Despite writing pages worth of personal thoughts the other day, I think I'll always prefer--at least for now--to stick a couple neat links up here for the fulfillment of the five people who regularly look at this page.

Besides, it's a heck of a lot easier.

In that lazy vein, I'd recommend the following for anyone politically intrigued but searching for the Cliffs' Notes version. Slate has run a very neat series on each major presidential candidate, answering basic questions like why each is running, listing out their position points, analyzing their "buzzwords", etc.

Sticking on the political tip, Aaron McGruder's comic strip, the Boondocks (you can see the strip on a daily basis here, or check out the homepage), is the only comic I would regularly read, if I read comics. The Boondocks, about two black inner-city kids who end up living with their grandfather in white suburbia, is often sarcastic, caustic, and filled with witty social commentary. This letter to the Washington Post reminded me of it the other day (though the well-meaning author is completely wrong. Having heard McGruder's opinion of Condoleeza Rice, he's no fan of hers, personally or professionally.)

And knowing that there might be one or two Penn people in the audience...check out this article on the recently discovered wind tunnel in Superblock. For reporting initiative, this equates to the drug-and-drinking dealings of Baltimore preps. (Though I was interested to learn that building a windmill might solve the problem while acting as a power generator. But there's already no open space left on campus!)
- posted by DD @ 11:05 PM

 
Are you watching this show?
I never schedule around TV...but 'Arrested Development' is a worthwhile exception.

-----------------------

Triumphant return

Who has ever heard enough of Robert Smigel and the aforementioned Insult Comic dog?
- posted by DD @ 11:32 AM

 
As I watch the Gator Bowl slip away to NC State...
Try as I might to ignore them, the cues are unavoidable. Maryland tips off against American tonight; Penn lost to #15 Wisconsin at the Palestra yesterday. Every newspaper is running its college basketball preview. And a personal tradition, one that I've stuck to for a decade, is in jeopardy. As traditions go, it's not a huge one. In fact, it's not particularly illuminating or personally meaninful. It's just something that one day I started and didn't really notice until I nearly stopped.

Really, I don't know why I started buying Athlon's college basketball preview magazine. This was in the early-to-mid 90s, about the time that Maryland's basketball team started winning again. I had started to realize-way too late in life to become good at it myself-that I really loved basketball. But getting back to the magazine...it was at the local Rite Aid, I had a couple extra bucks...I guess I was just curious who this Keith Booth guy was that everyone was talking about.

Whatever the reason, this dumb magazine changed the course of my life; no longer would I be the geek who knew every country's capital in geography class--I would become the geek who knew every college basketball team's first man off the bench. Maybe I couldn't (and still can't) shoot a lick, but would at least talk the game. And buying Athlon's college basketball magazine became an annual thing. It didn't hurt that Maryland was pretty good year-in and -out; if anything, it motivated me to scour newstand shelves as early as possible to see where the Terps were picked. It kind of fed itself. Somewhere along the way, I started buying The Sporting News preview too, just to be totally informed.

And things changed. I became a college basketball fan, Maryland rose to contend for a national championship, I met actual players and realized they weren't gods, just tall. By senior year--though it was kind of weird cheering on players younger than you--there was nothing greater than Penn basketball; I had been lucky enough to watch a pretty good college basketball team play in a great arena for four years, but the way that season went down...can anyone forget? According to the official recordbooks...

Two-thousand two will go down in the Ivy League record books as perhaps the best season of Ancient Eight basketball that ever was. (more)

When Penn beat Princeton for that three-way tie...I remember standing there with Grant thinking I would miss the Palestra more than anything at Penn. When we came back from the Penn-Yale playoff a few days later--and the rowdy celebration on the court--I was sure of it. Could you still be a college basketball fan when you didn't go to college? It was worth a try.

Of course, Penn didn't win a tournament game, but Maryland won them all that final year of college--the championship Pincus and I saw on TV in a frothing College Park. Still, come last fall, I knew it was a troubling sign not to buy either magazine until a few days after the season's start; I just didn't feel the pressure. And yes, I saw a few Terps games and went up to Penn to witness yet another championship. But it seemed more obligatory (and less celebratory) than I expected. Which makes sense, I guess.

This year, the season's already a few days old again. And I don't have an Athlon, didn't pick up a Sporting News. Maybe it's because Maryland--for the first time since that initial Athlon 10 years ago--is unranked, expected to be a young, "developing" team. Penn, too, isn't a consensus pick to win the Ivies sans Ugonna, Koko, and Toole. Maybe it's because I haven't played basketball in months. Or maybe it's just that my priorities are different now.

But an annual custom shouldn't end that easily; I decided to give Athlon one more shot. Walking home this afternoon, I stopped in a Foggy Bottom store that sells newspapers and magazines from around the world. The shelves are lined with academic journals across from Maxim, Harper's above Road & Track. In college basketball previews alone, Athlon and The Sporting News were flanked by Lindy's and Sports Illustrated, as well as the ACC yearbook and a handful of others. I stopped and browsed...and then moved on to the football (soccer) and the wine magazines. Sometimes you just have to let a tradition die.

And sometimes when one tradition dies, a new one is born. In between the newspaper and the Wine Spectator I bought, the Street and Smith preview somehow slipped in. Athlon or no Athlon, I guess I'm not quite ready to give up on college basketball.

--------------------

Like an Indian girl who saw "Bend It Like Beckham"...

I normally choose not to think much of the Tribe affiliation--but the commercials I've seen for this Disney Channel movie cracked me up that I have to rep my religion. Jewish basketball players at a Hebrew Academy rapping to a song called "Spin 'ya like a dreidel"? This is true must-see TV.

--------------------

Everything's upside down

More basketball thoughts...any Penn people in the audience remember how when Schiffner/Chubb/Copp came in, the hype-meter was in complete reverse order from how they're listed? Copp was the scorer who put up 11 points in the team's first game; Chubb started getting PT partway through the season and showing crazy hops that didn't jibe with his name; and Schiffner didn't really get any burn until the end of the year, slashing (and mostly missing) his way to the end of a disappointing season.

Of course, we all know how that story turned out. Copp--despite the fact that everyone says he's a quality guy--was put in a number of terrible, end-of-game situations that Penn lost and seemingly never regained his confidence; Chubb still occasionally wows with his hops, but never really became the big man we could have used post-Owens; and Schiffner became the sophomore star who canned the big shot versus Yale (despite the rough refs) and current favorite for Ivy POY. Just riffing...

--------------------

While the Sunday New York Times is always worth buying, tomorrow turn first to the magazine...something for everyone. Or at least four areas that I find interesting. An examination of the Da Vinci Code's success, an article by a Penn alum on online dating, the coming rise of chinese basketball players, and a behind-the-scenes of John Edwards, democratic candidate. Feel free to e-mail your thanks...

Wow, this was a lot of writing...guess I felt like it today.
- posted by DD @ 4:19 PM

 
I don't remember Len Bias, but I miss him.
Wilbon: "He would have changed the game, you know. Bias would have altered the course of NBA history for sure."

Krzyzewski: "This is my 24th year at Duke. And in that time there have been two opposing players who have really stood out: Michael Jordan and Len Bias."

Bilas: "I guess I was at that stage of my life when I figured out that not all men are created equally. It makes me sad just thinking about the waste of it."

Read this article.
- posted by DD @ 9:13 PM

 
It's hard to be an informed citizen
Particularly when you have to turn a critical eye to what you hear and read...and the press doesn't do you any favors.
- posted by DD @ 11:37 AM

 
Um yeah...good luck with this
and in a radical development, parents find out that Baltimore private school kids drink and do drugs. What?! Since when? This must be a new trend...

Next in the Sun's investigative series...Cal Ripken's streak officially over.
- posted by DD @ 12:52 AM

 
Can anyone explain this to me?
I definitely have seen guys playing pickup in Hutch/Gimbel; Jed Ryan used to do it all the time. Why would Schiffner get suspended for an informal basketball game? Utterly incomprehensible.
- posted by DD @ 11:23 AM

 
Thoughts on the new NBA season
LeBron LeBron LeBron all the time...stayed up late twice this week to watch the end of both Cavs games; when Bron Bron was on the floor, it was as exciting as pro basketball has been for me since the Webber/Howard days in DC.

LeBron has gone from being underhyped to overhyped to living up to expectations in his first two games to this.

For those of you to lazy to click through the link, it's to a story by Peter May on ESPN.com's cover page entitled, "Problem with LeBron".

Article's subtitle:
Fans relate to winners. That's why the interest in LeBron James will wane if the Cavaliers keep losing.

Does anyone else find this slightly preposterous? Not only has ESPN heavily marketed LBJ, they've also benefited from him tremendously; his televised high school games brought them attention and revenue and he gives them another strong marketing chip for their new NBA package. Yet they've also been among the leaders in tearing him down, pointing out flaws in his game, and generally criticizing the heavy media coverage--which only snowballed after ESPN got involved. It was much cooler when LeBron was just a great high school sophomore who you read about in the pages of SLAM...felt like you were discovering something rather than having it waved in your face.

So the Cavs have lost two games to start the season. Two games! Can't May and ESPN at least wait until the Cavs are a healthy 8-15 or 13-20? Everything with LeBron has been rushed, from his ascendance to his projected decline. And ESPN has a lot to do with it.

Professional athletes aren't really role models, and a kid five years younger than me is tough to look up to. But I respect and marvel at the way LeBron has dealt with potentially crushing expecations. At the very least, he should be fun to watch.

--------------------------------

Love the new AI commercial where he, Rocky-style, dribbles through the Philly streets, through the italian market, up the steps of the art museum, turning to gaze over the city; Loco, if you're reading this, I say we junk our annual homecoming run and try to pull that off instead.

--------------------------------

Wiz could be good. 4th best in the East good? Nah...but playoff-worthy.

--------------------------------

- posted by DD @ 10:45 AM