How many Cam Newton highlights can Tim link to before it gets tiresome? Can he have one more? Newton’s 49-yard run against LSU on Saturday left veteran broadcasters Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson (NPI faves, btw) incredulous. The Tigers, meanwhile, are now No. 1 in the BCS standings.
Sometimes, it’s funny to look back at poor predictions, like Tim’s that the Celtics would be crushed by the Heat, or The Awl‘s that differentiated Ke$ha from Lady Gaga by writing, “Ke$ha, on the other hand, is a version of Gaga-lite, but in a good way. She is sort of edgy in that she puts on weird eye makeup, but she also just wears vintage-looking t-shirts and jeans when performing on national television. As opposed to donning some weird Gareth Pugh leotard while standing on top of a blood-draped ladder that’s in a coffin set on fire, or something.” Yeah, I don’t think David Cho can stand by that paragraph after last Saturday night. Sorry, Dave. (P.S. NPR did something on Ke$ha a while back that referred to her “near-perfect SAT scores,” which really makes us wonder what NPR’s standard for “near perfect” is these days.)
It’s been a few weeks since we had an NY Times heavy medley, so we figured we’d catch up on old tricks all at once. Here’s Stephen Pinker’s review of Malcolm Gladwell’s newest collection of essays, which does to Gladwell kind of what South Park did to Family Guy a few years back. In that same book review is David Gates’ look at Vladimir Nabokov’s latest (and last) The Originals of Laura. Gates’ review vacillates a little between warnings that Nabokov’s incomplete and posthumously published work (we’re not assuming all our readers know Nabokov is long deceased) can’t possibly live up to the standard of his finished work and light urgings to read it anyway. (Our favorite part: There’s a character named Hubert H. Hubert; he takes an interest in a so-called nymphet. We’re not sure, but we imagine some hijinks ensue.)
In case you ever wondered why the Wall Street Journal doesn’t focus on sports, it might be because it churns out ludicrous stories like this one on the underdog status of Iowa Football. Now, we’re not here to say that Iowa isn’t, relatively, an underdog in major college football; it is, after all, located in Iowa. But, to write this story, after the Hawkeyes lost, when much much MUCH bigger underdogs such as TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise State are still unbeaten, was a bit shortsighted.
