Nobody 695

Sunday, April 29, 2007
Nobody # 695

Nobody Asked Me But:

Dear Barbara and Elizabeth,

Even though recent research by health experts seem to show that singing a simple tune can boost mood, memory and the immune system -- and ease stress, I DO NOT want you to feel guilty for all these years you banned my singing in your presence. I probably was flat and couldn’t carry a tune, so just because I might have gained additional years to my long and healthy life by publicly singing songs of truth and great beauty was no justification for the embarrassment I may have caused the two of you.

What? You both will plead innocent on the grounds that what I was doing cannot be classified as singing.

I object!<<<

With gas at $3.27 this morning, when I got to Starbuck's I could only afford to let the "barista" squirt a quick blast of whipped cream into my mouth – but it was good whipped cream.<<<

Thanks to all of you who responded to the Greg Hansen issue that I wrote about last week. It seems that we have all had our moments of courage in which we openly showed distain for the haters – the bigots of all kinds, racist, religious, sexual.

And we have also known times when we said nothing – because we were taken by surprise or didn’t want the controversy or unpleasantness. I know that I like myself during the times that I choose to speak up and feel ashamed when I don’t. I am sure that you all feel the same. Even if our protest does not change the hater, I firmly believe that the world is a little better for our having taken a stand.<<<

OF ALL THE POOR OPINIONS, IN ALL THE SUPREME COURT JOINTS IN ALL THE WORLD

You all know about my ambivalent feelings about abortion. I think it is one of those many grey areas in morality where we must accept the lesser wrong. Abortions should not be a form of birth control, but they MUST be legal lest we return to the days of the coat hanger.

But the Supreme Court’s central argument in their recent 5-4 decision upholding the government’s right to ban partial-birth abortions borders on ridiculous. The central theme of their opinion was that the law’s purpose was to protect women from themselves – that women are natural mothers and to choose an abortion is an unnatural act, which will, in the long run, cause them great mental harm. In other words, making the choice proves them to be unnatural, i.e. crazy, and the aftermath of their decision makes them crazier.

This imperious and denigrating decision, another example of male paternalism on a court dominated by the dumber sex, was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. That’s why I appreciated the delicious irony in this line from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s dissenting opinion: “Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” You see, these very words were used by Justice Kennedy in his majority opinion that struck down the Texas sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas and overturned the 1986 anti-gay-rights precedent, Bowers v. Hardwick. How quickly he forgets, vacillates or some combination thereof .<<<

Add on: One of the other controversial parts to the decision involved the Court practicing medicine without a license – upholding a ban on a medical procedure that a doctor may think is in the best interest of his/her patient. That’s why I love this letter sent to the NY Times:

To the Editor: Re “A Sharp Turn for the Supreme Court on Abortion” (letters, April 20):

I am a rheumatologist caring for a patient whose lupus nephritis is flaring. Her creatinine is rising as her platelet count falls, and she has failed to improve with pulse methylprednisolone and intravenous cyclophosphamide. I am contemplating using rituximab. I would like to refer this case to the United States Supreme Court for its guidance.

Richard Zweig, M.D. Santa Rosa, Calif., April 20, 2007<<<

ATTENTION ALL ILLEGALS: UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU (or at least your money)

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson, on the IRS practice of collecting taxes from illegal immigrants by assigning taxpayer ID numbers.

"We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not."<<<

With my birthday only 4 months away, I felt a need to prove that I am still young at “heart,” so I had Barb take this picture.<<<

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Newsweek is running a series of pieces in which they ask a writer to name his or her 5 favorite books. This week, having apparently run our of writers, they ask James Patterson whom many suspect does not exist except as a trade name covering a myriad of writers who produce a book of the month every month. This begs the question – was the man who Barb and I saw at a Border’s signing really Patterson or merely one of his many ghosts? Anyway, real or not, here are his choices:

1 "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez. The great American novel, which just happens to be from South America.
2 "Ulysses" Blame James Joyce for making me a mystery writer. I read this and stopped pretending I could ever write a serious novel.
3 "Our Lady of the Flowers" by Jean Genet. Rudely woke me from my provincial, small-town view of the world.
4 "Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth. This was where I stopped being a book snob, and started loving books to death.
5 "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. I'm keen on coming-of-age novels, probably because I'm still coming of age.

Newsweek - A Certified Important Book you haven't read?

Patterson - OK, you got me—I've never read, "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret."

Actually, I haven’t read “Margaret” either, which brings me (finally) to my point. There are several classics that I have never read. (actually several hundred) Here are 3 that I plan to read in the “near” future.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez
“Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand
“The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky<<<

Stanley Fish on electing our next president:

Wrong question – “Whom would you rather have running the country, protecting our troops, educating our children, and throwing out the first ball on opening day?”

Right question - “Whom would you rather have exercising the power of appointment? That’s not a sexy question, but it gets to the heart of what electing a president means.”

Fish, who writes a provocative weekly column for the NY Times on subjects diverse, from education and politics, to philosophy and religion, is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor, a professor of law at Florida International University, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mr. Fish has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Duke University. He is the author of 10 books. His entire column on this matter is so interesting that I am sending it later today as a Nobody add-on.<<<

Remember upon our return from Oxford, I wrote about the Eagle and Child, the pub where J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and others used to meet and discuss each other’s writing projects? I recently learned more specifics. They met on a weekly basis and called themselves “the Inklings.” Cool!<<<

My delicious quote of the week comes from David Halberstam, the great reporter and writer who died last week. He was in Warsaw at the time and struggling with a dictate by his employer, the NY Times, that correspondents should, when in doubt, file stories exactly 600 words long. This is what Halberstam wrote to fellow correspondent J. Anthong Lucas:

“There are only two kinds of stories in the world: those about which I do not care to write as many as 600 words, and those about which I would like to write many more than 600 words. But there is nothing about which I would like to write exactly 600 words.”<<<

I am not comparing a writer with a play-writer, but I do have the same trouble with the 600 or 800 word thing.<<<

Headline: Utah bucks trend with guns OK on campuses.

Sub-headline: Utah students have the highest collective grade point average in the nation.<<<

What I learned at the Book Festival yesterday:

A woman can be turning 75 next December 7th and still be drop-dead beautiful. Ellen Burstyn, being interviewed by Leonard Maltin, was delightful.

That a man can be turning 82 on October 3rd and still be brilliant and funny. (And look young for his age - below, left)

Gore Vidal is no friend to Republicans (or many Democrats) but is a complete devotee to the Bill of Rights and mourns its passing under the current administration.

Someone asked him about his view of the array of Democratic presidential candidates, and after saying every one of them is a giant along side Bush, (and that Al Gore is his personal favorite) he told this Hillary story:

During her first campaign for NY Senator, someone told her that the demographic group with whom she scored worst was white, male, middle-aged and propertied. She wondered why and the answer was that she reminded them of their first wives.

Also, when being reminded by his host that he had consented to be godfather to the new child of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, he responded with, “always father and never God.”

Both interviews were terrific but I cannot imagine anything being quite as fascinating as last year’s sessions with Joan Didion and Joyce Carol Oates.

However, as always, the best part was just the feeling of being surrounded by so many books and book lovers. I will gladly give up being the kid in the candy store to be forever young with so many words to sample.<<<

I could not let the week pass without a sigh of relief because Darren Collison is returning as Bruin point guard next year. This means that we should start the season rated either first or second in the country.<<<

Hard to believe but we will be waking up next Sunday in Ottawa.<<<

Nobody 694

Sunday, April 22, 2007
Nobody # 694

Nobody Asked Me But:

“There was an obvious magic to a college campus. There is no entity
more protected, more shielded…It was a place to feel safe when you are
young.” - Harlan Coben from his new novel, “The Woods.”

Monday I wept

I wept Monday
For thirty-two who live no more
For the natural order turned upside down as
Parents choose gravesites for their children
For violence made common
As the greedy sell guns
And the mad make bombs
And life grows ever cheaper,
Diminished, a stepping stone
On the path to cause or notoriety.

Monday night I stopped weeping
And watched the Dodgers win again
By Tuesday it was time for ice cream.

Maybe I should have wept a little longer.<<<

A CNN poll taken the next day:

Do you believe gun-control laws are an effective way to curb violence?
Yes - 44% - 35569 votes
No - 56% - 44864 votes

I was one of the 44,864, but that placed me in the company of both those who want stricter gun control laws and the crazies who want to arm every body in America (over the age of 3, I presume) and allow them to carry at all times.

Personally, unless we could get a Supreme Court interpretation of the Second Amendment limiting the right to bear arms to militias, I would repeal the whole damn thing. Have gun clubs for hunters and leave the rest of us unarmed.<<<

My friend Jim has just finished his latest novel, “The Courage Of Others.” His earlier ones were good enough to be published, but in a world where, for a first novelist, luck, more than ability is the coin of the realm, he came up short in the four-leaf clover area. This new one is his best, and it will be another sad commentary on the publishing world if no one buys it.

The story takes place in a small town in Northern Texas immediately after World War I. Davy, the narrator, is looking back to tell the story, which happened when he was 16. Here is a passage that reminded me that I may be different from many people.

“It may well be that memory holds no more truth than a moving picture, that we see the past more in terms of the way we wish it had happened rather than the way it did. In memory we make the situations far more dramatic, our own parts far more noble.”

For some strange reason I am very objective about my past. For one thing, I spend very little time reliving it. In those brief moments that I do, I neither glamorize it nor, except for my mistakes in parenting, damn it. If I had to summarize my past, it would be very general. I was a good and decent person who made a few bad choices. I still am that person – hopefully without most of the bad choices.<<<

Current movies: Did you know: that the Scottish film, “Red Road,” is subtitled in English?

And here’s another classic brief review to add to your collection. “Perfect Stranger,” staring Bruce Willis and Halle Barry is a sexy, psychological thriller minus the sex, psychology and thrills.<<<

Before we leave films let me give you another example of the way the book, Bracketology, is flawed – BUT STILL GREAT FUN. All of the opening rounds of 32 should be seeded. Then you wouldn’t have match-ups like the one below where a choice must be made that way too early that eliminates a possible finalist.

This competition is to choose the Best Comedy. When you see the names Abbot and Costello in the title of one of the two films you may ask - great movie? Yes, this one is certainly one of half-dozen top comedies of all time and arguably belongs among the top 3 or 4. But so does “Young Frankenstein,” which means that one of the best must go down to defeat in the first round

Young Frankenstein
vs.
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein

In an extremely close match, my winner is………”Young Frankenstein.”<<<

Remember the song, “Big Spender”? Have we ever had a president who spent his country’s prestige faster than our current Bush?

Here’s a headline from Le Monde - 9/12/01 - We Are All Americans Now. Go today to almost any place in Europe and you find a very different sentiment. It will go something like this: We are all distrustful of America now.

Thanks George! Thanks Big Dick!<<<

And the sad thing is that George and his cronies don’t even care. As Maureen Dowd so aptly summarized it in a recent column:

Bush “is dangerous precisely because he’s so persuaded of his own virtue.”

One more item and we will put politics to bed for this Nobody:

Senator Chuck Hagel, (Republican, Nebraska) one of the most conservative Republicans, an infantryman in Vietnam and a long-shot candidate for his party’s presidential nomination recently suggested that, in reference to Iraq, Bush should be impeached for defying the will of the American people.

Note: He may have said could rather than should. I erased my notes too quickly.<<<

Cormac McCarthy, whose novel "The Road" was recently chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club, has added another honor: "The Road" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction Monday.

I finished the book last week. This journey of a man and his son, both unnamed, through an apocryphal America is terrible and bleak and yet somehow brushed with beauty. It is a stunning read.<<<

WHAT SHOULD HANSEN HAVE DONE?

Tucson sports columnist, Greg Hansen, was matched up with three strangers in a round of golf. He describes the following occurrence, as he asks of himself the question that most of us face in some fashion more than once in our lifetime:

Last week, matched with three winter visitors, the conversation turned to Pac-10 basketball, specifically to USC's incoming super recruit, O.J. Mayo.

One of the men said he had read much about Mayo's troubled upbringing.
"He's a (n word)," the man said.

I was dumbstruck, caught so completely off guard that I wasn't sure how to react. Should I walk away and quit in mid-round? It had been so long since hearing that inexcusably insulting word that I did nothing.

I regretted my inaction the rest of the day. It still burns at me.<<<

1 – He should have protested and walked away.
2 – He should have said nothing but walked away.
3 – Since he is not going to change them, he should have finished the round as he did and then made sure never to be matched with them again.<<<

Nobody 693

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Nobody # 693

Nobody Asked Me But:

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with
themselves, remorseful after deeds done. - Walt Whitman – from “I Sit and Look Out.”

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." Mark Twain.

Just in case you missed this from last week’s Time, here is your chance to read it and weep:

For most Americans, the Iraq war is both distant and never ending. For Private Matthew Zeimer, it was neither. Shortly after midnight on Feb. 2, Zeimer had his first taste of combat as he scrambled to the roof of the 3rd Infantry Division's Combat Outpost Grant in central Ramadi. Under cover of darkness, Sunni insurgents were attacking his new post from nearby buildings. Amid the smoke, noise and confusion, a blast suddenly ripped through the 3-ft. concrete wall shielding Zeimer and a fellow soldier, killing them both. Zeimer had been in Iraq for a week. He had been at his first combat post for two hours.

If Zeimer's combat career was brief, so was his training. He enlisted last June at age 17, three weeks after graduating from Dawson County High School in eastern Montana. After finishing nine weeks of basic training and additional preparation in infantry tactics in Oklahoma, he arrived at Fort Stewart, Ga., in early December. But Zeimer had missed the intense four-week pre-Iraq training—a taste of what troops will face in combat—that his 1st Brigade comrades got at their home post in October. Instead, Zeimer and about 140 other members of the 4,000-strong brigade got a cut-rate, 10-day course on weapon use, first aid and Iraqi culture. That's the same length as the course that teaches soldiers assigned to generals' household staffs the finer points of table service.

The Army and the White House insist the abbreviated training was adequate. "They can get desert training elsewhere," spokesman Tony Snow said Feb. 28, "like in Iraq."

At least in that other great immorality that was Vietnam, the government had the decency to train and equip our military properly - and to not hide the causalities. We have had morally bankrupt administrations before. Some have been careless with the lives of our military. But none have been more careless AND callous.<<<

But the news isn’t all bad. We have finally found a way to make safe the streets of Baghdad. The Senator who would be President, John McCain, strolled through Baghdad’s Shorga market safely a few days ago. (April Fool’s Day to be exact. – And wasn’t that appropriate?) Of course he was protected by more than a hundred American soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and a bulletproof vest. McCain labeled his walk a sign of progress, and in a sense it was.

Now we know that if we can give each Baghdad resident the same protection, they can live in safety.<<<

Today is a special day for a special man - Jackie Robinson Day. Few people of the 20th Century are more deserving. Every time we drive by his high school in Pasadena, I think of how much he meant and means to America.

And did you know that Robison was such a great all-round athlete that he lettered in 4 sports at UCLA and, while in high school, even won the city ping-pong championship?<<<

The radical right is faced with a something of a dilemma. They sense that Mayor Rudy is their best chance of keeping a Democrat out of the White House in 2008. But he keeps saying these outrageous things like the fact that he supports “taxpayer funding for some abortions.”

Atlantic Monthly’s Associate Editor, Ross Douthat, wonders if Rudy really wants the nomination. He says: Giuliani, “who can be a potent contender if he works out smart answers to the various inconvenient questions awaiting him, has instead decided that he’s Rudy Giuliani, damn it, and the G.O.P. can bloody well change to suit him rather than the other way around.”

My response is in two-parts:

Part 1 – Way to go Rudy! My respect for you just took an upward surge.

Part 2 – “smart answers to the various inconvenient questions;” Sadly (which seems to be the word of the day) this phrase covers much of what has gone wrong with American politics. Truth and honesty are almost always quaint oddities having little to do with the real political world.<<<

Then there is that great Rudy-challenger, Milt – “Tell me what you want me to believe today, and I’ll oblige” - Romney. If honesty was a gas tank and “too thine own self be true,” the fuel, Milt would be running on empty.<<<

Yesterday I replaced my old Braun electric toothbrush that died a quiet death last week with a new model - speaks to me in 5 languages. That almost kept me from buying it. English should be the official language for toothbrushes in America, even ones imported from Germany.<<<

Not true – the official White House e-mails relative to the U. S. Attorney firings are not missing. They are stored in an out-of-the-way closet along with 17 minutes of the Nixon tape.<<<

Joke of the week contest – you choose.

Dick Cheney is still trying to link Iraq with Al Qaeda and 9/11.

Bush wants to appoint a czar to oversee our two current wars.

Please vote only once.<<<

This week’s HUH? Award goes to an unnamed LA Dodger executive. A season ticket holder, while complaining about the team’s new and chaotic parking system, said the team no longer appears to appreciate its season-ticket holders. The executive’s response was: 'Oh, we appreciate you, we just don't show it.' HUH?<<<

Headline: Thousands join anti-U.S. march marking Baghdad's fall. Response from our morally, ethically and brain-dead Vice President: “I still believe they welcome us as liberators. They just won’t admit it.”<<<

Below are 6 rules for properly administrating a blog. I know that Nobody is not quite a blog because, by definition, a blog has more than one reader, three if I count myself and Barb. But I still try to follow good advice.

1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.

No problem. If Hugh, my one responder, gets out of line, I will ban his comments without so much as a second thought.

2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.

My tolerance level is very high – anything to get more feedback.

3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.

If I did this, I would have no comments.

4. Ignore the trolls.

I welcome comments from trolls – supportive, critical, humorous, obscene, inane. If you have an axe to grind, a knife to sharpen or are just lonely, feel free to comment.

5. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.

All right. Elizabeth, stop using my Nobodies as bedtime stories to put the kids to sleep.

6. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.

That’s easy. I tell everybody everything anyway.<<<

It’s not fair. In many of the Bracketology contests one is forced to choose between two classics in the first round sending one on to the sweet 16 while condemning the other, almost as deserving, to early elimination. Here is an example:

The category is greatest political blunders. Two first round opponents are:

Dan Quayle corrects student about spelling of potato.
Vs.
George Bush throws up on Japanese head of state.

To choose Quayle is to recognize that “anyone” can be Vice President. How tempting is that? But how can one not reward the pure chutzpah of an American president spilling his guts to, ah, I mean on, his Japanese counterpart?

I can’t, so deserving Dan is out and the former Yale first baseman moves on.<<<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnOnDatqENo

My anti-USC remarks have always been playful (well, mostly always) but there is nothing playful about their willingness and the methods they used to shut down a 13-student sit-in last week. The students were protesting the fact that some of the official Trojanwear is made in sweatshops. The school responded by calling their parents and giving them 15 minutes to disperse or they would be suspended, any student aid that they receive would be cut off and they would be booted out of their dorms.

Booted is exactly the right word because the administration’s actions were nothing more than Fascism on the march. When there is no room for free speech or assembly on a campus, when the First amendment must go into hiding, citizenship education hides with it.<<<

Justice or law?

The following is from a book I recently finished reading, “Supreme Conflict - The Inside Story of the Struggle For Control Of The Supreme Court.”

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a leading proponent of judicial restraint had just finished having lunch with Judge Learned Hand. As they said good-bye, Hand told Holmes, “Do justice, sir, do justice.” Holmes responded quickly: “That is not my job. It is my job to apply the law.”

I think Holmes was wrong. The proper role for the court is to make sure that justice and law are one and the same. That’s what the Constitution is all about.<<<

And what better way to say good-bye to Arron Afflalo than with this picture. His achievements and, more importantly, his character should make any Bruin fan, nay, any fan of college sports, proud.

Nobody 692

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007
Nobody # 692

Nobody Asked Me But:

“Georgia peach cobbler and shrimp and grits do not make up for a loss in the semi-final game.” Anonymous

Especially when the cobbler’s ice cream melts as you fight your way back to your seats.<<<

On the plane, shortly after take-off:

They had just started their showing of Casino Royale. A moment later I, as usual, splashed a bit of coffee onto my lap. The juxtaposition of the two made it a time for confession. You all know that 007 means Bond, James Bond, is licensed to kill. But did you know that my number is 0013 – license to spill.<<<

A quick comment on the game and then on to the trip: This season we won many tough games by using our aggressive defense to get into the heads of the opposition, but Florida, an excellent team, wasn't intimidated. Even though I think they were the better team, I would have liked to have played our game with the Ohio State/Georgetown referees who ignored the kind of ticky-tack fouls called by the 3 assigned to our game. I also would have liked a more aggressive Darren Collison on offense. With his speed he should have taken it to the basket more often. I do think we would have beaten both Ohio State and Georgetown.<<<

FUN-NOT FUN

Fun
Being there for the experience.

NOT FUN
Losing is very bad. Losing in the first round is very bad squared.

FUN
Coffee at 4 new Starbucks – and on the Arizona Wildcat dime. Thanks Elizabeth. Next year I will give you points.

NOT FUN
Jet lag – Combined with the late start of the games (after 9) left us with too little sleep and slightly (only slightly) less energy.

FUN
Staying at the Omni which is a part of the CNN complex, taking a neat tour of Ted Turner’s dream come true and drinking am early morning Starbucks at a kiosk in their atrium while watching the news broadcast live on the big screen above.

NOT FUN
The tragedy that happened in that same place a few hours after we left.

FUN
Our meal at Dailey’s – My Cajon shrimp and grits with a chipotle cream sauce was delicious. Barb’s pecan chicken salad was both different (the pecans were in a dressing poured over the salad) and excellent.

NOT FUN
No good ice cream – none, nada. The only ice cream we had, other than on the cobbler, was in malts at Johnny Rockets.

Fun
The food at the second Bruin bash at Atlanta’s world-class aquarium. I ate away some of my sorrow about not playing that night with Wolfgang Puck catered barbecued pork, southern potato salad, coleslaw and baked beans and drank away a bit more with the open bar. Since it wasn’t Barb’s kind of food, she salvaged a bit of joy by checking out the fish through the floor to ceiling viewing windows, which surrounded the banquet room.

NOT FUN
The food at the first bash before Saturday’s game. Our hope was high but the hot dogs and sliders didn’t match. However, having Tim Robbins as one of the speakers and Eric Karos as another was neat. This is two years in a row that we have seen Robbins following the Bruins to the FF.

FUN
Touring the Coke Museum. All the displays were fascinating and at the last stop (before the gift shop) they have a room full of dispensers where one can drink free Coke, root beer and every other Coke-made drink. There was even a Tab machine for Barb.

And did you know that the term soda jerk came from the fact that the original Coke’s were made from pouring the “syrup” into a glass and then adding a couple of jerks of soda water?

Not fun
Getting into and out of Georgia Dome – especially for the Saturday games. It was a disorganized mess.

FUN
Seeing the Olympic Bricks that Barb purchased before the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There were Barb and I, Ryan and Alec (Emily wasn’t around yet) Richard and Dana (neither was Hana) “And Amy, Libby’s daughter enshrined” in the middle of Olympic Park.

Not fun
When Johnny Nash wrote “I Can See Clearly Now” he was not referring to our seats. They were the worst we have ever had at a Final Four, in the “end zone” and far from the action.

FUN
Seeing “McGuire,” the one-person play about the wonderfully eccentric Al McGuire, who coached Marquette to the NC here in Atlanta 30 years ago and then retired to partner up with the play’s author, Dick Enberg, and Billy Packer as basketball’s greatest announcing team.

NOT FUN
NCAA greed – their decision to hold Final Fours only in huge domes guarantees that unless you have big bucks or big luck you might as well stay home and actually see the game in HD.

But will we go again next year - to San Antonio? Yes, because we want to be there to watch the Bruins win their 12th. Will we feel ripped off by the NCAA? Yes!

FUN
Talking to Rose Gilbert. Some of you may remember that her late husband, Sam, has been accused of bending a few NCAA rules behind Coach Wooden’s back to help players during the later championship years. Rose, left many million times wealthy, still, at 88, teaches English at Pacific Palisades High School where she has been for 50 years.

FUN
My 5 new tee shirts, bringing my current total to 7,999.<<<

Still on the subject of tee shirts, I saw a man wearing one from ESPN that proclaimed: “Without sports, you’d have to talk about politics.”

So the only politics I will include is this cartoon (above) and a quote from conservative columnist Robert Novak. The subject is Israel’s rejection of the recent Arab peace proposal:

“The aphorism (originated by Israeli statesman Abba Eban) that Arabs "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" now can be applied to Israel.”<<<

Thanks, Bruins, for a great season. We will LOVE seeing you in San Antonio next year.<<<