What’s the point of having students if you can’t organize an NCAA pool and take their money?
Yes, it’s that time of year again and in the spirit of exposing my stupidity to the public, I submit my picks for this year’s tourney:
Louisville, Michigan State, UConn, Memphis, Syracuse, Gonzaga, Duke, Florida State in the Eight; Florida State, Syracuse, Louisville, Memphis in the Final Four; and Louisville beating Florida State for the championship.
A little unconventional to be sure…but what the hell.
Bring on the madness.
Run, do not walk or stop to collect your bling, and read Brendan O’Kane’s vivisection of the recent NYT article “Now Hip-Hop, Too, Is Made in China.” I saw the subject, read Brendan’s title (“[HELP], [HELP], [HELP] THE POLICE!”) and just went and got some popcorn because I knew it was going to be fun ride. He may post as often as I get to the gym, but if he’s not on your RSS feed you’re missing out.
The English-language China blogosphere is sure to be enriched by Evan Osnos, of the New Yorker, joining the fray. Evan’s reporting from China has been top notch and well nuanced, with particular kudos to his piece last summer on the “Angry Youth”, one of the better and more objective articles on that subject.
What historian of China could pass up a whole museum devoted to crooked and traitorous officials? I’d think the hard part would be deciding who or what to cut because of space limitations…kind of like a “Museum of Red Sox fans nicknamed ‘Sully’ or ‘Murph,’” “The Chunjie Firework Injury Hall of Fame,” or “The Dick Cheney War Crimes Exhibition Hall & Gift Shoppe”…you can only build a building so
Down 2-1 in the series, and 5-0 in the bottom of 7th in game 3…we need some karmic assurance. I don’t have any, but I do have a link to one of the greatest pieces of sports writing ever: John Updike’s 1960 essay on Ted Williams’ last at bat “Hub Fans bid the Kid Adieu.” Simply brilliant, and the opening lines will bring reflexive nods of agreement and approval from any New Englander who reads them.
Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man’s Euclidean determinations and Nature’s beguiling irregularities.
Even as I write this the Red Sox have runners on first and third with nobody out in the 7th. Here’s to hoping. Oh yeah, and even if you’re not a Boston or baseball fan, do read the Updike article, it’s a wonderful piece of essay writing.
And so the Red Sox squeezed past the Angels into the ALCS against the…Tampa Bay Rays!?!? Doesn’t matter. What is important is deciding where to watch the games as the playoffs heat up. Last year it was the Rickshaw, but I’ve been hearing about quirks in service as management focuses its attention on the hyper-successful Sanlitun’r start-up Saddle. Goose and Duck seems an obvious choice, and if they were still back at Chaoyang Park West Gate it would be a no brainer, but now they’re out halfway to Tongzhou. (Okay, just the other side of the park, but it’s a perception thing…)
Maybe hanging in my little courtyard with the US feed from MLB.com?
Decisions, decisions, decisions…
From yesterday’s Lithuania-China game…
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