He's an insane homer.  And NOT that good a broadcaster.  Before tonight's Nebraska v Wisconsin game he observed that it was a Big 10 officiating crew.

Brent!!  Buddy!!  It's a freakin' Big Ten GAME!!!  Pick up a newspaper every once in a while.  Try to stay current.

We're doing it a little differently this year.  Decade by decade, top 10 (or so).  So we start with the REAL oldies .... the 1910's!

It's an easy one as there aren't many to chose from

1.  Frankenstein (1910) Reviewed last year

2.  another silent film A Bargain with Satan aka TheStudet from Prague.  I've BEEN to Prague.  Haven't WATCHED this one yet.  Doing so today.  Willedit in my review.

and THAT, my friends, appears to be IT for the 1910's

Driving a 2007 Caddy back from Fairfield NJ tomorrow.  I know you'll miss me.  Anf for those of you who didn't get the earlier post regarding Elizabeth Warren ... here ya go.

pick one:

Obama speaking in Orlando:

“This is a great great country that had gotten a little soft and we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades,” Mr. Obama said in response to a question about the country’s economic future. “We need to get back on track.”

the response:

Seriously, in 2008 we elected a community organizer, state senator, college instructor first term senator over a guy who spent five years in a Vietnamese prison. And now he’s lecturing us about how America’s gone “soft”? Really?

from Jonah Goldberg

OK, so last friday was an acceptable 3m 4x<4.

Saturday was ripe for some time trials so off the track.  Minimal/light warm up.  200m in 36.  100m in 17.  400, in 1:22.  Benchmarks.  Tweaked my left adducter a bit in the 100 - need to keep an eye on it.  Then home to enter data.  For giggles thought I'd look to see where those times (standig start, trainig flats, 12 year layoff) would put me.  The Ky state championships were 2 weeks ago.  I wouda placed in the 100 & 200 and WON the 400!  Note to self: more Ky races!  FWIW - top 50+ 100m time this season?  Willie Gault 10.96 in Sacremento mid-July.  Yes, THIS Willie Gault.  So do I ask him for his autograph in the starting blocks, or at the finish line? (Rhetorical - I won't be SEEING him at the finish line, he'll be driving home by the time I get there.)

Sunday.  3x4x<5.  Smooth and over a minute faster than friday's.  Thinking the trials stretched out my stride.  Noticed I'm taking my eyes off the grass again too.  Starting to look around a little as I get comfortable with the surface.  Only took 6-9 months!

Monday.  Breaking in a new weight workout.  Based on the Barry Ross system (who modeled it on the core philosophy of coach Henk Kraaijenhof: “Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.”)

Start with five over and unders Then 10 slow (4-count) pushups.  Then the deadlifts.  1x3x120 then 1x5x100 with each set followed by 5 12' box jumps.  Five minute break after the box jumps.  Then close it out with torture twists (3x3x3) To perform the Torture Twist, set yourself perpendicular on a bench so that you look like a cross from above. Hold your feet under a pole in a power rack or, worst case, under another bench. Remain parallel to the ground for each set and come up to sitting position for 30 seconds of rest between sets.

HOLY COWS!  Was soaked after this.  We'll see how we feel tomorrow.  Tuesday is an off day - giving 2 final exams, assembling and presenting my teaching portfolio and subbing in two other classes.  

Elizabeth Warren silliness of earlier this week because it was, to be generous, nonsense on stilts.

But then I saw this:

The last 7-10 years have seen my reading intake plummet.  Or perhaps just change.  It's all blogs and websites now, as opposed to books and magazines.  And here's JUST the thing to do it.  An article on the Ten Essential Classics of Western Lit.

Here's a look:

1. Odyssey, Homer. The long journey from the darkness of paganism to philosophy begins here. Read it.
2. Republic , Plato . Justice should be sought for its own sake, but we need a man to die and come to life again in order to fully see it.  Read it
3. Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius. Emo-whining gets a dose of tough love from Lady Philosophy, and the result is a poetic vision of reality.  Skimmed this during my "missing decade." Need to revisit.
4. Divine Comedy,  Dante . The world isn’t quite what Dante imagined, but if wrong in details this great poem is truer as a whole than what you will read in today’s paper.   Read it.
5. Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser. Protestants can be romantic and poetic.   Read it.
6. Much Ado about Nothing, William Shakespeare. If not the Bard’s greatest play maybe the best play for us, because this comedy contrasts our cynicism and eroticism with Christian romance while making us laugh out loud (not LOL).  Read it. 
7. Paradise Lost, John Milton. We oft like Milton’s Satan more than Milton’s God, revealing more about us than about Milton. Read it.
8. Second Treatise, John Locke. If you are an American, this apologist helped create the government you should cherish.  TEACH it.
9. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin. Darwin tries to remove design from biology and still makes the case better than anyone else.  Read it. 
10. Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky.Dostoevsky wrestles with seeming meaningless and pain and finds Christ, if not Christianity, victor.  Believe it or not ... read it.

Most of us already knew this ...now if you can just convince YOUR side:

CBS News reports:

Vice President Joe Biden said in a live interview with Miami public radio station WLRN Thursday that the Obama administration – not the Bush administration – now has ownership of the struggling U.S. economy.

Biden said Americans have “good reason to be upset” because they lost jobs because of the recession, “something they didn’t have a thing to do with creating.”

“Even though 50-some percent of the American people think the economy tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant,” said the vice president. “What’s relevant is we’re in charge.”

…

Biden said it is “totally legitimate” for the 2012 presidential election to be “a referendum on Obama and Biden and the nature and state of the economy.” He said Americans will need to make a choice between what the Obama administration is offering to address the problem and what is being offered by the eventual Republican nominee.

Patriots are still on top.  And Brady got his hair cut.

Ravens are #2.  It'll be a GREAT AFC Title Game.

Packers and Saints are #3 and #4.  We've already seen this title game, but the Saints get into the end zone next time.  Chris Ivory.  Or Pierre Thomas.

Bst of the rest?  Jets, Texans, Bills, Steelers.

NFC is weak again.  If the Eagles can put something together they might stil challenge.