I keep thinking about my night at the strip club.

I know, by everything that is good and decent in the world, I should not have enjoyed it.

But you know what?

For 12 minutes, (and $90), someone pretended to be nice to me. No agenda, no criticism, no thinly veiled insults. No feelings of my disappointing someone. For 12 minutes, I was important, and valued, and the center of someone's world. Even if it was pretend, it was a fucking bargain.

Yankees took two out of three from us, but that still leaves them 9 1/2 games out heading into Memorial Day Weekend. They get the Angels, with Howie Kendrick back, and we go down to Texas to roast. This can relatively easily turn into a race again-if we lose a series or two, and they win a series or two, suddenly its 7, then 6, then..ulp. We have to keep them down.

More about the strip club-it is the most straightforward place I have ever experienced. No agendas-you know what they want, and they know what you want, and that's it. I don't know how to feel about it. As a heterosexual male, I enjoyed it. I can't believe that the women enjoy doing it. But they get well compensated for it. I hated it, but I loved it.

There's a story that Bill Clinton is twice as expensive as the other living ex presidents. (The dead ones are a remarkably small drain on Federal coffers.) I'm sure the right wing is going to go ga ga over that, but at least SOMEONE is trying to mend America's image in the world.

So we won the Tavarez game! Not bad. Mussina looks lost, and the Yankees look flat, old, and done. But we'll see.

Going to see Clemens pitch tonight. In all the years I have followed the Red Sox, I never saw him pitch live. They say 9000 fans are expected in a place that seats 6400. Should be a hot, sweaty mess. We'll see.

Celtics got jobbed in the draft, again. Then again, the basketball gods gave us Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Dave Cowens, KC Jones...I guess we're still paying for that.

Went to a strip club last night to celebrate a friend's graduation. Haven't been since another friend got married nearly 15 years ago. It was an overwhelming experience.

Radiolab (www.radiolab.org) is a brilliant program.

Nick Hornby is back in The Believer! God be praised. I can't wait for his next book.

Even after a loss last night, the Red Sox sit atop the East, and atop baseball, with 30 wins. Even after a loss last night with Wakefield on the hill and Wang tying them in knots, it's hard to feel bad about this team at this point. Yes, its only May, but it's almost Memorial Day. Now, with the loss in the opener, the Yankee sweep sets up pretty well, with Mussina and Tavarez, and then Pettite and Schilling, both being winnable games for them.

Giambi hit a bomb last night-third deck off of Wake. Wow.

It's funny how a double digit lead (now down to single digits again) still makes a Sox fan fearful. But all you have to do, when you're in front, is win, and this team seems like it is good enough to do that. The Yankees have shown a talent for hitting, but also a talent for falling into funks. And who knows, Julian beat 'em once, right?

Did everyone take stupid pills yesterday? I seemed to be afflicted with dumdums yesterday. God, I hate people sometimes.

I miss Mitch Hedberg. Bill Hicks, too.