Baseball!

George Carlin was good when sputtering obscenities to challenge restrictive regulatory rules or fuming about the corporate world's hostility to an informed and critically reflective citizenry. But he was at his best when tracing the quirks and oddities of language, playing with words, and celebrating our historical national pastime.

That's my view, anyway, offered again as football comes around to disturb my peace. The loud tailgate party outside my classroom window went on all afternoon Thursday!

But I'm going to try and not speak of this again 'til the last out is recorded in the October classic. Meanwhile, I urge you to read Gladwell and enjoy George.

Gladwell on creativity

They were creative geniuses, but they had to work at it...

losers

The local NFL franchise has sunk to a new low, after a blowout loss to the Pats that extended their season record to 0-6. Perfect time for thoughtful Titans fans (I know there's at least one, my colleague) to confront Malcolm Gladwell's stiff-arm challenge to the sport's very legitimacy. The spectacle and drama of it all is engaging, sometimes (as when the home team actually wins) even compelling. But...

But the brutality is undeniable too, as data continues to accumulate: the incidence of football-related injury, especially brain injury, rivals that of boxing (1 in 5 boxers will sustain dementia). And the sheer ugly barbarity of it rivals that of Michael Vick's old passion. The dogs of the gridiron, like those of the ring, got game.

And we like to watch.