Pitt Hoops Play - "Digusting"

At least that is how the Panthers color commentator Dick Groat described a possession late in the game when the Panthers, trailing by five with less than two minutes to play, ran the shot clock down to zero and threw up an airball. Groat, a former Duke hoops stat and major league baseball MVP with the Pirates, offered only that one word commentary. Groat is 80 years old. He definitely brings an old school perspective to the airwaves, even more so than his 70-year-old play-by-play partner Bill Hillgrove.

The Panthera did eventually come back to get a three-point shot to tie the game with time expiring, but missed. Alas, another early exit for Pitt's hoopsters.

The Jive Shuts Down - A Rant Against Parking Meters

I was kind of saddened to read this. I was only in there once, last week, and the soup and coffee were awsome, and it seemed like a great atmosphere. It looks like they had some great Saturday sessions there as well. I made a note to hang out there more, although with a family, finding time to hang out at the artsy coffee house can be a bit difficult. But, they did have a good wireless network...that all said, when it came time to work remotely yesterday, I went up to the soulless Starbucks near the Mall. Why? Parking meters.

I was thinking of this as I pulled out of the Jive last week. I had spent 75 cents to park for an hour, and if I had got caught on a call and missed my expiration time, I'd be paying a few more dollars at City Hall. I got to thinking, how much business were these stupid parking meters costing downtown merchants? It's really time these relics were removed. I'm not sure how much money they generate for the city but they can't be worth it.

The parking meters were installed I'm assuming in the 50s, or sometime when people were going downtown no matter what, because that's all there was. If we want to revive downtown now, however, we've got to remove the parking meters. There are just too many other options with parking that is less of a pain in the butt. I would think we might be able to get merchants to agree to some extra tax or something to help cover the lost revenue for the city. The plan would be that the removal of the meters would increase the merchants' revenue more than the tax would cost them. Does anyone see the value of such a plan? Let's quit being so bass akwards in this city and move into the 21st century. Parking meters are a relic of a previous time!

I guess I could have caught the bus down to the Jive.

Ralph

Bring Back T.O.

I'll admit that last year's signing of T.O. by the Blue-and-Red kinda blew me outa' the water. I wasn't expecting it. I didn't think we had the personnel to support him. But, although he had some costly drops, to be expected with T.O., he didn't have that bad of a year and had a couple huge games - in games that we won. Well, now that ex-Pitt Beletnikoff winner Antonio Bryant has signed with the Bengals (a good move for the striped-helmet wearers), it seems Owens is a man without a clear destination. This article makes some good points about why we should re-sign Owens, who signed only a one-year contract with us last year. I agree, bring him back for another year. Granted, we have another new offensive coordinator (for what seems like the 5th time in five years), but at least he knows the players, the atmosphere and all that. We clearly need another receiver and could do a lot worse than T.O. - at least last year's relatively mellow version of T.O. I mean Chan Gailey coached Michael Irvin in his days with the Cowboys a million years ago, I think he can handle T.O. Anyways, it would be fun.

That's all.

Ralph

Favorite Characters in Literature

After laboring through the 2004 Brad Pitt-mega-picture Troy last night, I realized how much I appreciate Odysseus as a literary character. One of my favorites, in fact.... which inspired me to come up with a list of my favorite literary characters of all-time. I think it goes something like this.

1. Sebasitian Dangerfield of the Ginger Man: I find him uproariously funny with intriguing moral compass...
2. Dean Moriarity - the Neal Cassidy character in Kerouac's classic On the Road
3. Odysseus - The King of Pain, traveling man, crafty trickster, great warrior king - call him what you will, but he holds up well after three thousand years.
4. Razhumikin - Raskolinkov's loyal Russian friend in Crime and Punishment.

I'm sure there are more, but these are the Mt. Rushmore (to steal a Bill Simmons phrase) faces of my literary life so far. Please feel free to add your own thoughts on this.