I took the link/email/link sequence to be a validation that I work at a place where they've made an HUP agreement. That may have been an optimistic assumption.

I've still not received that confirmation email. After some hunting on the HUP website, I found this message:

We are sorry, but we are unable to complete your request.
The following problem(s) exist:
Your order is currently in a review status

Beg pardon, folks? Whatever can you be "reviewing" that takes four days? You're waiting for HR to confirm my existence, perhaps? (Should I call Enrique and push things along?) Or perhaps you've sicced the Pinkertons on me? Is this long delay common? Shouldn't you have warned me about it? You can't be bothered to send a courtesy email?

How about you give my money back?

Wednesday, May 5: Still waiting. They must be digging hard....

Seriously, though, this makes sense. Cooley's got a stake not just in Lansing, but in the immediate neighborhood; perhaps they'll find some synergies and certainly the school cares about the vicinity. And if Cooley Law wants to use the ball team to advertise, why is that worse than an insurance company or a hospital? Or a car manufacturer, for that matter?

Thomas Cooley was a member of the Michigan Supreme Court for a couple decades, immediately after the Civil War; after his court tenure, he was appointed the first chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887. I encountered his name occasionally in another life while studying nineteenth century business practices, and nearly everyone says he personally gave the Michigan Supreme Court its dignity--our state was, after all, quite young during his term.

Knowing my political opinions, I'm reasonably certain I'd not have liked the man had I been his contemporary, but he's an important figure in Michigan history.

My preferred name for Lansing's ballyard would be The REO Diamond. But it's not gonna happen.

Hi, Charlie!

The technical issues have been interesting. Apparently Jane and Lynn have been doing most of the website work (looks a lot like it's been mostly Jane, since Lynn's been injured), while CJ has been working out the mechanics of getting the books into an acceptable format. She put up a sample book--an excerpt from her old blog, as it happens--a couple weeks ago, and asked for reactions. Those have been interesting, and it's clear she learned things from the trial.

Things will evidently work as follows: You'll get a link to a ZIP file containing either three or eleven files (which version depends on a selection at purchase, apparently). The smaller version will contain the book in the three most common e-book formats; the larger version will also include eight less common formats. (Obviously the format translations are technically easy for her. And, just as obviously, there's a effort tradeoff at the "stock the shelves" step related to the number of versions the store offers.) Cherryh recommends loading your purchase into either calibre or mobipocket (both are free; I've used calibre) for reading--or for transfer into a dedicated e-book reader, like an Amazon Kindle or a Sony Touch.

So:

1. Download and install software.
2. Purchase the book.
3. Download it.
4. UnZIP it.
5. Select the correct version using the reader software you've selected.
6. Make sure it's readable.
7. Attach your e-book reader (presumably via USB).
8. Transfer the file to the e-book reader.

I see lots of points of failure. Baen's Webscriptions site moves the Selection step to the purchase point, and makes the UnZIP step voluntary. That's a bit better, but both stores, to my mind, assume too much technical literacy on the part of their customers. Obviously that's what Amazon's Whispernet is intended to address.

The store I help run as part of my job delivers documents (not books) in PDF format, and we spend lots of time doing what amounts to remote technical support. I'm guessing Closed Circle might find it advantageous to move their design in Baen's direction.

Hello from Amazon.com.

We're writing about the order you placed on December 07 2009 (Order# xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx). USPS was unable to leave the package at your delivery address as per their delivery policies. The package will be available for pick up at your local post office. Please visit http://www.usps.com and click "Locate a Post Office" to find contact information for your local post office or call 1 800 ASK USPS. The items listed below are included in this shipment:

  Dailey & Vincent "Brothers from Different Mothers"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NKWLBM

  Dailey & Vincent "Dailey & Vincent"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XPU642

To see full details of this order, including tracking details and the shipping status of other items from this order that may not be listed, please visit the Your Account section of our website (http:// www.amazon.com/your-account). You can also reach Your Account by clicking on the link in the top right corner of any page on our web site.

*****

WHAT IF AN ITEM HAS SHIPPED AND I NO LONGER WANT IT?

If your shipment arrives too late, you may either refuse delivery or return it to us for a refund. For returns instructions, please visit our Returns Center at www.amazon.com/returns.

*****

HOW DO I CONTACT YOU ABOUT MY ORDER?

If you have more questions about this order, you can e-mail or phone Customer Service by clicking the "Contact Us" button on the right side of any Help page (www.amazon.com/help).

Sincerely,
Customer Service Department
http://www.amazon.com

==============================

Check your order and more: http://www.amazon.com/your-account

Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

That message has little to do with my reality, since it happens that my "local delivery address" is my local post office. Things are actually working exactly as I expected.

It's like this, folks. My mail goes to a post office box. Unless I happen to be in the post office while Jacki is sorting the packages, her procedures require her to report the package as not-delivered (and she puts a yellow card in my box.) As she sees it--and as I see it--that's a delivery, which will get completed when I make it into the office (which occurs daily). There's no failure, here, and fairly often (including this time) I've picked up the package before Amazon gets around to notifying me that the package is "lost." Folks who use post office boxes for mailing address have deliberately traded one sort of convenience for another. The package was exactly where I expected it to be, and I picked it up with the rest of my mail.

I realize this is a minor issue, and that Amazon's trying to be helpful. But it shows a total ignorance of something you'd expect them to get right.

The largest Waterloo Stadium crowd in several seasons--6,180--was treated to sterling pitching performances as the Waterloo (Midwest) Indians swept a doubleheader June 7 from the Appleton Foxes, 3-0 and 1-0. In the first game, Indians righthander Dane Anthony raised his record to 8-1 by unfurling a no-hitter. He allowed three base runners, all on walks. Earlier this season he had pitched a one-hitter and a two-hitter. In the second game, Appleton's Chuck Fox and Waterloo's Jack Nuismer each tossed a one-hitter. The lone safe blow off Fox decided the game. It was an eighth-inning single by Waterloo right fielder Carmen Castillo that scored first baseman Bob Bohnet from second. Bohnet had reached first on an error and was sacrificed to second.

Definitely my kind of an afternoon.

Down the page you'll find a list of the books which were on my Amazon Wish List when I started this little project. A short summary of the information:

• 64 books.
• 62 are currently available as new paper books on Amazon (one of the other two is out of print; the other's not yet published.)
• 19 of those books are available for purchase in the Kindle store.
  • All but one of the 19 are cheaper than the paper version (the exception has the same price for both media).
• 12 of those books are available for purchase in the Sony store.
  • Two are cheaper than the paper version. (In both cases, they match the Kindle price.)
• Two were available for free from Google Books, so the Wish List has since changed.

Both eBook stores have serious deficiencies. The selection is just plain unsatisfactory if you're serious about books. But Sony seems not to understand basic pricing strategies. It's a good thing I didn't expect to make much use of their store. I'll mostly be finding my reading material elsewhere, something I knew before I asked for the Reader.

As long as I'm discussing Wish Lists: Sony's store lets me create one, but doesn't seem to have a method for sharing it. Again, I think they've completely missed the point.

Here's the list (sorted newest to oldest--Bicycling Science has been on the list for over four years). Feel free to reach your own conclusions.

The table from Open Office Calc--which generates HTML that's as ugly as Excel's. I ran it through Tidy to clean things up a bit.

(COURIER NEWS SERVICE)

DECATUR, Ill. -- Beloit, Wis. plans to play baseball in the Midwest League, reported league president Jim Doster here Thursday morning, but not until the 1970 season.

"The National Assn. met last week in Tampa, Fla.," said Doster, "and advised us that the Midwest League should operate with nine clubs this year, since most farm directors had already disbanded and players have already been assigned."

A report Wednesday said the city would field a team for the 1969 season, making the league a 10-team operation, but that report was incorrect.

"We first went to Dubuque," said Doster, "but we got a cool reception there about putting a tenth team in. Rockford, Ill. was our next choice, but we found commitments had already been made there for the baseball stadium.

"Then Mike Kelegian of Rockford went to Beloit and found them interested," Doster added. "The have a stadium two years old which seats 3,000.

"I have now invited Mike Kelegian to the meeting of our board of directors April 20 in Davenport. If the directors so desire, he can make formal application for 1970."

The odd abbreviations are in the article. I'm pretty sure Jim Doster didn't actually speak that way.

The "Wednesday" report cited above was surprisingly specific: The team name was going to be the Braves, the 1969 affiliation would be a Tigers-dominated co-op, the 1970 affiliation would be with Cleveland, and Kelegian would likely move the team to Rockford for the 1970 season. None of these things happened.

The June 23 Burlington Hawk-Eye reported progress on the Beloit grandstand for the 1970 season, as did the July 12 Madison Capital Times.

Danville would (re)join the Midwest League as its tenth team for the 1970 season. Beloit and Rockford would both eventually join the league--Beloit in 1982, and Rockford in 1988.

And people wonder why I'm generally skeptical about franchise move reports.

Layton Stump, manager of the John Deere Employees Credit Union, left, realizes an urge often felt by baseball fans and slams a cream pie into the face of Umpire Bill Deegan before the start of Saturday night's Midwest League baseball game at Waterloo Stadium. Some 4,000 fans watched, slightly stunned, as Stump interrupted what appeared to be a roaring argument between Deegan and managers Jack Krol of Cedar Rapids and Rac Slider of Waterloo with a pie. They quickly realized, however, that it was a pre-arranged gag and they applauded the umpire as attendants wiped pie off his face and shirt so the game could be officially started. Cedar Rapids won it 5-4, the key blow a three-run homer by Wayne Boltinghouse with one out in the first of the ninth. Waterloo went into the ninth with a 4-1 lead.

I just couldn't resist this one. William Edward John Deegan, who's apparently a good sport, would umpire in the American League for about a decade, with subsequent short stints from time to time as a replacement during union actions.

And four co-workers--two I've been working with daily of late, and two others I'd worked with on several projects--chose yesterday to retire. A day full of good-byes....

This sort of day always sets me to thinking about my own retirement. Not yet. But I can see the end.