Clip of the Week

I inadvertently put a premature end to the pre-weekend "flurry of posts", so we'll pick up where we left off on this lovely Marathon Monday. First up, it's (last week's) Clip of the Week.

There was a lot of material from the Masters last weekend--this hole-in-one and this hole-in-one were cool, I guess... but they weren't even the best shots hit that day, since this double eagle was cooler, but even that guy couldn't win the tournament because this guy hit this shot which apparently did something like this. Good talk.

If you're into movies or Hitchcock or Jimmy Stewart, or movies by Hitchcock starring Jimmy Stewart, then you'll probably get a kick out of this cool time-lapse video compilation of scenes from "Rear Window". I thought it was an incredibly impressive piece of work, and it almost won this week's top honor.

So did this inspirational ad/video for Nike's "Make It Count" campaign and this cool look at how a plane gets built (and painted, which apparently takes even longer than the construction).

But there was only one video this week that really stuck with me, and it was this video of an old man in a nursing home who is basically brought back to life simply by listening to some music from his era. It's an amazing statement about the power of music, and it was wild to watch (even if it's a bit longer than the usual Clip of the Week fare).

Dedication (Pic of the Year)

Courtesy of Deadspin, this might be my favorite picture of the year so far.

In other news, Instagram has no revenues but sold for a billion dollars. I am in the wrong business.

Quote of the Week

Oh, hi there. Haven't seen you guys in a while. My apologies for my unplanned one-week hiatus. I'll just blame things on tax season (doing business taxes sucks) and then we'll get back to business as usual. Sound good? Alright, cool.

I've actually had a good amount of material to post up here, but I just haven't gotten around to writing about it all. The good news is, that probably means a few good posts up here in the next couple of weeks. It also means I'm about to send you folks into the weekend with a flurry of posts, just the way you like it.

First up is your Quote of the Week. Originally, I'd planned to pass along President Obama's "warning" to the Supreme Court, in which he once again showed his utter disregard for the Constitution and its ingenious system of checks and balances. (Incidentally, I highly suggest that you read the linked article from Mish Shedlock--it includes a great overview of Obamacare that I think should be required reading). But I didn't feel like ending my one-week hiatus on a bitter note, with rants about Presidential duties and political this-and-that. It's all just so... tiresome.

So while I may get back to that topic at some point in the future, for today I'm sticking to happier things. Things like this ridiculous free-kick goal from Cristiano Ronaldo against Atletico Madrid, and Ray Hudson's absolutely amazing call of it. After referring to the goal (he calls it a "wunderstrike") as "a wet dream of orgasmic proportions", he follows up with one of my favorite lines in sports announcing history, one that might as well have been ripped out of a Kanye West song. Al Michaels, eat your heart out.

This week's QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"This has got more curves to it than Jessica Rabbit on steroids."
                            - Ray Hudson, GOL TV commentator

Yes it does, Ray. Yes it does.

(h/t Deadspin)

Clip of the Week

Easy decision this week for Clip of the Week.

While we had some worthy competitors with this guy's dunk contest performance, Martin Kaymer's awesome trick-shot hole-in-one at Augusta, this guy doing the worm, and this preview of my daughter's future athletic life, we had a hands-down winner this week.

In honor of the Masters this weekend (which I've always considered to be the unofficial start to the golf season), I'm going to share with you the secret to golfing success: playing with the right balls. With help from actor John O'Hurley (who will always be J. Peterman to me), I introduce to you the latest golf ball craze... Rangé balls. Enjoy.



Side note, for those of you who aren't offended by filthy language and have an affinity for well-executed sophomoric humor (like I do), I'd also recommend this red-band trailer for "Ted". I've rarely laughed so hard in my life, and I'm absolutely going to see this movie this summer. Enjoy your weekend, folks.

The explosion in obesity

This chart comes courtesy of Tim Iacono, and it absolutely blew me away. I knew that obesity rates had been soaring, but I didn't appreciate how much and how quickly.

Every state in the country has seen an increase in obesity over the last 20 years, and many of these increases have been dramatic--consider that in 1994, not a single state had an obesity rate greater than 20%, but by 2008, only one state (Colorado) has a rate below that same 20% threshold. Tennessee and Oklahoma somehow pulled off the incredible feat of going from sub-15% to over-30% during this time period. Yikes.

Ultimately, this map raises as many questions for me (Why did it soar so quickly? Is it a result of a broad-based change in our food supply? Or is it due to a change in behavior in response to economic factors, like consistently "accommodative" monetary policy?) as it does concerns (How the hell are we going to afford to pay for all the health problems that this obesity creates? Am I totally certain that I'm doing everything in my power to avoid becoming part of that statistical trend?). I think this dynamic therefore has incredibly wide-ranging implications for our nation, encompassing issues both political and societal, and both in terms of public health and economic sustainability.

Along with the fate of Social Security and other public and private pension plans, I think that this dynamic will turn out to be one of the most important ones to keep track of over the next 20 to 25 years. How we as a society decide to deal with our ever-growing group of elderly citizens, as well as our overweight (or otherwise unhealthy) citizens will in large part determine the fate of our nation as a whole. Stay tuned.

Quote of the Week

For this week's Quote of the Week, I initially wanted to go with this relatively benign quote about India, which taught me that I'd probably go crazy within about 2 hours of setting foot in Mumbai--it seems that Indian drivers so zealously use their car horns that German carmaker Audi has to make special horns for the cars they sell in that country. Given how insanely angry I used to get at the unnecessary horn usage in Manhattan (mostly by cabbies, many of whom are incidentally from that same corner of the world), I'd probably go completely postal in Mumbai. I... hate... excessive honking.

But that's maybe a little too personal of a quote--perhaps you readers don't harbor the same vitriolic disdain for horn-honking that I do. So I decided to go in a different direction, and give the honor to an extra-special quote about the culture in Spain, a country that seems poised to join the ranks of Greece and Italy in "oh crap, we're screwed" territory. From the Daily Mail...

This week's QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Spain's high-class escorts are refusing to have sex with the nation's bankers - until they open up credit lines to cash-strapped families and firms. Madrid's top-end prostitutes say their indefinite strike will continue until bank employees 'fulfill their responsibility to society' and start offering bigger loans for struggling Spaniards, it has been claimed. Sneaky bankers were trying to circumvent the protest by claiming to be architects or engineers, the sex-workers said."
                      - Lee Moran, Daily Mail

Yeah... sounds like things are really going great over there, huh? And clearly, more debt is always the solution to a crisis that was caused by too much debt. Right.

On the plus side, you've gotta give the hookers points for creativity. Ultimately their ultimatum likely won't matter, because they probably need the money more than the bankers need dirty extra-marital sex, but maybe I'm wrong. Either way, these are some seriously interesting times that we live in...

[Daily Mail]

R.I.P. Micah True

I was saddened to read this weekend of the passing of running legend Micah True, a somewhat reclusive man who was nevertheless made famous by Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, which I wrote about here way back in the day.

Up mountainsides, through deserts and the wildest of rugged terrain, there was little that could break the serenity or solitude of Micah True as he ran. Only, perhaps, the pounding beat of his heart or the rhythm of his feet as they hit the trail, mile after mile after mile. 

For True, running -- the pure act of traveling relentlessly long distances -- was a passion that needed no justification. To those who knew him well, it also brought forth an intense playfulness in the 58-year-old ultra-marathon runner. 

"When he was out on the trail running, it was like someone just rang the school bell and said, 'Recess.' It was utter playfulness," recalled Chris McDougall, a friend of True's and author of the nonfiction best-seller "Born to Run." 

True's body was discovered Saturday evening in a remote part of southern New Mexico's Gila Wilderness. The search began for him days earlier after he failed to return Tuesday from a 12-mile run... 

Barry Anderson, a manager at Runner's Den in Phoenix, said the sport would greatly miss True. 

"He was both an international running celebrity, and the first person to smile and shake your hand when you crossed the finish line behind him," Anderson wrote in a posting on Runner's Den Facebook page. "The fact that so many people from all over the country dropped everything and immediately went to his aid is testimony to the way he lived his life and the way he himself treated his friends." 

Many on Sunday described True in the most reverential and laudatory of terms, with "legendary" and "inspirational" chief among them... 

True was the race director of The Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon, a 50-plus mile extreme race that took place in Urique, Mexico. This year's race marked a record turnout with hundreds of runners, most of them local Tarahumara, or Raramuri, Indians who are known for their extreme running. The prize money and corn vouchers awarded to finishers were all aimed at helping the Tarahumara. 

True was featured in articles in running magazines and was a central character -- known by his nickname, "Caballo Blanco" -- in McDougall's "Born to Run."... 

Without True, McDougall said he's not sure whether the Copper Canyon race will be able to continue. The Tarahumara are extraordinarily reclusive and True was able to build a relationship with them based on trust and confidence, he said. 

"He is the only person, I think, in our lifetime who has done a great job of very respectfully bringing awareness of that tradition to the rest of the world and creating a race that is a celebration of who they are."... 

Mark Cosmas, owner of iRun in Phoenix, said True was all about living life and helping other people enjoy running. 

"He might not have been the fastest or the most talented, but the joy and the passion that he brought to the ultra-running community was just infectious," Cosmas said. 

Some found solace in the fact that True died doing what he loved most -- what he did most every day of his life. 

To grasp the importance of running to True and a glimpse of that playfulness all his friends talked about, look no further than the short greeting on his voice mail: "Chances are I'm either running up a mountain, or I'm drinking a cerveza ..."

I'm usually not so good with the eulogies (those who know me best probably know me as an emotionless clod), but for True I'll give it my best shot, even though I never met the man. If you haven't yet read McDougall's book--and if you have even a passing interest in running--I highly suggest you take this as an opportunity to do so. Everyone who met El Caballo speaks about him in the same glowing terms as those quoted in the above excerpt, and I can't help but be similarly impressed from a distance.

True was clearly a unique and "colorful" character (much as I dislike that term) who lived life by his own rules, in his own way. In our increasingly homogenized society, I think that's something that's as admirable as it is rare.

I always aspire to have a little bit more Micah True in me, if only so that I can better enjoy each day in front of me without worrying about what tomorrow brings. Running, for me, is one of the few things that helps give me that perspective, and I'm glad that I've discovered it as an outlet (even if took me nearly 30 years to do so).

I'll be taking this opportunity to re-read McDougall's book, which I find to be both fascinating and oddly inspirational. I hope you'll feel the same way about the book and about Micah True. R.I.P.

[ESPN]