Duke loses, a gruesome injury occurs, and the Final Four is set. The tennis shot of the year, already. And “This Week in Unnecessary Censorship”

Before I get to thoughts on my beloved Duke Blue Devils and the end of their season Sunday in the Elite Eight, a few words about the injury from that game you probably have all heard about, and one that won’t leave my mind for a while.

When Louisville’s Kevin Ware ran out to try to block a 3-pointer by Duke’s Tyler Thornton with 6:33 left in the first half, it looked like an innocent play, one college basketball players make 1,000 times.

But when Thornton released his shot, Ware flew past him, and landed on his right leg at a horrendously gruesome angle, with the leg bending under him. If you haven’t seen it yet, I urge you strongly NOT to watch it. I was watching the game with my soon-to-be father-in-law and we both screamed “Oh my God!” upon watching the replay.

It was a terrible injury to watch, and the Louisville players were clearly very shaken by it; several vomited upon looking at Ware’s leg, and others were weeping openly on the court.

It was a jarring reminder of how fragile these athletic careers are; Kevin Ware, as of Sunday night, was expected to recover from his broken leg, but who knows if he’ll ever play again. (Great column on the injury here by Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal)

In his absence, a basketball game continued, but even I, who normally yells and screams at the TV during Duke games with the best of them, was kinda subdued for a while after that.
It’s just sports, we have to keep telling ourselves when something awful happens.

**Now, as for the games this weekend… I have to start with Duke. So thrilled with the win Friday night, since the Blue Devils played great defense and got just enough offense besides the remarkable Seth Curry to win.
Sunday, for the first 20 minutes, I thought Duke was going to win. They were right there playing with the best team in America. But then, Louisville went to another level, and Duke couldn’t get that high.
The Cardinals are just outstanding, and should win the national title next weekend, I think.
The Blue Devils had a fantastic season and I”m proud of ‘em. To come within 1 game of the Final 4, with Curry playing hurt all year, and Ryan Kelly being out for a while, is terrific. I’m salivating thinking about next year’s lineup already.

– Michigan’s comeback on Friday night was sensational (is it me or does Kansas either choke in epic proportions or go the Final 4 every year, with nothing in between), and their beatdown of Florida Sunday was equally impressive. What a talented team, and I think they’re the only ones with a shot at beating Louisville next weekend in Atlanta.
– Wichita State, I mean, did ANYONE in America pick them for the Final 4? What a great, great story; they were eclipsed by the Florida Gulf Coast magic a little bit, but the Shockers getting to the national semifinals as a 9 seed is mighty impressive.

**And now, a tennis shot that you couldn’t replicate if you tried it a thousand times. Aggie Radwanska, last week at the Sony Open, with a volley none of my instructors ever taught me…

**Finally today, a feature I always enjoy but rarely remember to blog about. From Jimmy Kimmel’s show, This Week in Unnecessary Censorship…

Duke wins a thriller, and the madness begins. The new late-night wars: Jimmy vs. Jimmy? And “The Daily Show” shines again

My favorite sports month of the year is here. Pretty much, every day all month, there’s incredible college basketball going on, not just once the NCAA Tournament gets going in a few weeks.

I love all the late-season showdowns, like Sunday’s epic Michigan-Michigan State game won by the Wolverines by a point. I love the incredible, out of nowhere performances, like when Ryan Kelly of my beloved Duke Blue Devils scored 36 points Saturday night in his first game in two months, leading Duke past a very, very good Miami team.

And this week, I’ll love the small conference tournaments getting their one shot at the big time, playing their guts out against their conference foes, all hoping for one ticket to the Dance.

So yes, I’m one of those freaks who will watch South Dakota State and Northeastern and the bigshots of the Missouri Valley Conference, all playing for the right to have a chance to become famous for a few days a few weeks from now.

For most, March Madness doesn’t really start for two more weeks. But after this past weekend’s thrilling games, I’m totally immersed as usual.

God I love college hoops.

And oh yeah, March Madness extends to high school hoops, too. Check out this insane finish and 55-foot buzzer beater from New Rochelle H.S. in New York’s Khalil Edney, to beat Mount Vernon on Saturday.  The good part starts at :25…

** So it looks like we may have a new late-night war on our hands, and Jay Leno is finally getting shown the door.

NBC is apparently ready to throw Leno out the door (again) in 2014 and turn “The Tonight Show” over to Jimmy Fallon, because they’re worried Jimmy Kimmel and ABC are stealing all the young viewers.

I say amen and bravo to this move. Fallon, though he possesses the horrible habit of cracking himself up on live TV, is quick, funny and has great bits all the time on his show. I’d love to see him and Kimmel go at it, because Kimmel is really funny, too.

But Mr. Fallon, I wouldn’t go celebrating just yet. Ask Conan O’Brien how loyal to its promises and plans NBC is, eh?

**Finally today, been a while since I’ve highlighted the consistently awesome work of “The Daily Show.” Late last week Jon Stewart and the gang took on the kerfuffle between the White House and legendary journalist Bob Woodward.

I used to worship Woodward, who of course was 1/2 of the reporting team that helped bring down Richard Nixon during Watergate. But in recent years he seems to have turned into a caricature of himself, and takes himself way too seriously.

So I enjoyed this little takedown very much…

20 years later, a great book about the Laettner shot. A brilliant solution to the peanut-butter jar problem. And “The Wire” vs. “The Sopranos” an impossible decision

Twenty years later, I can still remember where I was when Christian Laettner hit “The Shot.”

Lying on the floor of my then-stepmother’s basement in Queens, N.Y., watching the greatest game ever played and rooting like hell for Duke to beat Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA regional finals in Philly.
It looked good for the Blue Devils for a while. Then, not so good. When Sean Woods hit that crazy running bank shot to put Kentucky ahead with 2.1 seconds to go, I cursed and couldn’t believe that a team of “rejects” who nobody else wanted when UK basketball went down in controversy after a cheating scandal was about to beat the defending national champs that I loved so much.

Then Grant Hill threw a beautiful pass, Laettner caught it, and the rest is history.

It was 20 years ago Wednesday, and it capped what is almost-universally acclaimed as the greatest college hoops game of all time. I got to relive a lot of it recently through Gene Wojciechowski’s fantastic new book “The Last Great Game.”
A longtime newspaper sportswriter, Woj does a terrific job telling the backstories of how Duke and Kentucky got to the game. So much of it is fascinating: How Rick Pitino never wanted to leave the Knicks and come to UK after the program was destroyed by scandal. How Laettner was an even bigger jerk than we thought, tormenting teammates and being an incredible pain in the ass to everyone. How those UK players (which featured only one future NBA player, Jamal Mashburn) were immortalized for coming so close, and for restoring glory to a once-proud program.

The only downside to the book in my eyes was that considering the title, the author doesn’t spend that much time talking about the actual game. But the details he does give are riveting (I still can’t understand why Pitino decided not to guard the in-bounds pass at the end).

Of course Duke fans will enjoy the book, and Kentucky fans too, but really, it’s a great story for any fan of basketball. The title is misleading; Duke-Kentucky 1992 was not the “last great game.”

But it was the best one ever played, and I highly recommend reading it to get even more of a flavor of March Madness.

**Like just about all of you, I’ve at one time or another suffered from the peanut butter jar problem. You’re trying to make a sandwich, but your peanut butter jar is mostly empty. So you reach in and try to get some out with a knife, only to smear Skippy’s or Jif all over your sleeve or hand.
It’s just the cost of doing business, you tell yourself later when you enjoy your PB & J.

But my friends, you and your sleeves will suffer no more! Check out this pretty awesome invention by Darren Kramer, a minor league hockey player for the Ottawa Senators. He’s come up with the “double twist-off jar,” and here’s a video (above) showing how it works.
Very, very cool. I totally hope this hits the mass market.

**As far as smart television fans and critics go, there’s been a long-running debate about which television drama was the GOAT (Greatest of All Time): “The Wire” or “The Sopranos.”

I was a huge fan of both, but to me it’s not that close of a contest: Both “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” were transcendent, groundbreaking television, but “The Wire” was superior. It had better acting, better writing, and told better stories. (Plus that final scene of “The Sopranos” still pisses me off, all these years later.)

But don’t take my word for it. The good people at Vulture.com have done a comprehensive breakdown of the two shows, comparing almost every last detail.

A fascinating read if you have the time.

An incredible Duke comeback win over UNC. Kansas anti-abortion legislation is outrageous. And the car that drives itself.

I have no idea if any of this is going to make sense.

It’s been 45 minutes since the most improbable Duke win over North Carolina in my lifetime, and my heart rate is only now starting to slow down.
Pick an adjective. Any adjective. Insane. Ridiculous. Unbelievable.
It all applies. With just over two minutes to go in the game, North Carolina, who had dominated all night and is definitely the better team this year, was up 82-72. I had a few hundred words about this painful Duke loss already written (which thankfully I’ve now deleted; lost to the dustbin of history), but suddenly Tyler Thornton of the Blue Devils hit a 3, and then Seth Curry hit a 3 (yeah, he traveled on the play, so what), and we had a ballgame again.

And then Austin Rivers, son of NBA coach Doc Rivers, comes down with two seconds left and unleashes a 22-footer from the right side of the court.

Swish. 3-pointer. Duke wins. 20,000 UNC fans at the Dean Dome eerily silent.

And yours truly leaped up from my perch two feet from the television, on the floor, clutching a pillow (that’s my default position for when one of my teams is in a tight game) and screamed “Holy (bleep)” about 15 times in a row. My die-hard hoops fan friend Tony called. We both screamed that two word epithet into the phone to each other a few times, too.

I probably woke up my landlord. But who cared? Duke had just beaten North Carolina. Austin Rivers entered the Duke pantheon.

Believe me, I know Duke still has a ton of problems. They couldn’t rebound at all tonight, their defense was poor, and they missed way too many free throws.
But Carolina couldn’t put ‘em away, and missed just enough shots at the end to keep Duke alive.

What a win. What a rivalry, the best in all of the land.
God I love sports sometimes.
Off to sleep. Yeah, right.

Another week, another insanely offensive anti-abortion law going through the motions in a state.

The state of Kansas took up a bill Wednesday that would exempt doctors from malpractice suits if they withheld, from women, personal medical information to prevent an abortion.

In other words, a doctor would be completely free from a lawsuit if he decided to withhold certain pertinent information from his patient. From his patient!

According to the Huff Post story linked above, among the most contested provisions of the bill is the section that would exempt a doctor from a medical malpractice suit if a woman claims the physician withheld information about potential birth defects to prevent her from having an abortion.

How abhorrent and heartless would a doctor have to be to do that?

The measure would also, among other things, remove tax deductions for the purchase of abortion-related insurance coverage, and force women wanting an abortion to hear the fetal heartbeat.

And oh yeah, the law would require that women be told about potential breast cancer risks from abortions, even though there has been NO medical science backing up a link.

Truly repulsive and disgusting stuff. Kansas, of course, has been a battleground state in the pro-choice and anti-choice wars for years.
Just when I think the anti-choice zealots can’t go any further, they push their agenda a few more yards…

** I love futuristic stuff like this. From wired.com comes a quick video and story about the car that will drive itself.

I don’t believe for a minute this will ever actually become a regular thing. But for  less-than-great drivers like myself, I think it would be awesome.

We are getting closer and closer to “The Jetsons,” aren’t we?

Prop 8 overturned in California; Supreme Court up next? Once again, it’s time for Duke-Carolina. And the inspiring story of ALS patient Steve Gleason

And now, to the Supreme Court.

I guess it was kind of inevitable that the controversial Proposition 8 law in California, enacted several years ago to ban marriage between gay people, would end up in the hands of the nine most important judges in the United States.

Tuesday, yet another blow was struck for equality. The California Supreme Court ruled that Prop 8 was unconstitutional, setting the stage for a fight in Washington, D.C. to hopefully settle this issue once and for all.

The Supreme Court could refuse to hear the case, of course. But I think it will, and it’ll come down to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who on this right-leaning court is the best hope for a swing, “moderate” vote.

I hope this issue does get aired before the Supreme Court. I get sick and tired of saying it, but the continued discrimination against gay and lesbian people in our society is a disgusting, antiquated blot on our country that decades from now, future generations will shake their head at.
Good for the California Supreme Court. One more court to go, and then maybe, we can stop arguing about whether two people who love each other should be able to legally say they’re bound together forever.

For more on the ruling, check out this excellent summary here.

**Tonight. Duke-Carolina. My favorite hyphenated phrase in the world, I look forward to the first game between the two college basketball rivals more than any other every year. It’s the greatest rivalry in all of sports, and I’ll keep on believing that until my dying day.

Not feeling too optimistic about my Blue Devils’ chances tonight; Duke has had an erratic season so far; there’s no leadership on this team, the guard play has been spotty (for every solid game Austin Rivers plays, he throws in a clunker; Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry, you too), and the Tar Heels are loaded and rolling. Sunday, my Blue Devils missed six FT’s in overtime and lost to a not-that-great Miami team, in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Tonight’s game could get ugly for the boys in dark blue. But I’ll be hoping for the best and going nuts between 9 and 11 p.m. If you’re a sports fan, you really ought to watch.

**Finally today, a tragic but a bit heartwarming story you may have seen on the Super Bowl pregame show. Former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2010; for my money it’s the positively worst disease you can come down with. Gleason has a wonderfully positive attitude despite his fatal diagnosis; watch his story and be inspired…

A very cool (but scary) video of the Japan tsunami. Kyrie’s back! And the British man abducted by aliens

Sometimes all the words and pictures tell a story. And then you watch a 1-minute clip on YouTube and it becomes so much more vivid.
Saw this on Twitter Friday night; it’s video from a boat taken right before the tsunami that started the incredible mess Japan is in right now.
Truly terrifying video.

**I know most of you don’t give a hoot about college basketball, but Friday was a big day not just because it was the NCAA Tournament’s Day 2 (not a great day of games, frankly; only 2 or 3 really good ones), but for Duke fans it was the long-awaited return of freshman star Kyrie Irving, who’s been hurt for 3 months.

In his honor, I give you the great Mister Mister song and video “Kyrie.” (pronounced differently than the Duke star but hey, who’s counting.) You’re welcome.

(By the way, 1.6 million people have watched that clip. Don’t tell me ’80s music didn’t rule!)

**Some people are just too stupid to live. Others are just really, really confused and gullible. Not sure which category this guy falls into.
Couple weeks ago, the British government released a bunch of documents related to UFO sightings and other alien encounters. In one of the documents, it seems a man in 1998 called police when an entire hour of his life could not be accounted for. He was certain he had been abducted by aliens for 60 minutes, then returned to Earth.
After all, he knew where he was at 9 a.m., then the next thing he knew, it was 10 a.m. and he had no memory of anything! What else could it have been?
Turns out the guy just forgot to set his clock ahead for Daylight Savings Time.

How much fun it must be to get those calls if you’re the police.

Jon Stewart in defense of teachers. A really, really drunk priest. And Duke-Carolina II

This Wisconsin protest thing continues on, and I get more and more transfixed every day. Gov. Scott Walker seems hellbent on destroying unions in his state, pissing on teachers and other public workers.
When I get upset about all this, I turn to Jon Stewart. Who as always, puts things in perspective:

**Who says priests don’t know how to party? I certainly don’t after reading about this guy.
Meet Rev. Ignatius Kury, a Ukranian Byzantine Catholic Church priest (no, I’ve never heard of that either, although maybe it’s close to Latvian Orthodox, to which George Costanza is a member) from Ohio.
Mr. Kury was arrested for drunk driving last Monday, and afterwards had some of the most bizarre ramblings you’ll ever hear from a priest (or a drunk person, for that matter).
A sample of what you can find here on his arrest report: And oh yeah, there’s video, too.
– To a jailer: “You have fabulous eyebrows. Those don’t come naturally.”
– “I am not going to get on my knees, I am not going to give head. Oral sex, no. I don’t care how long I’m here.”
–  “Thank you. Because I believe in real American democracy. I believe in Sarah Palin. We’re going rogue.”

– * “He’s in shackles, like Uncle Tom. Like I’m an Uncle Tom, don’t you think so, cause I’m black, I’m part black. You understand, sir, what kind of a shit storm you’re going to be under cause I am part black. Ohh, I can’t wait. Oprah Winfrey is going to have her fat ass down here and you are going to have your ass up the wall, and not in a good way.”

So0000 …  yeah. I can’t wait to see what his next sermon will be about. Standing room only tickets for that one.

**So, yeah, it’s Duke-Carolina day again. This time, so much more is on the line than the first meeting a month ago. Both are tied for the lead in the ACC, and today’s 8 p.m. game (live on CBS, first time the Duke-Carolina game has been on broadcast network prime-time, for whatever the hell that’s worth) will determine the regular season champ.

I’m feeling nervous, because my Blue Devils haven’t played great lately, and Carolina is on a serious roll. I think they’re going to be even better than they were in the first meeting, and they were pretty freaking good that night. Duke needed a huge night from Seth Curry to survive at Cameron in that one.
And my Blue Devils, well, they’re not playing so hot. Kyle Singler still isn’t back to his usual self, and K has shrunk his bench again, and the Heels will be at home …
I still think Duke wins. And I think that since I put this video on the blog last time they played, and Duke won, that I need to do so again.

Oh, like you don’t know a superstitious sports fan?

An amazing national title game. Tiger thoughts. And another great old song is sold out

I think I started breathing again about 45 seconds after Butler’s Gordon Hayward launched a half-court heave at the buzzer that missed going in by about, oh, two inches.

I was at a loss for words at about 11:45 p.m. Monday night. Which is good, since I could hardly breathe.

I’d just seen maybe the greatest NCAA national championship basketball game of my lifetime, and Duke had won.

What. A. Game. What a game! Truly phenomenal. I am so thrilled as a Duke fan that my team won its fourth national title, but a tiny part of me almost wishes that that last shot by Hayward went in.

Because wouldn’t that have been the perfect ending to the most perfect NCAA Tournament I’ve seen? A halfcourt, national title-winning shot by a tiny school from Indiana at the buzzer. As it was, it was an incredible game. Duke scratched and clawed and had to do everything possible to hang in.

I realize I’m not being eloquent or making much sense here, but I’m too emotionally spent to be clever or profound. My wife, who has a devilish sense of humor, decided it’d be fun to videotape me watching the last 10 minutes of the game, as I paced, screamed, and clutched a pillow to my chest while rocking back and forth (Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be on YouTube soon enough).

It was just a phenomenal game, capping off a phenomenal tournament. Nobody deserved to lose that game; it was basketball at its finest.

Couple more late-night thoughts on the game:

– Duke and Coach K have now won 4 national titles in 19 years, and I think it’s fair to see he’s the second-greatest college basketball coach of all time now (behind some guy named J. Wooden).

– So happy to see Brian Zoubek, who every Duke fan called “useless” or worse his first three years, get the last big rebound and score the last point. I’ve never seen a player get so much better from January to March than he did.

– If you’re scoring at home, I’ve already ordered the 2010 national title long-sleeve blue shirt, and the 2010 tall glass tumbler. Hey, those were needed purchases at 2 a.m.

– Since I’m like the biggest “One Shining Moment” fan in the world, I must weigh in on Jennifer Hudson’s version Monday night. The singing was fine. The production was awful. First, they showed clips of her singing for like 15 seconds. Why? the whole point of the thing is a montage of the Tournament; they’ve never showed the OSM singer, because the focus is on the players.

Second, there were no highlights of Duke doing anything well in the title game. And third, a minor point but an important one, on the opening “The ball is tipped” lyric, when they always show two guys jumping center, they showed Jennifer Hudson’s face!

Ugh. CBS, you dropped the ball this year, big-time. Check for yourself:

**So against my better judgment, I listened to some of Tiger Woods’ press conference from the Masters on Monday. As much as I hate to say it, I thought he was pretty honest. He still wouldn’t admit he’s a sex addict, nor did he go into details about why he did what he did, hurting the people he loved so much.

But I thought he was pretty honest and vulnerable, and tried to be as open as he could.

Now, can we all move on with the rest of our lives?

**Finally, I realize I’m getting old. I realize this because I remember when I was a kid, in the late 1980s or so, there was a huge uproar from baby boomers when Bob Dylan and The Who songs were being used in car commercials. This is a travesty! the thirtysomething fans shouted. This was iconic rock music that lifted a generation, and now it’s being used to push Hondas?

Well, I thought they were being silly then. And yet … I’m watching TV with Julie the other day, and a commercial comes on playing the classic Technotronic song “Move This.”

I look up, and what’s the song promoting? Garanimals. Yep, a hip-hop song that was an anthem at dance clubs and parties for years is now being used to sell children’s clothing!

What a disgrace. You think the Technotronic people ever thought that 21 years ago when this song came out that little Johnny and his pajamas would be bopping along to this song? Heck no.

I’m faux outraged. Oh well. Have a listen and remember how great this song really was:

Duke! Invisibility cloaks! And a little “Love Boat” music.

Good morning all. as you read this I’m probably on my way to Port Canaveral, Fla., humming The Love Boat theme (man I loved that show. The guest star lists were so random; it was always like, Fred Dryer, Charo, and McLean Stevenson).

My wife and I are going on a cruise for the first time together, a four-day excursion to the Bahamas. It’s my first-ever cruise, so I’m totally pumped. Sure, the weather forecast for the Bahamas this week is crappy, but I’m not letting that get me down. I’m going to eat, eat, eat some more, and do some para-sailing. I’m very much looking forward to disconnecting from the world for a few days: No phone, no Internet, nothing.

But fear not, loyal readers: My beloved blog assistant/father will be posting a few things I had written for a rainy day. Dad, this is is your chance to tell any embarrassing stories from my childhood you think the world should know. But remember, the police know the truth!

Have a great week.

So, I know lots of people hate Duke. And I understand it to a degree. People hate winners. But you know, Duke hasn’t won anything in a while, so I was beyond excited Sunday night.

Thanks to Jon Scheyer finding his jump shot, Lance Thomas rebounding like a man possessed, and everyone who played chipping in a little bit, the Blue Devils are going back to the Final Four. Phenomenal win over Baylor, a really good team who scared the hell out of me.

It looked bleak for a while, as LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter (and come on, LaceDarius? What kind of a name is that?) were bombing 3-pointers.

But Duke came back in the second half and got it done. Huge props to Nolan Smith for his career-high 28 points, and Brian Zoubek played well before fouling out, and Scheyer, the leader, came up huge.

**Quite an interesting Final Four, I think. Butler, the hometown team and the little guy in field. Michigan State, who get to the Final Four for the sixth time in 12 years, a mind-blowing accomplishment for Tom Izzo. West Virginia, which hasn’t been there since 1959 and plays hellacious defense. And a Duke team most people still underestimate. Should be a lot of fun.

**Finally, this is one of those stories I can’t believe is really true. But remember the “invisibility cloaks” in the Harry Potter movies, where Harry and his friends could go from room to room undetected?

Well, apparently German scientists have created a 3-D cloak that can hide objects by bending light waves.

This is way too complicated for me to explain; go here for the details. But how cool would this be in real life? All those times you want to know what people are saying about you in the other room? Now you can! When I was younger this was the power I wanted most in life, and now it might be possible.

God bless science.

A travel nightmare that all worked out OK. Health care. And 4 days in, what an amazing Tournament

**Hello dear readers, am typing this at an obscenely late hour Sunday night. Sorry for the inconsistent blogging the last few days, my wife and I were in the wonderful city of Philadelphia for the weekend at the wedding of Sarah and Andrew (much, much more on that to come in succeeding days; wait until I tell you about the oddness that was the hotel we stayed at having only pictures of Republican presidents hanging on the walls).

Anyway, couple quick thoughts before I go off to bed, but I will blog more tomorrow.

– Southwest, I love ya. You know I do. But 3 1/2 hours stuck in N.C. on our layover, because our plane had mechanical difficulties? Oy, not good. On the plus side, I got to watch the Duke game in an airport bar, when I was totally expecting to miss it due to our previous flight sked.

– Have to say, having been there many times in college but not so much since, Philly is one of my favorite American cities. So much to do there, so many different types of people and experiences, and oh yeah, kick-ass cheesesteaks. I had my first authentic cheesesteak in Philly in about a decade on Saturday, and it was as good as I remembered.

– Tremendous experience as an American visiting the Liberty Bell and the Old Congress Hall, places I saw as a kid but couldn’t appreciate.

– God bless March Madness on Demand, and thank you, CBS, for giving us an outlet to watch ALL the NCAA Tournament games even when our local station is not showing the game we want.

– Kansas lost. That really happened, right? I haven’t been this stunned by a sporting event’s result since Hickory beat South Bend Central in “Hoosiers.” Stunning. To Northern Iowa? And can someone explain to me, please, how a kid named Ali Farokhmanesh is white?

–The health care bill passed. Finally. I’m very pleased. Now can we move on to some of the 412 other problems this country has right now? Education reform, global warming, immigration, stem cell research, I mean, it’s not like we’re lacking for problems.

I’m just so sick of talking and thinking about health care.

– Amazing, amazing first four days of the NCAA Tournament. From the opening game with BYU-Florida going to double OT, to the last game of the second round, when Purdue got a driving layup in OT to beat Texas A&M, it was four days of sheer awesomeness.

And my Duke boys looked really, really good Sunday. Two away from the Final Four. Can’t wait till more games start Thursday.