First, Dunkin' Donuts... and now ICE CREAM???

Surprising news:

Bush has a committee on ethics. And for such a scientifically forward-thinking President [sarcasm alert], he has a BIOethics Committee. This would be the group whispering in his ear that "the most egregious abuses of medical research" includes "creating human-animal hybrids"... one of his statements in the 2006 State of the Union Address.

More surprising news:

This Bioethics Committee (which has 23 members, four of which [Leon R. Kass, David Gelernter, Robert George, and Robert Kraynak] are "vociferous advocates of a central role for religion in morality and public life", while eleven more work for Christian institutions. Not in the 23? No life scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, or even historians. BIO ethics.... and not a biologist in the bunch... great) this spring released a 555-page report entitled Human Dignity and Bioethics. Now this concept of human dignity is a pretty ambiguous thing, and to have it discussed in terms of science... well, that's frightening enough. But how it's discussed is truly scary:

So on the one hand, the “self-made” man or woman might gain in Dignity as a Quality from being the author (or co-author) of his or her own character and situation. Yet on the other hand, it is also possible that such a person instead gains in Un-Dignity from their self-remolding. The possibility of such Un-Dignity, or loss of Dignity as a Quality, is an important concern among some critics of human enhancement. Leon Kass puts it uncompromisingly:

[The] final technical conquest of his own nature would almost certainly leave mankind utterly enfeebled. This form of mastery would be identical with utter dehumanization. Read Huxley's Brave New World, read C. S. Lewis's Abolition of Man, read Nietzsche's account of the last man, and then read the newspapers. Homogenization, mediocrity, pacification, drug-induced contentment, debasement of taste, souls without loves and longings—these are the inevitable results of making the essence of human nature the last project of technical mastery.

In other words, Kass says: don't make any attempt to better yourself... Maybe we're supposed to leave that to our "co-author"... uh, God?

Now this Leon Kass, he was the Chair of Bush's Bioethics Committee from 02-05 (in other words, to just before the "human-animal hybrid" remark). This guy's got some very interesting views...but before I get to them, I want to address this whole concept of "Un-Dignity"... Kass wants us to read Brave New World... may I suggest 1984? From a discussion of Orwell's concept of NewSpeak:

Newspeak contains no negative terms. For example, the only way to express the meaning of “bad” is through the word “ungood.” Something extremely bad is called “doubleplus ungood.”

Sounds a little like "Un-Dignity" to me... but I digress.

Back to this Kass guy.

In a discussion of stem cell research with Bill Moyers, to Moyer's question/statement, "You're letting science go." Kass responded:

Science goes. The question is whether the people's representatives on an issue of such deeply divided moral sentiment ought to pronounce by way of official judgment we approve of the destruction of nascent life for the sake of research. It's a boundary to be crossed. I'm not-- I have a lot of trouble with this.

In an essay entitled "The End of Courtship" he writes:

But most young women strike me as sad, lonely, and confused... Here is a (partial) list of the recent changes that hamper courtship and marriage: the sexual revolution, made possible especially by effective female contraception; the ideology of feminism and the changing educational and occupational status of women; the destigmatization of bastardy, divorce, infidelity, and abortion; the general erosion of shame and awe regarding sex...The supreme virtue of the virtuous woman was modesty, a form of sexual self-control, manifested not only in chastity but in decorous dress and manner, speech and deed, and in reticence in the display of her well- banked affections. A virtue, as it were, made for courtship, it served simultaneously as a source of attraction and a spur to manly ardor, a guard against a woman's own desires...

Man, if we here in a America were just a little MORE ashamed about sex (and if we could just get rid of that EFFECTIVE female contraceptive... and keep them broads dumb), this could be a great country! Misogynist much, Kass?

But if that was bad, then, brother, you haven't seen anything yet (and here the circle come full circle to this concept of human "un"dignity.

In an ENTIRE book entitled The Hungry Soul, he writes:

Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone -- a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive.... eating on the street -- even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat -- displays in fact precisely such lack of self-control: This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if WE feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior.

No licking... got that? [OK, gotta admit, a world without Gene Simmons... might not be a bad thing]

I can only assume Mrs. Kass is one un-satisfied woman.

I know I'm an unsatisfied citizen, knowing that guys like this have the President's ear...

Gee, and I thought it was Martha Stewart who was the Scary One

We are living in a world turned upside down: Dunkin' Donuts has pulled a Rachael Ray ad because some right-wing nut jobs have claimed that her scarf promotes terrorism.

I'm not making this up.

A scarf.



A freaking scarf.

Sigh...

And this


(I won't even use the two terms I'm thinking of, since one would be an insult to dogs, and the other... well, the other is so offensive even I won't type it in...) gets to congratulate itself for keeping America safe.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

No Cause for Alarm

My lack of postings are not a cause for alarm.

Just busy-ness and exhaustion. Been a hectic week. Huge bbq party for our neighbor on Sunday, a nice (semi-)relaxing day on Monday (with a trip to see Indy... more on that later), then a fairly hellish work week... I joked with Lisa last night that it felt like Friday, but it was only Wednesday of a SHORT week. Not a good sign.

[Indy was good... and it cemented in my mind how Temple of Doom simply doesn't belong in the canon...


OH, and by the way...

SPOILER ALERT:










1) it deviates from the chronological timeline (it takes place before Raiders, but contains sight gags dependent on that earlier, er later film; but more importantly

2) doesn't have at it's core the depiction of a male in the Jones lineage... the first film is about Indy, the third about his father, and this last about his son... and isn't it a cool little twist that he is named Mutt (when we know that the nickname Indy was for the Jones' DOG)!!! Yeah, the film works for me.











END SPOILER

So hokey, yes. A little off-putting because of the sci-fi (as opposed to jungle/desert adventure), ok, but remember that those other films were set in eras whose movie serials were set in those locales, whereas the fifties movie milieu was definitely more "spacey". But fun? Absolutely. And it's great to get Marion back in the mix.]

Across the Room to Turn off Across the Universe

Last night, watched Across the Universe with our friends.

Wow. I'm a huge fan of the director, Julie Taymor (the creator of the wonderful stage adaptation of The Lion King, and the very twisted Shakespearean adaptation, Titus). So like I said, wow.

It was horrible.

I know some people liked it... from what I hear it's even becoming somewhat of an underground hit, with many devotees (but from what I've seen, all with people who weren't even close to being around when the Beatles were making music). But jeez, people, this movie sucks.

"What's her name?" "Prudence." "Where's she come from?" "She came in through the bathroom window."

A whacked out timeline that seems to start early Sixties and jumps seven years in the span of a week... suddenly, it's the Detroit riots of (late summer) 67, then time passes and the main female lead decides to visit NY and stays there, her brother is drafted and is in Vietnam by the assassination of MLK.

Insipid name dropping. Oh, he's JoJo. She's Sadie. (the aforementioned Prudence). And of course, our three main characters, Jude, Lucy and Maxwell. ... and folks, if you're going to do that, and in this film you're going to, then make sure the songs make sense: "Hey Jude" was all right, but "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was tacked on over the final credits, and there was no "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

Are there some good things? Sure, the image of soldiers carrying the Statue of Liberty while singing, "She's so heavy..." was breathtakingly awesome. Both Bono and Eddie Izzard's turns as the film's surrogates for Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary was also great (I don't think it's any coincidence that the best performances were done by those with experience playing to a live audience... that sort of "playing to the rafters" was crucial to Taymor's style. The nice bookending "band" performances (in the beginning, at what looked to be the Cavern club, and at the end, on a rooftop concert a la Let It Be... the beginning and end of the Beatles' performing career).

But it's been Lisa and my contention that there's two kinds of people: Beatles people and Stones people. Give me three minutes of dirty R&B-infused dangerous rock with out philosophical pretensions and I'm a happy guy.



I know, it's ONLY rock'n'roll but I like it.

WTF Were They Thinking???

First,


Now, today, just hours ago:


Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, people.

What the fuck were they thinking?

I don't know what they were thinking, but it sure sounds like they were saying:

Poor white people, shoot the Negro.

Our country scares the living shit out of me sometimes.

Stay safe, Barrack.

Safe, not Sorry

Here's what I wrote in the hospital...

In the hospital. They took her for a CT scan, but came back almost immediately and ordered an MRI instead. In between, a doctor came in and asked a battery of questions... I think he was trying to either rule in or rule out migraines.

Waiting for the guys to come take her for the MRI. The doc wants a blood sample... when the guy comes, Lisa asks to go to the bathroom... he gives her a cup for a sample of that, too.

stress? tia? echo cardiogram plus study of carotid... contact neira... mri normal... other parts of exam

We were in and out of there fairly quickly... and so it's nothing serious, thank goodness. At this point, they're thinking it was an anxiety or panic attack. Of course, they still want Lisa to have more tests done: echo cardiogram and a duplex study of the carotid. I'll call our doc in the morning (though I'm pretty sure he doesn't work on Fridays).

Lisa feels guilty over not being at Open House... but this was much more important. She asked before we got to the hospital, what's worse to go to the ER and find something wrong or go and not find something wrong.

What would be worst of all is to not have gone and have something wrong. We know that that's not our scenario now.

At least we think we can sleep tonight.

And Off We Go

My doc did NOT like my description... He thinks it could be a migraine (except that she's never had one before, and you just don't start getting them at our age), or an AVM (bleeding on the brain)... which would be bad. He's concerned enough to tell us to go the Emergency Room now, do not pass go, do not collect $200. [especially since he knows that our insurance would not approve a CT scan if requested] Lisa just came home from work, and we're heading off...

Tense and Nervous and I Can't Relax

It's 5:30 in the morning, and I'm blogging already.

This after working for the last two hours... at least, it was on fun stuff (a prototype for the high school water polo team website--the coach, who is a partner with the club, asked if I would do it since he thought I did a pretty good job on the club site [and you know me, a little flattery will get you a kick-ass site, flash/flex-ed up, with data feeds, photos, videos, stats, and -- if I can work it out -- pages that you can save off and print as PDFs]).

Woke up at three and couldn't go back to sleep. Why?

Hmmmm, could it be that yesterday was a stressful day? Work was a shamble... last week I was taken off a project (very cool, development of a desktop app in Flex and AIR), to help a new member of the team put together a ColdFusion app (my specialty), and had been doing that for the last three days (feeling a little taken advantage of... helping him get kudos for the heavy lifting I'm doing... but it doesn't matter, my value is there so at least I have a job), until yesterday when I was pulled off that new job to do something else. It was a fairly pleasant diversion, but enough of a detour to throw me off the CF project... god only knows how long it will take me to get back into the mindset of the original app.

Plus, a client of mine has just informed me that I won't be paid for the work I did for them. Long story (which I'll get into later when I get some free time), but suffice to say after the construction bills, learning that 25K I was counting on is not coming in... well, let's just say I'm none too pleased.

My doctor's office called to confirm my appointment for today... yikes, I forgot all about that... like I have the time... plus, I know he's going to give me shit for not losing weight in the last month...

Dad's foot went cold again. So he called the surgeon... and he got an appointment in the late afternoon. So much for going down to LA to see a theatrical screening of the new HBO flick, Recount (I finally win something through a subscriber-only Entertainment Weekly contest, and I can't even put it to use). As it turns out, Dad's pulse in the foot was fine... the temp problem may be permanent nerve damage caused by the stroke of 10 years ago. [I love the guy... but two things just KILL: his need to get to where ever he's going early (for the 4:45 appt--only twenty minutes away--he was up with his hat and jacket on, standing around at 3:45... even after I told him we'd be leaving around 4:15)... and he's a bit of a hypochondriac (Ma always complained about it, but I never saw it... until he's been living with us)... of course, at his age, it really is a case of "better safe than sorry"... so no big deal there...]

I was stressing over today (Jack's school has an open house, and Kyle has a high school athletic physical exam in the afternoon, and water polo tonight... so I'm going to miss his performance). I was going to have dad take Kyle to Rio Mesa for the exam, but knowing how long physicals can take, I thought I might do it myself (a topic of conversation with Lisa at three a.m... after she woke up, too--though she was able to go back to sleep). But we've come to the conclusion that we'll just have the family pediatrician do the exam... it doesn't need to be done until August... and this will be much less stressful.

Stressful. All of yesterday's bullshit seem exactly that when I think back on what I think was the real cause of my insomnia:

Lisa had some kind of episode yesterday. She was at school, ready to release the kids and start a conference with her student teacher when it happened. A horrible headache, followed by disorientation and almost complete loss of mental acuity: she couldn't remember names, she couldn't read, she couldn't get words out. She was completely aware that it was happening but helpless to do anything about it. It took about 45 minutes for her to recover. She was fine by the time she got home from work. But I could tell she was a little shaken up.

I told her to make an appointment with the doc... she said she didn't have time. Needless to say, it's a point of conversation when I see him in four hours.

We tried to come up with some kind of cause: she hadn't eaten lunch yet... she might have been de-hydrated (when I dehydrated on the AIDS ride two years ago, I loss all ability to think straight)... it might have been stress. We don't know. And that's scary. Nothing like this has ever happened to her.

Of course, there's a tiny part of me that's jumping to conclusions (and me being me, none of them is positive--no, I don't think she's evolving into a higher species): GG has Alzheimer's... it runs in families... could this be it? Ted Kennedy had a seizure on Sunday, and now we learn that its cause is inoperable brain cancer.

Yeah... I'm the worst possible person to give an unknown situation to... I'll always come up with the worst possible outcome.

I'm sure it's nothing. Sure, I am.

She's fine this morning... but she was fine yesterday morning, too.

[update: she's not fine... she thinks she has a cold... but nothing worse]

Race and the Race

So Clinton racked up another win last night in Kentucky (Obama did, too, in Oregon, and in that victory sealed the majority of pledged delegates [if you don't count Florida and Michigan, which the DNC doesn't today]... but not the nomination). It was a big win since it gave Clinton a thin lead (181,523) in the popular vote... IF you toss in the votes of BOTH Florida (where she won by 294,772) AND Michigan (where she received 328,309 votes... but Obama didn't appear on the ballot).

That's a big IF. And to get there, you'd have to say that Obama got no votes in Michigan, even though the "uncommitted" ballot position won 238,168 votes... 50K more than Clinton's slim lead. That's pretty twisted logic.

But so is the Clinton metric for winning... or should I say "metrics" since they began the primary season saying all that mattered was pledged delegates AND that Florida and Michigan should NOT be counted. Then they said that it was the superdelegates that mattered. Now the popular vote (but only if you do the math using that bizarre Clintonian algebraic formula).

Last night, Chuck Todd gave statistical evidence of something I've been saying since Ohio: that Obama does fine in states with high African-American populations or states almost no African-American population. Todd showed that he wins states with less than 4% and more then 16%... it's the states in the middle that Clinton takes. It supports this point:

Whites who don't see minorities on a daily basis are far more willing to vote for one (whether of not this is some kind of subconscious way of saying "Look, Ma, no racism!" is debatable... go ahead, discuss). States where the minority population is large are also willing to go that way. It's those states where the minority is in the fringe, just off to the side, where you see them only out of the corner of your eye, where you might not come into daily contact with "them" that are unwilling to vote for Obama.

Maybe the US has NOT come as far as we'd like to believe. Of course, it doesn't help matters much where Clinton's supporters cry sexism and try to bolster her flailing campaign by creating some kind of sisterhood of martyrdom. Check out the desperation in Geraldine Ferraro:

Saying that crying sexism and then being cited by others as playing the "gender card" is unfair is delusional. The shoulder flick is sexism? Are you freaking serious? It's a fucking Jay-Z reference!

[Obama is wrong, the white working class is not bitter... Hillary's "women first" supporters are bitter.]

Attached to an LA Times article this morning, discussing Obama's need to restructure his organization for the general election, I found this comment:

With FLORIDA & MICHIGAN VOTES TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION & DULY ACCOUNTED FOR HILLARY WOULD BE CLOSER TO CLINCH THE NOMINATION. SO CALLED DEMOCRATIC LEADERS HAVE HARMED HILLARY MORE THAN THE GOP. HOW CLEVER? POSSIBLY USA, THE MOST ADVANCED COUNTRY OF THE WORLD, IS NOT WILLING TO ACCEPT A WOMAN TO BE THE LEADER - MANHOOD IS UNDER SIEGE?
Submitted by: Prakash

Now I don't want to go into the strident (might I say "hysterical"?) tone of the piece (whoa, dial back the caps there, baby)... but I did submit the following in response:

Uh, Prakash, you canNOT take into consideration Michigan since Obama didn't appear on the ballot (all the major candidates except for Hillary pulled their names). If you want to include Michigan, then we'll need to give the "uncommitted" votes there to Obama, which then gives him back the lead in popular vote. It's not that the US is not willing to accept a woman to be leader, it's just that a majority of democrats, in a majority of states, with a majority of both pledged and super-delegates want Obama more. It astounds me up that Clinton's supporters (particularly the women) say that her campaign's troubles all stem from sexism, when that has less to do with her issues than racism has to do with Obama's electoral troubles, and more to do with arrogance (oh, the nomination will be wrapped up by Feb 5) and mismanagement (her campaign is now 30+ million in debt).

Where will this lead? Who knows.

But one thing is for sure:

The Bruins just won their 102nd National Championships... in women's tennis. (I know it's a weird left turn, but the election stuff is starting to depress me).

More Mixed Baggage

Monday now.

Weekend was OK. No water polo this weekend (a two-weekend reprieve before the Foothill Tournament and Junior Olympic Qualifiers on back to back weekends). The neighbors had a party on Saturday (I did my smoked pulled pork), and a former student of mine invited me to her celebratory dinner following her MBA. I was the only teacher there, and sat at the "kids" table with a two former students and a friend who was at Hueneme at the time but not in any of my classes. It was fun... and made me proud of my student Heather. Funny, though, it didn't make me miss teaching (made me miss a little of the intangible rewards [that pride], but not nearly enough to make me even for an instant flirt with the idea of a return).

It's been hot... yesterday was no different. Took dad to Urgent Care (the dark patch of discolored skin below the incision point had been growing steadily since Thursday... it was now near his knee... so we went in as a kind of triage before heading to what we knew would be an all-day endeavor at the ER... and found that while it looked bad, it was nothing truly urgent... so back home we went). We had GG all day yesterday... weird, there are moments when she is so lucid, sharp, quick, and then others (the majority) where she's just not all there. After Grandma B came for dinner, GG said that it was nice for us to invite her and Grandma B to eat... she didn't remember spending the day with us. (of course, she spent much of the day, sleeping in the chair) But at least she remembers us.

Felt in a funk much of yesterday. Sluggish to begin with, given the heat. Then Lisa went through the last of Ma's boxes. And she made one of Ma's old meals for dinner. And I can't say I was depressed. Or even sad. Just slow. I want to attribute that to the Naprocin I took to relieve some forearm muscle pain (from working on the laptop on the couch).

Feel better, but still sluggish today.

Mixed Bag

Dad had his angioplasty yesterday to take care of his blockage of his femoral artery on the left side... his left foot now has a pulse. He'll need another one to work on the abdominal one... maybe as early as three weeks. He's sore today (I'm betting he was pretty tense and tight on the gurney... nervous).

Dad wasn't the only one who had surgery: another UCLA QB will undergo knee surgery... he should be back by summer camp, but jeez... the Bruins are putting the "BLUE" in Blue Shield.

Obama got his ass handed to him by Hillary the other night in West Virginia... where 67% of the whites don't have a college education. Yep, that's right up her alley. Is it any coincidence that John Edwards (the "working man"'s candidate before he dropped out and Hillary dropped in as the gun-totin', beer-swillin', anti-elitist, good ol' girl in Pennsylvania) endorsed Obama yesterday in the pretty extravagant rally in Michigan.

Wow, not to get all cynical or Oliver Stone on you, but could this have been better timed? Within 24 hours of his worse defeat of the primary season, one sure to raise the question of "Is a black man electable in a white country?" for the 24/7 cable news markets for the next week until Kentucky, before Hillary or her troops can truly savor any bit of this victory, Obama rolls out Edwards, who endorses Barrack in such a way as to lend legitimacy to Obama's claims of the nomination, opens the door to other Superdelegates who are on the fence, brings 18 pledged delegates with him, and--most importantly--gives Obama working white cred. The only thing that could have been worse for Hillary is if Obama had done this on Tuesday night in his pseudo-concession speech, and done it in Kentucky (where he looks to lose again, and up until yesterday's endorsement lose BIG)... of course, it did take place in Michigan, where Obama wasn't even on the ballot and whose delegates are not going to be seated because they held their primary too early... hmmm, not mending any fences there, eh?

On completely unrelated news, the high school water polo coach held his parent information meeting the other night. Practice starts on June 16... three days before Kyle even graduates from 8th grade. And because of that (and because the Oxnard and Camarillo schools graduate a week early), he'll miss the first week of summer workouts. Rio Mesa has about 60 players signed up... way more that expected. So this year, it looks like there will be three squads: Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Frosh-Soph. Kyle had hoped to play JV, but it's looking like F-S... though he could move up, given his position and skill, but he'll have to work his ass off during summer workouts and prove himself in the summer leagues against older, more experienced players. Time will tell.

Mother's Day

That was yesterday. Lisa kept us, me, busy so I wouldn't think about Ma. It worked for the most part, though she mentioned that she has seen Ma's final nurse, Petie, on Saturday, and that brought with it a trickle of emotion.

But not the deluge I would have predicted. I took that as a positive sign.

Not so positive, however, was how the night ended.

After listening to the NCAA Women's Water Polo championship (gotta love the internet... and NOTHING is finer than a defeat of the Trojies), we settled down for the night. As Jack went to bed, Kyle wanted to show me a section of The Simpsons... a Mother's Day episode. Kyle was laughing, saying I had to see this section about Homer's mom. I said that I've never seen his mom... "She's dead," Kyle responded and as he searched the recorded section, he stopped upon a clip

and it just made me sad. I would have been mad, but at whom? Kyle didn't get it, so he didn't deserve it. The show? I've always liked the irreverence. This just seemed... over the line.

But just to ME. Because I felt the dust of her ashes flow through my fingertips. AND IT WASN'T FUCKING FUNNY.

So that put me in a weird way. Watching Lost with Lisa and Kyle didn't help... I'm not sure if that show has jumped the shark or if it's moving into such demented territory that it's transcending television.

But then Lisa and I watched this week's Battlestar... and I ended up even more depressed. There was much of President Roslin's cancer in this one. We saw her bald head, uncovered and then in a scarf, just like Ma wore. We saw chemo, and its ravages. And we saw another patient, a woman, in her final days. We heard the doctor say, "The only thing we can do is make her comfortable."

The dream sequence of her being reunited with her family didn't help me as much as the producers thought it would help (the audience, not me... they don't know me)... I guess I can be thankful that we were spared her actual last breaths, with the horrible death-rattle that I can still hear in my head.

The show has become the most relentlessly downbeat in all of TV. And yet I can't NOT watch it (chalk up another victory for the masochistic viewing habits of The Wire's biggest fan). It's so very good, even when it's so very sad.

So needless to say, I wasn't much good to Lisa after that. She held me and told me I could cry, but I couldn't. I couldn't muster any real emotion.

I feel a little better this morning.

But I'm not seeing any of this as a positive sign.

UCLA 101

No, that's not a survey course... it's our total of National Championships!

Women's Water Polo did it again... a four-peat. The only other teams to accomplish that were Al Scates' Men's Volleyball in the early 80's and (of course) Coach Wooden's teams of the 60's and 70's. Kudos to Krikorian (even if his team can pull off the win next year, he'll still be two short of the Wizard)... the man truly belongs in the pantheon of Bruin greats: he captained the Men's team in 1995 to an NCAA title, then has coached the Men's team to Championships in '99, 2000, and '04 AND the Women's team to championships in '01, '03, and the last four years. That means as a player and coach he's been a part of TEN NCs... and coached NINE teams to NCAA titles. While he's still a distance behind Scates' 19 titles and the Coach's 10 titles (IN 12 years), he's still a winner.

A leader of nine National Championships in 10 years (in two sports)... simply incredible. This year his team was undefeated and the graduating seniors of this group (Gabrielle Domanic, Brittany Rowe, Courtney Mathewson, Jillian Kraus and Kamaile Crowell) finished with four titles, two undefeated seasons (they were perfect in their freshman year as well), and an absolutely SICK record of 126 wins and only SIX losses.

True Bruins.

I wish I was in Jersey, Girl....

When I first heard this on Sirius E Street Radio, I thought it was an April Fool's Day joke... but I checked the day.

And it's true.

What I would have given to be there for that!

Double Good News (finally) from the UCLA Athletic Front

First of all, the women's water polo team is the top seed in this weekend's eight-team NCAA tournament. They won championship number 99 and number 100... it would most definitely be all right by me if the took number 101 as well.

Then there's this possibly great news on the roundball front. If we can get this kid, the loss of Love will not hurt as badly (Morgan may not be the passer Love is, but his inside presence may be even better).

[for the moment, I'm ignoring the injury to one of our running backs Craig Shepard, who after surgery on his shoulder is out for 4-6 months...]

Should She Stay or Should She Go?

Tuesday night, Obama won a large (relatively) victory in North Carolina, and made Indiana too close to call for much of the night. All this after the worst couple of weeks for Obama: bitter-gate, Wright's attack from the news-dead, and the Pennsylvania loss. Mathematically, Hillary is out of the running. Even if you toss in Florida and Michigan (and in the way she wants them), she cannot overtake him in popular votes or pledged delegates.

So what should she do? For herself AND the party?

If she wants a future (and to have one, she'll have to be remembered as a valiant fighter, not a sore loser or spoiler more interested in the destruction of Obama than what's best for the country), she has to...

wait for it...


wait for it...



She must stay in the race until June.

Huh?

Why?

Here's why: In the next three weeks are the final primaries, with a few that she should (and probably will) win... win but not at margins enough to get her mathematically close. If she pulls out now, she comes off as a hypocrite to her critics and a martyr to her supporters. If, and this is a HUGE if, she stays in the race and begins to take the high road (as she did for the most part in Tuesday's victory (in Indy)/concession (for NC)/practically valedictory speech... and all day yesterday), praising Obama as a legitimate candidate and probable great president, she will go a long way in cooling down her most vocal adherents--who have threatened to vote for McCain or sit out the November election entirely if Hill isn't the candidate.

[At this point, I would normally make some veiled parody of Obama's SF speech, discussing the aged, middle-class, white, and female contingency who in their frustration over their candidate's ultimately failed campaign have becoming "bitter" and are "clinging to" the hope of bringing down the man who brought down their candidate's campaign.]

As long as she stays in the race and stays on the high road, party officials should shut the hell up. Let HER mend the party (especially since it was her vociferous attacks in March and April that did the most to split the February unity of the party). And as a bone to her and her followers, Obama should throw them Florida and Michigan as a display of magnanimity (which will also help the healing process). Then after the last of the primaries on June 3, she graciously bows out (possibly on the same stage).

[by the way: if Limbaugh's "project chaos" worked and Hillary won Indiana (by less than two percent) because of it, then Rush ol' boy may have inadvertently made Obama STRONGER... if Obama had won Indiana, Hillary would probably have dropped out of the race yesterday, leaving her followers pissed off, bitter, and unwilling to vote for Obama in November.]

Water Polo Begins for Jack!

From last night's first water polo practice for Jack... OK, it was only a beginner's water polo clinic...

but still pretty cool.

I am Iron Man

OK, so I'm not... but we've seen it... and it's pretty damn cool. Downey was great, Paltrow didn't bug me, Howard makes one giddy in anticipation for his super-hero close-up as War Machine.

And that after-the-credit sequence with Samuel L. Freaking Jackson as Nick Fury... OMFG.

I'm a fanboy all over again!

Forgetting

Lisa and I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. Very very funny. Hilarious. Dragged at times (Apatow lets his actors write, and his writers direct, so sometimes they -- at least this is my take -- become so enamored of their work... that they could use a little tightening up). But because of it, we get fully rounded characters (not two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs, either all good or all evil)... so a pretty fair trade-off.

And absolutely hilarious... screaming "I'm sorry!" while chasing a pig to slaughter ... "I'm not sure I'm sexually competent enough to pull that off" ... "Die, die die... I can't" from a Dracula musical (with puppets) ... "I can see your vagina from down here" (said by the incredibly gorgeous Mila Kunis to the male star)

And while this is the most "realistic" of the Apatow-related works (not about a 40 year-old virgin, a schlub who hooks up with a beautiful TV anchor, or a parody of a 50's rock pioneer), it still falls into a male-written and -directed cliche: even though he's dumped by a fairly--ok, very--attractive Kristen Bell, it's that stunning aforementioned Kunis [move over, Tina Fey] (who for a moment in the movie seemed to me to be a younger--and maybe more normal--Angelina Jolie... or was that just because a trailer for her new movie preceded the film?)... it's the more attractive woman who falls for him.

Ah, it's good to be king (of the set). Or at least the writer, who happened to be the lead actor.

It was a good get-away after a tough week. GG's home and has been visited by multiple home-care specialists... looks like they want to dump the cane in preference to a walker (and possibly a wheelchair). But at least she's home and seemingly well. Kyle's shoulder is beginning to feel a little better.

[there was also a slight scare yesterday... Lisa got a call from a counselor at Kyle's school... an acquaintance of his--unnamed--had been called in on an unrelated subject and it was learned that s/he had been cutting her/himself. It was intimated that Kyle was doing this as well. Lisa called me to tell me this, but we both had a hard time swallowing this. There's been no change in behavior or attitude (other than the usual adolescent bs... but no real sullenness or reclusivity)... and plus, HE WEARS A SPEEDO EVERYDAY... kinda hard to hide those cuts. So we took him out for a smoothie, just the three of us, and we broached the subject. He said that a friend of his had been called to the office to discuss cutting people's backpacks, but he didn't know if this person had been doing the self-mutilation. We talked about emotional upheavals and what we all can do help each other and our friends. We asked if he had been cutting himself... his response and facial reaction said it all: nooooo, are you crazy? I joking said that because of his water polo/speedo thing, that we were pretty sure that was the answer, but that I would need him to drop trou when we got home... non-plussed, he said sure (very quickly)... Lisa and I burst out laughing... it was a JOKE, Kyle.]

So yeah, it had been a hard week, and so Forgetting was good...

So Damned Proud

Just came back from Kyle's final water polo season-ending banquet (the last season, not the last banquet for this season). He was awarded with MVP.

Again.

Four seasons, four MVPs.

At first, I was more than a little surprised (as I was last season). There were a couple of players that I thought were "better" than Kyle this season (as a goalie, he let in more goals than he stopped... not unexpected in his first season in Division I, but not what I would normally consider to be "most valuable"). But of course that player was one of four that was pulling double-duty (playing not only for the Titans but for another premier level club), and thus prone to missing regular practices and the occasional game. So I guess that ruled him out. The other player, while statistically good, was somewhat inconsistent, and neither a calming nor motivating force in the pool. As his coach described Kyle: a leader, a player who's always asking to do more work (leg work for goalies), a teammate who was willing to (and thus initiated the) train(ing) of the younger goalies. That, I think, above all, was what earned him the honor: he was valuable to the whole team, not just his squad.

I'm very proud of him.

I just hope this doesn't go to his head (4 for 4... it's pretty unbelievable).

Athletic Scholarships

Kyle's upcoming high school water polo coach just sent out an interesting NY Times article, re: College Scholarships, from which there are a couple of different charts (one on average scholarship amounts, the other on the number of scholies offered).

Some conclusions:

• nearly 14K U.S. boys play Water Polo in HS, nearly 12K girls
• only 83 college scholarships are awarded for boys (though it's split up among 282 students; only 30% receive full scholies), 145 scholarships awarded to girls (split among 445 students; 34% receive full scholies)
• average yearly scholarship value for boys is $7756, girls $7793
• of the 21 NCAA sports, Water Polo ranks 11th in average yearly scholarship value for boys, 15th for girls
  

From these numbers... roughly 2% of h.s. boys will earn (some form of) college scholarships in water polo, 3.7% of girls

very interesting stuff...

Kyle REALLY needs to start playing Ice Hockey (4.25% of boys will receive scholies; 80% of which are full scholies; with a average yearly value of $21,755)...

The Fear to Compete

We lost another BB player yesterday.

He was polite in his statement; Coach Howland was gracious in his. So... let's see.

Mata-Real gone (graduated)
Love gone (no chance to return; a guy can hope, but it ain't gonna happen)
Westbrook gone (no chance to return... or is there?)
Luc Richard gone (chance to return)
Shipp gone (chance to return)
Aboya maybe, uh probably, gone (grad school)

Staying:
Collison (guard)
Dragovic (forward)
Roll (guard/forward)
Keefe (forward, possibly some time at center)

Jerime Anderson (point guard: 6-2) incoming frosh
Drew Gordon (power forward: 6-8... though he might be able to post up) incoming frosh
Jrue Holiday (point guard: 6-3) incoming frosh [5-star recruit]
Malcolm Lee (shooting guard: 6-4) incoming frosh

Is Stanbeck afraid to compete?

Not to disrespect the kid, but, earlier I said that Westbrook had no chance of returning... but I found this note in the Times' Stanbeck story interesting:

None have hired agents, so playing for the Bruins next season remains an option although it's virtually certain that Love won't be back.

Why no mention of Westbrook? Is it possible that he will be returning? Is even the talk of his possible (though I think VERY IMPROBABLE) return enough to cause the 6'-8" guard/forward to bail? As you can see, the list of 09 players above is a little heavy on the guards... if Westbrook returns, then Stanbeck's playing time plummets from its 5.8 minutes per game from this season.

Is this another case of a kid thinking he's entitled to playing time? Is it the fear of competition, of learning -- maybe -- that you're just not as good as you thought? I hope for his case that neither is true. Nothing kills your chances in LIFE faster than the fear of putting yourself out there, of proving yourself to yourself and others in competition at the skill that IS YOUR BEST. [just another thing I LOVE about sport]

To miss out on the chance to compete, to LEARN competitiveness from Howland, and to leave the greatest university in the world... well, it's tragic. Not for us, but for this young man.

Of course, on the plus side, this will give Howland another scholarship with which to find a true "big man."

[and no, I really don't want to talk about our QB situation... or the situation re: the offensive line... can we just wait until Sept. 1... and stay upbeat and undefeated? please?]

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oh, btw:

Saw the doctor yesterday re: Kyle's shoulder. It's either a major strain or a slight tear of the muscle that runs across the top of the shoulder and down the side of his upper arm. He can lift it, but any attempt to go through the throwing motion cause visible pain. Doc wants him out of any physical activity for 10 days. So this weekend's San Diego tournament is out... Kyle's bummed as this would have been his first chance to play for the VCPremier travel team. The coach is understanding... there will be many more opportunities later. If it's not any better: he's to go back to the doc next Tuesday to get further checks... probably an MRI.