The Blizzard: draft perspective

Sportish
Mark Craig, a Strib columnist I don't yet dislike, covers the NFL draft by giving Minnesotans an historical perspective. He contrasts scouting players today with scouting players in the past by talking to Bud Grant and Ron Yary. He talks about the leaking of information about players' drug use in context of Bud Grant's conversations with Chuck Foreman. This is what good columnists do--they mix in reporting, they try find an original, informative take, and they give readers a sense of context. They don't make up silly poems and distantly insult.

(And of course, all good Minnesota columnists put everything in the context of Bud Grant).

Extremely negative Viking fans always get what they want. They want the team to succeed, so if the team wins...great! But if the team fails, well, they've been ripping the team and predicting doom and gloom for a long time, so of course they get to be right.

Non-sportish
David Halberstam is dead.

The tragedy at Virginia Tech was bound to make some universities respond in really unproductive ways.

Jeff Chang and Dave Zirin on the criticism hip-hop has gotten recently: "Much of the criticism of commercial rap music — that it’s homophobic and sexist and celebrates violence — is well-founded. But most of the carping we’ve heard against hip-hop in the wake of the Don Imus affair is more scapegoating than serious."

James Carroll on "The Two Types of Violence": "Thirty-three people in Blacksburg, 230 in one day in Baghdad. Though residents of the United States and Iraq measure hurt on different scales, last week seemed off the chart in both places....At a time like this, it is necessary to step back from politics and grief to think about violence as such."