81.   It would not have mattered in the seventh inning Wednesday night if the New York Yankees had Juan Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa or both.

82.   Kansas City got a run in the sixth on a Terry Pendleton single, but Boston rallied for the three that mattered in the bottom half.

83.   Larry Lasser is hardly a household name, but there are few people who matter more in the Boston world of mutual funds.

84.   Little else matters in the life of a closer.

85.   Law and order matter in Staten Island.

86.   My mother began teaching in the public schools at a time when teachers still were generally treated as if they mattered in their communities.

87.   None of this mattered in the end because the end came six minutes early.

88.   None of this matters in the short term.

89.   None of that stuff really matters in the cool of the evening with a brilliant sunset overhead.

90.   Nor does it really matter in the end whether the reader finds all his arguments persuasive.