Only in North Carolina
 
About the 4th inning of the All-Star Game, my friend's wife (who has a BA from a top 10 school and was law review at a top 25 law school) turns to him and asks, "So this is kind of like the Winston, right?"  I'm told he almost wept with pride. 
 
God bless America.  And God bless North Carolina.  We all deserve such luck. 

- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 7:08 PM 1 comments

 
Disadvantages of TIVO

Disadvanatages, you say? How could that be? Indeed, proving that this is a fallen world, not even TIVO is perfect. It could, for example, cause you to miss this Starbucks ad, promoting their double expresso, which depicts Glen, a non-descript cubicle jockey who, after taking his double expresso shot, is joined in his kitchen by the 80s rock band Survivor. (Yes, it's the real band.) The band then follow him to work, playing a personalized version of Eye of the Tiger:

Glen! Glen, Glen, Glen!
Glen, Glen, Glennnnnnnn
Glen is the man, going to work,
got his tie, got ambition.

He knows one day he just could become . . . Supervisor!

Fotunately, RAD is here to make sure you don't miss it, 'cause it is hi-larious.

On the other hand, maybe TIVO IS perfect. By providing the ability to skip commercials, TIVO is likely encouraging advertisers to make their commercials funny enough to actually be worth watching. Like this one, and the Trunk Monkey. So support the cause, and go get a TIVO.

- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 11:24 AM 0 comments

 
It's a fine line between pity and ridicule

Unsuprisingly, Coach K stayed at Duke, which is good - now he'll have to face being outcoached by Roy Williams. It also brought a torrent of news stories about why Coach K stayed, including this one, about Andrew Humphries, a Duke student who IS NOT ON THE BASKETBALL TEAM.

Even though he doesn't score points or grab rebounds, Humphries wrote, he feels he is part of the Blue Devils basketball family.

"I got to Duke. And discovered that, yes, I am going to play for Coach K," Humphries wrote. "I am going to be his sixth man.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 9:11 AM 0 comments

 
USA at #7 on FIFA's world soccer rankings

I know, I know, the rankings are famously imprecise and confusing. I don't actually think we're the seventh best team in the world, since I can easily conjure up a dozen or more teams who would beat us handily. But none of that detracts from our highest ranking ever.
- posted by Anonymous @ 4:56 PM 0 comments

 
A good reminder

That Saddam Hussein is, you know, a really bad guy. At least according to one of his Iraqi victims, a devout Shiite tortured severely for religious activities:

He looked at the television Thursday at the man who sent him there, Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi dictator sat defiantly in a courtroom. Neat suit. Trimmed beard. White shirt. He was asked courteous questions and allowed to have his say.

Not bad treatment for a torturer, Bilasim concluded.

"We must do this to show we are a legal society," said the 35-year-old engineer, sitting in a friend's home in Baghdad. "But at the end, he should be executed. And then when his spirit rises from his body, the spirit should be strangled and executed again."

I am not sure how you sentence someone to that, but innovative judges abound.
- posted by Anonymous @ 9:22 AM 0 comments

 
Son of Satan in "Serious Discussions" with Lakers

Krzyzewski, a Hall of Fame coach, has led the Blue Devils to three national championships in almost a quarter-century at the school. He informed school officials that the Lakers had contacted him about the job, Duke athletic director Joe Alleva said Thursday.

Nervous about Roy Williams, I think.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 6:36 PM 0 comments

 
Yet one more reason to love soccer

As practiced in Europe, soccer is far more capitalistic than American sports. I have actually been saying this for years, as my few and patient friends can tell you. In fact, it is worth noting that with MLS' single-entity structure, soccer as organized in America is the least free-market-driven professional sport imaginable.

But I still like it.
- posted by Anonymous @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

 
Rumsfeld's Rules

He's not quite the media darling (or sex symbol???) he once was, but these do make for interesting reading.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 9:45 AM 0 comments