103 thoughts on “June 6, 2012: I’m Back, Possibly”

  1. WGOM Radio

    Does Wednesday TONIGHT night work for recording our Euro preview? Skype call around 6:30 or 7 (very flexible)?

    -free will preview group A.
    -Groups B-D still available.
    -Email with details will go out around lunchtime.

    Then Monday for our NBA Finals preview/playoff recap?

    -Buffalo, after 6 PM Central

    (reposted from yesterday w/ updates)

    1. I may be able to participate, but Monday is a day that I'll be at the world headquarters and Lucy may not appreciate me participating.

  3. Reading about the Celtics-Heat game last night and KG's heroics makes me sad. How many banners would be hanging from Target Center if only the Wolves front office had been able to surround Garnett with a few good players from more than just one year.

      1. That move was the move that sent the franchise off of its trajectory. They had nabbed a bonafide inner circle HOFer in the last draft, purged the roster of the cancer (Laettner and Rider), and were set up to move into the NBA elite. Then, they drafted the greatest outside shooter of all time and flipped him for an idiot. Oh, mama, I think I'm going to cry.

        2. I will go to my grave contending that I hated that trade from the instant it was made. But the demise goes back two seasons earlier when Michael Williams got hurt. He was a more-than-serviceable point guard in 1992-3 and 1993-4, but his career basically ended at age 27 in 1993-4 at age 27. If he's healthy, who knows?

          1. I liked Williams, too, but not how he spelled his first name: Micheal. That would be like you spelling yours as brainS. Hey, if the shoe fits...

    2. He has been nothing short of absolutely incredible. And the Celtics have figured out ways to get him the ball moving to the basket so that he's not just shooting jumpers. Wow, when he's doing that, he's just unstoppable. Imagine if the Wolves had had Doc Rivers coaching him in his prime.

      1. You might recall that I listed him as second team all-NBA and as Defensive Player of the Year in that post that FTLT and I did. I think I was right about both.

          1. I've always said that KG's best comp is Russell. Russell averaged 15 points a game in a much higher scoring era. He was defense first. So is KG and he's a monster.

            Miami is 60% with Garnett on the bench, and 40.8% with him on the floor, according to NBA.com. Inside 10 feet, close to the basket where Garnett protects the rim, Miami is shooting 56.8% with Garnett in the game. With Garnett sitting, the Heat are shooting 82.1% inside 10 feet.

            "I look at myself as a defensive player first," Garnett said. "I thought some of the defensive plays I was able to make fueled me into getting some easy baskets. Doc called my name, and it worked out."

            That he's getting 20 points a game in this series in addition to completely dominating on the other end is just icing on the cake.

            1. If it can't be measured in points - specifically points scored in the last 3 seconds of a game - it doesn't count.

              Because it's all about the little things. Until it isn't.

              I heard KG referred to as a "possible Hall-of-Famer" the other day. Sigh.

              1. I never understood why the wolves traded him. Some of the odd trades in the league have helped cement my conviction that the commissioner's office really has far too much control in the NBA. I don't see an individual GM opting to trade KG, but it sure worked out better for the league. And fortunately for KG, it worked out for him too. I really want that KG/Duncan final.

                  1. That's what I'm afraid of. OF course, given that it's the NBA, my true level of passion is minimal. I definitely exaggerated my desire to see Duncan vs. KG when I said I really wanted it. I have a slight preference and almost certainly wouldn't watch any of the games anyway, unless maybe it went to a game 7.

                2. You knew it was a bad trade that would yield awful results for the Wolves when Souhan wrote the following:

                  The Wolves did the right thing by trading Garnett. In fact, they should have traded him a year earlier, for a better package of players and picks. Garnett could make Wolves management look bad (worse?) by winning with the Celtics, but I'd rather watch Al Jefferson develop than watch Garnett waste another productive year at Target Center.

                  or this, when the Celtics returned to Minneapolis for the first time after the deal:

                  The Garnett trade also was great for the Wolves. For all of his mistakes the past 10 years, Wolves VP Kevin McHale has made two excellent deals in a row, deals that make this year's struggling team far more promising than the stagnant Garnett-led teams of the previous two seasons.

                  In trading Garnett, he landed Jefferson, who is younger, cheaper, a better fourth-quarter scorer, a better offensive rebounder and eager to improve. Jefferson took it to Yao Ming the other night, shooting over him from the outside, faking him off his feet, dunking on him, spinning him like a top with low-post moves that could have been stolen from the movie "The Illusionist."

                  I'd rather watch Jefferson tonight than even a healthy Garnett, regardless of their team's records.

                  2. It was a bad trade but would the Wolves have been better off keeping him? Or would they have been a borderline 8 seed and never had the chance to get Love and Rubio?

                    1. It was a trade that, sadly, had to be made due the front office's own incompetence. They were forced to blow up the team by trading their superstar, accept pennies on the dollar, and start over. But, no one with any sense about what exchanged hands would have ever said that it was a "great" trade for the Wolves. Or that watching BAJ dominate the ball and not play defense was preferable to watching the brilliance of an inner circle HOFer, even if it was done on a losing team.

                    2. I am happy for KG. If he had remained on bad teamsm he would still bo underrated. Withtthe championship and the east coasteexposure, he should be a nodoubt hall of famer.-

                    3. I am too. He's cemented his legacy and this post-season he's been beyond belief. I've enjoyed it.

  4. Ray Bradbury has passed away.

    Martin Prince: As your president, I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring an ABC of the genre. Asimov, Bester, Clarke.
    Student: What about Ray Bradbury?
    Martin Prince: I'm aware of his work...

      1. His semi-autobiographical novel Dandelion Wine was a thing of beauty, too.

        Fahrenheit 451 alone would have been sufficient to place him in the pantheon of great writers. But The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc., etc., etc.

        I may need to re-read some Bradbury for July's First Monday post....

  6. There's a dump of hashed passwords floating around the internet purporting to originate from LinkedIn. Given some of the discussion about it, it's highly likely it's real and contains the entire password database. Since LinkedIn is apparently incompetent when it comes to handling passwords, I would recommend anyone with an account they remotely care about on the site to change their password.

      1. Ugh, can't seem to remember my password to log in and change it from work.

    2. Thankfully I've never used that site.
      I'm just getting used to the password changes I had to make after Deadspin/Gawker leaked mine.
      That one really bothered me because I couldn't figure out the comments system after 8 iterations and hadn't done anything there for like 5 years.

      1. I'd say you're better off not having figured out the comment system. I've developed a handy template for commenting at Deadspin:

        "Copy and paste line from article."

        --Some celebrity

        Reply with +1's as needed.

      2. linkedin is weird and creepy. they must pay good money for info because the "people you may know" section can bring back some astonishing results. for example: how the hell would linkedin suggest my high school jazz band teacher?

        1. I'm not sure that there's anything too weird about social networks per se. Friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, and members who share other self-revealed attributes (e.g., home town, profession, etc.).

          Not that that isn't potentially creepy. Just not weird.

          1. I think Hungry Joe is talking about the suggestions made by LinkedIn. It is pretty creepy how much they are able to track down. I think they tap into my emails. I will get suggestions for people whose kids are on my kids' sports teams.

  7. We've been back in Texas for less than 24 hours and already the shit has hit the fan. Dr. Chop's jealous colleague has pretty much destroyed any hope we had of leaving this town with any good vibrations. As it turns out, 3 weeks is totally enough time to totally assassinate someone's character.

    3. Jealousy was at the heart of the Milkmaid's issues too. I'm not one to blame jealousy - it's a lazy defense often used by people with no argument - but Cathy's boss has assured me that jealousy is the one and only factor in play, and he really has nothing to gain by lying to me about it.

    4. Despite my silence, I've kept up with things here to a degree. This entire situation with Dr. Chop's colleague and her institution is vomitous, and I'm heartily sorry you're having to deal with it.

  8. Sheenie and I were a "host" family for an international student at Macalester the last four years and had an incredibly fulfilling and wonderful experience.* We're signing up for a new freshman student this fall, and I thought I would throw out this link to the program for anyone in the Twin Cities who may be interested. It's a great way to expose yourself to a new culture and a ridiculously bright person. The involvement was fairly minimal (we probably would meet with our student about once a month during the school year), but you will learn a lot. If anyone is even remotely curious and has any questions, don't hesitate to email me at wyoung at gwmail dot gwu dot edu.

    *I would tease Ishiaka (our previous student) because he once referred to me as his "host-dad" when on the phone with a friend. I had to remind him that he's older than my younger sister and that I'm more of a "host-older brother."

    1. That dude would soil his Zubaz if he turned around. I like Ax more and more.

  10. a fascinating piece of scatology over at Andrew Sullivan's blog today. Seriously. Go to the "classic story" link, but also read all the way down the article for the comments from the pediatric urologist.

    1. As someone who has his own issues with that area, that was way too funny and way too accurate.

    1. Ugh, you community theater types. It's pronounced "frak"

      /just one more Battlestar Gallactica.

            1. Wait, Brickskeller closed? Ugh, that sucks. I used to walk there all the time. I hung out with a bunch of Primates (Baseball Think Factory posters) just days before I left DC.

              2. Wow, that is sad. Of course, they were always out of the stuff I wanted to order anyway.

      1. Call recorded and in the bag. I'll edit this and have it up ASAP, hopefully still tonight so those that want to put it on their iPod for their commute tomorrow will have an opportunity.

        1. I'm gonna go ahead and apologize now. I won't have this up tonight. I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through editing the conversation, plus I need to add music and whatnot. I didn't have my levels recording very well, so free's vocals need some editing work, which is taking a lot of time. Sorry in advance if he's kind of hard to hear in places. That's entirely my fault. He was coming through my headset just fine, but the recording was off. I really need to figure out dual track recording.

    1. I met George Clinton the day after this happened when he attended an event put on by ASCAP where I worked honoring Chuck Brown. The music that night was phenomenal (there was a local DC gogo house band) and Clinton was just wandering around aimlessly.

  14. OKC is doing everything they can to keep this within striking distance. A few more threes and the Spurs might pull away. I have a feeling this might be a pretty exciting second half.

  15. That is all?

    Tony Parker wasn't exactly chopped liver in the 1st half. Foie gras, maybe. (21 and 10.)

    1. Remember when the NBA had a major network broadcast contract? That was cool.

      this cable shit is pissing me off. For the conference finals? Seriously? ALL of the games??

Comments are closed.