If someone listed Clemens, Pettitte, Mussina, Wells and Mays and asked an honest, astute fan which pitcher the Angels would want to face this October, the answer would have been Mays.
But even then, they will face competition from new, technologically astute and more focused firms of the sort already offering telephone banking or on-line share dealing.
Fred Wilson recently wrote about the twists and turns that startups face (expanding on Paul Graham's astute "Startup Curve").
"The cutbacks in defense budgets which many NATO member states, including the Netherlands, are facing demand careful consideration and astute choice," the defense ministry said in a statement.
Indeed, the problems with "The Center Holds" — which draws upon interviews with more than 200 people — underscore the difficulties faced by even the most astute reporters writing what the author calls "contemporary history".
It's the kind of astute diplomatic move that, along with his pretty face, good manners and chiselled abs that makes one suspect Beckham isn't British at all.
Astute diagnosticians also glean information from people's faces.
It's also, handily enough, an astute guide to the myriad technical problems that faced the Hollywood studios in the transition from silents to talkies, as well as an uproarious comedy.
In the future, public leaders will need to be more politically astute as they deal with the greatest challenges facing them – dealing with cuts, dealing with customers and managing staff.
