NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...

ook from presenting them with comment features wh
en they look at your posts. Maybe they’ll get the hint.
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NYT-1201
Brilliant and Bold, in Any Language ... By DAVID WA
LDSTEIN
What makes Bobby Valentine's selection as Boston's
new manager so intriguing is his curiosity and hi
s daring, best exemplified by his time spent manag
ing in Japan.
===== notyet (2 pages)
Early in his tenure as manager of the Chiba Lotte
Marines in Japan, Bobby Valentine decided to run a
drill to practice pickoff moves at second base. H
e instructed his pitchers to throw behind the runn
er, but for some reason they refused to do as he a
sked.
As Valentine grew frustrated over the inability of
his pitchers to follow his instructions, Satoru K
omiyama, a veteran who had played for Valentine wh
en he managed the Mets, came forward to offer an e
xplanation.
"We will be happy to do it in games," he told Vale
ntine. "But in practice we don’t want to injure ou
r teammates by throwing the ball at their behinds."
It was not the first problem with translation that
Valentine encountered in Japan, nor would it be h
is last. But he would eventually learn 2,042 kanji
characters out of an instructional book, practici
ng them in the dirt with the toe of his cleats dur
ing practice, and by the time he made his tearful
goodbye speech to the team’s fans in 2009, he did
so in Japanese.
"There’s a lot of guys who go over there just look
ing to get a paycheck," said the current Mets mana
ger Terry Collins, who managed the Orix Buffaloes
for two seasons in Japan and competed there agains