Well, it looks like the Komen folks will have to change their slug line from “For the Cure” to “Not in the Face!” …I don’t envy their PR folks at this point. It’s not an easy thing to try to un-piss the bed…Awkward time for Zeta Tau Alpha to be launching a chapter at Vanderbilt, seeing that Komen is (was?) their national philanthropy…
…The ACC is rolling out its new scheduling process, and will join the PAC-12 and B1G and Big IX in going to nine conference games. Can the SEC be far behind?…it’s starting to become apparent how thoroughly untenable a 14-team league is for scheduling purposes; the ACC is following the SEC lead in scrapping divisions for ranking purposes but will use a modified form to try to make the expanded 18-game conference basketball schedule have some measure of continuity…if you didn’t believe that football-driven realignment would end up shit for all other collegiate sports, best believe now…
Meanwhile, the NFL continues its unique brand of bluster by expanding the Thursday night schedule to the entire season so that everyone has a shot at a prime-time game…on the NFL’s own house network which not every cable system gets, but which by rule must be carried over the air in the home market by someone…you think ESPN is happy about this after a couple decades of Thursday night college football?…if you need any more proof that the NFL thinks it’s the be-all and end-all of the sport of football, I don’t know what to tell you…doesn’t change the fact that the Super Bowl is still the football world’s equivalent of St Patrick’s Day: overhyped, full of amateurs, and brings out the worst of the genre, and is generally abhorrent to anyone who actually enjoys football or Irish-style drink…
…Apple refuses to be drawn on a release date for the iPad 3. Or specs for the iPad 3. Or the existence of an iPad 3. I’m pretty sure that if it exists, and if I decide to get one, I’ll have to have “Dynabook” engraved on it somewhere…the fact that you can get Avid for it now kind of kicks in the bozack the whole notion of “the iPad’s just for consumption.” Let’s see somebody cut up HD video on a Kindle…
Team Black Swan is sending a detachment to Spain next week. It’ll be interesting to see how many times they start trying to speak French before catching themselves…in fairness, I’ve been to Paris twice and both times I had to stop myself trying to stammer something in German to make myself understood…it’s not all us; the guy in the cellphone store in Bath thought my accent was Canadian, which I’m sure certain persons would find risible in the extreme (it is too, look it up…shout out to the second 02-02 movie there)…
Come to think of it, it’s hard for me to believe it’s been ten years since the first trip to Punxsutawney, but the more I think about everything that’s gone down since 2002 it’s more amazing to believe it’s been ONLY ten years…you don’t even need to have kids to know that as you get older, the days go slow but the years go fast…I’ve been calling myself forty in casual conversation since football season started but it’s going to be weird to know it’s for real…speaking of aging, why do I get the feeling that I’m going to be flashing back to the Jane Russell ads for 18-Hour Girdles from my early childhood when Madonna gets out there at halftime of the Super Bowl? The last good Super Bowl halftime was U2, wait for it…ten years ago….
The average delta between high and low temps in Arlington, Virginia last week was between 15 and 20 degrees. The average here was between 25 and 30 degrees…Da Wife will give me shit about it, but it’s annoying when you need a peacoat at 8 AM and shirtsleeves at 4 PM, and it’s a good way to end up leaving a pile of coats at the office….it’s like springtime without the pollen, which is sort of a blessing, but it rams home the fact that there are only two real seasons in Silicon Valley: Early Alabama April and Late Alabama April…
It’s a sure sign that I’m getting older that my great aspiration for Saturday is to sleep in as late as 9 or even 9:30, then get up and make coffee and pad around the house with basketball on in the background…if it’s true that I’d rather be 60 and acting 40 than 40 and acting 20, I’m getting a great head start on the former…and there’s your 850 words. Don’t know how Herb did this day in and year out, but the man was a genius from a much more colorful age…
See you at the Washbag.