"offensive" play

Malcom Gladwell is one of the most interesting social commentators of our time. Author of books like Blink, and contributors to magazines like Newsweek and The New Yorker, naturally I was intrigued when someone forwarded me an article that had two of my favorite topics - social commentary... and football?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1

The article is long, but worth your time. In this New Yorker piece, Gladwell equates modern day football as barbaric as cockfighting and bullfighting - with the only difference being that the animals normally die a quick death, in football, the damage results in a slow, painful death. According to the article, recent science predicts there are extremely negative consequences to the brain as a result of long-term football - dementia, depression, Alzheimer's, slurred speech, among others. According to the article, a typical NFL linemen in his career (and his college career) will be hit in the head 18,000 times. This results in serious brain damage. This does not include the arthritis, knee operations, hip operations, shoulder operations, and other long term damage to the body of former football players. Obviously there are differences between bullfighting/dogfighting and football - the animals have no choice in what they do. Do I think football is going away anytime soon? No. But in the 19th century, it could be argued that dogfighting was the most popular sport in America. I'm not entirely sure what needs to happen, but as more and more reports come out on the long term consequences of football, it will certainly make the sports less attractive. Of course, the fastest growing sport in terms of popularity is Mixed Martial Arts. So what do I know?

1. Yesterday was kind of a Halloween themed night. Candy apples, carving pumpkins, pumpkin seeds, making Halloween decorations for the party, and watching Horror movies all resulted in a fun Monday night. I watched the movie The Grudge. I don't really get "scared" by horror movies; I am just basically bored by them. I didn't appreciate the absurd gore. And I am still creeped out by some of the bathroom scenes. Yuck.

2. It was a nice weekend (minus the weather). Friday night, I hung out with some friends in Evanston. It was an early night as I was up early for some tailgating at Northwestern. I was fortunate to watch the greatest comeback in Wildcat football history. Down 28-3, they came back to win 29-28. The Cardiac Cats were alive. After some football watching with the guys, and a late night party at a friend's house with Allie, I spent Sunday relaxing with Nimit. It was a quiet, but nice weekend.

3. As you might know, I am a big Flight of the Conchords fan. I am pretty excited for the new Sci-Fi comedy movie Gentlemen broncos, with Jermaine Hess. However, I am anxious/excited for Boondock Saints II. They are quite a bit older now... still as badass?

4. I know this is going to sound weird... but I enjoy reading Larry King's twitter page: http://twitter.com/KingsThings. He writes the most random things. "Why don't restaurants have scratch n sniff?" "Where did all the station wagons go?" I love it.

5. Currently listening to "Tunnels" by Arcade Fire.