The Blizzard: thus begins draft week

Box Score Legends
Baron Davis had 33 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals in helping the Warriors upset the Mavericks. Davis is one of many players in the league that seem to me to be 35 years old when in fact he's just in his late 20s. The former Bruin's performance in box score domination and in defeating the 67 win Mavs was the best NBA performance of the weekend.

It's getting drafty in here.
Cold, Hard Football Facts give us two worthwhile articles: a brief comment on mock fantasy drafts, and a few draft nuggets.

By now you know I think Peter King is a horrible writer. He is, however, a plugged in reporter, and during draft week, that means it's worthwhile reading his MMQB column.

Other Sportish Links
Inside Higher Ed looks at "Women and Men in Women's Sports."

Jim Souhan is a bigger hack than even we thought. The sad thing is he probably thinks these satirical Viking poems are evidence he is an intelligent, witty, and funny writer. But they don't; they just prove he's another hack columnist trying to pass easy jokes off as edgy. Actually, this column made me pity Souhan. I pictured him at a desk, trying to think of rhyming words he could use in these poems. The image of a grown man writing silly rhymes to make fun of a football team, of using poetry merely as a pseudo-comic device, but no doubt working hard at it, just made me see him as a depressing figure.

Virginia Tech
A.O. Scott of the NY Times looks at the tendency to blame violence on movies. As a devoted pacifist with a ken for violent entertainment, I agree with his conclusion:

"Millions of people meanwhile will continue to be entertained by spectacles of murder, indulging for a few hours in the visceral, amoral thrill of cinematic brutality and then going back to their peaceful, sane, non-threatening business. That we know the difference between reality and make-believe is evident in the shock and horror we feel when confronted with events like the one last Monday in Virginia."

I don't know why the violence at VT means Yale needs to ban swords in theater productions. Do you?

Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker also looks at the mass violence.