Super
There were some football games yesterday. One of my favorite parts of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch is when he relates how he and his soccer loving friends debated what the perfect win was. They settled on a 3-2 win in which their team twice trailed and tied and then scored a late game-winner. I’ve often thought of what my criteria…
Bearded Blogger
Personal grooming stories from your humble blogger. Like many jackasses, um young men who were attending college in the early 90s, come finals time in December, I tended to eschew the razor for 10-14 days. The finals beard was an important part of college, right up there with puking in bar bathrooms and stalking attractive members of the opposite sex…
Karma Or Redemption?
The football gods are watching! We can take at least that much from this weekend’s playoff games. The football gods are watching and next Sunday they will render their decision on the Colts pulling their starters against the Jets a month ago. That’s the only explanation for the Jets clawing their way first into the playoffs and then through the…
Sports Briefs
Let’s take a look at the burning sports topics of the day (or week), shall we? Kansas Loses to Tennessee. This kind of sucked. It was, arguably, KU’s most losable non-conference game at the start of the season. Tennessee was supposed to be good, played us tight for 39 minutes in Lawrence last year, and rarely get a chance to…
Robbed
Monday was my big chance. The chance to finally see the worst girls basketball team that I cover win a game. Over the last three years I’ve covered roughly ten of their games. None have even been close, if I recall correctly. They have one good player, some girls that try hard, and for the first time ever have a…
Reader’s Notebook, December 2009, Part 3
The final installment in my review of December readings. Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music – Greg Kot. For months I’ve been mentally drafting an essay about how music changed over the last decade. As I thought about it, I’ve read numerous articles, columns, and now a book about the same subject. So I’ll try to share my thoughts…
Slump Buster
I’ll admit it: I’ve hit one of my periodic blogging funks. I’ve found it difficult to write over the past week. I think most of that can be attributed to my sleep cycles getting all jacked up.* I’ll only say that I’ve been spoiling our youngest child at nap and bedtimes, and as a result I’m getting plenty of sleep,…
Reader’s Notebook, December 2009, Part 2
Continuing my review of books read in December. Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn. I’m sad to say I knew not of Ms. Flynn until this summer. That’s a shame, as she’s both a Kansas City native and a KU alum. And I only learned of her by chance; while visiting Kansas City there was a feature on her in the…
Reader’s Notebook, December 2009, Part 1
Upon finishing Infinite Jest in early December, I went a little nuts. I polished off five books in three weeks. A couple demand lengthy essays, so I’ll be dividing up my December entries into three posts. This is the first. The Book of Basketball – Bill Simmons.* (Note: I am writing this before reading of the New Yorker reviews of…
The End
Well, the girls and I survived three days without their mother. S. arrived home from her trip to visit her new nephew this afternoon and found a house that was remarkably clean,* three daughters that were still alive and happy to see her, and a slightly tired husband. (In my opinion.) And suddenly it’s the final day of the year. And…