End of Semester Grumblings, Recountings, and Elations

We'll be talking about quite a few things in this post: basketball, New York City, fried chicken, and New Orleans.

Basketball

Back in April, the North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Michigan State Spartans 89-72 to win the NCAA Tournament championship. UNC led by 21 points at halftime, a margin they had achieved just ten minutes into the game. MSU's largest lead was 1 point. UNC's largest lead was 24 points. If my eyes and math do not deceive me, the smallest UNC lead of the second half was 14 points. The game was never in doubt from the start. To give the Spartans credit, they managed to lose by less than half as many points this time than the last time the played the Tar Heels. In case you were wondering, it was earlier the same season on December 3rd, when they lost by 35 points at the same site (Ford Field). At the time, people said that MSU had some injuries and was in the middle of a brutal stretch of their schedule.

I like North Carolina. If they're not playing NSU or LSU (who they actually did beat in the second round), then I'll pull for them against anybody. Love the tradition, love Dean Smith, really like my cousin Roy as the coach. So I'm glad they won the title.

BUT...

This is another example of why the NCAA Tournament is about finding a champion, rather than finding out who the best team is. Not that UNC wasn't the best team, because I think they were. They're an awesomely efficient offensive team that defensively clamped down on both the 3-point shot and on shots near the goal. They're worthy of hoisting the trophy. But did beating Michigan State for a second time really prove that? In two games, they beat them by a combined 52 points. If LSU's football team beat Texas by 35 points, the all things being equal, there's no way Texas would be allowed a second shot at the Tigers for the national title. Oh, it's mathematically possible, but the voters would bury the Longhorns so far down in the polls that their BCS ranking would end up too low. Nobody wants to see a previous blowout matchup as the national title game.

New York City

We wandered up to New York for spring break and had a really good time. We stayed at a hotel across the street from the World Trade Center site. Friday night we ate at a French restaurant near the hotel. Saturday night we ate at a Greek restaurant and went to see "Wicked" on Broadway, which is really good. I love the whole "Popular" scene. Sunday night was an Italian restaurant in Little Italy. So that's it for the dining and entertainment portion of the trip.

We went to Chinatown on Easter Sunday, which was quite a bit of fun. I bought a Chinese shirt and pants, and my mom and sisters got me the shoes and hat to go with it. The hat even has a ponytail braid attached, which is a nice touch, and the shoes are ridiculously comfortable. Plus, I look smashing in the ensemble.

Saturday we went to the New York Public Library, which I was looking forward to seeing. I'm sure other people will say "Well duh..." to this, but I walked in, looked around, and wondered, "Hey, where are the books?" I wanted to see rows and rows of stacks upon stacks. Nuthin'. Apparently all the real books are spread out among their satellite libraries. So what are those lion statues supposed to be guarding?

After that it was off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'll say this for it: it's big. Enormous. We all split up and went our separate ways for about 90 minutes. At the end, we'd ask "Hey, did you see this?" "No." "How about this?" "Nope." We'd all seen different stuff. I saw Greek stuff from the temple of Artemis at Sardis, a bunch of Egyptian stuff, and Americana from the 19th century.

We wandered down to Battery Park on Sunday and ate at some deli place with pizza and a hot bar. If I lived in New York City, I'd eat a lot of pizza. I forget if it was Saturday or Sunday, but we spent some time in Central Park and went into FAO Schwartz, too. I got to see that big piano thingy* (technical term) they used in Big.

*If I could've found a better vid, I'd have linked to it, trust me.

New York's fun. I'm sure there's things I'm forgetting. But I couldn't be there unless I was scheduled to do something. It's not a place I could just hang around.

Fried Chicken

Oprah is dead to me. It boggles my mind why anybody would go to KFC when there's a Popeyes around. Oprah is in Chicago. There's plenty of Popeyes in Chicago, probably around fifty or so. She's got no excuse to team up with a place whose chicken suuuuuuucks. Besides, "KFC" doesn't even stand for "Kentucky Fried Chicken" anymore. They changed it a few years ago so that "KFC" just means . . . "KFC." Oooh. They said they didn't want to be associated with just fried chicken. As a man who loves being associated with friend chicken, I find that reprehensible. Come on, Oprah. Tell people the truth. You're rich enough to get away with it.

New Orleans

I'm fine with a lot of things, and I like a lot of things, but I don't actually want a whole lot of things. I'm fine with grad school right now. I like walking down Front Street in Natchitoches and eating and drinking at a local spot. But one of the things that I've wanted for quite a while is to live in New Orleans by myself for an extended period of time. I first thought about it several years ago. I'd just like to live there and get into the rhythm of the city for a bit. It looks like that's going to happen.

I have a summer internship with Save Our Cemeteries, an organization whose mission should be self-explanatory. The work I'll be doing coincides with both my interests and my project thesis, so it's a good match. Did I mention that I'll be living in New Orleans for the summer? Some might quake at "New Orleans" and "summer" in the same sentence, but not I. Bring it on, baby. A hot, wet blanket being draped over me right when I step outside? That what I live for.

Somebody asked a classmate (who is also down there this summer), "How many days in a row can you go around and explore New Orleans?" I answered for her, "Oh, I dunno--A MILLION?" I can eat at a good restaurant one night, go see live music the next, hang out at a cool joint the next. I don't get excited about many things. I mean really excited. But I'm excited about this, so wish me well.