RIP Don Merideth

I've never liked the Cowboys but I always liked Dandy Don. "Turn out the lights, the party's over."

Me and LeBron

It was a chilly 52 this morning here in central Florida so I'm following LeBron to Miami, if only for a few days. Just in case you have nothing else to occupy you, here are a couple links sent to me this morning:

From Deuce Bruce, today's Paul Krugman column which highlights the evidence of President Obama's dwindling backbone. Isn't it a little early for osteoporosis? Why haven't more people compared him to Adlai
Stevenson, Illinois' last presidential pretender?

From Buzzard, Michael Rosenberg on SI.com. Don't let the title fool you; the article isn't really about LeBron, it's about the soul of Cleveland.

From me: David Brooks, to remind us that if just a little collective sanity emerged there is hope.

Sports Thursday. The return of LeBron

I had an email from Buzzard at the crack of dawn this morning bemoaning the hypocrisy of the NCAA letting Cam Newton off so easy. I’m not bothered so much by that. The big hypocrisy is the way the NCAA, the Division I schools and the bowls siphon off all the dough while the players get pay equal to below minimum wage, based on the free education they get in return. I’m not sure whether there should be quotation marks around the word “free” or “education” in the previous sentence. If I were King of All Sports the college players would be paid – above the table.

On a similar note, I loved what Hines Ward said about the NFL yesterday – and I don’t usually go out of my way to praise wearers of the black and gold. He lambasted the NFL for claiming that they are fining players for hitting too hard as a means of protecting them, while at the same time pushing the players’ union to accept an expansion of the schedule to 18 games next year.

Now I’m sure Hines’ words were motivated in part by how hard the Steelers have been hit with these fines, but it’s hard to argue with him. The NFL has been stiffing former players for years over health care benefits and fought reforms tooth and nail until the science related to head trauma became overwhelming. I’ll never forget the high school practice in 1965 when Charles White hit me with a forearm to the helmet that made me see stars. I can’t imagine what an accumulation of blows like that might do to someone. I may even have a little lasting trauma myself. Why, I’ll never forget the high school practice in 1965 when Charles White hit me with a forearm to the helmet that made me see stars. I can’t imagine what an accumulation of blows like that might do to someone. I may even have a little lasting trauma myself.

But the big sports news today is that it’s 29 degrees with snow showers in Cleveland this afternoon – although the wind makes it feel like it’s 19. Meanwhile, it’s 73 and sunny in Miami. I don’t know what my fellow Cavs fans have in store for LeBron’s return this evening but it better be good if it’s going to overcome the 44 degree swing between his former and current homes. Personally, I think the Heat’s record is justice enough. I swore off the NBA immediately after LBJ announced he was “taking his talent to Miami,” but I have to peak in this evening.

Finally, I’m heading to Miami myself for the weekend. I’ve got Browns v. Dolphins tickets on the 50 yard line and pre-game field passes so I can get right down there and feel completely inadequate.

Imagine Baltimore

Imagine the Baltimore metropolitan area including the suburbs and Towson. The population of the MSA is right around 2.5 million, which was the approximate population of the original 13 colonies at the time of the Revolution.

Living in the colonies at that time were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (left). I haven't actually been in Baltimore for a while, but I did watch quite a bit of The Wire, and I don't recall a similar sprinkling of genius; but maybe you have to be there to fully appreciate the talent level of that fine city.

If you extrapolated those seven men into the current U.S. population of over 300 million you'd expect to find about 840 people in today's United States with similar talents and vision; nearly 17 per state. But that's an average. Utah might only have 7-8 while California could have 85-90.

I suppose I should draw some conclusion from these statistics but that would just insult the audience.

Sarah says...

"This is stemming from, I think, a greater problem when we're all sitting around asking 'Oh no, what are we gonna do,' and we're not having a lot of faith that the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea's gonna do."
— Sarah Palin

My wish for you...

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Tea Party is...

I usually avoid just throwing red meat to the beasts who visit these pages, but sometimes it's just too hard to resist. One of my favorite journalists, Matt Taibbi's latest piece in Rolling Stone is a complete deconstruction of the Tea Party. I love Taibbi (who coined the term "Vampire Squid" to describe Goldman Sachs) because he speaks so plainly. Here's a quote from the article:

"Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them."

Enjoy.