Random Thoughts from the Weekend

1. New York was awesome.

2. It felt a bit like my freshman/sophomore years at OSU- we walked everywhere and my suburban legs were not used to it.

3. Sweet: We caught the Producers. Sweeter: Staring Tony Danza. Fantastic.

4. While walking around NYC, a guy noticed our (mainly Nick's giant red) OSU hats and asked us if we're from Ohio. Turns out this guy was from Macedonia (which is like one town away from Hudson) small effing world.

5. More small world:

Me: "Did you see that guy? Why the hell is he wearing a Columbus Blue Jackets jersey?"
Nick: "Cause they have a large national following"
Me: "Shut up"
Nick: "The real question is: why is someone wearing an NHL jersey?"

6. Staying in bars til 4 am is pretty sweet.

7. Outside: cold. Inside our hotel room: burning. I'm not sure we were at a comfortable temperature all weekend.

8. I haven't laughed that hard/much in quite some time.

9. While walking around Times Square, I overheard a family discussing trying a way to get home and their little girl (who was around 4) was adamant about wanting a cab. It just struck me how different growing up in a city is from growing up in a suburb.

10. Can you have too much New York style pizza? No (and we tried pretty hard).

11. One of the pizza shops we frequented was Famous Ray's. According to some newspaper cut outs posted at the restaurant, some kids from London once flew to New York just to buy Famous Ray's pizza (and they bought $400 worth and brought it back to London). I'm not sure if it's that good, but it was damn delicious.

12. On Friday, from my hotel room, I purchased my ticket to Bonnaroo. It shall be glorious (and if you need any convincing, check out Lewis Black's video on the site. I couldn't agree more).

13. So not only did I partially plan my Bonnaroo trip while in New York, but we started preliminary talks on a Europe '08 extravaganza (which basically means I'm eating peanut butter sandwiches until then, but still). That shall also be glorious.

14. last night, around 8 pm:

Nick: "hey man, what's up, you back in Ohio?"
Me: "ya, I've been home for about and hour or so, I ate, had some birthday cake and now I'm about to watch the Cavs-Heat game. You?"
Nick: "no, I'm still in New York, my flight got canceled."

We were scheduled to leave maybe 4o minutes apart (I departed at 4 pm). All I know is, I got a text at 3:30 saying he was in DC. That blows (btw, Nick had the camera, so if you want to see pics, we have to wait for his triumphant return to Columbus).

15. When I got home, I had a choice of watching either the OSU-Wisconsin game or the Cavs-Heat (both were tivo'd). I chose wrong.

16. actual conversation, last night:

Gilmore: "You back in Ohio?
Me: "ya"
Gilmore: "You catch any of the OSU game"
Me: "not yet, I got it tivo'd"
Gilmore: "Cool, I won't spoil it for you"
Me: "sweet, thanks"
Gilmore: "but it was awesome"

thanks buddy

17. "The Gentleman from Hudson, OH" I like it.

18. I do love Simmons's NBA writings, but he's dead wrong about the Cavs. Amar does a good job handling it.

19. I also disagreed with his assessment of the Spurs. Did you know that no Spur plays over 35 minutes a game?

20. Despite all this, I still like his writing. Why? Because he's actually one of the few national voices that actually likes the NBA (which has long been my favorite league). Sure, at this point it seems like he's intentionally trying to piss off Cavs fans, but I still come back for more. If you're passionate about basketball (particularly the NBA), I'm gonna read your stuff, even if I sometimes get confused (FreeDarko) or pissed (Simmons).

21. Speaking of the NBA, this is what was robbed of us on All-Star Saturday night.

22. Windhorst says that Ferry obviously isn't pleased with this roster.

23. I'm not sure if I've written this here or not (I know I've voiced this in person and in message boards), but I would be shocked if Larry Hughes is in training camp in Cleveland next season.

24. The reason Z has been out (though it's been known, if not printed, for some time now) and other tidbits.

25. Erik takes a look at the Cavs recent draft picks and frankly, I'm surprised he didn't kill himself.

26. The reason I think they do better in the 2nd round than in the 1st? In round two they are taking the best player available. In the first round they've been taking players based on need (and height). The Cavs took Luke Jackson because they needed a shooter with LeBron. They reached for Mihm and Diop because you can't teach height. In the second round they can land college players who, for whatever reason, have slipped (Boozer, Kapono, Gibson).

27. Troy Smith has grown so much.

28. What? Kellen Winslow had micro-fracture surgery? WTF?

29. Heh, fun flow chart

30. This is good for democracy.

31. But the press isn't exactly helping (warning: liberal defending Mitt Romney)

32. Conservapedia? Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds.

33. Dems forcing Bush to get tough on terror? More here.

34. Enough links for ya Chris? Enjoy.

35. Music stuff: Paul and Ringo are going to finish the third Lennon song from the Anthology project (also, this book looks awesome). As for new music... I haven't listened to the entire album yet, but I will that I'm really digging this song by Corinne Bailey Ray (I guess I'm a late comer to CBR, oh well):