6 Thoughts
1) Like every other game since the advent of fire, Miami lost in Indiana. That's eighteen straight losses in the Hoosier state. You know the "I hate what they did to me" syndrome? Like, you don't offer to renew marginal backup point guard Keyon Dooling's contract, then he comes back the next season with another team and plays his best game of the year against you because he hates what you did to him? That should have been Jermaine O'Neal tonight, a former longtime Pacer. Instead: "Oh, playing in Indiana was the best time of my life," gushed Jermaino. Dammit. The jinx even got to Wade, who played arguably his worst game of the year, a positively Iversonian 5-23, and a missed three at the buzzer which spun in and out. Now 38-33, game tomorrow in Chicago. The last two games against the Bulls have been the Shawn Marion swan-song-buzzer-dunk-for-the-win game, and the triple overtime Dwyane Wade steal-and-running-three-pointer-at-the-buzzer-for-the-win game. I'm sure the Bulls hate what we have done to them...
2) In the same interview, Jermaino asserted that his former Pacer coach, and noted franchise killer, Isaiah Thomas, is "one of the top 6 guys in my life." Really? Isaiah Thomas? Is that a good idea? This guy has been a colossal failure at every post-playing career basketball job he has ever had - like, really bad. Like, "oops, I just became commissioner of the CBA and bankrupted the entire league" bad...The other top 5 guys in Jermaino's life? Actor Tom Sizemore, former Alabama governor George Wallace, one of the guys from Enron, Will.I.Am, and William Ayres (when he was still a terrorist).
3) Midway through the second quarter, Pacer forward Danny Granger caught a ball out on the perimeter, lowered his head, and rushed for the basket...Enter El Rookie, The Beaz Markie, Be-Easy-Michael-Beasley who slid across the lane, and thrust himself in front of Granger for a big collision just a fraction of a second too late to draw an offensive foul - and got the call! First charge of the year drawn by Mike, in his 71st game (minus one when his dog gave him the flu), and approximately his 400th attempt. Got up smiling like he just won the Superbowl, as the bench erupted in laughter and congratulations. Before he even hit the deck, Eric Reid pointed out it was the first charge Beasley had drawn this year. "Eric, I think it might be the first charge he has drawn in his life," guessed Tony Fiorentino.
4) Quick bagpipe music update: on an extremely rare Walmart trip this evening with O. and P. Minutos, I came face-to-face with a cheesy cd display, the kind with a lot of ambient music, where you can touch the screen to hear samples. "New!" read a sign, "Scotland's Finest Pipe and Drum Music." A surge of electricity jolted my body - we played the sample, it was Amazing Grace, a classic bagpipe lament. Two problems - first, the sample was very short, I didn't get to hear any drums, just the beginning of the song with bagpipers only. I assume that the snares kicked in hard and sharp, but since I didn't hear them, how do I know other instruments didn't come in as well and ruin the song? If you recall, that's what happened a couple of weeks ago in what I like to call "The Tragedy of Caledonia." Second - the song wasn't sad enough, it wasn't mournful or pleading enough. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great - I got the sense that the bagpipers on the cd were mailing it in, just playing for the check. That's not how I like my bagpipe music. I didn't buy the cd. The search continues...
5) "The Fast and the Furious" is one of my favorite movies that I have never seen. It looks dark, mysterious, and edgy, Vin Diesel is cool, I have man crushes on Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez, and, of course, anyone who knows me knows I am a total gearhead. Now they have made a sequel called - ah, I'm not sure...Faster and More Furious? - and there is a preview which is running constantly during Heat games. It is the one commercial that I stop the Tivo fast forward to watch. Every time I see it, I am like, "whooaaa - Diesel and Walker, crap, man, back together, I have to see that." But I haven't even seen the first one. Or the crappy second one, Tokyo Drift, starring Lucas Black, that I resented, even though I, again, never saw it. Sometimes there are jokes on this blog - this is not a joke.
6) Well, I have a new favorite U.S. Congressman, a Republican from Idaho, Mike Crapo. Here is his website: http://crapo.senate.gov/. Won reelection in 2004 in a very tight runoff against longtime political rivals, Ed Asswiper and Will Douchey.
