A Warning To My Brother

Crazy motorists abound.

The Ricky Gervais podcast is about the funniest thing I've ever listened to. Avalable here or itunes, in each case, for free.

Funny stuff: Link

Double True

Fox Exec: “Highly Unlikely” Arrested Development Coming Back Next Season...

Courtesy of Joshmag

"It honestly doesn’t get much weirder than this. When I say weird, I mean just when you think it’s gotten weird, you are hit with another thing that makes you think that the thing you thought was weird wasn’t in the same galaxy of weird as this new weird. Like warp weird. Then it gets weirder. (roughly 55 minutes) Is this the future of most, if not all documentaries? Discuss. "

I would have linked directly to his blog, but I couldn't make it work.

Happy Birthday, Ally

Today Ally is one. She's been sick this week with a mild case of Croup.

Tomorrow, against my better judgment, I will be in crime-ridden New Orleans.

I read "A Million Little Pieces", pre-Oprah (like Franzen I'm anti the O-seal of approval), and I thought it was very good. Well, in a lengthy article the Smoking Gun has raised substantial questions about the truth of numerous incidents depicted in James Frey's best-selling memoir. NYTimes picked up the story: Go to Article.

I haven't been able to review the book in light of this article because I lent this book to someone about two years ago who never gave it back and then I moved away. And then the one person who is my contact to that other person was corresponding with me about the book (as it had just been picked Oprah) because she remembered that I had mentioned that book in the past, and I mentioned that her friend had my copy of the book. To which she replied something like, "yeah, you're not going to see that ever again." What kind of person accepts a loan of a book and doesn't give it back? The worst kind.

The good news: the printing I had never made it paperback, but now there are millions of copies and I can pick one up on the cheap.

The bad news: it's sure to have one of those damn Os on it.

Eugene e-mailed me today and told me something to the effect of: If people think the memoirs they are reading are all true, then they're stupid. True, it's not an abuse of the nature of Stephen Glass or Jayson Blair, but part of what made his story so compelling is some of the outrageousness of the facts now being challenged. I would think this is not a major crime in the literary world. In my book, it's a minor misdemeanor, but he's the one that said it was non-fiction, so I guess he's got it coming. That said, I still think it's a good read and I hope he doesn't lose his movie deal. I haven't picked up his sequel, as the first book dragged at the end, and one helping was enough for me.

Megacolon

Yup, that's the word of the day. Sam's got Feline Megacolon and don't look it up unless you want to puke. I don't even want to tempt you with a link. Woah is the poopsmith.

Down goes Delay. Sounds like the Abramoff scandal will net a few more Republican Congressmen before it's all over. Maybe the wiretapping story will take this off the frontpage, or a Rove indictment (it'sa coming), or the Frist SEC investigation, or a cronyism story, or, well, you get the point. Actually, Alito will take everything off the frontpage tomorrow. Should be a good fight, and one that the White House needs.

W

It might be another 16 seasons before Kentucky comes back to Allen Fieldhouse.Before Saturday, the Wildcats hadn't visited Lawrence since getting blown out 150-95 on Dec. 9, 1989 -- still a school scoring record for the Jayhawks and the second-worst loss in Kentucky's history.
This time, the Wildcats left town on the short end of the biggest defeat in Tubby Smith's nine seasons as coach -- a 73-46 loss in which they shot just 24 percent from the field and didn't have an assist until the second half.

KU covered the 3 pt. spread and I'm up $20. Plus, Tim has to do shots in NOLA.

Tim and Taylor have been telling me how bad UK is, and admittedly they looked terrible today (3/25 from behind the 3 pt line), but as bad as UK played, Rush was good. He is the Reason for hope this year with such a young team. He abused Crawford all day, put a move on Rondo which was lengendary. More here: Brandon leads freshman ‘Rush’ party

I can confirm this site was up and running before today's game.

http://www.firetubbysmith.com

HBO's The Wire was filming at Werner's today. I went past it on my way to and on my way back from lunch. I did not get my break as an extra.

Rigga Digga

OLYMPICS - CBS SportsLine.com: "Miller on '60 Minutes': Skiing drunk 'not easy'

NEW YORK -- Bode Miller knows he puts his life at risk when he skis drunk, but the outspoken Olympic favorite admits he may try the dangerous activity again.

'Talk about a hard challenge right there. ... If you ever tried to ski when you're wasted, it's not easy,' Miller told 60 Minutes for a segment that will air Sunday. 'Try and ski a slalom when ... you hit a gate less than every one second, so it's risky. You're putting your life at risk. ... It's like driving drunk, only there are no rules about it in ski racing.'"

UK-Kansas a possibility next season, but nothing is firm

UK-Kansas a possibility next season, but nothing is firm:

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kansas basketball coach Bill Self said today that he wanted to continue the series with the University of Kentucky, but the two schools have not solidified any plans for next season.

The two teams play on Saturday at Kansas in the final game of the two-year series.

Even if the Jayhawks and Wildcats don’t schedule each other, they still could meet as part of the Southeastern Conference-Big 12 Challenge, which could begin next season.

Recently, Ally spied the Cat sleeping on the couch. She noisely crawled over and pulled herself up. She's about as stealthy as a freight train when she's crawling towards an object as exciting as a cat or a toy. The Cat awoke just as Ally had pulled herself up. Looking alarmed, he jumped up and ran quickly away. Ally looked in his direction, waved and said, "Bye Dat*", but he was gone by the time she had swiveled her head.
*Dat = Cat.

KU crushes Yale and covers 19 1/2 point spread.

Where's My Laptop?

Marquette 94, No. 2 Connecticut 79

The victory, Marquette's first in the regular season over a team ranked higher than third, spoiled the return of Huskies junior guard Marcus Williams who was suspended for the first semester over the theft of laptops from a dormitory. The Golden Eagles' dominant play made Williams' return a non-issue. The crowd chanted "Where's my laptop? Where's my laptop?" when Williams first entered the game at the 17:21 mark. Williams had said he expected that type of reaction after doing community service both on campus and in the legal system. Williams, the Big East assists leader last season, took it in stride and smiled after a media timeout as someone shouted, "Can you get a printer, too?" The Golden Eagles are 3-17 against teams ranked No. 1 or No. 2, beating Kentucky twice (1955, 2003) in the NCAA tournament.

Philly Fans

Clinton Portis took a beating in Sunday's victory over Philadelphia. Apparently, his mother dished one out.

In the fourth quarter, Portis's mother, Rhonnel Hearn, was sitting in the end zone at Lincoln Financial Field with Portis's stepfather and some friends when an Eagles fan apparently tossed a beer on the group. Portis's mother responded by punching the woman in the face, Portis said.
The altercation explained why Hearn watched part of the game from the Redskins sideline.
"She busted some lady in the nose, but that'll just teach you about messing with her," Portis said. "I think fans take that too serious. People come to the game to have a good time, that's what you should do. If you decide your team is losing and you want to cause trouble, then you're going to get what you're looking for. And yesterday, whoever that fan was, they got what they were looking for."

Portis rushed for 112 hard yards Sunday but re-injured an already sore shoulder and left wrist after being horse-collared in the fourth quarter by linebacker Trent Cole. "It's one of those Mondays where I feel like I ain't going to make it," Portis said with a laugh.
His mother, he said, fared better. "My mom can protect herself," Portis said.

Here's another edition of the Hungry Cyclist. I avoid the "gross meats" at all costs.

New Year's Resolutions

Longer and more frequent blog posts.

Use all of my vacation and personal days. It was a nice effort this year, just 3 days shy, but the baby really helped out in that regard. On the other hand, I'm taking about 3 times as much vacation as I did at my old job.

Start paying attention to Fantasy Baseball.

Anyway, I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions, so what else is going on?

I've got a new nickname at work (insert joke here): Dewey. Derived from my initials for those of you not in the know.

I was in Wichita about two weeks ago and ran into an old high school classmate at a store. E and I were shopping and she was working. I began to realize at my 10 year high school reunion that I am no longer recognizable to old acquaintances. Mostly, I think, it's the grey hair, balding thing. E was trying things, taking a long time. So when this classmate approached about 3 times over a thirty minute period to ask if I could be helped, needed something to drink, etc., I went into my standard no eye contact, "no thanks", let me wait in peace mode. Towards the end of this shopping excursion another salesperson clued me into the fact they have a TV (with a remote) for sad sacks such as myself. I passed by my classmate as I was relocating to the TV lounge and finally got a look at her. I immediately knew. I asked her is she were she, and she was. And of course she didn't recognize me, so I had to introduce myself. We traded info about classmates (I've been regurgitating essentially the same stuff for years), baby pictures, etc. and then parted ways. I'm unrecognizable. That's a punch in the gut.

In two weeks I'm going to New Orleans for TR's bachelor party. I tried to have this site ruled out as unsecured and prone to banditry, but apparently Atlantic City in January holds little appeal.

Ally has teeth coming in (two top front and two bottom front), and she is not particularily happy about it.

Big week coming up. Ally's birthday (celebrated) on Sunday. Also, a chance to beat both of TR's B-Ball teams this week. Yale on Wednesday (which he tried to disown today) and then the big one, Kentucky on Saturday. If UK doesn't beat us by at least 20, I'd be surprised (since I last posted, KU has beaten the basketball giants of New Orleans, Northern Colorado & Pepperdine [a combined 4-29]).