NewscomaGot A Two-Pack Habit And A Motel Tan

This is one of those songs that makes me reflective and feel all willowy and introspective inside. One of those pieces of music that makes me want to go out to the country (maybe in Sewanee with Smiley and Ruabelle, Cuppa’s out in the east of the state where we would talk horror and japanese movies we adore (and how much we feel that they are important and significant) and how much we love Buffy The Vampire Slayer and politics wouldn’t matter for a few hours, or with SQ at her folks land where the wind always smells so good that it creates a sense of hope that life has possibilites and things will always be okay even though it might not be but there is the faith that it actually will). Or maybe my buddy Stephanie who has acres of daffodils on her property this time of year, and the memories of just a few months ago when we listened to “Hurt” by Johnny Cash on New Year’s Eve and we both knew after the champagne at midnight that the music and raspy voice of Cash sang just for us for a few hours.

And to all the people I’m thinking of, we would drink funky beer and talk about the possibilities that life will always be of the good.

This song is one of those that makes me delve deep into myself. I don’t know why.

I don’t know. I just like it and it makes me sort of introspective. Doesn’t mean nothing but I dig it because that’s what music is supposed to do.

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‘Cause that’s the mood I’m in.

• Bowie Kuhn is dead. I don’t know how to say it any kinder than that.

• Bobby Knight is out and as I don’t like him AT ALL. I’m not upset.
• Vanderbilt 77 – George Washington 44. Woot.
  
• On-Demand hoops during March Madness at CBS.

After generating $4 million in online advertising last year, CBS SportsLine says that it will likely double that figure for 2007 with its nearly 30 advertisers, which include Dell, Marriot, State Farm, Pontiac and its newest sponsor, Cingular Wireless.In terms of projecting the amount of visitor traffic it will receive, Mark Kortekaas, chief technical officer for CBS Interactive, says that it is anyone’s guess.

Photo from here and I still don’t like him.

So there you go.

UPDATE: DUKE is upset by Virginal Commenwealth University. Holy Crap!!!

Did you actually really notice the difference in the Time relaunch of the front cover?

No, me neither.  But they admit the photoshop.

I guess that’s new.

This is horrifying to me.

A 17-year-old girl who spent weeks looking for her missing dog unwrapped a box left on her doorstep and found the pet’s severed head inside, authorities said.

Homicide investigators were looking into the case because of the “implied” terroristic threat, St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray said. The Humane Society of the United States said Wednesday it was offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Horribly. If I found Duff, Kirby or Mabel’s head in a box on my front steps, I can only imagine feelings of pure horror. Imagine what this girl felt. They are my canine children. I don’t know anything about this other than it being just mean.

Terrible and mean. Who would do this?

Just dreadful.

As I am a Lost fan (although much of my loyalty in the last few months has gone to Heroes), I’m glad that the writers are moving back to the beach. I became somewhat fed up recently, but the last two weeks have been better, and for this I’m pretty grateful because I was getting to the point of “Put a fork in me …”

But with Sayid’s story last week and then Claire’s this week, I feel like we are moving forward. I guess I have high expectations because the pilot to this series was so awesomely good as was the first season that I realize we are somewhere in the mid-point if the Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse do, indeed, have an ending.

Patience is hard for me (see post below.)

Anyway, as much as I dig watching Locke, the reality is he is an asshat on the island. I love the actor, Terry O’Quinn’s, portrayal of him, but sometimes he is such an idiot that it makes me want, as I squint at the television with my stink-eye, to whack him in the head with that cricket bat that took Desmond down a few weeks ago.

I think with Hurley’s story two weeks ago and tonight’s episode were about having faith, hope and changing one’s own destiny. Claire needed to put that opus (KC is so right) on that seagull’s leg to represent hope but it was a bit far-fetched and her self-righteous indignation was just sort of goofy if you ask me with Charlie and Desmond.

And I hate that Russian guy is gone. I liked him. He was a great antagonist for Sayid. Locke, on the other hand, guided by his own mission to, and I’m speculating here, kill Benry for destroying his faith (speculating campers, just speculating.)

The whole John Christian Shepherd thing seemed a bit contrived but I’m willing to give it a shot. And as for the looks on Kate and Sayid’s faces watching Jack play football playfully with Zeke/Mr. Friendly/Tom sort of made me happy. Here they are eating grubs and the 80th day of mangos and dealing with a freaked-out mysterious “I’ve-got-my-own-agenda” Locke, and they see Jack spiking a football.

So, I have one comment. Sayid is the smartest guy out there, so why isn’t he the leader? He is a hell of a lot smarter than anyone else on the island, Kate is a good ally as his partner because she doesn’t mind hitting somebody with the butt of a gun or kicking them in the face (they work pretty well together) and both Locke and Jack are irritating me because they are too busy fighting their own demons. And if they bring Bai Ling back, I will scream. Literally scream (worst Lost episode ever in my book.)

Oh, and I still miss the smoke monster and Mister Eko.

So I’m a bit more enthusiastic than I was three weeks ago, but I’m still wary.

Don’t toy with my emotions, Lost. I mean it. (I’m such a girl.)

I will admit. I did not grow up with baseball.

We were a family who watched football with a desperate fervor, and my mother for some odd reason, loved boxing. I think she had a unspoken crush on Muhammed Ali (we all loved Ali) in the day and so we would watch The Wide World of Sports because we didn’t have 300 channels back when dinosaurs smoked cigarettes and you only had four channels on the telly, only ‘the agony of defeat’ to get our Boxing thing on, but Fall was the time that the entire family became as one as we rooted for the Vols and our NFL team (Big Daddy was quite a Steelers fan in the day).

As today is the beginning of March Madness, I will also tell you, we did not really watch basketball either although as I’ve gotten older, I do enjoy watching hoops although it is secondary for me. I mean I loved watching the Bulls and Michael Jordan is probably one of the most graceful and smart players to ever play the game but even though I would watch it, I wouldn’t seek it out and I still don’t.

March Madness is a little different. I adore March Madness because of the mystery of it all. Watching the little guys try to beat the college powerhouses gives me a sense of a happy although by the time they reach the final four, I’m done.

Sports, the last great mystery.

Now back to baseball. Due to love and lust and all of those things that make men and women learn things to be apart of a new amore’s life, this is why I started watching baseball. About 25 years ago, when I wanted to follow a team so I could impress the latest person I was allegedly in love with for the moment, I found because we were closest to St. Louis, that they would be my team. It was sort of random draw. Something along the lines of “Hey, I need a team” and low and behold, I went with the Cardinals. I read everything I could about them, and read non-stop on the rules of baseball. I edumacated, half-assedly, I might add, myself. The rules of baseball were not ingrained in me like the war of football, and it still doesn’t come as naturally to me as it does others. I guess, in the sporting world, it could only be compared to learning a second language. I still have to think about what’s going on.

But, I could hear them on the radio back in the day, that deep comforting rumble of Jack Buck calling the game, his voice excitable and Mike Shannon just rambling on (I love me some Mike Shannon) and I became a fan. I’d ask tons of questions to initiate conversation with the person in question more than two decades ago and realized there was a cult of baseball. Once I started seeing the beauty of it, (and the amore was long gone by this point. Yeah, it was love all right. Sheesh, my misguided youth) I sort of stuck with it.

Over the years, I became smitten, sort of bummed out during the baseball strike and then came back to the world during the dizzy home-run insanity of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. (I know, I know, but it was fun at the time and although they both appear to be steroid cheaters, they made the game fun. And I always got a little dizzy watching McGwire at the plate, his bat poised to hurt somebody. I hate that it ended so poorly.He was like a weary foot soldier in his battles on the baseball diamond when he went to the plate and the glare he gave pitchers to this day still makes me swoon. It was animalistic and raw. I so dig that.)

These days, I’m quite smitten with Albert Pujols. He seems like a genuine player. Watching him warm up is amazing. It takes him about an hour stretching and pulling muscles. He walks to home when it’s his turn to bat with grace and humility. For some reason, I like that too.

Pitching is going to be an issue this year for the Cards and it drives me crazy that Tony LaRussa changes pitchers non-stop but that’s just part of it. I think our defense is pretty solid.

I’ve also had to learn to be patient with baseball. The idea that you can be down seven in the ninth and come back and win a game is just uber cool to me, but as I was learning the game, I found myself not understanding there wasn’t a franticness about it. Baseball is about grace, and especially grace under pressure.

So today, I will watch some March Madness and be totally immersed and drunk with revelry over the joy of college hoops. It is a good day. And then I move on to the Mother Church of Baseball.

And it is of the good.