1. I wouldn't go so far as to say Copper has been cool toward me since moving in, but he's kept a respectful distance. Luna, on the other hand, jumped into my lap within an hour of arriving here. But, today, Copper began closing the distance. In our living room, we have two chairs facing east that are side by side. After days of resting and sleeping on the love seat, now Copper rests and sleeps in the chair next to the one I sit in when I read, write, and watch stuff on the television. Then, when I turned in tonight, Copper leapt up on the bed and curled up near my legs. He didn't stay with me all night. I think my frequent trips during the night to the bathroom bugged him, but I'm happy that his gestures are increasingly toward me, not away.
2. As I read more deeply into Rising Tide, a book published in 1997, my sense of history as a study of continuation, of what's always with us, is confirmed. In the chapters I read today, John M. Barry narrates the rise in populism, nationalism (anti-immigration), and anti-intellectualism in the 1920s. These were not new developments in the 1920s, but a continuation of movements that were strong in the 19th century, especially as populists and nationalists and white supremacists opposed, often violently, the work during Reconstruction to integrate African Americans into the social and political fabric of life in the United States. It's tempting to think that the time period we live in is unique, but as I read more history, no time period is all that unique. Ways of thinking, social attitudes, ideas about government, fears, hopes, and eruptions of violence are all part of historical continuums that we always live with. It's a constant push and pull between those among us who seek out and welcome change and reform and those among us who resist it and those who oppose an active government, that is, those who see government as a source of restriction and problems and those who see government as a source of problem solving and necessary regulation.
These historical tensions are very much at work in Rising Tide, socially, politically, and economically, as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 approaches, especially as governmental and non-governmental entities have tried to figure out how best to control the mighty natural forces at work in the Mississippi River Drainage Basin and what to do when its vast drainage system floods.
I am almost to the point in the story when the flood happens.
This book is riveting.
3. I watched Gonzaga defeat BYU this evening, 82-71. This game was never really very close. The Zags rushed out to an early 16-2 lead and BYU never recovered, although they had some spurts of good play.
With the regular season winding down, friends of mine, as well as many other people who follow Gonzaga, start to raise questions about how the Zags will perform in the NCAA Tournament, and, more to the point, question whether Gonzaga is really the top team in the nation.
When my friends raise these questions and provide their analysis, I enjoy very much what they have to say and I'm silent. I hope my silence isn't disappointing, but I'm just plain lousy at speculating what would happen if two teams who haven't played each other were to meet. By the way, for whatever it's worth, I'm equally lousy at talking about whether a college player is NBA material or not -- and, I'm also hopeless when it comes to comparing teams of different seasons. I am dumbstruck by the question as to whether the 2020-21 Zags are a better team than the 2016-17 Zags, just as my brain freezes if someone wonders how the Kobe Bryant/Shaq Lakers would have performed against the Showtime Lakers, say, of 1985.
Don't get me wrong. These are fun questions. It's just that I can't seem to imagine, say, the current Gonzaga team playing, say, Baylor. I think Baylor is a powerhouse team and they play in a better conference than Gonzaga does. And, because I always underestimate Gonzaga, I have trouble imagining what problems Gonzaga would present to Baylor. I see what problems Baylor presents: they have great shooting guards, are a strong defensive team, both close to the cup and on the perimeter, and they play with great energy. But I've only seen what they look like when they've played the teams they've played. I don't know what effect Gonzaga might have on the Baylor Bears.
So, I listen to Stu and Byrdman and Seth Greenberg and others and I take it in. I enjoy their insights. I don't agree or disagree. I just listen and hope that we'll see, once the NCAA Tournament gets underway (assuming there is one), how Gonzaga performs against, say, a Big East team like Villanova or how they would compete with Illinois or how about if they play a tough team not in a power conference, like San Diego State or Drake or Toledo.
To me, it's all unpredictable. Some opponents make certain players wilt. Other players inspire opponents to play beyond what we've seen before. Some teams defenses work better against one opponent than another. I underrate some players' quickness and overrate other players' physical strength. I just never quite know what to expect.
I've established many times in this blog that I am untrustworthy as a food, movie, or book reviewer because I try to enjoy whatever is put before me and I'm easy to please.
I'm also lousy at predicting outcomes in sports, especially college basketball, and, so, I'd be a lousy panelist on ESPN or FS1 or CBS because if a fellow panelist asked, "How do you think this game will go, Bill?", I'd get a blank look on my face and say, "Well, we'll have to see. I just don't know how these two teams will affect each other, what they will bring out of each other, good or bad."
So, while watching Gonzaga play last night, I tried to replace BYU with Baylor or with Florida State or with Ohio State and tried to imagine how those matchups might go.
I couldn't do it.
All I could do was see how Gonzaga was performing against BYU and found it impossible to translate what I saw into another a game against an imagined opponent.
I think I can hear what Rob Stone would say to me if I popped up on the FS1 pre-game show, "Woolum, you're fired!"
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