.

When Jon Green was growing up in rural Massachusetts in the 1970′s, his family’s phone service consisted of a party line shared with several neighbors. A simple rabbit-ears antenna captured all of seven television channels.

Today, like many middle-class Americans, Mr. Green and his wife, Stacie, carry cellphones, and their home in Maynard, Mass., has a land-line phone, cable television and a high-speed connection to the Internet, each offering an array of extra services. The connections they have come to consider necessities are discreet if not invisible. The tangible reminder is the stack of bills the Greens must pay each month.

Late last Friday night, while I was sleeping off my six rain-out Guinness’s half a mile away, a drunk Cambridge teenager was stabbed to death by a drunk Harvard graduate student.

Apparently, though the exact circumstances are in dispute, two drunks exchanged words, exchanged blows, then one pulled a knife. One life is over, another ruined, all as a result of drunken posturing. Both sides see themselves as the victim:

”Alexander [the Harvard student] defended himself. He did not instigate this, he did not pursue it, but in fact he was victim in this case,” said Jeffrey A. Denner, Pring-Wilson’s attorney. ”This is a 25-year-old Harvard student who has accomplished a lot.” …

”Everyone’s talking about Harvard and all of his accomplishments,” Colono [the victim's brother] said. ”It’s irrelevant because human nature will tell you smart people still do stupid things. Plain and simple. . . . [Pring-Wilson] was walking around drunk, carrying a knife. He should have used better judgment. He didn’t. He committed murder and he needs to pay for what he’s done.”

This is going to be ugly; tensions have long simmered between the students and the townies. If you were going to devise an event guaranteed to ignite a class war, you could scarcely do better than this. These men, crossing paths in Central Square, come from very different worlds.

Pring-Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in classics from prestigious Colorado College.

Colono didn’t go to college.

Pring-Wilson was a second-year grad student in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia studies. He planned to attend law school.

Colono worked full time as a hotel maintenance worker.

Pring-Wilson’s mother, who traveled here yesterday from Colorado, is a former assistant district attorney. His father is a criminal defense attorney. His stepfather is a businessman.

Colono’s father was recently laid off from his manufacturing job at a chocolate factory. His mother is a homemaker.

Now Marcos Colono is left to wonder about what could have become of his brother’s life. Michael Colono, the father of a 3-year-old girls, was the youngest of five. He contributed part of his weekly salary for groceries.

Meanwhile, Pring-Wilson, who was to earn his master’s degree this spring, is in a jail cell awaiting arraignment on murder charges. Denner said they may defer a bail argument to a later date. ”We all feel very badly about what has happened,” Denner said.

More later, but I do have this question for Pring-Wilson: Why the hell were you carrying a knife? You can’t kill someone with your fists; you can with your Leatherman.

Because he’s an avid outdoorsman, Pring-Wilson was carrying a pocketknife, [Pring-Wilson's attorney] Denner said.

For those of you unfamiliar with the area, there are no woods in Central Square.

This week’s Job Explainer looks like a lot of fun: Game Designer

Today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple will launch an online music service. Here is the link to the full story, if you are a WSJ subscriber.

The new music service will be integrated with Apple’s iTunes music software, which currently is employed by Mac users to organize and play MP3 music files. Instead of selling subscriptions, it is expected to focus on individual songs, charging consumers about 99 cents each for most tracks. Some songs may cost more or less, depending on what label they are from, though details aren’t yet available.