Poulin opts in: holiday weekend notes

A newsy local bit as Kevin Poulin exercised his right to salary arbitration, one of 20 restricted free agents to do so. That essentially takes him off the market; either he and the Islanders will agree to a new contract, or an arbitrator will do it for them.

From Pittsburgh on the “new approach” to Wilkes-Barre’s roster. Unlike Bridgeport, that means “just a few veterans, y’know, the ones we’ve already re-signed.”

A Minor League Baseball feature on Westport’s David Speer, beginning his pro career in the Cleveland organization.

Language columnist and occasional Jeopardy contestant Ben Zimmer on the evolution of “Yanks.”

There is a metric boatload of links to YouTube goodness on the Golden Oldies Lyrics Quiz’s latest set of answers. Holy cro, Pomus/Shuman demos*. (Go here if you want to try the quiz first.) Have mentioned T1 before. Good stuff.

Also good: Weird Al gets the behind-the-songs treatment.

*-There’s another video I bumped into while going down that rabbit hole. It pans over the back cover of the Drifters’ album “Save the Last Dance For Me.” There are three tracks I’m not familiar with (in a row, as it happens), but even if they’re complete dreck, try to tell me this isn’t a fantastic record: Save the Last Dance For Me (Pomus/Shuman), I Count the Tears (Pomus/Shuman), Somebody New Dancin’ With You (Pomus/Shuman), Jackpot (Schneider/Keys), No Sweet Lovin’ (Oliver, Pinckney, Baughan), Sweets For My Sweet (Pomus/Shuman) / Mexican Divorce (Bacharach/Hilliard), When My Little Girl is Smiling (Goffin/King), Some Kind of Wonderful (Goffin/King), Please Stay (Bacharach/Hilliard), Nobody But Me (Pomus/Shuman), Room Full of Tears (Pomus/Shuman)

Michael Fornabaio