Various thoughts on a Wednesday afternoon

Sports:

• Disturbing: Air Force football coach says something stupid and racist.
  ‘He said Air Force needed to recruit faster players. “We were looking at things, like you don’t see many minority athletes in our program,” DeBerry told The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

  When questioned about the remarks during his weekly luncheon Tuesday, the coach didn’t hesitate to elaborate.

  “It just seems to be that way, that Afro-American kids can run very, very well. That doesn’t mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can’t run, but it’s very obvious to me they run extremely well,” DeBerry said in remarks first broadcast Tuesday night by KWGN-TV in Denver.’

• More promising: Sheryl Swoopes comes out.
  I believe Swoopes is the first well-known athlete in a major team sport to announce his or her homosexuality. And yes, “major” is a relative term. At any rate, this is good news, assuming there isn’t a dumbass backlash.

Music:

• I just don’t like the Fiery Furnaces. I never will. Quirky is fine, but listenable is pretty important to me, also.
• Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now” is probably the best song he’ll ever make.
• Death Cab’s latest album is growing on me. I mean, really growing on me. Specifically, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” I have been listening to it on repeat for the last half hour, and I’m pretty sure this song could even get Ji a girlfriend. It’s that good.

Books:

• I just finished reading Great Expectations for the first time since 1995. I didn’t like it nearly as much–the protagonist is a dumb selfish jerk; the love interest is two-dimensional and unappealing; the convict is maudlin and implausible in motivation. And what exactly was Pip doing with himself in his time in London? Spending himself into debt, I guess, but wasn’t he supposed to be bettering himself? That said, I’m still glad I reread it. A few characters were still interesting this time around: Joe Gargary, Mr. Jaggers, Wemmick; Herbert Pocket. The plot’s twists and turns were truly surprising the first time I read it, and even on the second reading they were pretty entertaining. Dickens’s writing is still biting, hilarious, tender, and powerful. Still and all, I understand why someone coming at this book from a modern and adult perspective might not be too happy with it.
• I am now reading The Meaning of Everything, which is about the founding and creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Man, was there ever a book more guaranteed to fascinate me? It’s a bit dry in the telling (that British wit is desiccate) but I love the subject matter, and it turns out that the OED has a pretty wild history. Well, wild relative to that of other lexicographic pursuits, at least.

Internet links:

From YTMND.com, a website apparently inspired by one of my favorite websites ever:

• Number 1
• Number 2 (offensive I think, but I am not sure to whom)
• Number 3

You can find lots more by browsing around YTMND.com.

• You’ll need sound for this one, but it is pretty funny.
• The coup de grace. I don’t want to give too much away, but this website’s background music is my favorite song of the last five years. You can directly download it here, and you definitely should.