Monday, November 22, 2004

Regarding the NBA Melee

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past week, you've heard about what happened at the Pistons/Pacers game last Friday. Today, the NBA announced that many of the principal offenders have been suspended (without pay) for some fairly large amounts of time, including the whole season for Ron Artest. It's all over talk radio today, but here's some things I haven't heard about yet, but would like to:

--The players have been disciplined, but what about the offending fans? If the players can be suspended for X-number of games, why can't the fans be banned from the arena for a similar length of time? I sure hope it's not because the NBA doesn't want to alienate its "paying customers"...

--I almost gagged the other night when I heard that the players' union was going to appeal these suspensions. Never mind the fact that the league had to send a strong message like this, lest someone be maimed or killed next time, but this just shows the lunacy of these guys having a union in the first place. C'mon, does anyone think their working conditions are that oppressive?

I'll save my rant for why I don't care for unions later (yes, I grew up, live and work in Texas, a right-to-work state, so that certainly colors my opinions), but they're sure not putting themselves in the best light right now by opposing the league's actions.

Directionally challenged? This morning, while getting coffee at On the Run like I usually do, a young lady came in asking for directions . Being the walking Mapsco that I am, I offered to help. Here's how it went:

Her: How do you get to I-70?
Me: Do you maybe mean U.S. 75? Because I-70 is up in Indiana and Ohio and places like that.
Her: (looks puzzled) Well, I need to get to Arkansas.

I sent her out to I-30 from where we were, but I noticed that she turned out of the parking lot the wrong way; I hope she eventually made it there.

Fraterniversary: Today is the anniversary of my initiation into Sinfonia, a great brotherhood of musicians. I'll drop in on the guys at my home chapter later on tonight.

Blow out the candles: Happy birthday to Dan, a fellow alumnus of said chapter, who's living over in England at the moment.

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