Why casino gambling should be legal, in every state. “The Wire” acted out in LEGOs, brilliantly. And the end of Linsanity makes NY sad

So I was watching TV the other day and two news stories came on, one right after another, seemingly coincidentally.
The first story was about state budget deficits, and how thanks to the economic downturn more and more states are cutting services.
The second story was about New York State continuing to face opposition to Gov. Cuomo’s plan to legalize casino gambling in the state, even after states like New Jersey continue to make it easier for people to place bets.

Now, full disclosure: I like to gamble. Casinos to me are exciting, bright and sparkling houses of fun. I say this as an adult who has lost money at them, and as an adult who has won money at them. If I were wealthy, I might gamble a lot more.
Yes, I know gambling can be addicting, and I know it’s very, very easy already to place wagers on the Internet at sites like this.

But so many states are laying off teachers, cutting crucial government services, etc., that alternative revenue sources have to be found. Casino gambling is, and could be, a huge source of income for desperate states.
Frankly, I feel like the positives outweigh the negatives here.

**As I’ve said on here too many times to count, “The Wire” was the greatest show ever on TV. So anything “Wire” related that comes across my radar, I try to pass along.
This will only be hilarious to people who’ve seen the show (Jason Garber and Clay Pandorf, you in particular will like this), but it’s “The Wire” acted out in LEGOs. Brilliant…

**So it became official late Tuesday night: Jeremy Lin is no longer a New York Knick. It’s hard to remember an athlete coming from total obscurity, rising to an insane level of fame and popularity, then being gone from the place that gave him that fame and popularity as fast as Lin.

He was like a meteor soaring above Madison Square Garden in February, and now he’s gone, off to Houston because once again, Knicks owner James Dolan is too stupid and too cheap to know a good thing when he has it (What, suddenly a man who gave untold millions to Howard Eisley and Maurice Taylor is suddenly thrifty? I’m not even a Knicks fan and I think the guy is a disgrace).

So Lin goes off to the Rockets, where he’ll probably play great. Most of my Knicks fans friends are pissed, because after watching 15 years of bad basketball, they finally had something to be excited about last season.

Here’s a great column on Lin and the cluelessness of Dolan from the N.Y. Times’ Harvey Araton, and a humorous look at Lin “returning” to the Knicks in 2030 by Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal.

The Trayvon Martin shooting sparks outrage (and great writing). Final Four field is set, and I’m not happy. And tennis gets some love on “60 Minutes”

It seems like every day, this Trayvon Martin shooting story gets bigger and bigger.
I’ve been as interested in it as anyone else, partly because I used to live very close to Sanford, Fla., where a 28-year-old white man named George Zimmerman shot and killed a 17-year-old African-American boy.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much outrage has been sparked, from professional sports teams like the Miami Heat (who took this fantastic photo, above, in support of Martin, who was wearing a hoodie when he was killed), to ordinary folks all across the country who are sick and tired of our gun culture, and racial prejudice, combining to cause so many innocent victims.

I think the police acted way too slowly in this case, and I fear that there are far too many people who seem to think any white male who, for any reason, feels threatened by a member of a minority is totally within their rights to start shooting.

I read two excellent articles about the case over the weekend that I wanted to share: Here’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts with his take on the case, and David Simon, the brilliant creator of “The Wire”, talking about our gun culture and how destructive it is.

**The Final Four is now set, and I don’t think many people had their brackets right on this one. Kansas, Ohio State, Louisville and Kentucky all survived their first four games and get to now play on the biggest stage in college basketball.
Some quick-hit thoughts on the weekend’s games:
– That Kentucky-Indiana game Friday night was so much fun to watch; easily the most entertaining game of the tournament. So many great athletes in the game, such excellent shooting, and really, really solid team basketball. It was a joy to all of us who love the sport.
– I dislike Rick Pitino quite a bit, and think his ethics leave much to be desired. But damn, the guy can coach his fanny off. This Louisville team in no way seemed good enough to reach the Final Four a few weeks ago, but they got hot at the right time, and they’ve got a masterful leader who knows how to get the most out of his players.
– Can’t wait until John Calipari has this Final Four appearance vacated for cheating, just like the last two times he’s gone there (with UMass and Memphis). The trifecta will be beautiful for this soul-less ethically-challenged jerk.
– I hate UNC as much as any Duke fan, but I did feel a little sorry for them that they lost their floor leader, Kendall Marshall, for the regionals due to injury. Carolina may have been the best team in the country, but I would’ve liked to have seen ‘em get beat at full strength.
– Oh, to be in Kentucky this week. I can’t imagine much work will get done in the state. The Wildcats and Cardinals rivalry is pretty intense already, but now they’re playing each other in the Final Four? Two coaches that hate each other, two fan bases that hate each other, playing for a spot in the title game? It’ll be madness from Bowling Green to Paducah.

**Finally today, it’s rare that my beloved sport of tennis gets mainstream media attention. So I was thrilled to see current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who has a remarkable life story and genuinely seems to be a good guy, profiled last night on “60 Minutes.” If you’re a big tennis fan, there’s not a lot of “breaking news” here, but it’s a great look at the Serbian star, where he came from, and how he’s become so dominant.

Well done, “60 Minutes.”

Musings on the joy of bookstores. A ridiculous Andy Roddick shot. And loving “The Wire” vicariously through my best friend

I am an enormous fan of bookstores. For so many reasons. I love wandering around them never knowing what I may stumble upon.
I love that you can just sit in them for hours and get transported into another world. I used to have a thing, for a long, long time, that I literally could not go into a bookstore without buying something. I had very little self-control.
I haven’t been wandering in bookstores for a while; just don’t seem to have the time or the desire.
Luckily, Joe Posnanski did, the other night. And he wrote this hilarious, poignant, rambling collection of thoughts about how we feel in bookstores, what happens there, and why the bargain bins always have bird-books in them.
If you love books, you’ll love this piece, and it’ll brighten your Monday. I promise.

**Andy Roddick, on match point Sunday, to win a tournament, hit the most ridiculous shot of his life. He said so himself. Watch this and your jaw will drop:

**So I’ve been trying to get my best friend Clay to watch “The Wire” for about four years now.
Finally, about six months ago, on one of our rare visits (he lives in California), I literally stuck the entire first-season DVD box in his hands and said “Watch this. It’s the best show ever on television.”
Well, what you have to know about Clay, God love him, is that he’s deliberate. I mean, he makes molasses seem speedy. It takes my boy a long, long, LONG time to do things, but he eventually does them. I knew he would one day get around to watching “The Wire,” and be immersed in the world of Omar Little and Avon Barksdale and the great, great Stringer Bell.

Finally, he finished Season 1 Saturday night. And then left me a classic voicemail telling me how much he loved the show, and thanking me for turning him onto it (Hey, I steer him toward all the good stuff. He never watched “The West Wing” or “Six Feet Under” before I told him to.)

People, I cannot recommend “The Wire” enough. Netflix it, watch it on HBO, whatever you’ve got to do. You will not be sorry.

Schoolchildren as speed bumps. Seriously. And loving “Friday Night Lights” so far

This is one of those ideas that I’m not sure is either brilliant, or horribly misguided.

The city of Vancouver was unhappy that drivers seemed to be speeding through school zones, and ignoring the speed bumps as well.
So they’ve decided to unveil new “pavement paintings” on the city’s speed bumps near École Pauline Johnson Elementary School.

The 2-D image they’re using? A playing child.
That’s right, the image is designed to make it seem to the driver that as he’s driving closer and closer to the school zone, he’s about to ram into a child.

According to this story, the pavement painting appears to rise up as the driver gets closer to it, reaching full 3-D realism at around 100 feet. “Pavement Patty,” as the girl in the painting is known, is intended to “give drivers who travel at the street’s recommended 18 miles per hour (30 km per hour) enough time to stop” before running over the fake child, “acknowledging the spectacle before they continue to safely roll over her.”

Wow. I mean, wow. I guess this could convince people to drive slower. I think it also could mean a ton of drivers slam on their brakes and cause accidents because they think they’re about to hit an innocent child.
Curious to hear what you think; brilliant idea, or really misguided one?

**I mentioned last week that I was finally taking the plunge and starting to watch the show everyone has told me is so awesome, “Friday Night Lights,” from the beginning.

Six episodes in, I’m hooked. The music is fantastic, and it plays under just about every scene. The acting is excellent, particularly Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler. The football scenes? Yeah, there’s some Hollywood-ization there, but I’ve seen much worse.

So far I have to admit it’s as great as everyone has told me it is.  Really strong writing, and Minka Kelly is not bad to look at every episode.  Just sayin’.

On a related note, my best friend Clay has finally, after years of me nagging, begun to watch Season 1 of “The Wire.” I’ve told him he’s got to stick with it for at least 3-4 episodes, because it gets better every episode and you need to at least give it a chance.

After one episode, he called and reluctantly agreed it’s “interesting” and that he’ll keep watching.
It’s the best show in the history of television, I’ve told him. I hope he watches long enough to believe me.

And for you “Wire” fans out there, here’s a great clip:

On Labor Day, thinking of prostitution. And jumping on the “Friday Night Lights” bandwagon

So I was thinking a lot about prostitution this weekend.
Not for no reason, of course. Sunday and Monday I was chasing a pretty big story at my newspaper: The most famous high school football coach in town was arrested Saturday night for trying to solicit a hooker. He was caught as part of an undercover sting operation by the local police.

I got to thinking a little bit about the whole way we criminalize prostitution in this country. I’ve never been entirely comfortable seeing this as a black and white issue. Prostitution is a victimless crime, legalization proponents say. It’s one person and another person coming to a mutual agreement to have sex, and one person pays the other for it.

Why is this illegal? Of course, there’s the other side, which says that making women sell their bodies for sex, while a pimp profits, is downright wrong.

I don’t know, I’m a pretty liberal guy. I happen to think prostitution isn’t the biggest priority for our police forces right now. I think laws should be looked at and loosened. But I’m open to arguments, as always.

**It took me a while to finally listen to everyone I knew who told me to watch “The Wire.” When I finally did start watching the greatest show ever on television, I kicked myself for waiting this long.

That’s probably how I’m going to feel about “Friday Night Lights.” Many people, from different areas of my life, have been telling me for years how good the show is.

The book was incredible, and the movie was pretty good. So I had no interest in the TV show when it first came out.
I watched one episode the first season, and there was a scene where a kid threw like an 80-yard pass in the air. That was all I needed to see.
But since it’s been so universally beloved for so long, I figured it’s time. ABC Family is re-running the whole series, from the beginning, starting today at 6 p.m. So I’ll be DVR’ing and watching for as long as the show interests me, probably posting periodic blogs about it.
All the hype can’t be wrong, right?

The worst parent in the world, and 10 great minutes of “The Wire”

There are certain crime stories you read where you literally wonder, “What could that person possibly have been thinking?”

The kinds of cases where you think they should just skip the pre-trial hearings, the pleas, the trial, the judge, the jury, all of that, and just sentence the individual guilty immediately.

Because there are some things for which there is literally, no POSSIBLE excuse.

I present to you the story of Kiara Medlock and her mother, of Ozark, Arkansas. Seems Kiara, age 10 and all of 65 pounds, was wildly misbehaving on the night of Nov. 12, and her mother called the police.

Officer Dustin Bradshaw arrived at the scene, and when he wasn’t able to subdue Kiara, her mother allegedly told the officer to “tase her if you have to.” Which, after Kiara kicked him, Officer Bradshaw did.

The child was then handcuffed and taken to a youth shelter.

This is despicable by the adults here on so many levels. One, by the officer, who sees no other option when outweighing a child by oh, 100 pounds, then to TASE them? Two, by the mother, for suggesting to the officer that he send volts of electric shock into her daughter?

I’m sorry, I don’t care how violent or unruly the kid is, this is despicable. Check out the brief police report here.

**I came late to “The Wire”. Everyone told me the HBO show about drug dealers and cops was truly amazing, and I heard them and didn’t believe.

Finally, I went out rented the first three seasons on DVD. Best. Show. I’ve. Ever. Seen. I positively worship all five seasons, with Season 5 being David Simon’s ultimate masterpiece. I can’t recommend this show highly enough if you’ve never seen it.

If you’re a big fan like me, you’ll enjoy this: Someone put together the 100 best quotes from “The Wire.” Warning: Not Safe for Work (a bit of colorful language, you might say).