I don't own a Sony Playstation 2, but Star Wars Bounty Hunter is sure making me wish I did, even if George Lucas managed to take the coolest characters in his mythos (who else but Boba Fett and his badass father Jango!) and turn them into cannon fodder. Poor Temuera Morrison. But I guess if you have to get decapitated in an unnecessarily confusing Arena/Execution/Charge of the Jedi Light Brigade battle, who better to do the deed than Samuel L. Jackson? With a purple lightsaber, no less.

Are you a hypochondriac? Just asking the question is probably a big fat yes. I took the quiz and ended up way into the meaty George Costanza ("Is it cancer?") section, which if you know me isn't that much of a surprise. When I was a child I used to be afraid of dying in my sleep, especially before a big family vacation or something equally cool. How this parlayed itself into an Aelius Aristidean neurosis is quite beyond me, but ironically I can look to Aristides - the world's first great hypochondriac who roamed the ancient Eastern Mediterranean in search of cures for what supposedly ailed him - for a little comfort. Although his aches and pains were myriad, he ended up living to the ripe old age of 63, which was about twice the expected lifespan for an average Greek or Roman of that time!

But let's talk baseball. That Major League strike (with a walkout date set for August 30th) may be unavoidable, but we can at least enjoy the Little League World Series. Although the heart of the nation is presumably behind a Harlem "Cinderella story", I can't help but root for the local kids, as Worcester has managed to battle their way into the semifinals as well. Tonight's winner-take-all matchup between the two will decide who goes on to the National finals, and perhaps to International World Series glory...