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.<<<