Ah, March Madness, or why the World Cup's lame

After an initial burst of thoughts that were interesting (to me, at least) I seem to have run out of ideas. Mercifully, it’s my favorite sports week of the year. And of course that is the first two days of the NCAA men’s basketball Tournament. Two days with twelve hours of nearly uninterrupted games and virtually as much gambling as the Super Bowl can’t be beat. But being American (or just being me) it’s not enough for the NCAAs to be my favorite and me to extol its virtues. I need to explain what’s wrong with the major events to which it’s compared. So in order of preference:

NCAA Basketball Tournament (first two days): Upside: listed above, as well as the joy of upsets. No sports fan who has anything resembling a soul wants to see the big teams win all the time, and there’s always a couple teams no one is familiar with who pull off big upsets. Watch for Richmond and Utah ST this year. Downside: pre-tournament shows are getting to Super Bowl lengths. There is no such word as “bracketology.”

Opening Day of Baseball Season: Upside: Anyone who knows me knows baseball is my first sports love and still my favorite game. Opening day is about optimism. Everyone has a chance on opening day. And like the first robin, it is a sign of spring, though the only opener I’ve ever attended was colder than most of the football games I’ve been to.

Downside: I’m a Cubs fan. Optimism passes quickly.

Super Bowl: Upside: Unlike the vast majority of the first 35 or so Super Bowls, the last several have been phenomenal games with enough upsets to keep people who aren’t fans of the contenders more than interested in the games themselves. Downside: Overkill. There is not anywhere near enough news in proportion to the coverage. And maybe I’m letting the terrorists win, but I don’t care about the commercials. If I’m watching at home, I’m probably watching the game the way I normally do: flipping channels between that and whatever else catches my eye. Not watching commercials is too deeply enmeshed in me.

World Series: Upside: If the Super Bowl were best of seven, I would move the World Series ahead, just because I prefer baseball to football. Since I’m a Cubs fan, it’s something of a Holy Grail. Downside: baseball and November are not a great mix. I’m a Cubs fan.

Stanley Cup Playoffs: I’m not a big hockey fan. I watch the Sabres if there isn’t good college basketball on TV. Otherwise, it’s kind of hard to find hockey, even if I were interested. But playoff games have an excitement and a quality much unlike its regular season product. More hitting, less scoring. Downside: Too many teams make the playoffs, making the regular season meaningless.

NBA Playoffs: Upside: See above. Downside: See above.

Daytona 500: Upside: trip to Florida in February on a long weekend. Must be a hell of a party. Downside: It’s auto racing; four hours of left turns. Who cares?

World Cup: Upside: Half the world follows this, making it like a one-event Olympics. Downside: It’s soccer. 2-1 is a high scoring game. The scoreboard clock is at best a rough estimate. The world’s soccer fans make American sports fans (even Ohio State fans) seem like the Algonquin Roundtable. It’s a train wreck that, try as we might, we can’t look away from.

Who I read

This will be a periodic posting where I talk about writers I find interesting, especially people others may not be familiar with. Ken Levine has been a major market disc jockey, radio announcer for major and minor league baseball and television writer for some of the greatest shows in history. And up until two years ago I had never heard of him.

His blog is mainly a mixture of how-to on breaking into television, stories about his experiences as a writer and radio personality and insightful criticism of contemporary television and movies. His followers seem to be mainly writers and aspiring writers, but well worthwhile even if you're just a follower of one of the things Levine has done.

New York Fiscal State of Mind

It’s school budget time in New York State. And as a school board member, I receive email upon email about all things budget related, most particularly the state operating aid formula, which is dwindling. And people come out to advocate for their particular bailiwicks, whether it be protection of a particular program or maintaining the fiscal discipline that can be enforced when the budget comes for a public vote.

I’m not interested here in staking a claim on either side in my particular corner of the world. The virtues of a program are (usually) self-evident, as is fiscal caution. The larger point is the way we pay for government services is no longer sustainable. If you’re someone who wants to eliminate government on principle, the answers are easy. If you’re like me, and believe what public service provides for people is necessary to enhance the quality of people’s lives these are challenging times.

To me, the first thing is to look at what other states with similar issues do differently than New York does. Two things that come immediately to mind are Medicaid and volume of government. I tend to think Governor Cuomo gets this; the new Medicaid director has been directly involved with reining in Medicaid costs in Wisconsin. I don’t have anywhere near the expertise to suggest a solution, other than to know the present formula that spends more real money than any other state’s and saddles county government with half the state’s costs cannot work any longer.

And anyone who thinks the solutions to the Medicaid problem is easy and just involves slashing spending should keep in mind nearly half of Medicaid recipients also receive Medicare, including most residents of nursing homes, something Medicare barely pays for.

The other issue would seem easier: eliminating the multitudes of government we have. New York is about 3.5 times the size of Maryland. New York has over 600 school districts, Maryland, seventeen. Cattaraugus County, my home county, has about 83,000 people. We have 12 school districts. Allegany County, just to the east has 55,000 people, also 12 school districts. Cattaraugus County has over 30 courts, 40 town and village governments and 29 fire departments.

Again, I think the Cuomo Administration gets it. This is somewhere where substantial savings could occur without affecting most people’s daily lives. But it still won’t be easy; people have largely resisted this movement as it’s popped up over the years. Their identities are formed through their community schools, through fire departments they’ve volunteered with their entire lives. Small town elected officials justifiably believe they’ve devoted themselves to working for their communities for little pay and less credit.  But, there aren’t a lot of alternatives left.

It’s a local election year in New York. Don’t vote for anyone who can’t articulate a position on the size of local governments.

Flying solo

It’s cliché among single people to say they hate Valentine’s Day, and certainly there’s plenty there to hate. For me, most of them revolve around greeting cards and Jennifer Aniston. But I don’t think I hate Valentine’s Day. I’m pretty sure I have no sentiment about the day to speak of.

I’m really not bothered that the good people at Hallmark© have persuaded the culture that the suppressed feast of an obscure Catholic saint should be the day to celebrate coupledom. It’s as good as any other. I guess I opt out of it for much the same reason as I opt out of being coupled.

I think I am single mainly by choice; not so much one choice, but a series of choices. I don’t believe a family life could endure decisions to go spend 6 months to go to seemingly random places to engage in usually futile attempts to get people elected to public office. It’s a lifestyle for 22 year olds, not people in their late 30s, certainly not for families. As I tend to believe the Chris Lees of our culture prove. And I have grown to enjoy doing things by myself that most would consider couple or group activities: travel, eating out, going to movies. Some of these activities are probably enhanced by doing them with someone else, but others; I have definitely come to prefer doing by myself.

I am not so certain of my choices as to not have regrets, nor do I particularly recommend them to others. A few years ago, I was having a conversation with someone I’ve known all my life and she was talking about not particularly being interested in being married or having a family, and feeling badly because I thought she would be great in both roles(not with me. It would be illegal in at least half the country and weird to the point of creepy). And then it occurred to me she was giving voice to what I thought essentially about my own life.

Will it stay this way? Probably. Right now it affords me the opportunity to take on some things that would be difficult, if not impossible if I had a family. But I like to think I am open enough to life’s possibilities, though that probably diminishes with time. And I am creeping into an age where I sometimes wonder about growing old alone, but that does not come to mind a lot.

It occurs to me that I am breaking another one of the rules I set out for myself when I started this so long ago and have just written a solely personal post without any outside world implications.  Maybe it’s because I don’t feel competent to talk about the revolution in Egypt with any particular insight. Maybe it’s because there is nothing in popular culture with less credibility than the Grammys. Maybe I’m already addicted to the narcissism of memoir. The rule is turning out to be a pretty stupid one. So be it.

Hello elipses, my old friend...

I knew sooner or later I would do this. I just hoped it would be later than Day 3.

I don’t have the time to see one coherent thought through from beginning to a logical end. So I find myself tempted to note a few quick thoughts and be done. I used to do these all the time in college, whenever the op-ed page or sports section had white space that needed filling. One of my colleagues coined a term for my style of column that I won’t use here, except to refer you to what Woody Allen said on the subject in my defense.

There are some writers who can do this with skill, the rest of us sound like Larry King’s old USA TODAY column. Or a ransom note…

I could just use an email I wrote to a friend this morning, as he did to me on his blog. But my response to him was nowhere near as well formed. If you’re interested in the contemporary Catholic Church, his blog is well worth the read. I disagree with him often, but he’s smart, serious, and earnest. Not unlike a clerical David Brooks…

It’s Homecoming weekend at Bonas. Always brings back a lot of memories. The first homecoming game I remember going to was with Mike Conroy when we were about 12. I think we played George Washington, won big. But the thing I remember most was a lot of people crowd surfing in the old bleachers. A lot of talk occurs on the bandwagon about the crowds not being like the old days. I agree in terms of numbers, but in other ways it may not be so bad…

It’s still college basketball, and to a lesser extent, hockey season. But spring training starts next week to give those of us with snow measured in feet some bit of hope. And I know all my Red Sox fans will be relieved to know, the Cubs’ equipment got to Mesa safely…

Breaking rules quickly

Yesterday, I mentioned briefly something I was on the periphery of that, in the scope of how our culture moves, was a big deal for a moment, but ancient history today, not worth reliving. By 4:00 yesterday that was no longer operative. Chris Lee and Craigslist had happened.

In the interests of full disclosure, I use Craigslist too. I’ve applied for a few jobs I’ve seen posted there, and almost bought a used car. Apparently, there are other services advertised there as well.

A good friend of mine sent me an email suggesting that I was entitled to feel some degree of satisfaction from my experience. I’m not sure if he said it because of it happening to a Republican, or it allows someone else to share the punchline.

But I truly don’t feel that way. My first reaction was sympathy for the staff. In the handful of times I worked with them, I found them professional and accommodating. And one of the times I dealt with them, I was essentially dumping my most difficult case in their laps (I may not have mentioned that part to them). And now they can share the experience of Inside Edition staffers friending them on Facebook.

Not to say that there is something righteous about my reaction. On some levels, it’s every bit as selfish as schadenfreude. I didn’t have any thoughts at all about his wife or child. I just didn’t.

Should Lee have resigned? I have no interest in his personal life. If he represented me, I would be reluctant to support someone who was stupid enough to be willing to put all that in an email. The quickness of the resignation can lead to speculation, but who knows at this point.

Since there is nothing deader than a dead politician, speculation already abounds as to who his replacement will be. I’ll leave that aside for now, other than this  may be a prize barely worth having, if it simplifies the question of what district goes the way of all good things with redistricting next year. If nothing else, I’ll be entertained.

On Starting Again

I don’t write anymore.

Likely it’s a romantic notion, but I think of myself as wildly more interesting when the way I entered the world was from behind a keyboard. More likely I’m just at a place  where it’s the younger version of myself that I am more intrigued by than where I find myself today. And for about a ten-year period, writer was how I would have self-identified, even though the period where I tried my hand at making my living this way was much shorter.

Perhaps it’s a more universal sensation than I think, at least among English majors and would-be journalists. I once suggested in an interview for a teaching position that all English majors were frustrated writers. I did not get the job. I suspect I offended the star-chamber that was interrogating me. So it goes.

So if I were so wonderful a writer and it made me so fascinating why don’t I do it anymore? The answer I would have given the last few years that I’ve been working in politics is campaigns need one voice and it hasn’t been mine. In most cases writing in public forums was a firing offense, with good reason. I’ve signed non-disclosure agreements I intend to keep long past the point where anyone would give a damn.

And when I moved from a campaign office to a congressional office, the same rules applied. But I no longer find myself employed in that venue, if you watched cable news or Saturday Night Live about a year ago, you know the reason why. And I don’t plan on going into any more detail about that.

So, freed from the burdens of being a political hack, what should I be talking about? Politics still matter to me, though experience has guided me away from being an ideologue and more of a partisan, though I would claim for somewhat virtuous reasons.

Television and movies still interest me, and through the wonder of Netflix I am now on the cutting edge of 2005. Did The Sopranos jump the shark in Season Six? What should have won for Best Picture in 2003? Return to this page to find out.

Sports remain a personal passion of mine, and the main reason I still have a television. And nobody’s ever written from the perspective of the long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan before. I can have that territory all to myself.

What won’t I write about? Besides what’s noted above, I’m not sure. Unlike some friends of mine who have successful blogs, I am reluctant to talk much about myself personally. I’m guarded by temperament and sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between honesty and narcissism. I tend not to want to open myself up that way. But I suspect if I stay with this on a regular basis, I will start writing about issues that affect me personally, likely in a more universal way.

So I return to an old persona adding one more voice to the cacophony of the internet. If I keep up with it, I may turn out to be 20 again.