Getting Sick

This past weekend I went down to Lewes, DE to play some fine ultimate in the beautiful weather. It was a really fantastic tournament, despite the fact that the team I was on was not really competitive. Great fields, good spirit (mostly), and the most gorgeous ultimate weather makes for a good tourney.

It could only have been better had Nelly been able to make it. Alas, she could not. She's in the midst of finals.

It turns out though, that the cold I thought I'd fought off the week before was returning with a vengeance. It seemed that a lot of people were sick at this tournament, so maybe I caught one of their contagions. But to be honest, I had my own. I've been out of it since I got back Sunday night.

Being sick is lame!

Good Timing

I have been trying to stay at work a little longer (which is a little easier now that the sun sets at 8) so that I don't have to deal with as much congestion on the ride home. So far, so good.

Today I got home at 7:30 and as I was opening the door I thought, "Oh man! I guess Nelly left the light on!" Though almost immediately I knew I was wrong.

A soft orange directionless light and the sweet smell of blossoming lilies infused the entire apartment! It was like... actually, I have no idea how to describe it. It was beautiful!

While we weren't looking

Top three news stories on the NY Times website that don't involve Virginia Tech:

Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Abortion Procedure

“It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,” Justice Ginsburg wrote, in a dissent joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.

Bombings Kill at Least 146 Iraqis in Baghdad

In the worst of the attacks, a car bomb exploded at an intersection in the Sadriya neighborhood that serves as a station for buses traveling to the Shiite district of Sadr City. The powerful blast killed at least 115 people and wounded 137...

Bill to Let Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices Is Blocked

Democrats could not muster the 60 votes needed to take up the legislation in the face of staunch opposition from Republicans ... “The Department of Veterans Affairs is able to negotiate for lower-priced drugs,” said the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. “H.M.O.’s can negotiate. Wal-Mart can negotiate. Why in the world shouldn’t Medicare be able to do that?”

A Few Random Thoughts

- saying this tragedy might have been prevented if students on Virginia Tech's campus were allowed to carry guns is ridiculous. From the descriptions I have heard, no one would have had the time to arm themselves nor the opportunity to return fire.

- could we get a law that says in order to buy a gun you need to present evidence that you have at least five friends? like they have to come with you and sign affidavits or something?

- our national obsession with these tragedies feeds the flames of copy-cats (more than our national obsession with guns). While everyone abhors the murders, it seems that all we want is more information about what happened. We're fetishizing their actions! We paste their pictures on every surface, we talk to their friends, their families, examine every aspect of their lives, and we try to figure out "what were they thinking?" Maybe they're thinking they'll get a lot of attention.

- is there a limit to the appetite of the news agencies (and by extension our society) for this stuff? other things are happening in the world. for example, this is happening every day in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sudan, Pakistan, etc... Every other day 30+ Iraqis are killed for particular no reason as they try to go about their lives. It happens once in America and the whole country shuts down. How do we expect the Iraqis to create a nation from scratch under such conditions?

Imus v. Rutgers Women's Basketball...

...Nobody wins!

So there's been some to-do the past couple days ever since this radio asshat made a disparaging remark about the entire Rutgers Womens Basketball team.

The media reports generally only mention that Imus used the phrase "nappy-headed hos". I decided there must be some context to this statement. He couldn't just have been like "So Rutgers Women's Basketball, those are some nappy headed hos." He must have been saying something else.

In actuality, there was no context. The newspapers and radio reports I've heard were quite accurate and practically verbatim. I mean, they left out some incoherence about the Tennessee players and Spike Lee. But essentially, Imus blurted out his racist, sexist remark like someone with Torrets syndrome.

Since then he's received his comeuppance. If the clip I linked to is any indication of the quality of his show, it's clear that Imus has fallen on hard times. I would rather listen to Smooth Jazz than five minutes of Imus' ... I don't even know what to call it, prattle? Senile babbling? So he's been suspended, he'll probably get fired. Whatever.

Buried in all this morass is the fact that Rutgers Women's Basketball went to the National Championship game. They're being paraded around (I believe Imus is going to apologize to them personally -- with cameras and reporters! -- tomorrow) so they can talk about how egregious Imus' words were. This is how their miracle season is going to be remembered and that's unfortunate.

These women are not victims! They're champions and they should be proud. Rutgers' run to the finals is a great story and it's a proud moment for the Rutgers students, players, coaches, family & friends who got to participate. The rallies, protests, and calls for Imus to be fired ensure all anyone will talk about is Imus. Who gives a crap about Imus?

Whelmed

This came up last night at dinner. And I am sure we are not the first people to discuss it.

Overwhelm is a word. Whelm is not a word. This injustice cannot stand!

(So what if Whelm actually is a word; it means the same thing as "overwhelm" and no one uses it anymore).

I think that Whelm should become an Over/Under word. And that Whelm by itself should mean neither Overwhelmed nor Underwhelmed. Kinda like Goldilocks. The first porridge was too hot (overwhelming), the second was cold (underwhelming), and the third was just whelming!

Who's with me?

Guess What?! Chicken butt!

So according to the New York Times homepage professional baseball has begun a new season. Color me surprised. I guess that would explain the recent glut of opinion pieces about baseball. But honestly, baseball... such a stupid sport.

Logistically, Baseball is completely screwy. Here you have a sport where at any one moment, only 10 players are on an incredibly large field. And at any one moment, perhaps two of them are actually doing anything of interest.

What would otherwise be a multi-purpose (soccer, lacrosse, frisbee, picnic) field is broken up by a large dirt ring centered on a raised pile of dirt. Considering the shortage of field space in the city, the way a baseball field is constructed and used seems to me to be incredibly devilish.

Also, the Rutgers women's basketball team is in the championship game tomorrow.