DAY ONE HUNDRED AND ONE

turns out i'm not so good with the spelling conventions of words that are in the hundreds, but wikipedia was quite helpful there.

During the first few games of Lin's run, it was mentioned early and often that he was the "first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA." Once the story got knocked off its hinges, that tedious mouthful got spat out for a good, generic "underdog." National media outlets, present company included, have now strung his narrative along a more relatable, predictable path. In Act One, Jeremy faces down the doubters and all their doubts. In Act Two, he perseveres. In Act Three, perseverance pays off in the greatest city in the world. Along the way, he slays the Cyclops of Stereotypes and sails right on past the rock where the three Kardashian sirens sing their celebrity song.

This is not a bad story. But it is not the story of Jeremy Lin.

With a sad story mentioned within the article.

and i'm reminded why i really like new york magazine. as late as 1978, the village voice ran a front page article that gay issues shouldn't be of concern; the article recounts homophobia within the nytimes. an interesting vote count of yeas and nays for the 1996 DOMA act (the act is, in my opinion, simplified a bit in this article, ignoring the role that attempting to repeal the ban on gays in the military had on clinton's presidency and his ability to pass *any* laws). the nays are pretty standard, but it's really interesting that there's a holdout from nebraska, of all places, until kerrey's wiki page bio: he subsequently became the (hotly debated) president of the new school.

Last night I found out a good friend of mine died. It's really weird to find out information like that from facebook (or via officemate from facebook). jerrell always had the best stories about growing up as a geeky black science nerd in south dakota (continuing on in michigan) and was friend during high school when he was one of my favorite coaches/debate judges, in college as one of the people i hung out with almost every day for several summers, in law school when i'd go over to his apartment near my school whenever i got too stressed and every summer visit back to play beer pong with the debate crew in lansing. sad news about a great person who will be deeply missed.