liamstliam | May. 3rd, 2010

1. Please welcome

hlwoods to the madness that is The Liamverse.

2. My favorite restaurant blogger gave me a guest spot today.

3. This may be one of the coolest things evah: Make Your Own Chocolate Bars. If you posted it, please take credit.

4. LJ's "Writers' Block" question lats week asked which movie you thought was perfect in its original telling.

I think both "Bull Durham" and "Animal House" should never, ever be re-made.

This week's prompt is about replacing pet "owner" with pet "guardian." I am not going to touch that, except to say we have cats, and there is neither "ownership" nor guardianship."

5. One of my great regrets about LJ is there's only one person here who knew me as a young man or as "Billy Toscano, Local Sportswriter" from back in the 1980s.

I am updating my letters of reference, so I was amused to read what my friend Mike DiMauro wrote, and I realize that Billy was a whole lot like Liam:

To Whom It May Concern:

It is my pleasure to write a letter of recommendation for Bill Toscano. There are only a handful of people I call mentors. Bill has always been at the top of the list.

I met Bill when I was 15, functioning as a runner for the sportswriters sitting in the press box during an American Legion baseball tournament. Never has fetching hot dogs and soda been more rewarding or educational.

Bill was working as a sportswriter at the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin at the tournament. But as much as he was a writer at the time, he has always been a teacher.

Bill was the first person to tell me that writers don’t cover games or events. They write about people. It changed my perspective. It’s still with me 25 years later.

It’s still with me because Bill didn’t just say it. He lived it. He would not sit in the press box to cover the game. He talked to people in the bleachers and at the concession stand. He got to know them beyond a handshake and a conversation about the weather. They always remembered him.

That’s the way he works. When he is part of your team, your team is stronger and more memorable.

6. I am fully aware that we lost to the Orioles because Jason Varitek, wonderful man that he is, runs like he's got a piano wired to his back.

7. Speaking of Boston sports, I love this!