This article about law students’ choice between public service and private practice made me feel very sad. It’s about a student at Georgetown Law, who had to decide between a high-paid job at a Chicago law firm and the pursuit of a job in the public interest sector.
Nov 272007
Certainly it would be terribly easy to rush toward some sort of instant judgment based on what we think we all knew about Taylor and the sort of life he once, and for all we know, still led. But really, we know nothing at the moment, and until we do, “may he rest in peace” ought to be the operative phrase for this day.
Still, could anyone honestly say they never saw this coming? You’d have to be blind not to consider Taylor’s checkered past. It was only a few months after he was drafted, when we got something of an inkling of what sort of young man the Redskins were selecting out of the University of Miami with the fifth overall selection in 2004.
Thank you, Mr. Shapiro. Thank you very much.
Nov 272007
Sean Taylor, one of few standout players on the Redskins, died last night from an injury he suffered confronting an intruder in his Florida home. He was shot in the femoral artery, lingered through a long surgery, but succumbed to the injury early this morning.
On the one hand, this is a minor story. Taylor was one of many people killed by violence yesterday. He’s not even the first football player to be shot recently. It’s easy to argue that those of us who find something powerful in this story ought to be more affected by all the other tragedies in the world.
But of course, there are millions of people who feel like they knew Sean Taylor. And his story is a compelling one. In many ways it seemed like Taylor’s life was on the upswing–in his college years and his first few NFL years, he regularly got into trouble on and off the field. His obvious talent seemed likely to be forever subordinated to his impetuous immaturity, and there were stories describing his bad behavior coming out all the time. But in the last year those stories almost disappeared, replaced by the clichéd redemption stories we all love so much. Expect many more stories building Taylor up into a fine upstanding citizen now that he’s dead.
I certainly don’t have anything unique or interesting to say about this whole thing. I didn’t know Sean Taylor, I just watched him tackle people every Sunday, because I root for the shirt he wore while he did it. But he was 24 when he died, and that is extremely sad.
I bet Mike Wise wishes he could get this column back (the point of the column, published last night, is how Taylor nearly died in the attack, but didn’t). Things changed very quickly–it went from hopeless to hopeful and back again many times yesterday. I’m sure it’s frustrating to have to write something conclusive about a developing story, only to have it be obsolete before the sun comes up.
Anyway. To finish up with another clichéd observation, Taylor’s untimely death certainly does put a mediocre football season into perspective. But it’s only because people care so much about these silly games that they care so much about these senseless deaths.
Nov 262007
- Renaissance Faire meets March of the Penguins
- La Boheme meets the Snorks
- Halo 3 meets Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals
- The British Open ’83 meets Resident Evil: Extinction
- The Home Shopping Network meets Ultimate Fighting Championship
- Walk the Line meets Revenge of the Nerds
- Speed meets Speed 2 (try to get Dolph Lungren)
- Spongebob Squarepants meets Sling Blade
- CSI: Miami meets Antiques Roadshow meets Ugly Betty
- Finding Private Ryan meets Adventures in Babysitting
- Meet the Press meets Bumfights
I’m back from New Haven, where I hung out with Fletch and Lauren at the “Big Game,” which is the annual battle between Yale and Harvard’s football teams. It was pretty great, not the least because we didn’t spend a single minute actually watching the game. Rather we wandered a parking lot stuffed to the brim with inebriated Ivy leaguers (both current students and alums).
We saw a lot of entertaining stuff (a huge number of fur coats, a couple of old high school friends, some very drunk old people, an awesome game of stump, and some guy falling face first into a pile of garbage. We spent most of the day hanging with Yale’s School of Forestry. They were lovable hippies and they were quite hospitable.
It was a fun trip, aside from the bus rides down and back. If you have a chance to see these two teams play each other, I highly encourage you to go (and when you get there, stay in the parking lot).
PS: Harvard beat Yale, winning the Ivy League championship. Congratulations, Crimson.
PPS: the Redskins just lost again. I didn’t think they had a chance of beating the Cowboys, but of course they managed to put themselves in position to win, only to squander it as usual. Jason Campbell is looking pretty good, at least. All we need now is some decent cornerbacks and wide receivers and a healthy safety corps. And an offensive line. Then we’ll be right back in this thing.
Now that the baseball season is over and this topic is completely untimely, I have a proposition. The proposition relates to the idea of the good-hitting pitcher.
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that pitchers are like a different species from the rest of the players on a baseball team.
A little background for the baseball-illiterate:
I grew up watching the despicable Baltimore Orioles (and their American League opponents), so I’m used to teams playing with the designated hitter rule (in which a non-fielding player gets to hit in the pitcher’s spot, while the pitcher sips iced tea in the dugout). So while everyone else on the field gets a turn to hit, the pitcher never swings a bat. What I eventually learned was that on teams in the National League (the other half of Major League Baseball), there is no designated hitter. The pitcher actually has to try to hit, just like the rest of his teammates.
Okay, so with that out of the way, let’s move on to the fascinating commentary:
Nov 042007
In terms of our record, losing 52-7 is no worse than losing 17-16.
In terms of our record, winning 23-20 in OT is just as good as winning 48-3.
Portis finished with almost 200 yards. Maybe our rushing game is finally coming together.
We’re 5-3. If we keep at this pace (and win most of our division match-ups), we’ll (probably) make the playoffs.
Rocky McIntosh had an awesome game, tackling guys all over the field (of course, this means that our front line and corners weren’t so awesome).
Gibbs made what proved to be a prescient decision when he opted to go for two in the 4th quarter.
We won, in a game that we had to have if we wanted a reasonable chance at making the postseason.
That’s about all the good news I can think of.
I was over at CVS buying some obscenely cheap post-Halloween candy today and I noticed this brochure over at the photo center. It’s not very interesting–mostly just a big ad for their photo restoration service (which I have no doubt is a great value!!!!). But wait a second. Restorations &… Makeovers? Color me intrigued! Fortunately, they provide a great example right there on the cover:
Well that’s interesting. Apparently you can bring them a photograph of yourself as you actually appear, and then they’ll “tweak” it so it looks like you, but BETTER.
Now let’s see what things CVS thinks people might find unsightly enough to have removed from their photos:
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