RIP

One of the nicest human beings to ever play in the NBA, by all accounts. Let's hope Manute Bol's efforts to aid his native Sudan are not lost with his passing.

The other Touchdown Jesus goes down

In a sense, it would have been quite symbolic in some weird, perverse way had Touchdown Jesus on the Notre Dame campus been destroyed by a lightning bolt. Given that Notre Dame football has essentially died as major power, the destruction of that statue would have been the symbolic end to their football dominance, even if the actual end came roughly 15 years ago.

But the Touchdown Jesus in South Bend still stands, even as Notre Dame football goes the way of Army football and Navy football, once relevant but now completely irrelevant (actually, I take that back--Army and Navy both remain relevant in football one day a year, when they play each other). The same cannot be said of the "Touchdown Jesus" in Ohio, just north of Cincinnati.

Nicknamed as such because the Jesus statue's arms are raised like a referee signaling a touchdown, the 60-foot tall statue lasted just six years before being taken down by a lightning bolt and burning to the ground. "Burning to the ground" is probably an accurate metaphoric way for describing the state of Notre Dame football.

She's alive!

One day after being lost at sea and feared dead, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland has been found and she's still alive.

Sunderland decided to try and attempt to become the youngest sailor to ever circumvent the globe and began her journey earlier this year. Incredibly, her parents allowed this (when I was 16, my parents wouldn't even allow me to stay out past midnight). Having lost communication with her support crew yesterday, it was feared that the boat may have submerged in treacherous waters in the Indian Ocean. However, a Qantas Airbus plane found her in the Southern Indian Ocean. The boat at one point had been turned on its side but, incredibly, Sunderland was able to right it and she is unharmed (clearly, this girl knows how to sail a boat).

Unfortunately for her, the journey is over. The nearest boat to her is 24 hours away and once that boat arrives, she will be returning home. Incredibly, she managed to complete more than half her journey. (I say incredibly because to me its amazing; to her, not completing the mission is probably considered a tremendous failure.) I'm sure that at some point down the line this ambitious girl will attempt this again. I wish her luck but at this point am just happy for her and especially her family that she's safe and unharmed.

In honor of America

Today is a day to honor and thank the brave men and women in the United States military for all they do to protect our freedom. In their honor, I present to you the four greatest renditions of the national anthem.

First, the greatest of them all, Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. Only Marvin could successfully turn the anthem into a song which you make sweet love to in front of a fire with that special someone. The best part is when the crowd starts clapping along. When does that ever happen with the national anthem?



Next up is Wayne Messmer at Chicago Stadium at the 1991 NHL All-Star Game. President George Bush had announced just days earlier that the United States were going to war with Iraq and the Blackhawks fans were known for going crazy during the anthem anyway. Combine the especially patriotic time period and the raucous times and this is the result:



A couple of weeks later, the NFL held the red, white and blue Super Bowl between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills. In retrospect, everyone should have known that these two teams would win their conference championship games because it was only fitting that two teams with these colors would meet in the Super Bowl. Whitney Houston, back before she was a complete and total mess, belted out one of the most emotional and stirring national anthems of all-time. It's a shame that the Whitney Houston of 1991, who had one of the most incredibly beautiful and powerful voices of all-time, effectively murdered her own career in the subsequent years by allowing Bobby Brown to physically abuse her and load her up on drugs on a daily basis.



The best anthem singer in the business today is the lovely Lauren Hart in Philadelphia, the daughter of the legendary Flyers voice Gene Hart. In the 1970s, the Flyers started a tradition of forgoing the national anthem in favor of God Bless America for big games. They used to play a tape of Kate Smith's rendition of it and once, Smith came and performed the song live. Incredibly, the Flyers always seemed to win when they went with God Bless America. That tradition continues to live on today with Lauren Hart on the ice in person and Kate Smith on the video board singing a joint duet of God Bless America. I fully expect to see this duet on Wednesday night during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Let's hope Versus is smart enough to show it instead of going to commercial.



And with the Stanley Cup Final going on, a tip of the hat to the people of Canada, who have a great anthem. I sometimes wish Americans took as much pride in their nation as do Canadians, as this clip from the 2006 playoffs in Edmonton displays. The anthem singer belts out the U.S. national anthem, then shuts up and lets 18,000 strong at the old Northlands Coliseum take over for O Canada.

Not to make light of it but...

With airports throughout Europe being closed due to the Icelandic volcano, I wish I had gone on a weeklong vacation to Spain last week and been stuck there. Being stuck in Madrid! Missing work! The horror!