NBA Heartbreak

I think I genuinely got my heart broken just a little bit last night. After a 13-game winning streak, the Cavs lost in OT against the Nuggets last night -- at home. This is sad enough, but when LBJ lost his balance on that last shot and then missed it, the buzzer rang to signal the end of the game and I saw maybe the most heart-wrenching look on his face. He literally looked like he was about the cry and headed straight off the court towards the locker room. It looked something like this:

Okay, not quite. But the fact that it wasn't as prominent on his face was even sadder. It was a quick flash of a profound disappointment (triple double and all), and it was terrible to watch. Damn you, 'melo!

In other news, the Celtics beat the Lakers last night, but I don't feel very strongly either way about that. Ray Allen was having a great game and Rondo was the man as always, but Kobe wasn't playing and they lost their dominance in the 4th quarter. It just seemed lucky. The team is aging and it's definitely starting to show. The trade shakes things up a bit by adding Nate Robinson to the mix, but he's super inconsistent on the court. He's also small, which is awesome when you can slam dunk but not so awesome in the paint. I think it could be good though, so I'll definitely be watching his first game with Boston.


Other awesome trades: T-Mac to New York and Jamison to Cleveland. The Knicks' sending Jeffries to Houston clears up some cap space that some people think is leaving room for LeBron, but I just can't see how he could think that would be a good move for him. Obviously I'm getting a lot of heat about this since you're all Knicks fans and I know you want LBJ, but WHY would he do that to himself?! There are some great players on the Knicks right now, but they've shown year after year that throwing together a bunch of good players on a team doesn't add up to a championship. There. Start your hating.

I'll leave you with this one hilarious-slash-deeply-offensive final thing: The other day, an old friend of mine asked me if I would become a Knicks fan if LeBron came to New York. I said yes, I would support the Knicks with LBJ. He told me that mine was a typical female response, because rooting for your team even when you like players on another team is a difficult thing to do; it's more complex, and women are not capable of such a thing. LOL/WTF

Love & Texting

Provoking piece in the Styles section of the Times today. They've been doing this "Modern Love" series for a while and this column was one of the more interesting installments I've read so far. It's about an American student who moved to Thailand to teach English shortly after graduating from college. One of her students (college-aged) fell in love with her and the story is about their interaction while there and then after she returned to the States. An excerpt:

Text messaging and chatting are the modus operandi, and everybody seems to consider it a tragedy of modern romance that these forms of communication make it so frighteningly easy to say nothing at all, to forge a relationship out of little more than a few well-timed expressions: “Where r u?” and “Want to meet up?” Maybe...expressiveness seems strange to us, or pathetic. But it has something to teach us, too, about the note of cowardice embedded in our romantic culture, about the intensity of emotion we have a right to, about everything we could say, but don’t.

...Word.

Hard Times

Months ago, The Economist reported that we were in a depression, not a recession. More and more financial analysts are saying that the current state of the economy reflects something bigger than just a recession.  This morning on the news, I heard that Warren Buffet is saying that the economy is going to continue to be "in shambles" throughout 2009, and probably well beyond that. 

So let's take this opportunity to make a prediction. I'm guessing that the economy will start stabilizing around March 2010, and then get itself back on track by the following June. Put your prediction down in writing here, and then we'll check back in a year to see who's the closest. That person will then get a prize (maybe dinner if the majority of us are still employed by then). Place your bets. 

New Debate Rule

From the Onion:

OXFORD, MS—Amid discussions of possibly postponing the debate altogether, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) were able to agree Thursday on a new guideline that would allow each candidate one 15-second strangulation during Friday night's presidential debate. "Both candidates will receive two minutes to answer each question, five minutes for discussion, and a one-time only option to walk over to his opponent's podium and cut off his oxygen supply for up to fifteen seconds," a statement from the Commission on Presidential Debates read in part, also specifying that debate moderator Jim Lehrer can exercise his own discretion in determining whether or not the strangulations go over time.  

Like a Fish Out of Water

That's kinda what it felt like when the powers that be behind the curtains of the RNC (didn't mean for that to rhyme) played '70s hit "Barracuda" after Sarah Palin's speech last week. How do these people even know such a kick ass, Guitar Hero III-worthy song?

Well Ann and Nancy Wilson, the members of the band (Heart), have asked the Republican party to stop using their music. "I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented," Nancy Wilson told Entertainment Weekly. "I feel completely fucked over... [Barracuda] was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women ... There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there." Find out who else wants the campaign to stop using their music here.