First, Kurt Vonnegut passed away last week and now David Halberstam today. I greatly enjoyed The Powers that Be when I found it on my parents' shelves one summer during college. And I read God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater so long ago I can hardly remember any of the details, except that I wanted to read more Vonnegut. Time to revisit both of these authors...you know, when I'm not reading 10 academic articles a day. So pencil in The Best and Brightest for 2046 and Slaughterhouse-Five for 2047.

Here's a great tribute to Vonnegut, courtesy of the Onion's AV Club. I'm sure similarly superlative things will be written about Halberstam in the coming days and weeks. ben

i have seen in a long time, courtesy of wunderkind Lionel Messi. Actually it's the best I've seen since fellow Argentine Maxi Rodriguez's goal in last year's world cup, and has almost eerie parallels to Maradona's goal of the century. ben

An on-the-ground report of Dodger Stadium's all-you-can-eat seats. The Nats also have a version of this, but it's for their $120 or so seats behind home plate. There is a pretty generous buffet before the game until the second inning, and then the in-seat service lasts until about the 7th inning. William

about the film Mystery Men. What did you think of it? This review from my beloved "Year of Flops" series by Nathan Rabin (and the extensive comments) make me want to see it again, and check out the deleted scenes. I saw it on video a few years after it came out, and I think it is wholly uneven but had some great moments. I put it in a similar category to the Cable Guy, it was inconsistent and strange and weirded some people out enough to drive them away from watching it. The Cable Guy is way better though, by a long shot.

So what's your take? Fiasco, Secret Success, Failure, or "Insufficiently Awesome"? ben

By now, I'm sure that most of you have already seen Alanis Morrisette's send-up of the Black Eyed Peas' My Humps. That YouTube version alone has been viewed more than 5 million times.

I was wondering about incentives and motivation in the music industry. Why would Alanis put the time and money into making a spoof like that? Will it help her sell more CDs, convince more people to show up at her concerts, or get her more tv appearances? I doubt it. And unlike, say Weird Al, who made money selling albums of his parodies, I doubt she's planning any polka-themed remixes of today's hottest hits.

So why bother? All the payoff necessary comes in the form of a butt-shaped cake and being called a "genius" by the original artist. Sometimes non-monetary incentives are more important than getting paid (but try explaining that to the Wu Tang). Now, if Alanis releases a hit album where she slows down "Baby got Back" and "Ice, Ice Baby", then nevermind. ben

but Republicans trying to root out voter fraud are like O.J. trying to find the "real" killers. ben

Probably not, but here's an interesting post about Dubai's ruler as a possible buyer of the Cubs. William

Or, alternatively titled "White Dude Has Amazing Ups":

And yes, I know this video is old, but still, damn. (Link via True Hoop) ben

As we start baseball season, and I begin my hunt for infinite ERAs (none so far, but I'll keep you posted), the Times raises an interesting question: Why were there no 20-game winners last season? One obvious answer: A complete lack of apple fights in the pitchers' youths. Yep, that pretty much explains it. ben

Time for a long post. It's like a live-blog, only sloppier:

-I think Greg Oden has been reading the internets. Clearly someone lit a fire under his ass for tonight's game to show his stuff. He knows that even if his team loses (and I'm guessing they will), he's playing for the #1 pick in the draft.

-Am I the only one who thinks that the Gatorade ad with Kevin Garnett as the "milkman" is mildly racist? KG, the only black athlete, serving Gatorade to white athletes? Alright, so Kareem is on there, but still, the racial undertones of the image of the black guy in the milkman uniform is hard to dismiss. It reminds me of a classic Dave Chappelle skit, which will go unnamed.

-There is no reason Billy Donovan should stay at Florida if they win. He'll cement his legacy there with back-to-back wins and then begin something new at Kentucky, get paid more, be in a more prominent position to recruit, and make out like a bandit. Of course we'd all like coaches to stay in the same place forever, but that's not how the finances work; to get big pay increases you have to switch schools.

-Halftime, so I'm surfing the web: The Cubs are on pace for 1296 singles this season. And lots of losses.

-Ohio State is already down big, and unless they start hitting 3's, they're toast. 2/14 from the three point line isn't going to cut it.

-Even having Method Man on CSI isn't going to convince me to watch any show on CBS. But that might be the closest I'll ever get. Now Dick Enberg is doing a feature on "hands." Oh, my! What a waste of time!

-We're back: Oden isn't playing any help defense, which is good for avoiding cheap fouls but bad for stopping Florida's inside players from scoring. And he's looking unstoppable on offense.

-While I'm at it, here are other commercials I consider racist:
1) The Cisco kid, who shucks and jives while the world watches on their speedy internet connections
2) "This is Our Country" Chevy ads, which, if you listen closely, are highly xenophobic. As in, this is OUR country, not you damn foreigners'.

-Florida is still up 11 with only 8 minutes to go, which means this one is over unless OSU can make a run right now...and Conley comes up with a steal.

-OSU continues to miss three's. I might as well turn off the t.v. at this point. I'm not even going to bother staying up to watch "One Shining Moment." ben