1. A longtime friend, whom I've had electronic contact with, but haven't seen in person for 32 years, sent me a message today wondering if I had a lasagne recipe. Turns out, I don't have one on hand, but we had a short exchange updating each other about how we are doing and what life during the pandemic has been for each of us. My friend has published two books of poetry. She told me about her books a few years ago. It was while Mom was alive, I was in Kellogg, and, at the time, preoccupied with Mom, I didn't act on that information. Today, I went back to the email that included the information about her two books and I ordered them today. I learned today that she has another book in the works. I'm eager to read her work.
2. I'm a slow reader. No one ever mistook me for Evelyn Woods! As I slowly read Patricia Nelson Limerick's The Legacy of Conquest, I've been thinking a lot about the ways the pursuit of wealth can not only warp the minds and moral compass of those in pursuit and protection of their money, but how it can warp how the wealthy are looked upon by the public and the law. In short, U.S. history and the history of the West tells the story of countless acts of cruelty perpetrated and regarded as acceptable because they were commissioned in the pursuit and protection of property, natural resources, and wealth. People who are successful, by whatever means, of accruing wealth become romanticized, held in high esteem, as if wealth and its pursuit and protection make cheating, cruelty, scamming, parsimony, grifting, bullying, breaking promises and treaties, exploiting workers, perpetuating poverty, among other immoralities, legitimate.
I'm complicit in countless everyday ways in all of this. It gnaws at me.
3. Late in the afternoon, I set Limerick's book aside, let all that I'm learning settle in, eventually warmed up my leftover clam chowder, eventually popped a small bowl of popcorn, and watched my favorite basketball action: two games played tonight in the Big East Conference.
For a while, the rebuilding St. John's Red Storm played pretty well against Creighton. The Johnnies had a good run in the first half when they whittled away at Creighton's double digit lead and, for a while it looked like this game could be competitive.
But, two of the Johnnies' weaknesses caught up to them. St. John's doesn't have inside strength or height and Creighton succeeded in complementing their deadeye outside shooting with pounding the pill inside. St. John's couldn't stop them. In addition, while the Johnnies can be electrifying in the open court and while their non-stop pressing and pestering defense can frustrate opponents, leading to live turnovers and easy buckets for the Johnnies, once St. John's has to set up a half court offense, they only have one player, Julian Champagne, who can score reliably from the outside -- Creighton has several such players.
So, in the end, the Johnnies played hard but got crushed, 94-76.
At six o'clock, two evenly matched teams squared off, Seton Hall and Marquette.
Both teams have done a remarkable job of re-tooking their lineups after each losing superb players from their 2019-20 teams. Most notably, Seton Hall lost Myles Powell and Marquette lost Markus Howard. Both players graduated. Other very solid players, like Quincy McKnight for Seton Hall and Sacar Anim.
One of college basketball's best players, however, Sandro Mamukelashvili, returned to Seton Hall. Other players who supported Markus Howard a year ago also returned and Seton Hall is developing into a formidable team. So is Marquette, thanks to having recruited two splendid freshmen, Dawson Garcia and Justin Lewis, landing a very talented transfer from Ohio State, DJ Carton, and, in my view, the much improved play of senior strongman, Theo John.
Seton Hall led for most of this games, sometimes by more than ten points, but Marquette never folded. In fact, late in the game, Marquette tied the tilt, and then, after falling behind by three points, suffered a mortal blow when Koby McEwan appeared to have tied the game again with a feathery three point bucket, but it was waved off when an official cited McEwan for traveling. Marquette never quite recovered after that call and, despite all their relentless efforts, lost to Seton Hall, 70-63.
I am eager to watch both of these teams, not only when their rematch comes around, but when they play the other strong teams in the Big East, namely Providence, Villanova, Xavier, Connecticut, and Creighton, and as these teams play each other. (Marquette, by the way, defeated Creighton on Monday of this week. I can hardly wait for this rematch.)
No comments:
Post a Comment