Me, I'm Waiting So Patiently ... Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and CEO Larry Lucchino held "two sessions at Schilling's house. We made a proposal and meetings and/or conversations will continue through the holiday." Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, there will likely be no more meetings until Friday. Arizona GM Joe Garagiola Jr. thinks Schilling will wait until the end of the negotiating window (Friday at 5:00 pm) before announcing his decision. And while Terry Francona is expected to be named as manager early next week, one club source told the Herald there is a remote possibility that if Schilling turns the Sox down, Francona may not be the top choice anymore. Also, Lucchino spoke with Joe Maddon on Tuesday. Maddon: "He just wanted to talk to me. We had a lot of conversations about the theory and philosophy of baseball - he's a very interesting man." ... Wired reports on MLB's fight to retain "exclusive rights to transmit real-time information about its games online. ... The battle is being waged over what are commonly called gamecasts: real-time descriptions of baseball games, including who's batting, what pitches are thrown, the game situation and the outcome of each pitch." MLB claims these presentations are actually exhibitions of the game and thus is entitled to a license fee.

One day after the Taliban launched a rocket attack on Kabul's most prominent hotel and Mullah Omar (the Taliban's still at-large leader) "urged Afghans to unite against US-led foreign forces on their soil," George W. Bush said the US had "put the Taliban out of business forever." ... From an article co-written by Colleen Kelly, founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows: "We live in a county where crime scene investigation TV shows are all the rage. Yet, in one of the most serious crimes in this century, there has been no official rush to get all the facts. If a person was shot in front of the World Trade Center, there would be more of an urgent inquiry into that killing than was accorded the murder of thousands of people in broad daylight. ... Virtually all mainstream outlets have downplayed the issue, across the spectrum from right to left. We are not sure why."