Memo from the desks of Buzz and Ira*

TO: Local Boston TV newscasters

RE: World Series tie-ins

"What we have here is a TV-ratings dog of a World Series. Even the banner-hungry un-sportsmanlike Boston fans may lose interest in a one-sided slaughter. So let's stir things up. On game day, make every effort to devote or relate your top news stories to the upcoming game.

The Phoenix has two pairs of tickets to give away for the Mates of State show at the Museum of Fine Arts for this Thursday night at 7:30 pm. First two people who post comments saying they want 'em will get 'em, provided you're willing to swing by Phoenix HQ, near Fenway, before 5 pm on Thursday.

Game 5 of the ALCS was about an hour from start-time when Nick Hornby took the stage at the Devotion School in Brookline last night. The first question from the floor concerned, not surprisingly, Hornby's take on the current Red Sox series -- given that Hornby's Fever Pitch, a book about English soccer fanatics, had been magically turned into a Farrelly Bros film about Red Sox obsessives, which in turn was famously forced to undergo several last-second rewrites as the real-life Sox miraculously won their first World Series in 81 years.

Grr

James Parker talks to FNX about pure sport and his piece "A hello to arms: In a New Hampshire tourney, our reporter takes arm wrestling down to its basics: power, triceps, and Kahlua beach balls."

MP3: James Parker's brawny interview with FNX