Years ago on a trip around the world I took a train up from Rome to Pisa. Why? To see and to ascend the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I enjoyed the experience and smiled at one odd feature: the keepers of the tower had installed protective rails on several levels of the tower on the *high* side (no danger), but on the low side where I felt a frisson of fear that I might actually fall, no bars. I stayed close to the tower wall, hoping not to become a news story. Odd, but overall it was a wonderful experience.

Afterwards I fell into conversation with a native citizen who expressed his anger and shame at this leaning tower. To him the lean was a scandal for Pisa and Italy, he exclaimed hotly. He was part of a group that was studying the feasibility of a massive effort to remedy partially the problem. I say partially because the tower had been built in stages, the latter ones attempting to correct the lean that had already begun. Read more

Great piece at SportsProf about the contrast between the Tier 1 basketball program of Kentucky and the bus-travelling, no-scholarships-allowed program of Cornell.

Excerpt:
And he did it without basketball scholarships, without much help from boosters, without special living quarters or travel accommodations for his players, well, without a whole lot of hype, jazz, spectacle, or anything else. These kids play their league schedule on back-to-back nights, Fridays and Saturdays, in order not to miss too much class. They travel by bus for league play,Read more

Southern Baptists, populists even as they become less popular, have created their own March Madness tournament, determined by online voters. 

My recommendation? Internet Monk Michael Spencer.  Spend some time on his site, read the essays (and not just the famous ones from mid-March), and you'll see.

It's not often that I cheer for the Florida Gators -- as a student at RTS-Orlando during Coach Superior's regime I marveled at the arrogance and classlessness of some (some) Gator fans I encountered in Orlando. Steve Spurrier and select Gator fans soon had me cheering for whomever Florida was playing. I thoroughly relished Nebraska's destruction of Coach Superior in 1995.

So again, it's not often, to understate, that I cheer for the Florida Gators. Why did I cheer for the Gators last night?Read more

Three years ago I posted a link to a site about when calling a major American corporation and entered into their voice  system, how to exit the system and talk to a person. 

Lovely. Read more

I recently took my wife and some RUF students to a dance on campus. My wife was my date. We'd been looking for one to attend so we could shake it, and don't want to go through all the hoops and hollers to put on a dance ourselves.

We found the Breast Cancer Awareness dance. So I harassed the boys into getting dates (why is this so difficult?), and we started off with a nice Italian meal in Othello's Tiger Room. One of our discussion points was to answer this question: What would you have in your dream house?

One said an endless chocolate fountain (we pointed out this would have to be manned by servants). Another wanted a lazy river in his house, particularly the kitchen so he could float around and make dinner at the same time. Several people wanted elaborate libraries, and one said he would like to own every copy of every book in the world.

I had two I thought possible requests. The first thing I'd like in my dream house is one of those milk dispensers they have in the dorm cafeterias. The ones with the bags of milk, the spigots of coolness, the seemingly constant supply of milk. Yum.

The second is a urinal. I think houses should just come with them if there is more than one male living there. It would make things so much easier for everyone. I'd take either floor length or the squatty ones - I'm not picky. I think both of these dreams are possible someday.

 Read more

On January 30th, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady laughed off Giants receiver Plaxico Burress' prediction of a Giants win in the Super Bowl. Burress predicted that the Giants would win 23-17.

Brady said, "“We’re only going to score 17 points?” Brady said Wednesday morning before chuckling. “OK. Is Plax playing defense?"

Well.Read more