Musings for the Week

It's strange how a slight case of food poisoning can change your whole approach to food. I wonder how long it will be before I stop eyeballing my food suspiciously as if I might be able to see the miniscule culprits, sniffing and sniffing, then resniffing my food, and placing my taste buds on high alert to any slight difference in flavor. Hopefully by tomorrow this new routine will subside because it's taking me forever to eat.

I finished Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, the first book in my magical realism contemporary lit class. This was my first Rushdie book, having never tackled The Satanic Verses. I enjoyed his writing, although the book itself was a little long (533 pages). It is the story of Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the day of India's independence, and how his birth is mirrored in the events of the country. Extremely imaginative, funny, and great storytelling. It also has one of the most amazing paragraphs, which I have posted on "From the Pages." This goes with my own belief that each of us is a short story collection. A collection of many stories by many people, all important to the collection as a whole.

A road win. The Shox finally got their road win. Clemente had  great game and provided that senior leadership that is much needed, especially going into the last games of the season. He also made free throws. Yes, free throws. As for wearing black, the previous road game against Bradley I realized midway through class that I was wearing white on game day. White. So I wasn't surprised when I found out the Shox had lost. This recent road game? Black. Call me superstitious, but it does only relate to sports. Tonight against Evansville you can bet I'll have my popcorn, a Sam Adams White Ale, and I'll be wearing black.

Pat Summitt has 1000 wins, the most in NCAA college basketball, men or women.  If you don't know who Pat Summitt is, you obviously do not follow sports in general, because you don't have to be a women's college basketball fan to know who Pat Summitt is in the sports world. She is that tough-coaching, tough-looking lady that leads her Tennessee Lady Vols to victory every year. And I mean every year. I can't imagine college basketball without her. Not only is she the winningest coach, all of her student athletes graduate. 100% graduation. Not too bad for a woman who began her career as a graduate assistant with the Vols and became their coach at 22 years of age. She said at the time, she had no idea what she was doing. I think she figured it out, don't you?